The Ocean Above Us

Chapters

A Warm Welcome
Simple
A Shocking Turn of Events
A False, True Friend
The Ringing of Belles
Brothers and Sisters
Performer
Photo's Finish
Green Hoof
Topside
Athena
Ryan
Zenith
Coin Flip
Big Brother
Breakdown
Surprise

A Warm Welcome

“...In all of my time studying under the Princess, I only now realize that the Magic of Friendship is only one of many different types of magic...” -Twilight Sparkle, talking about ADAM.

Nimbus looked over the edge of the rowboat he sat on. A pair of boring, blue eyes looked back, much less interesting than the stars in the sky above. Attached to those eyes was the head of a charcoal grey coated pony, his muzzle pronounced in the way that suggested he was a stallion. A messy cobalt blue mane came down before his eyes, and hung loosely down to about his shoulders.

Just thinking about anywhere near his sides made him shudder. He was a pegasus pony, but had lost one of his feathery appendages during an accident at the weather control in Cloudsdale. At least, he was told it was an accident. The wild storm cloud was just too close to the Pegasus Device to have floated there on it's own. It activating the device right as his right wing was close enough to get caught in the gears of device was more than a coincidence as well.

That wasn't important now though, but it reminded him why he wasn't simply flying to this place. He did receive a mechanical wing, but it was prone to complications when used for long periods of time. That, and the butter yellow mare that sat across from him in the boat. Her long, pink mane nearly blocked out the pair of unicorns that wielded the oars of the boat from his sight. Her blue eyes were concealed as well. This pony was a pegasus that was afraid to use her wings. As shy as she was, she insisted on coming with him.

That thought brought him to remembering why they were there in the first place. Nimbus's adopted sister had gone to some sort of underwater city, Rapture, she called it, with another member of the factory in which he worked. They needed to get away from all of the political turmoil in Ponyville. He hadn't heard from her or his co-worker in some time, and he had decided to take the trip to the city himself. His companion apparently was friends with them as well, and asked to come along when she overheard a conversation he was having with somepony else at a cafe.

Now, he felt a bit nervous, as they approached a tall lighthouse, with a small set of stairs leading up to it. The two unicorns rowing the boat began to talk to each other, just barely audible to Nimbus.

"Do you think this is going to work?" an upper-class female voice said.

"Of course it is," a male voice replied, just as high up sounding, "It already has. The question is, will they?"

"That is a good question."

Nimbus looked around his pink maned companion to get a better look at them. They were both indeed tan unicorns, both having a deep brown mane. The female, who had her back to him, had a longer mane than the other, but both of them had them partly covered by yellow rain jackets and hats.

Nimbus said his first words in the several hours that the trip took.

"Is this it?"

"Well," the mare unicorn began.

"That depends on what you mean by 'it'," the stallion continued.

"If you are referring to where your trip ends," said the mare, "Then that would be correct."

"But if you are referring to where your journey ends," the stallion finished, "Then that would be incorrect."

The rowboat pulled up to a dock, where a ladder led up to the planks above. Nimbus put a hoof to the rung of one and pulled himself up. He was a bit sleepy from the ride and didn't feel like flying. His yellow mare companion followed him up. Nimbus looked in all directions, and found only water, save the lighthouse and the planks leading to the stairway, and in turn, the door.

From the top of the planks, Nimbus looked down at the rowboat as the two moved the oars to return to where they had came.

"Hey, is somepony supposed to meet us here?" he asked.

"Oh, I would hope so!" the mare said, only briefly turning to look up at him.

"This does seem like a terrible place to be stranded, don't you think?" the stallion casually asked nopony in particular as they rowed away, the conversation slowly becoming inaudible.

Perhaps there was something inside the lighthouse. Walking down the planks, he studied the concrete pillar, it's classic design reminding him of Canterlot a bit. A slim, tall antenna protruded from the top, reflecting light onto passerbys.

It was only when he was about to open the door when a rather disturbing realization came to him; those two unicorns were using their hooves to row, not their magic. Why would they do that? The possibilities of why a unicorn would have to use just hooves for something so trivial began to pester Nimbus's mind.

The door creaked open, the view inside revealing nothing but darkness. Taking one last look behind him, he stepped inside, his companion following him. The crash of the door shutting behind them made them both jump, turning around only to find that all light had been drained from the room. His yellow coated friend squeaked at the sound of the door gently clicking, signifying it had been locked from the outside.

Several moments passed, neither of them daring to move in the darkness. With a loud click, several spotlights turned on from above them, illuminating the dark chamber. In it, there was a round object, made of some sort of metal, with the word ‘BATHYSPHERE’ printed on one side of it. It was big enough to fit several average sized ponies, maybe even a larger stallion, like the big one from the weather team. A banner hung from the ceiling, with large, gold letters printed on a red background.

“No Princesses or Kings, only Ponies,” Nimbus read under his breath, thinking about what it might mean. He decided to inspect the bathysphere more, walking around it to get a better look at it. On one side, which he assumed was the front, there was a large glass window, framed in the same metal that the bathysphere was made from, attached to the sphere on a hinge. Inside, he could see red carpeting, and fancy looking seating, as well as a lever.

“Looks like this is our only option,” Nimbus said to his companion, who had been following him silently this whole time. She shook a little at the idea of entering this foreign device.

“I... I-I don’t think that we should...” She began, her voice like a feeble rabbit. The rest of her sentence came out as a mumble.

“What’s that?” Nimbus said, looking back at her.

“I said, I don’t think that we should...” she gulped, “Go in there.”

“Why not?”

“It looks scary, and I’m not sure that it’s safe, and-”

“Oh, come on, Fluttershy,” Nimbus said, “I don’t suppose you’d actually want to just sit in here for the rest of your life?”

Fluttershy looked away, the curl in her mane hiding her face.

“Well, actually-”

Before she could continue, Nimbus swung open the window and pulled them both inside. Fluttershy let out a surprised “eep!” as the door swung shut and Nimbus pulled the lever. She jumped and let out another surprised sound as the bathysphere began to descend, and eventually sunk into the ocean. Nimbus put a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder and coaxed her to sit down on the velvet seating, in order to calm her nerves and stop her from having a heart attack. The heart attack almost came again when a screen came down in front of the window to the outside.

As a movie projector that Nimbus had overlooked cast it’s movie on the screen, Fluttershy looked away in fright, while Nimbus himself just casually watched. It showed a still, black and white portrait of a unicorn stallion, dressed in a fancy suit and tie, sitting at a desk with a small oil lamp. A voice was heard.

“I am Andrew Ryan, and I’m here to ask you a question. Is a pony not entitled to the sweat on his brow? No! says the pony in Canterlot, it belongs to the Princesses. No! says the pony in Saddle Arabia, it belongs to the poor. No! says the pony in Stalliongrad, it belongs to everypony. I rejected those answers. I chose something different, I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture!”

At that moment, the screen was pulled back up and the view of a brilliant city could be seen. Tall buildings, maybe even taller than those in Canterlot, spread far into the the distance that the bathysphere floated closer to the city. It was amazing, beautiful, and... impossible. Nimbus couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Sure, he believed the rumors of there being a city underwater, but he hadn’t expected it to be a city of such a grand scale! He nudged Fluttershy, who still was looking away, and got her to look out the window. Her shock mirrored Nimbus’s. Ryan’s voice continued.

“A city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist not be bound by petty morality, where the great would not be constrained by the small, and with the sweat on your brow, Rapture can become your city as well.”

Nimbus was in utter disbelief at this point. Sure, a pony was entitled to his opinions, and he could go and do whatever he pleased inside of legal bounds, he could even go as far as to reject the Princesses of Equestria, but what truly baffled Nimbus was where this Andrew Ryan would have obtained all of the materials to create this city, if not from the Princesses. He doubted they’d help anypony who had such a strong opinion against them, much less for an idea as crazy as this one.

“A city at the bottom of the ocean, wow!” Fluttershy spoke louder than she ever had that day, which wasn’t very loud at all.

They floated past the buildings, all bearing various neon signs that depicted a variety of necessities a large city would need; Restaurants, general stores, specific stores, bars, inns. This city had it all. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad place. Maybe Nimbus would move in here with his little sister. Who knew?

One thing caught his eye though. In a tunnel that connected two buildings together, the lighting had appeared to have been not working. On top of the tunnel a stallion in a large metal diver’s suit, complete with the domed helmet, stood, working on what seemed to be the lighting inside. As he worked, Nimbus could’ve swore he had gotten the lights back on for a split second. And in that split second, he saw two figures, one a unicorn stallion, and one a unicorn mare. The both had tan coats, and they both had deep brown manes. Fluttershy seemed to be too taken in by the other sights to notice, but Nimbus had known he had seen them before, somewhere else.

In that moment, the lights flickered again, and they had seemingly disappeared.

Simple

“I’ve always wondered what other applications ADAM has... Throwing fireballs and thunderbolts is brutish and downright ungraceful! There must be a... a more elegant purpose for it.” -Lady Rarity

With an audible thump, the bathysphere latched into place along the guide rails that would lead it into an opening in one of the buildings. The sphere came to an abrupt stop, and then began to rise. Nimbus saw several frames on the walls that depicted a variety of items called “Plasmids”. One such posted showed the figure of an earth pony creating fire from his hooves, and another freezing the ground in front of him. Could non-unicorns really perform such feats?

They surfaced in a dark chamber, only dimly lit by some flickering light source above them. From what he could see, they were in a dark hallway, but it was hard to tell with the lights flickering on and off. Through the glass, Nimbus heard a muffled scream, and a little unicorn filly fell under the light, slowly backing up on her haunches. She wore a tattered dress, and her eyes were an odd glowing yellow color. Her coat was a light blue, and her mane a darker shade of blue. Nimbus looked up, and saw what she was backing away from.

A tall, thuggish looking earth stallion approached her, a wicked grin spread across his face. Nimbus could only stare in shock as he heard his muffled threat through the glass.

“It’s just you and me now, little girl... Don’t you try to move or your metal daddy won’t be the only one I’m putting down today...” His voice was sinister, cold, twisted, like he couldn’t even control himself. Nimbus looked over at Fluttershy, who was only staring in horror at the scene in front of her. Although she said nothing, Nimbus read her thoughts like an open scroll, and shared those exact same ones.

What would drive somepony to do this?

“Daddy!” The filly cried out helplessly, fear causing her voice to tremble.

“Daddy’s not home, little girl...” The stallion said, taking another step forward, and illuminating his features. He was a pale red, like a rose that had wilted, and his mane was gone, no extra hair was on his head at all. His face, Nimbus flinched at the clear sight of his face, it was a disfigured mess, the skin warped beneath the fur, and cuts and punctures all over it. He picked a pipe that had fallen from the ceiling off the ground with a hoof, and stood on his hind legs, preparing to bring it down on the filly.

Nimbus could’ve swore she heard Fluttershy scream next to him, but it was drowned out by an even louder noise, an unponylike cry of fury and pain. In the seconds following, a bright red light flashed in Nimbus’s eyes as an even larger stallion burst through the shadows and slammed the thug right into the bathysphere, rocking it and causing Fluttershy to faint in fright. The stallion wore a metal suit similar to the one the diver wore, with a large oxygen tank on it’s back, and a domed helmet with a bright red light emanating from the circular visor.

“Daddy!” The little filly seemed to be delighted at the sight of the monstrous golem of a stallion.

Steadying himself on his hind legs, the golem pinned the thug against the glass window of the bathysphere, and raised his hoof to strike. As he did, he slipped his hoof into a device hanging from his flank: a cone shaped piece of metal that began to spin dangerously fast as it was plunged into the stallion’s belly, tearing his insides out. The drill stopped, and the golem brought it into the him again, and again, and again, pummeling the thug for attacking his ‘daughter’. The glass began to crack under the pounding, and finally, one last punch sent him flying through the blood stained glass, and into the back wall of the bathysphere.

The mangled mess of a pony laying in the back of the bathysphere didn’t even confirm that he was dead, he knew that the moment the metal golem touched him. What surprised him was that the stallion seemed to look at him, and then the unconscious Fluttershy, before the red glow from his helmet became yellow, and he simply turned around, and coaxed the small filly to trot alongside him. He put his drill back on his flank, and slowly cantered into the darkness, the filly close behind.

Nimbus gently nudged Fluttershy’s head with a hoof, wondering how he was going to get her out of this awkward situation.

Far from Nimbus, a certain purple unicorn stood in the back room of the research facility that was Sparkle Simplicities.

“No, no, no!” she said, pounding on the table that held a DNA sample under microscope. There was a whole host of different samples that had all been exposed to different stimuli, and she was the only one left in Sparkle Simplicities to study them all. Well, she and her dragon assistant, but he was on the lookout for any Splicers that may try to sneak in while her back was turned.

“This one isn’t what I’m looking for...” she removed the sample, and slid the next one under the microscope, examining its structure. Nothing. Surely, there must have been something that she was overlooking, but when she looked over each of them, she found nothing.

“Ugh... none of these specimens have been exposed to enough ADAM!” she shouted, then stopped to think about what she had just said. What she needed was a subject that had more exposure to ADAM, and a subject bigger than just a scrap of skin, or blood. ADAM was the miracle substance that opened a gateway of genetic modification to the ponies of Rapture. She had been one of the first scientists hired to study it after being sent to the city by Celestia to spy upon it and bring her information, but once she realized what technological and scientific wonders were being kept from them, she couldn’t return. That is, she didn’t want to return. Escape was only impossible until after the Civil War broke out, but by the time that died down, Andrew Ryan had already lost his marbles and wouldn’t let anypony out anyway.

That was the curse of ADAM, she had discovered. Although it allowed genetic modification to make life easier, overuse of the stuff caused the user’s perception to become warped, and unable to control their urge to obtain more. It was addicting, like a drug, but it had so much more potential to help ponies if it could just be researched. That’s why she had stayed in the long run, it was to help the ponies here, even if they were all crazed addicts, Splicers. If it meant possibly never seeing her friends again, that was fine, because these ponies needed her help.

“Twilight...” she said to herself, recalling her previous light-bulb moment, “You’re a genious.”

But where was she going to get a live specimen that had enough exposure to ADAM? The Little Sisters were out of the question, the only way she would be getting one from one of their Big Daddies was over his dead body, but Twilight would be the only one dead in that situation. A Splicer wouldn’t cooperate, and it’d most likely be in their bloodstream anyway, meaning she’d only get it over his dead body. Once again, Twilight told herself that she wasn’t exactly a one-on-one fighter.

No, what she needed was somepony who could actually absorb the ADAM, instead of just consume it, which meant she’d have to find somepony who would willingly take her newest experimental Plasmid. She had created several of the abilities during her time working for the constallion Frank Fontaine. When he had mysteriously disappeared, she had took over her branch of his corporation, renaming it Sparkle Simplicities. From there, she had became the boss, but worked with her employees until each one had either left for a better life on the surface, or fell victim to the Splicers, or even the temptation of ADAM itself.

The door suddenly slid open, revealing a panicked looking, purple scaled, baby dragon who ran to Twilight urgently.

“Spike?” Twilight looked at the dragon, worried that some Splicers or something had gained access to Sparkle Simplicities, “What’s wrong? Did somepony get in here?”

“No, well... yes, but not in here, here,” Spike began.

“What do you mean?” Twilight was relieved that there was no imminent danger.

“I just watched a bathysphere come up here. Someone just got into Rapture!”

“Oh no...” The unicorn breathed, “That means... Oh, no!”

She galloped out of the back room frantically.

“Twilight? Hey, wait!”

Nimbus decided that it was best to not go anywhere until Fluttershy awoke, the thought of having to carry her while simultaneously running from those thugs and/or giant metal stallions did not encourage him to go anywhere. He did, however, try and clean up the thug’s body the best he could, not wanting his companion to wake up next to a corpse. He hefted the body into the shadows, out of sight. Laying down next to Fluttershy, he spotted the pipe that the thug had used as a weapon. Perhaps a little personal defense wouldn’t hurt.

His thought was cut off as he heard a voice coming from somewhere.

“Is anypony there?” The voice sounded as if it belonged to a mare, one from a city place like Manehattan, “If anypony is there, would you kindly pick up?”

Nimbus was relieved to hear another voice that wasn’t threatening.

“Yes, there is somepony here!” Nimbus had gotten up, pressing the button on the radio to send the transmission.

“What? Good. Look, my name’s... Athena,” the voice said, “I’m gonna get ya out of here, but ya gotta help me too.”

“What? I don’t even know what’s going on!”

“I know, ya just arrived here.”

“What?” he repeated, “How did you know that?”

“Ya just came in on a bathysphere, kid. It’s not really subtle.”

“You want me to help you?” Even in return for help, this could just be a setup, “How can I even trust you?”

“‘Cause I know this city better than you.”

Nimbus sighed, “Alright, but I got a companion with me. I’m going to have to wait until she’s awake until I can go anywhere.”

“She’s... sleeping?” Athena asked, genuinely surprised.

“We had a run in with a thug when we first got here. She’s not hurt, but she got frightened. She gets scared easily.”

“Ah,” Athena replied, in an understanding tone, “I got me a good friend topside who jumps at her own shadow.”

“Yeah, now what is it that you need me to do?”

“Well,” Athena took a deep breath, “I need you to get me out of here, but first, I need you need to help me repay a friend. Her name’s Twilight Sparkle, the head of Sparkle Simplicities.”

“Alright,” off in the distance, Nimbus could barely make out an unlit neon sign at the end of the hallway that read ‘SPARKLE SIMPLICITIES’, and an arrow pointing down another hallway to the left, “What do you owe her for?”

“It... it ain’t important... But let’s talk about yaself. What’d you come here for?”

“I’m here for my little sister, and a friend she came here with.”

“Your... sister?” Athena sounded a bit uneasy, “I hate to break it to ya, but I doubt she made it through this if ya say she’s been down here a while.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, chances are...” Athena was beginning to sound very uneasy at this point, “Nevermind. I bet we can find her, and your friend as well.”

Nimbus saw no point in pushing his concerns any further. He knew that this place wasn’t as nice as he initially thought it to be, but that didn’t mean that it was a lost cause. Athena was perfect proof that somepony could survive down here.

“On the ride up here, I saw some thug trying to kill a little filly. What was that all about?”

“Well...” it seemed that just the topic of little girls made Athena nervous, “This whole city runs on ADAM. ADAM is sort of like this... this... it’s like a... I can’t really explain it, but everypony wants it, and everypony needs it. Those girls, those Little Sisters, they gather the stuff.”

“And what about those golems that they walk around with?”

“That’s the Big Daddy, one of the toughest, meanest stallions in Rapture. Little Sister gathers the ADAM, and Big Daddy clobbers anyone who tries to hurt her. Don’t worry ‘bout him, he won’t hurtcha unless ya give him a reason to.”

“Okay...” Nimbus answered unsurely, “Is there anything else I need to know to this place?”

“Well, if you’re gonna try to survive, you might want to pick up a few Plasmids.”

“Plasmids?” Nimbus had an idea of what they were from the poster he saw, but he couldn’t be sure without asking.

“Yeah, they’re these genetic modifications that let you do cool stuff like throw thunderbolts or freeze stuff. They come in little glowing vials at the Gatherer’s Garden.”

“Gatherer’s... Garden?”

“Oh, that’s just the name of the vending machine that sells plasmids and whatnot. You gotta use ADAM to get them though, but don’t worry, they’re not addictive like ADAM itself is. Just... Try to stay awake when you get one.”

Nimbus didn’t know what that was supposed to mean. “I’ll keep that in mind...”

On the floor, Fluttershy began to stir.

“Mmh... Where... what happened?” Nimbus heard her whisper.

“We need to get going. It’s dangerous here.”

“Is that monster around somewhere? Oh, don’t let him get me!” She breathed, sitting upright and holding onto Nimbus’s front leg like a foal would.

“No, don’t worry about him. He saved that little girl we saw.”

“Oh, really? That’s... nice...”

“We need to get going, there’s someone we need to meet.”

Nimbus helped Fluttershy to her hooves, and stepped out of the Bathysphere. He put the radio in his hammerspace, a trick he learned from an interesting pink mare back in Ponyville, and started to lead Fluttershy down the hallway.

“Hey, you still there?” He heard Athena’s voice on his radio.

“Who’s that?” Fluttershy asked.

“Our only chance to get out of here,” Nimbus replied, pulling out the radio, “Yeah, sorry Athena. My friend is awake, and we’re moving towards Sparkle Simplicities now.”

“You might want a little protection. Find a wrench or something. Contact me if you need me, but radios tend to be noisy, and noise attracts Splicers, and Splicers will attack you on sight.”

“Alright. Thanks.”

A glint of light caught his eye, and he looked back at the pipe that he noticed earlier before Athena contacted him. He picked it up, stowing it alongside his radio. When he turned around again, he met Fluttershy’s eyes. He knew she had a lot of questions for him.

“What-” she began, but Nimbus cut her off.

“I’ll explain everything. We need to start walking though.”

The next half hour was spent creeping in the shadows and hiding behind things as Splicers fought each other, broke things, and generally caused trouble all throughout the corridors of Rapture. As Nimbus explained what he had learned from Athena, they followed the signs that would lead them to Sparkle Simplicities, thanking their luck for attracting no attention. The doors in Rapture were automated, designed to open when somepony neared it. Some doors, however, were damaged, malfunctioning, or had some other reason they couldn’t be used. One such door was a door that led to the front lobby of Sparkle Simplicities.

“Athena,” Nimbus hissed into the radio, turning the volume down low to avoid being heard, “We’re blocked out of Sparkle Simplicities. The door doesn’t seem to have power.”

“Ugh...” Athena sighed, “Twilight’s probably gone and made sure that no Splicers could get in there.”

“Well, are there any other ways in?”

“Unless you think you can talk a Big Daddy into knocking down that door for ya, I don’t think so. Gimme a minute to think.”

The radio went silent, and Nimbus just barely heard the quiet voice of his follower.

“Did... did she say Twilight?”

“Yeah, that’s who we’re going to meet.”

“Oh... I didn’t know Twilight was down here! Oh, I hope she’s okay...”

“Well, she has a good head on her shoulders if she knows enough to lock herself in here.”

The radio came to life again, broadcasting Athena’s voice.

“Alright, I got an idea. You’ll need to find a certain Plasmid, it’s called Electro Bolt. Are there any door controls nearby?”

“Let me see...” Nimbus looked around, and saw a small panel that had sparks jumping from it. “I think so. It’s kinda of a broken panel...”

“That’s it. Now, I remember there being a Gatherer’s Garden that had it in Artemis Central. You should be there, considering you’re right outside Sparkle Simplicities.”

Nimbus looked for the place in question along the wall across from him. The concrete was chipped, and the poor lighting made it hard to see, but he thought he could make out the faintest pink glow from a vending machine in the distance. It was through an archway, just a short distance away, but there were at least four Splicers between him and the machine.

“I think I see it, but there’s a bunch of Splicers in the way, and there’s no way I can get past them without getting their attention.”

“There’s always some complication...” Athena growled, trying to think of a solution. Nimbus didn’t say anything, for he looked around for something to help him as well. He could take a few of them with the pipe, but one of them would surely get him. A hoof tapped him on the back, and he almost jumped out of his coat.

He caught himself, and turned around to face Fluttershy.

“What?” he whispered.

“Umm...” Fluttershy replied, just as quietly, “There’s one of those Big Daddies coming down the hallway...” she said, pointing a hoof in the direction they had just came from. It was true. The soft thumping of the heavy metal horseshoes in the distance suddenly became more audible, and the yellow glow of the Big Daddy’s helmet became visible.

The same blue filly was with him, riding on his back. She held a needle, and sang some song about rainbows or something.

“Athena,” Nimbus whispered into the radio’s receiver, “A Big Daddy just showed up here. We’re going to see if he will distract the-”

Nimbus was cut off as one of the Splicers called out something. It sounded like, “Get him!” but his voice was drowned out by the sound of a drill spinning up and being shoved into him. Fluttershy was frozen in horror, but Nimbus knew that this was his time to move. Trotting along in the shadows, he broke out into a full gallop across the expanse of Artemis Central. There was a fenced rose garden that he had to vault over, but that was the only obstacle in his way.

He reached the machine, and quickly examined it. It had two statues of fillies standing on their hind legs to either side of it, and a vial was sitting on the ground near the dispenser. One glance at the label told him what he needed to know. It was Electro Bolt. Picking it up with a hoof, he noticed that a small syringe wrapped in plastic was attached to one side of the vial. He unwrapped the syringe, and stuck it in the opening of the vial, quickly extracting its contents by pulling the plunger back with his mouth.

Next was the hard part. He brought the needle of the syringe down onto his left hoof, making sure to get it on a bigger vein. It stung for a moment, but not as much as it did when he injected the liquid into himself by pressing the plunger back down with his muzzle. He almost dropped it as he exhaled in pain, but once he got the entirety of the liquid in, he yanked the needle from himself and collapsed to the floor from the excruciating burning across his entire body.

As the name implied, he felt like he had just been struck with a bolt of lighting. His wings extended, the mechanical one uncomfortably shifting his position on the ground. He cried out in pain, and took in erratic breaths as he struggled to stay awake. Stay awake. He remembered what Athena had told him, and knew what she meant by that now. It was almost as if she was talking to him now...

“Are you okay?” Athena’s voice reached his ears from the radio.

Nimbus gasped for air in an attempt to speak, “I-I- I got the Plasmid- I- Agggh!”

“Just hold on, your genetic code is being rewritten! The first one is always a kick in the flank.”

He looked at his hoof, and noticed it was starting to crackle with the power of a thundercloud. Blue bolts of electricity jumped from his hooves, and he felt the pain subside. He did it. He had just genetically modified himself. As he breathed deeply to decrease his frantic heart rate, he looked up, and saw a stallion, laying in Artemis Central, lifeless, in a diver’s suit.

The Big Daddy was dead.

A Shocking Turn of Events

“The Big Daddies are just not enough. We need something better, more aggressive, with a better determination of who’s a friend or a foe...” -Twilight Sparkle, on the creation of the Big Sister.

Nimbus was taken aback at the sight. The Big Daddy had been killed, it’s final sight the barrel of a revolver that had fired a bullet straight into his visor. The Splicer holding the gun looked down at the Little Sister, and this time she truly had nopony to save her. Nopony... but himself.

Shaking his weariness off, he trotted up behind the Splicer, and clubbed him in the back of the head with the pipe. Luckily all of the other Splicers had been defeated by the Big Daddy, for the blow produced a loud clank that echoed throughout Artemis Central. The Splicer fell over, not expecting this sudden attack, but quickly got back up and struck Nimbus in the face with the butt of his pistol. Nimbus stumbled back as the Splicer took aim.

“Don’t hurt him!” a voice cried out, one that Nimbus was not used to hearing. Fluttershy had jumped from her hiding spot and had tackled the Splicer. The gun had slipped out of his hooves, the awkward way that such a weapon was held making it hard for him to hold on to it. The Splicer promptly kicked Fluttershy off of himself, sending her into a wall. The Splicer went to retrieve his fallen gun, when Nimbus saw an opportunity.

The gun was laying in a small puddle of water, and the Splicer’s front hoof was submerged in said puddle. Focusing, he extended his left hoof towards the the puddle, and a bolt of lightning jumped from his hoof. It struck the water, and the Splicer immediately felt the effects. The electricity coursed through his body, causing him to drop to the concrete floor and start flailing like a fish out of water.

Nimbus stepped over the Splicer, and steadied himself on his back hooves, much like the Splicer who had threatened the Little Sister. With the pipe held high over his head, he brought it down on the Splicer’s neck. The sickening crack of bone, and the blood that drained from the Splicer’s mouth confirmed that if he wasn’t dead already, he would be soon.

Nimbus had just taken his first life, but it was for the better, right? That Splicer was only going to hurt more ponies if he had let him live. Fluttershy was still, her body slumped up against the wall next to the door to Sparkle Simplicities. She had saved his life, and spoke louder than she ever had in the time that he had known her. He rushed to her side, and tried to wake her up.

“Fluttershy, Fluttershy, wake up!” Nimbus leaned in and put his head against her chest, listening for a heartbeat. There it was. With a sigh of relief, he let himself relax. She was going to be okay, hopefully.

His relief vanished when he felt a tug on his tail. He turned to find the Little Sister he had rescued. Her unnatural yellow eyes were stained with tears.

“Why wont Mister Bubbles move?” She sobbed.

“He’s gone...” Nimbus replied, doing his best to comfort the girl.

“Who’s going to save me from the monsters?” The girl whimpered, wiping the tears from her eyes. Nimbus felt bad, these fillies really looked up to their Big Daddy. With him gone, there was nopony else to protect her. Nopony but himself. He knelt down to her level.

“I will,” he told her.

“But... you’re not my daddy...”

“I know, but it’s not safe here. I won’t hurt you, don’t worry.”

“But...” The filly protested.

“Would you like to come with me while I go meet a friend?”

"But..." She was very cautious about this strange pony. Her Daddy was the only other pony who had ever treated her like this...

"I can't just leave you out here to get snatched up by something... Please?"

"Umm... Okay..."

"I'll let you ride on my back, here."

“Okay...” she said, hesitantly climbing aboard the pegasus as he sat on his haunches, allowing her the right angle to climb aboard. She clung onto him, and Nimbus was surprised to realized how light she was. She was no feather, but she certainly wasn’t as heavy as his sister.

“I’ll get you to someplace safe, don’t worry.”

“I miss Mister Bubbles...” She said, burying her face in his mane.

“It’ll be okay.”

Nimbus sighed internally, now he had to take care of two fillies. This was going to be just utterly fantastic.

“Are ya there?” Nimbus had forgotten all about his radio, which had just received Athena’s voice.

“Yeah, I’m here. What do I need to do to open this door?”

“Use your Plasmid on the panel next to the door.”

“The panel? Just... Just hit the panel with it?”

“Yeah, that should do the trick.”

“Okay,” Nimbus raised his hoof, and hit the door with another Electro Bolt. The motors in the doors whirred to life, and opened themselves up. The lobby of Sparkle Simplicities was a mess, with waiting chairs flipped over, vending machines knocked down, and the walls and ceiling were chipping away. At least there were no Splicers in there.

Nimbus dragged Fluttershy’s unconscious form into the room, and looked around. There was more lighting than there was outside, but it still wasn’t anything spectacular. The corners remained dark and ominous, like something could’ve been stirring in them, ready to strike at any moment.

“Are you in?”

“Yeah.”

“That door should close automatically after the shock wears off. Don’t worry about anypony following in behind ya. I’ll let you talk to Twilight now, radio in when you’re done.”

“Alright,” Nimbus said, and put the radio away. He looked around the lobby, and found no sign of life. After peeking his head in through the door behind the reception desk, he found nothing either.

“Hello? Is anypony here?”

No response. Maybe this Twilight was out right now. He turned to go back into the lobby, when he heard steps coming from above him, and scampering down a staircase he had missed somehow the first time he scanned the room. A small purple dragon appeared, stopping from his run in front of Nimbus, and attempting to catch his breath.

“You’re... the guy that just got... got here?” He managed to get out between breaths.

“Um... yeah. Why?”

“Twilight’s been going crazy ever since she saw the... the bathysphere come through. Well, actually it was me who saw it but... whew!" he was obviously winded, but the way his short body moved just made it seem like some sort of joke. "She’s still going crazy!”

“I need to talk to her, where is she?”

“She’s upstairs and-” The dragon froze as he noticed the filly riding upon Nimbus’s back, “Is that a... Let me just go get Twilight...”

The dragon went back up the stairs, calling for the mare in question. A few moments later, a purple unicorn mare with an unkempt purple mane who looked as if she hadn’t slept in days descended them. She wasted no time in addressing the issue.

“I’ve been looking for you. You just... just-” Twilight seemed frozen, in the same way that the dragon was, when she saw the Little Sister riding upon Nimbus’s back.

“Miss Twilight?” Nimbus asked, not understanding why she was shocked.

“Ex- excuse me, I’m Twilight Sparkle,” she extended a hoof and shook Nimbus’s, “Is that a... Little Sister riding on your back?”

“Umm... Yes, it is. Why?”

“How... how did you get her to trust you?”

“She seemed like just a regular little filly. When her Big Daddy died-”

“Wait, you killed her Big Daddy? How-”

“No, a group of Splicers ganged up on him. I just tried to comfort this one, because she was crying,” Nimbus turned his head to get a look at the girl on his back. She was just resting there, patiently waiting for the conversation to continue. Twilight examined the girl closer, but she backed away from her as the curious scientist came closer.

“Very fascinating...” She said, extending a hoof in her direction. The girl moved herself to hide behind Nimbus’s head, almost instinctively. Twilight put her hoof down, and tilted her head to get a better look at the Little Sister.

“What are you doing?” Nimbus asked, trying to make sense of Twilight’s actions.

“She seemed to have made some sort of bond with you. Not as strong as the one between her and her Big Daddy, but still, it’s a bond...”

The girl tugged on Nimbus’s mane, getting his attention.

“Is she going to hurt me?” she asked. Her voice still seemed a bit shaken.

“No, she won’t hurt you. Right Twilight?”

“Of course not,” Twilight said, “I wouldn’t hurt a sweet little filly like you, but I would like to conduct research on the two of you sometime. what brings you here, anyway?”

“Well, my name is Nimbus. I was told that a mare by the name of Athena owes you a debt?”

“Ah, yes. I was so worried that it was some agent of Celestia’s that had gotten in here... but why did she send you?”

“She said she’d help me find my sister down here, and then get me out of this place.”

“Yes, this isn’t the best place to be...” Twilight looked past Nimbus and noticed the unconscious mare on the ground behind him. “Oh my! Is that Fluttershy?”

“Yeah, she said you knew each other.”

“But... What is she doing down here? Is she okay?”

“She said she knew the pony that came down here with my sister. I used to work with her in Cloudsdale until...” he spread his mechanical wing out, allowing Twilight to see, “I can’t fly as well as I’d like to. That's how I met Fluttershy, though.”

“I need to treat her! She looks like she’s been hurt!”

“Yeah, she kinda saved my life...”

Twilight’s horn began to glow, and the five of them had teleported to the top floor. Fluttershy lay on an operating table, allowing Twilight to get a better look at her under a light. She had several dark bruises on her left side, but other than that she was unharmed.

“She’s going to be out for a little while, but she’ll be okay. I’ll get her situated, but I need you to do a few things for me,” Twilight said.

“Yeah, sure.”

“There’s an old friend of mine named Rarity, though I strongly suggest that you call her ‘Lady’ Rarity. Anyway, I need you to get a certain key from her. It’s not like a key that goes to a door, it’s a genetic key, one that has her DNA imprinted into it. Normally, I’d just ask to borrow it, but we’re not exactly on friendly terms right now.”

Nimbus nodded, “Where is she at?”

“You’ll find her at Carousel Boutique over in Celestia Square.”

“Alright. Any tips?”

“Well, you need to get on Rarity’s good side. That’s the only way that you’ll have a chance at getting the key from her.”

“Got it. Also, is it alright if I ask what happened between you two?”

Twilight hesitated. “No, it’s not something I’d like to discuss.”

“Fine. Well, I guess we’ll be going now,” Nimbus turned to leave, but was cut off by Twilight.

“Wait!” She said, grabbing something with her magic, “Take this. Help that Little Sister.”

“What?” Nimbus turned his head, and saw Twilight levitating something in front of his face.

“It’s a Plasmid. I need you to use it to save her.”

“Why don’t you use it?”

“Well...” She began, “I haven’t exactly tested it yet... It shouldn't kill you, though... Plus, she trusts you!”

“Ugh... Fine.”

“Really?” Twilight enthusiastically leaped up, clopping her front hooves together. She caught herself in the middle of her foalish actions. "Sorry, I get excited."

Nimbus just rolled his eyes and took the Plasmid. He knelt down, and motioned for the Little Sister to get off of him, in case he fell over again. He took the vial, and prepared the syringe it came with. He held it to his vein, not knowing what to expect.

“Wait,” he said, “I already have one Plasmid on me, is this going to screw with it?”

“No, it shouldn’t. Your body can only hold so many though. You’ll know when you’re near your body’s limit.”

“Alright...” He steadied his hoof, and then brought the needle down into his left foreleg, injecting the Plasmid into him. He felt nothing, but saw a glow in his hooves. It spread, and then he felt a flare of pain, as if his skin was ripping open. For a moment, he even thought he could see his bones, but then it all disappeared as quickly as it came and he was back to normal.

“You okay?” Twilight asked, “Well, you’re not dead, so that’s good.”

“Whew...” Nimbus sighed with relief, “That sure wasn’t a sample. What does it do?”

“It allows you to absorb ADAM from various sources. Primarily, those Little Sisters. If you take enough ADAM from them, you should be able to turn them normal again.”

“And the ADAM goes...” Nimbus was worried about the ADAM going directly into his body.

“It goes directly into your body,” Twilight said, but when she saw the worried look on Nimbus’s face, she explained further, “It shouldn’t drive you insane, don’t worry. It’ll be stored in various places throughout your body, and it will be a part of you. You’ll be able to buy things from the Gatherer’s Garden now, as well.”

“How... exactly?”

“Well, you’re going to have to put your foreleg into the slot that the container is supposed to be placed. You’ll feel a prick, but at least it’ll inject your Plasmid for you.”

“Okay...” Nimbus was skeptical about the safety of that action, “How do I cure the Little Sisters?”

“Just put your hoof over their forehead, and focus on her. The Plasmid should activate at that point. You’re also going to want to make sure you do it near a safe place, so they don’t get snatched up just to get infused with ADAM all over again.”

Nimbus reached out to the filly that he had rescued, putting a hoof on her forehead. She closed her eyes, and let Nimbus’s new Plasmid do it’s work. She began to glow, and then in a flash of light, she was back to what she looked like before she had became a Little Sister. Her eyes no longer glowed, instead they were normal, with blue irises. Nimbus looked down at his work.

“Thank you!” She said, smiling up at him.

“You’re welcome,” Nimbus replied with a nod, and suddenly felt a wave of energy pulse through his body. It was weak, but he still noticed it. “What now?”

“Well,” Twilight began, “You’ll have to go find Rarity. As for you,” she turned to the filly, “Would you mind staying here with me so you can help me rescue the rest of the ponies here?”

“Umm, okay...” she replied cautiously.

“I’ll be on my way, then,” Nimbus said, exiting down the stairs, and out the door.

“Athena, are you there?” Nimbus asked into his radio. He was alone in the transition station between Artemis Central and Celestia Square. To either side, he had a beautiful view of the ocean, and the city. To his front and back were tall metal doors, each having a wheel-opened door, like ones seen on a boat. Nimbus pulled down on the wheel with his hooves, and with a few turns, he got the door to slide open. There was no reply.

Celestia Square was much larger than Artemis Central. There was an eight way split, the six ways to the sides leading to several shops, all of which were closed. To his front, a grand neon sign indicated that ‘Carousel Boutique’ was located through shattered glass doors. Nimbus stepped up, and pushed open the doors, which he was sure were the only doors that weren’t automated in the entire city. However, the moment his hoof entered the shop, he heard a noise from his radio. It wasn’t Athena’s voice.

“Who dares enter Carousel Boutique?” A haughty, uptight voice asked.

“How did you know I had a radio?” Nimbus replied.

“Hah! You don’t think I picked up your radio signal when you got close?”

“Umm...”

“State your name, and tell me what you’re doing here!”

Nimbus facehoofed. “Look, I’m just looking for a Lady Rarity.”

“Oh!” The voice cried out excitedly, “You’ve heard of me?”

“Umm, yes?”

“Hehehee!” She giggled in delight, making Nimbus wonder exactly how crazy she was, “Are you looking for an ensemble? I’m one of the finest dressmakers in Rapture, but I also make suits as well...” she gasped, as if realizing something. “Or... are you here for my ADAM? You’re not getting a single drop of it!”

“No. I’m-”

“You’re what?” Her excitement had now turned to anger.

“Word on the street is that you’re short of help. I’m here to offer some.”

Rarity mused over this for a moment, “Mmm... yes, I am a bit short of help... Who sent you? Ryan? Fontaine? They’re just trying to get on my good side...”

“I was told about you by a mare named Athena,” he lied.

Rarity gasped again, “Athena? You know her?”

“Well, just over this radio... Hey, do you mind if I sit on one of these tables in the lobby here? If you’re not coming down I can’t be up on my hooves the whole time.”

“Of course, darling. Make yourself at home,” she said in a gentle voice. It suddenly changed to a defensive one as she said, “Just don’t come upstairs!”

“Fine...” Nimbus took a seat on one of the not-broken chairs in the lobby.

“Now, about Athena?”

“She contacted me when I first got here.”

“You sound so casual about it!” Rarity said, “Do you even know who Athena is?”

“Umm... No?” Nimbus cautiously replied, fearing that his answer would be a loud one.

Her gasp was so exaggerated he might’ve thought she was holding her breath for half an hour.

“Athena is one of the most mysterious mares in all of Rapture! Nopony knows her true identity, but she’s an information dealer. I used to get all of the juiciest gossip from her before she began an uprising against Andrew Ryan.”

“What’s wrong with Ryan?”

“You really haven’t been here very long, have you?”

Rarity said it like it was a bad thing, but Nimbus was honestly glad he wasn’t here when all of this began.

“I’m not really the talkative type, sorry. If you really need my help, just tell me what to do.”

“Hmph! A waste of your time, am I?” She accused, her glare reaching him through the speaker of the radio.

“No, I was just saying-” he began, but caught his angry tone in remenence of what Twilight had told him about staying on Rarity’s good side, “I was simply bringing up the fact,” he repeated, in a more civilized tone, “that I’m not going to get anything done if we’re just sitting here talking.”

“I guess not...” She said, calming herself. “Well, like I said, I do have things that I need you to get done, if you don’t mind.”

“That’s what I’m here for.”

A False, True Friend

“I’m so sorry... I didn’t want this to happen to you!” -Lady Rarity.

“As you surely know, I make the finest dresses in Rapture,” Rarity said, as Nimbus quietly exited her shop, “but some of these dresses take certain materials, ones that I just can’t get my hooves on. Would you be a dear and search around for some diamonds?”

“Diamonds?” Nimbus repeated in disbelief.

“Yes, diamonds. Don’t tell me you haven’t seen a diamond before.”

“Yeah, I have, but, where am I going to find one?”

“Well,” Rarity began, pausing to think herself, “If I’m correct, Big Daddies should have diamonds on their drill tips.”

“I don’t suppose you know any that would lend me his drill?”

“Unfortunately not. I do know a place that you might be able to find some weapons powerful enough to bring one down, though. A good friend of mine, Firebrand, owns a gun store in the plaza across from mine. Normally, I’d let you just go out of the back door of my Boutique, but a particularly Brutish Splicer dumped a large pile of rubble in the hallway leading out, and I don’t think you could get through.”

“Is there a way around?”

“Hmm... not one that would get you there anytime soon, but it’s the only way. Head back through Artemis Central and go around to the south side of Celestia Square.”

Nimbus grumbled at the thought of having to creep and sneak all around Rapture. There was a dead Big Daddy back at Sparkle Simplicity, but who knows what else could be down there? He couldn't take a Big Daddy on, especially not with a bunch of Splicers at his throat.

“Hold on, I think there is a way to move that rubble. You’re going to have to trick a Big Daddy into smashing it aside somehow. There’s a Plasmid called Hypnotize here, and also one called Decoy. Either one will work, by you’re going to need ADAM to get it, so come on back into the Boutique, I’ll lend you some.”

Shaking his head, Nimbus re-entered the Boutique. He saw no sign of anypony there.

“Where is it?”

“Just a moment.” She said, and then a soft click came from behind Nimbus. “Check the Pneumo Tube.”

“The...” Turning around, Nimbus saw what looked like a trash can with its lid sealed shut, and the word ‘Pneumo’ printed along the rim. When he unsealed the lid, he found a jar containing a strange yellow liquid, in a container with markings that measure how much liquid was in it. It must be ADAM, and there was 120 units of the stuff.

“I can trust you to use that, right?”

“Of course, why?”

“Because I expect you to repay me after we’re through here.”

“Sure.”

Now that he had the ADAM, he needed to find the Gatherer’s Garden. Scanning the room, he noticed the familiar pink glow near the signs for the restrooms. The machine was exactly the same as the one in Artemis Central, but it had no gift waiting for him below. Instead, there was a dial, and a small glass window that had portraits of the products it sold. He turned the dial, searching for what he wanted. He could use either Decoy or Hypnotize, and with Rarity’s extra ADAM, he could easily afford Hypnotise. Placing the container Rarity had given him into the slot, he confirmed his selection.

A needle shot down from inside the slot, draining the ADAM from it’s container. When it was empty, the machine buzzed, indicating that it only had 120 units, and it required 160. Nimbus remembered what Twilight had said about using the ADAM that he got from the Little Sister, and replaced the empty container with his left foreleg, and confirmed his selection again. The needle came down into him, draining and extracting the ADAM from his blood before cleaning and returning it to his system, and then retracting. A moment later, it came down again, this time injecting him with the Plasmid purchased.

It made a dinging noise, much like a microwave oven, or a wind-up timer, and the needle retracted once more. Nimbus removed his hoof from the machine, and felt his body overcoming with pain again. Looking at his hooves, he saw what seemed to be a green tomato forming from beneath his fur, and it fell to the floor and exploded in a splash of green mist. He coughed to expel the mist from his lungs, and suddenly got the urge to help himself... Was that how the Plasmid was supposed to work? If so, he had just used it on himself, meaning that he was now his own ally? Wasn’t he his own ally before?

Whatever the case, Nimbus took up his radio and reported back to Rarity.

“I got the Plasmid. What now?”

“Oh, good. Now, you’re going to want to find a Big Daddy. I saw a lone one walking around outside, but he doesn’t have a Little Sister with him, so he should be easy to get the jump on.”

“Alright. So I just hit him with this tomato thing, right?”

“Right. The polyp should make him follow you, and he should obey most of your commands.”

A sly smile grew on Nimbus’s face, “If I told him to kill himself, would he obey?”

“Probably not. The polyp is designed to make the target your friend, not your slave.”

Nimbus looked out into the plaza, and indeed did see a metal clad stallion. This one however looked different. His helmet wasn’t as rounded as the first one he had seen. It was more a head fitting helmet, and sported a smaller visor. Also, this Big Daddy wielded a large tube-like weapon of sorts, with a hose connecting to one of his oxygen tanks on his back. It was held in a single hoof as the Big Daddy cantered about idly.

He approached slowly, as not to gather unwanted attention, and readied the green polyp in his hoof. With a solid swing of his foreleg, the polyp went soaring, quickly clearing the large space between him and the Big Daddy. For a moment, he thought it didn’t work, for the Big Daddy became very still. Then, he turned around, the normally yellow light in his visor glowing green. Green was good.

“It worked, now tell me where the rubble is.”

“Just head to the back of my shop. Take the hallway behind the reception desk, and it should lead to the back door.”

The door in question was easy enough to get through, but Nimbus’s Big Daddy companion was too bulky to fit through. The stallion backed up, and tried to squeeze through the gap. His front hooves made it, but he got stuck while trying to fit the bulkiest part of his middle through. The Big Daddy growled in frustration.

“Oh, come on... Here, push with your back hooves,” Nimbus said, grabbing the Big Daddy’s front hooves as the Big Daddy complied with his advice. Nimbus pulled with all of his strength, and heard a creaking in the doorframe. The Big Daddy slowly inched forward, and caused the sides of the doorway to push out, crushing the concrete with a loud crack. The Big Daddy slid through, apparently happy to be free.

“What was that?” Rarity asked, worriedly.

“It’s nothing... Big Daddy was just having some... trouble.”

“What? That brute didn’t destroy anything in my shop, did he?”

Nimbus looked at the already ruined interior of the shop.

“No.”

Outside of the shop, a small alleyway lead to a high perched sign that read ‘Firebrand Firearms’. On the ground, though, a large pile of rubble was blocking the path, and a large piece of the building could be seen missing from the building’s top floor. Through the hole, a large unicorn stallion, one with hulking muscles, appeared.

“Ey! Dat Big Daddy’s got a little friend that wants to get in ‘ere!” he called out to somepony behind him. “Dees are OUR guns! Get ‘em, boys!”

Using his brute strength, the stallion broke of piece of the wall out, and using his magic he flung it down at the two below. Big Daddy jumped in front of Nimbus and swatted it aside, sending debris and dust everywhere. The Brute walked away, and several Splicers appeared in his place, wielding assorted guns.

“Big Daddy, I need you to move this rubble!” Nimbus said, as gunfire rained down around him. They both took cover behind the pile.

Big Daddy nodded his head, and held out his weapon, motioning for Nimbus to take it.

“You... want me to hold this for you?” Nimbus asked. The Big Daddy nodded. Nimbus took the gun, and watched his companion proceed to steady himself on his front hooves, and kick out against the rubble with his back ones. The pile began to scatter, and he bucked again. Nimbus raised the heavy weapon, still connected the Big Daddy’s oxygen tank, and did his best to aim it at the Splicers above.

He wrapped his hoof around what he thought was the trigger, and was knocked back by the blast from the gun. It spat out a round that nicked one of the Splicers above in the shoulder, but knocked Nimbus to the ground. Surprised by his sudden failure, the Splicers on the top floor stopped their attack and burst out in hysterical laughter.

With a final buck, the Big Daddy smashed the pile of rubble aside and ran to Nimbus’s side. As he helped him up, he also took up his weapon in one hoof and nailed each three of the Splicers during their howls of laughter. Before the others could resume their attack, they too suffered the same fate.

The duo entered the back door of Firebrand Firearms, hoping that the owner was still home.

“Rarity? We’re in, but Firebrand seems to have a Splicer problem.”

“Yes, the poor dear has been harassed by them ever since he opened up, but I’m sure he knew it was coming. He owns a gun store after all.”

“I’ll bet. What am I looking for?” Nimbus asked, looking about the racks and display cases that had all been looted. Broken glass and dead bodies littered the floor. “The place has been cleaned out.”

“Keep looking, there has to be something in there.”

As he turned the corner to the front room, he considered giving up. There didn’t seem to be anything in the shop. Then he remember that there were multiple floors, and found the stairs to take to the next floor. There were three stories, and the second one was a storage floor. Still, as Nimbus and his Big Daddy friend walked through the halls, they found that they had all been picked clean.

As they approached the next set of stairs, Nimbus turned to Big Daddy.

“Stay on this floor, make sure that no one comes up behind me.”

The Big Daddy nodded his compliance, and Nimbus ascended once more. The third floor was Firebrand’s living quarters. There was a kitchen, a bedroom, a living room, and even a den, but none of them had anything useful. Nimbus spotted the hole that the Brute had made in the living room, and looked down onto where he had entered from. Three Splicers ran down the hallway, entering the shop.

Turning around to go warn Big Daddy, he came face to face with a unicorn stallion, with muscles strong enough to break buildings. The hulk of a pony grinned, and a two of his minions stepped out from behind him, both of them with machine guns in hoof.

“I told ya, buddy, you’re ain’t gonna get any o’ our guns!”

Nimbus said nothing, but tried to focus on forming a polyp in his hoof. He then realized that in the time it would take to form and throw it, he would’ve been taken out by the two Splicers with the guns. Spotting a bottle of fresh water on an upturned stand, he remembered his Electro Bolt Plasmid.

“Any last words, ya chump?” The Brute sneered.

“Can I just get one last drink?” Nimbus asked, nodding to the water bottle.

“Eh, whatever. Just don’t try anything funny.”

Nimbus slowly walked over to the bottle, picking it up and unscrewing the cap. He lifted his head back, and took a sip. The Brute was about to say something, but Nimbus suddenly jumped forward and splashed some water in his face, drenching what little bit of mane he had and soaking his sickly orange coat.

“What da ‘ell? I’ve ‘ad enough of this bull-” the rest of his words came out as a stutter as his body suddenly coursed with electricity. Steam rose from his body and mouth, as the water on his coat and in his body began to evaporate. The two Splicers next to him looked at each other in sheer shock, before they too were electrocuted and struck in the face with a heavy pipe.

Nimbus recovered a machine gun, and put a bullet into each of the Splicer’s skulls with their own weapons, ending their electrified torture. He had fired a gun before, but never had he taken a life with one. The worst part was, it felt so natural. As he looked at the machine gun, with a long barrel and cylindrical clip, he knew this was going to be the best he could get. A roar of pain and gunfire urged Nimbus to hurry back down the stairs, where he found that Big Daddy had started to fight the three Splicers from before.

One Splicer was sent into a wall right in front of Nimbus, before his corpse was held in place by three nails that shot out of the Big Daddy’s gun. No, not nails, they were rivets. The weapon that he was using was a rivet gun, a tool normally used in construction. The drill was also used in construction, so did that mean that the Big Daddies help build the city?

He couldn’t think about that as the scream of a Splicer being slammed headfirst into a wall rattled his thoughts. Nimbus ran up behind Big Daddy, who had the last Splicer in his sights. The Splicer looked different somehow. Sure, his face was mangled, and his mind was unstable, but something about the iron helmet that covered his head, and the saddlebag he carried gave Nimbus a bad feeling.

Suddenly he reached into his saddlebag and produced a small red cylinder. There was some writing in white letters on it’s red body, but Nimbus couldn’t make it out as it was lobbed towards them, and the Splicer took off down the hallway. There was a hissing noise, and Nimbus felt himself suddenly being lifted and thrown back towards the stairs as an explosion rocked the building.

Nimbus opened his eyes, and saw the face of Big Daddy over him, helping him up with a hoof. He had thrown him out of the way and took the blast from the bomb for him. His saviour’s armor was dented and charred, but Big Daddy seemed to be fine as he gave Nimbus his machine gun and followed him to the bottom floor.

“Oh, I hear explosions over there, is everything alright?” Rarity asked through the radio.

“Yeah, there’s a guy throwing bombs around here, but we’ll be alright... I think...”

On the bottom floor, Nimbus caught a glimpse of the bomb-thrower running down the hallway to the exit.

“Come on, let’s get him!”

Nimbus would’ve bet money that the poor sucker was scared out of his mind when he heard the stomping and felt the ground shaking. He turned around in the alley, and saw an unamused grey pegasus and a stoic Big Daddy standing behind him. There was no way he could win, and he knew it, but there was still one option for him. He took stick of dynamite from his saddlebag and lit the fuse.

Before Nimbus could do anything, the Splicer lunged forward, a bomb in one hoof. He was committing suicide. Nimbus pulled the trigger of his gun, and held it down. The bullets tore through the Splicer, causing him to fall forward at their hooves. His saddlebag’s contents spilled out onto the ground, revealing a dozen more bombs that had been lit. Nimbus was frozen in shock, but Big Daddy acted.

There was a feeling of lightness, and suddenly Nimbus found himself in the air. He tried to flap his wings to steady himself, but he still crashed into the ground. Rubbing his head, he looked back at Big Daddy, who was now being consumed in a fiery explosion. The sound was deafening, and caused another portion of Firebrand’s Firearms to collapse- right on top of him.

A feeling of sadness had began to well up inside of Nimbus. That Big Daddy had just saved his life. Sure, their friendship was artificial, but it was still strong enough to make that Big Daddy sacrifice himself, and for some reason, Nimbus believed he would do the same for him. He shed a single tear and smiled, not because his friend was gone, but because their friendship had once been. He then realized that it wasn’t the Plasmid that created the friendship, it was the fact that they had just opened up to each other. Maybe that’s all the Plasmid did, it caused the target to have an open mind. Whether friendship or fighting was suggested, the target would listen. Maybe their friendship was real after all.

“Are you there?” Rarity’s voice cut off his moment of mourning.

“Yeah,” he replied calmly.

“I heard another explosion, are you okay?”

Nimbus took a moment. “Yeah,” he repeated, his sadness just barely showing in his voice.

“Return here, quickly! There’s a Big Daddy with a drill out in front of the Boutique. I assume you have a gun?”

Nimbus’s resolve strengthened as he took up his weapon. “I do. Let’s get to it.”

He walked back through Carousel Boutique after taking one last look at his Big Daddy friend. The back half of his body was crushed under the destroyed building, the upper half of his body reaching out, as if trying to escape. The light in his helmet was flickering.

“Rest in peace, pal,” Nimbus said, before turning to walk away.

The Ringing of Belles

“All of this time, we were headed in the wrong direction. We need to make something that can assist the Big Daddy better. The struggle between the Big Sisters and the Big Daddies is driving the whole purpose of this project into the ground.” -Dusk Shine, on the creation of a secret project.

The center of the plaza was dimly lit, like everything in the city. There was a Big Daddy with a drill hanging from his flank, looking for any signs of trouble. His gaze set itself on Nimbus as he exited the Boutique. A Little Sister romped around in front of him, a needle in her mouth and a smile on said mouth as she plunged the needle into the body of a corpse. Her white coat reflected her cheery mood, and her curly light purple mane bounced as she sang a cheerful song. Upon her head was a short horn: she was a unicorn filly.

“Now,” Rarity said, “Would you kindly get that Big Daddy’s drill for me?”

“Yeah, fine, whatever,” he replied, and readied his machine gun. His radio went off again, this time with another voice.

“Hey, you there, kid?” It was Athena.

“Yeah, I’m here. What happened?”

“There was something screwin up my signal, sorry about that. Where are you now?”

“He’s doing some work for me, thank you very much!” Rarity said, the conversation broadcasting to her radio as well, “Just get the drill, please.”

“Do what she asks, kid.”

“Alright,” Nimbus said, and prepared his weapon again. Then, he remembered that his Hypnotize Plasmid might be able to get the Big Daddy to just give him the drill. The huge stallion still eyed him from across the plaza. Focusing on creating a polyp, Nimbus whipped his foreleg around and threw it right at the Big Daddy. Instead of it hitting him, the Big Daddy removed his drill from his flank and swatted the projectile aside, his visor turning from yellow to red.

The metal beast growled and pushed his Little Sister behind him, and he revved up his drill and began to charge at Nimbus. Nimbus instinctively fired at him with his machine gun, but his charge was not broken. He sidestepped, and the Big Daddy slammed into the wall of the Boutique. Nimbus got a few more shots off on him while he was stunned, but it didn’t seem to be doing enough damage. He focused on forming a polyp again, but his concentration was broken when the Big Daddy headbutted him, sending him to the ground.

As he prepared to bring his drill down on Nimbus, an Electro Bolt from Nimbus hit him, stunning him, but not nearly as long as it did to the Splicers. Nimbus just narrowly escaped the drill’s tip as he rolled to the side, and the drill smashed into the ground next to him. The barrel of his weapon turned to meet the Big Daddy’s face.

He pulled the trigger of his weapon, but heard only a dull click. He tried to use Electro Bolt again, but his breath escaped him, and only a meek spark jumped from his hoof. The Big Daddy slammed him into the wall with his free hoof, and raised his drill to strike. Nimbus closed his eyes and braced himself for the pain that would definitely follow.

It didn’t come though, and as the drill’s buzzing died down, all he heard was a loud clanking noise, and the Big Daddy in front of him grunting in pain. Opening his eyes, he saw that his foe had turned around to look at something, and when Nimbus saw what it was, he nearly died of shock. Another Big Daddy, with a more head fitting helmet that had a smaller visor and glowed with a faint green light, stood in the entrance to Carousel Boutique. His armor was almost entirely scorched black and held in one hoof was a rivet gun.

He took a limping step forward and fired again, causing the hostile Big Daddy to turn his attention towards his attacker. The drill spun up as he lunged forward, crashing into the other stallion and sending him spiraling on the floor. Nimbus’s legs and head didn’t want to move, but he pushed himself up anyway, and did his best to find something to fight with.

The hostile Big Daddy was seriously overpowering Nimbus’s friend. The rivet gun did some damage, but he had a hard time using it when the other one was so close. The drill came down on him, but he returned with a punch in the chin. This knocked the hostile one back, long enough for him to get a few shots on him with the rivet gun, but he was promptly struck down with the flat end of the drill.

Nimbus had found a barrel with a "flammable" warning on it. He waved at the friendly Big Daddy, and he nodded in reply before getting punched in the face. The helmet cracked, and blood began to leak from the opening. He was now on his back, with all four of his legs sprawled out. The hostile Big Daddy brought the drill tip down on his chest, and mangled his armor and body with it. With the last of his strength, in one last feat of defiance, the dying Big Daddy raised his rivet gun, and fired it.

The victorious stallion was perplexed, as he had missed him entirely. He looked over himself, trying to see if he had indeed been shot. What he wasn’t expecting to see was the flammable container beneath his hooves, which quickly caught fire and sent him into the air in an explosion. His body crashed down into the blaze below, and Nimbus rushed to his dying friend’s side.

“You came back for me... thank you...” Nimbus said, looking at the gaping hole in his body. It was a gory sight indeed, and he wondered how he was still alive. He soon found that his friend's life was truly ending now, though, as he held out one of his giant hooves and looked at Nimbus. As Nimbus put his hoof against his friend's, he saw the light in his cracked visor slowly flicker, and then fade away with his spirit.

He looked at the other Big Daddy, who’s body was roasting in the dying flames of the fire. Nimbus picked up his friend’s rivet gun in both hooves, which was still attached to his back, and fired several shots into the Big Daddy’s head, ensuring his death. Out of anger, he fired more times than necessary, but it didn’t bother him. He looked at the drill, and remembered why he battled him in the first place. With great effort, he hefted the heavy drill off of his hoof, and tugged at the tip of the drill with his mouth.

The taste of blood filled his mouth, and he instantly regretted his decision. How was he going to get the diamond off?

“Lady Rarity, I got the drill...” he found that even talking was exhausting him, “I.. how do I... get the diamond out?”

“Oh, just give the drill to me, I’ve got the tools to remove it. Also, deal with that Little Sister out there, her crying is disturbing my work.”

Nimbus didn’t realize it, but the little filly that had been accompanying the Big Daddy was now sobbing over her dead father. Her glazed yellow eyes looked at him in sadness, her white coat stained with tears.

“Daddy! No!” she wailed, pounding her hooves on the ground. Suddenly, a window from the top floor of the Boutique flew open, and an angry looking white unicorn with a curly purple mane shook her hoof angrily out of it. Her blue eyes were drenched in frustration, like her forehead was drenched in sweat.

“Would you keep it down out there-” she gasped when she saw the little girl. Her voice came back up over the radio. “Is that... Is that my little Sweetie Belle?”

“Who?” Nimbus asked, looking up at the window. Rarity looked just like that little filly in front of Nimbus.

“That’s...” She began, her voice cracking like it did when one was crying, “That’s my little sister...” Sobs were also heard on the other end of the radio. “She disappeared and I thought she was dead but... She... she...”

“She’s alive, at least...”

“No, you don’t understand! She’s different! She’s not the sweet little filly I remember, she’s... a monster...”

“Whoa, whoa,” Athena’s voice cut in, “Your sister is a Little Sister?”

“Yes, thank you very much,” Rarity’s tone became angry, but that facade soon faded into despair, “but now... Please... Just... Just end her suffering!” Another cry. “I can’t take it...”

Nimbus reached out to pick up this Sweetie Belle, but Athena cut him off.

“Hold on, you don’t have to kill her. Just... do that thing ya do. Save her.”

“How do you know about that?”

“Word gets around fast, kid, and I’m the first one to get any and all new information that goes around Rapture. Don’t drain all of her ADAM, but only drain enough to save her,” Athena instructed.

“No! Even if you cure her, she’ll never be the same! Just take it all, and all of my pain with it!”

Athena sighed, “It’s your call, kid. You’ll get more ADAM from her if you take it all, but she won’t make it.”

Nimbus thought about his options. It would probably be best to rescue her. That’s what Twilight asked, and that’s what Athena asked. That’s two votes against one. Would it make it any worse, though? How would that affect who she was? The other Little Sister he saved seemed to be just fine.

“You gotta make the choice,” Athena said.

“End her suffering, and end mine in turn!” Rarity moaned.

“Rarity, you’re such a drama queen.”

Nimbus approached the Little Sister, who was now curiously looking up at him, and the mare in the window. As Nimbus picked her up, she squeaked in fear.

“Shh...” Nimbus put a hoof over her forehead, “It’ll be okay.”

“No, No! No! No!” She struggled, but then became still as a bright light washed over her. He felt her ADAM entering his body, and he let her go when her form had returned to normal. She opened her eyes, her big, green eyes, and looked up at Nimbus, and thanked him.

“Your sister misses you,” Nimbus said, “She’s up in the Boutique.”

Her face showed concern. “Rarity? Rarity, it’s me, Sweetie Belle!” The white filly trotted up to the entrance, looking up at the window. Her squeaky voice made both Rarity and Nimbus flinch.

“Go away! You’re different now!”

“Rarity,” Nimbus began, then corrected himself, “I mean, Lady Rarity, your sister is still your sister.”

“What would you know about sisters?” She said with a huff.

“I...” Nimbus’s words died, as he remembered his own sister, “I have a sister of my own, who’s lost down here.”

Sweetie Belle entered the Boutique, and in a few minutes a loud knocking was heard over the radio.

“RARITY!!!” Sweetie Belle called, which Nimbus heard from both the radio and the window.

“Sweetie Belle, you must understand, you’re not the same anymore...” Rarity answered.

“Maybe not, but I’m still your sister, and... and I love you!”

“...What?”

“I love you Rarity! You’re the best sister I could ask for, even though you may be arrogant, and selfish, and... stuff.. sometimes, but I wouldn’t want it any other way!” All of that came over the radio. "And... I'm sorry I ran away..."

Rarity was silent, but after a moment she spoke. “Sir, please come up here, and bring the drill as well.”

Picking up the drill and hanging it on his flank, Nimbus entered the Boutique, going up the stairs to the living quarters. He saw Sweetie Belle in the hallway, knocking on a door that was most likely the door to Rarity’s room. All of the doors were shut. He approached the door himself, and knocked gently on it. He heard Rarity over his radio again.

“I think I should thank you, sir. You have done me two services today. You’ve fetched me materials to continue my work with, and more importantly, brought my little sister home.” Rarity opened the door, and Sweetie Belle instantly gave her a big hug that was returned, making the pegasus standing in the doorway smile. “She may not be exactly the same, but nopony is after things have happened to them. You helped me learn to look past these things, and see who we really are. If there’s anything I can do, anything at all, just tell me.”

He recalled Twilight’s advice again, about staying on Rarity’s good side, and how something had happened between them. Should he come clean and tell her what was really going on.

“What can you tell me about Twilight Sparkle?”

Rarity recoiled at the question. “Well, we’ve had our... disagreements, but I think now that my Sweetie Belle is back, I owe her an apology.”

“An apology for what?”

“I’d rather not talk about it... Just, if you ever meet her, do tell her that Rarity apologizes. She’ll know what it means.”

Nimbus smiled, “I will. Now, I do have one thing that I need...”

Rarity returned the smile, “Yes, what is it?”

“Do you think... Do you think I could get your genetic key?”

“Of course...” she said, with a quizzical look on her face, “But whatever do you need it for?”

“Well, I recently met somepony down here, a researcher, and she said that she was... studying DNA samples,” Nimbus tried to lie, without actually lying, “And I told her that I’d try to get her a good sample, and you seem like a nice mare. Not to mention a pretty one.”

“That’s so flattering, I, I don’t...” Rarity blushed and bit and quickly grabbed a small chip off of a desk with her magic, “Here, it’s all yours. And next I’ll be preparing you a nice ensemble for the next time we meet! And...” she looked over at the blood stained drill on his flank. “I’m going to have to wash that.”

As Nimbus exited the Boutique, he waved to Rarity and her sister, who looked out from the window and waved back, smiles on all of their faces.

Before the window shut, he heard Sweetie Belle say, “Gathering ADAM is definitely NOT my special talent.”

This made Nimbus chuckle, but then he remembered his own flank. Looking back, he was reminded of how bare and markless it was. He was an adult, and hadn’t found his special talent yet. He didn’t mind the idiots who teased him in school, because they were idiots. What bothered him is that he truly wasn’t able to find his special talent. This was no time to worry about that, though. Now, he had the key, and could return to Twilight.

As he neared to the transition room, though, something kept bugging him. What happened between Twilight and Rarity, and how did it involve Sweetie Belle? He eyed something on the floor, a shiny plastic recording device. Picking it up, he pressed the playback button. The scratchy recording played back as he entered the transition room and shut the door behind him.

“This day has been terrible,” it was Rarity’s voice, “Sweetie Belle has gone missing, and ravenous Splicers have attacked my boutique! I need to find Twilight, maybe she knows what’s going on...”

He set the recorder down. Maybe this was a clue as to finding out what happened between them. He went to open the door, but heard a voice behind him.

“I see you’re putting the pieces together,” a stallion’s voice said. Nimbus whipped around, ready for a fight, but only saw two tan unicorns, both with a brown mane and tail. One was a stallion, and one was a mare. They were the same ones from before.

“Why do you two keep following me?”

“Following you?” The mare asked.

“Our paths are simply crossing more times than you’d like,” the stallion said.

“What? What are you doing here?”

“We’re helping you,” the stallion replied, “You might want this.” He held out a small card in his hoof, and Nimbus took it. On it, there was a diagram of a pony, with scientific scribbles all around it, and arrows pointing to different places. Nimbus couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

“What’s this?”

“Advice,” the mare stated, “For your friend.”

When he looked back up from the card, but the strange pair had disappeared, leaving no evidence that they had been, were, or would ever be there.

“Advice for a friend, huh? Wonder what that’s supposed to mean,” he said to himself, “Probably should ask Twilight.” He froze, realizing what he had just said. It was probably something that Twilight could understand. They must’ve known that he was going to see Twilight, and had meant for him to give it to her.

But why, and more importantly, how did they keep disappearing and reappearing at will? Couldn’t they have just given it to Twilight directly if that were so? He focused on the task at hoof, as he opened the door to Artemis Central and made his way to Sparkle Simplicities.

About halfway there, another glint of light caught his eye, this time from inside a trash can. There was another recorder inside of it. When he pressed the button, he heard Rarity’s voice again.

“I saw Twilight just moments ago, and Sweetie Belle was with her, but she... she was one of those... those things! Twilight Sparkle, my friend, went and turned her into one of those... Oh... She told me that she was trying to cure her, but that look of fright on her face, especially when she saw me... It hurts...”

Nimbus could tell why it was thrown in a trash can. He put it back where he found it and looked up at the sign for Sparkle Simplicities.

He had a few questions for Twilight.

Brothers and Sisters

“The ponies here need my help. Even if I helped start all of this.” -Twilight Sparkle, about the Rapture Civil War.

“Hey, you there?” Nimbus said, as he gathered enough energy to hit the door of Sparkle Simplicities with Electro Bolt. The Plasmid use was really tiring him out. Maybe he should take a break from it for a while. In the upper floor of the building, he found Twilight Sparkle studying some paper with her dragon assistant close by.

“Oh, you’re back,” she said, “Did you get what I needed from Rarity?”

“Yeah, and she says she forgives you.” Nimbus said accusingly, producing Rarity’s genetic key and tossing it to Twilight. She caught it with her magic.

“Oh, that’s good to hear. I knew she wouldn’t be mad at me forever.”

“Twilight, tell me about your connection with the Little Sisters.”

The words made her drop the genetic key from her magical grip. She bit her lip, not wanting to tell the pegasus about what she had done.

“Well... As you know, I was brought here to study ADAM, and we needed more of it... So the Gatherer program was started, and we... well,” Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat, “I didn’t do it to her, but I couldn't stop the rest of them from turning Sweetie Belle into a..." Twilight bit her lip again, "a Little Sister. When they did it, it warped her perception. She was afraid, and didn’t know what was going on... I tried to help her, but then Rarity came along, and saw me with her, and she...”

“She thought it was your fault...” Nimbus sighed. It was all just a big misunderstanding, but that’s the way ponies were sometimes.

“Why do you ask?”

“She brought it up... after I saved her little sister.”

“Sweetie Belle was there? And you saved her? That’s great!”

“Yeah, but... Rarity didn’t want me to do it at first...”

“Huh?” Twilight tilted her head quizzically, “What do you mean?”

“She told me that Sweetie Belle was a monster and had to be...” Nimbus trailed off, “She wanted me to... end her suffering. Even after I saved her she thought she was still a monster... but I think she’ll be okay now. She seemed to realize that she was still her sister, no matter what.” He looked around, not seeing Fluttershy or the Little Sister anywhere. “Where are the others?”

“Oh, they’re resting. I let them use the bed in my room for now.”

“Oh yeah? What did you find out about that Little Sister?”

“Well, I’ve dealt with and studied so many before, but this is the first one that I’ve seen make a bond with another pony before. She’s calling you ‘Brother’, now.”

“Brother? Heh.”

“Also, her ADAM exposure has really progressed my research, but I need a different specimen, one that’s more matured... That’s where Rarity’s key comes in.” Twilight seemed to ponder this for an answer, as if her problem could be solved just by looking at the chip, but then got another idea in her head, “Which reminds me, I think I know somepony who can help you find your sister.”

“Who’s that?”

“I’ve heard about a certain stallion who arrived in Rapture a while back, he found it all on his own. His name is-” Twilight was cut off as the blinded window that normally overlooked the Artemis Central suddenly shattered, sending glass shards everywhere.

“Get down!” Nimbus commanded, and looked to see what had caused the damage. A mare jumped through with incredible agility. It's armor reminded Nimbus of the Big Daddy, but it wasn’t bulky, it was sleek. It had an oxygen tank on the back of it, and on it's head was a round helmet, with a glowing red visor. She saw Nimbus, and raised one of her hooves. A long, deadly looking needle extended, and it was quickly thrust his way.

“What’s a Big Sister doing here?” Twilight asked, as she watched Nimbus dodge the attack. Nimbus couldn’t answer, for he was too busy reaching for his pipe and parrying the Sister’s strikes. Noticing that the playing field and been leveled, the Big Sister lifted a hoof and shot a jet of flame from it. Nimbus backed away, narrowly avoiding the singeing heat.

“Get Fluttershy and the Sister out of here!” Nimbus said, glancing at Twilight for a split second.

“Right,” Twilight nodded, and ran off. The Sister noticed her leave, and took off after her.

“Oh no you don’t!” Nimbus yelled, causing the Sister to look back for a split second. With his wings fully outstretched, he gathered up as much energy as he could and hit the Big Sister with an Electro Bolt. She was stunned, but Nimbus had nearly collapsed from the amount of energy it had taken to use the Plasmid. He was still trying to steady himself when the Big Sister recovered and launched him out the window with a flick of her head. Nimbus hit the ground hard, the impact crushing his mechanical wing, and the shards of it digging into his back. Opening his eyes, he saw the Big Sister leap from the window and land right on top of him.

Her head moved frantically, scanning his body. Lifting her hoof, she brought her needle down into Nimbus’s stomach. Nimbus became tired as he felt a slight suction coming from the needle. His body was limp, and he saw a small clear container on the Big Sister’s foreleg that was filling up with some glowing red liquid. It was his blood, and the golden ADAM it contained was slowly pushing the blood out of the jar and onto the floor.

Nimbus had plenty of ideas of what death was like; a beautiful mare that knocked on your door and told you it was time, a skeletal stallion who wore a cloak and carried a scythe, and some just said that you saw a light. He never thought that it was be deafening, like thunder. The needle was pulled out of him, and the Big Sister stumbled backwards. There was another call to the afterlife, and the Big Sister screeched out in pain.

That’s when he realized that he wasn’t dying, but he was being rescued.

“Stay with me, kid!” It was Athena, but Nimbus couldn’t open his eyes to see her. He knew her voice, though. He heard the sound of something metal clattering to the ground.

“How..” Nimbus coughed, “How did you know?”

“I got eyes everywhere. Plus,” Athena paused for a split second, as if she didn’t want to admit, “Rarity told me that she saw a Big Sister chasin’ after ya.”

"Yeah... yeah..." Nimbus felt hooves on his wound, and then something dragging his mind into sleep.

When he awoke, Nimbus was laying in a bed. It was soft, and the blanket covering him was warm. He remembered being stabbed by the Big Sister, and then Athena saving him. He sat up, expecting to be in immense pain, but felt nothing. He lifted a hoof, examining it, then felt his stomach, ensuring there were no holes in it. Around him was a completely alien environment. Lots of bookshelves were lining the walls, and a small bedside table held a lamp next to him.

Unlike the rest of the city, the light actually illuminated it’s immediate area. The room actually looked halfway decent, unlike the rest of the wreck he saw earlier. Laying on the ground next near a bookshelf, reading a book, was a familiar lavender unicorn: Twilight Sparkle.

“Twilight?” He said, with unexpected strength to his voice.

Twilight looked up from her book. “Oh, you’re awake.”

“Where’s Athena?”

“She gave you to me after I came back for you. You were unconscious, and she told me you had your ADAM drained. I told her I’d use a recovery spell on you and get you back to my backup home, here in the Ravine. How do you feel?”

“Surprisingly normal... Are the others okay?”

“Yes, in fact, I made sure that they got to the Bathysphere safely before teleporting back there to help you. I’m glad Athena took care of that Big Sister, or we would’ve been done for.”

Nimbus nodded. “Thank you. Now, before we were attacked, what was it that you wanted to tell me? It was about somepony who could help me-”

“Oh yes! They call him Johnny Topside. He’s somewhat of a heroic-roguish type, but he’s on the run from Andrew Ryan right now.”

“What did he do?”

“Nopony knows. Everypony says that he was minding his own business, but was attracting a lot of attention from the media. Maybe Ryan was just jealous.”

Nimbus contemplated on this. Wasn’t this Topside considered a criminal? Then again, Andrew Ryan obviously couldn’t keep a hoof on his own city.

“Where is he now?”

“Everypony thinks that he’s holed up somewhere in Arcadia, the forested area of Rapture-”

“Hold on,” Nimbus interjected, “There’s a forest down here?”

“Yes, there is. Where do you think all of the oxygen comes from? At the highest point of Rapture, there’s a forest that turns what sunlight that passes through the water into energy. Carbon based creatures like ourselves breathe out carbon dioxide, and plants use that to make oxygen.”

“Interesting," Nimbus deadpanned, focusing on the mission, "How do I get there?”

“There’s only a few Bathyspheres that can take you directly to Arcadia. The closest one is in the Sunhoof Performance Hall, which is right off of the Ravine here.”

Nimbus stood up as if he had never been injured at all. The only problem he had was the short nub on his side where his mechanical wing used to be. He looked at it in concern.

“Sorry about that...” Twilight said, standing up and returning her book to it’s shelf. “Your wing was cutting into your back... and it got quite messy.”

“It’s fine,” Nimbus sighed, exercising the control of his other wing. He had to be careful, this was the last real wing he had. “Thanks for that healing spell, by the way, I feel great.”

“It’s not a problem. Your gear is downstairs, waiting for you with Fluttershy and Oceana.”

"Oceana?"

“That’s the name of the Little Sister you saved. From what I can tell, you’re filling the void that her old Big Daddy had once held. It’s in a different way, but... she was so worried when I brought you in unconscious.”

“Right... where are we, exactly?”

“This is the Ravine. It’s a part of Rapture that was reserved for the important figures working for Andrew Ryan to live before the war. He relocated most of them to someplace else, but I stayed here.”

“Why’d you stay here?”

“Well... I like books, if you can’t tell,” she grinned, and looked at the collection of books that she had behind her. “I just couldn't bring them all with me...” She gazed at the books in some sort of trance for a moment, but then snapped back to reality. “You can go when you’re ready. If you want something to eat, there’s food downstairs as well.”

“Alright, I could eat.”

“Are you okay?” Oceana jumped from her seat on a ruined couch in excitement when she saw Nimbus come down the stairs. Fluttershy, who was laying on the couch next to her, looked up at him as well.

“Oh, Nimbus, I’m so sorry all of this happened to you...” Fluttershy said as he sat down next to her, letting Oceana onto his lap.

“It’s okay, Fluttershy, it’s not your fault. I’m just glad we’re all still okay.”

“Me too...” She replied, laying her head on the cushion near her.

“I don’t mean to interrupt,” Twilight said, “But why are you sitting like that?”

“Like what?” Nimbus asked, looking at himself.

“Like... with your legs all hanging down...”

“I don’t know, it’s just more comfortable for me. Why, is it creeping you out?”

Twilight’s previous description of ‘food’ was barely accurate. Sure, the old canned bread and beans were edible, and they served their purpose in Nimbus’s stomach, but it didn’t stop them from tasting like the back end of a cow.

“Hey Twilight, you’ve studied ADAM and Plasmids and stuff, right?”

“Why yes,” she replied from her place at a desk, turning from her studies to face the question, “I do take pride in my work.”

“Do you think you can make sense of this?” Nimbus produced the card he had found among his gear, given to him by the mysterious tan stallion. Twilight trotted from her place to inspect the object in question, taking it from him with her magic and squinting at the scribbles.

“Oh my... Where did you find this?” she said, hurrying back over to her desk.

Nimbus rose, putting the blue filly on the ground, and followed Twilight to see what the deal was about.

“You’d be surprised at what happens out there,” he replied. It wasn’t a lie, it just wasn’t very specific. Twilight looked at the notecard, and then at a few papers on her desk, as if comparing the two.

“This doesn’t make sense... I lost this notecard a long time ago, for an idea that I had to help protect Little Sisters better...” Twilight studied it some more, as if she wasn’t convinced it was real. “It’s written in my magiscript, the words match up perfectly, but... my signature... it’s not mine...”

“You got it back though, and that’s what’s important, right?”

“That’s not the problem, see, if I would’ve had this one card, I would’ve sparked a whole new research track, but if this ‘Dusk Shine’ got it somehow, and finished it for me, then why didn’t he start the project himself?”

“Hmm...” Nimbus could only agree. Anypony with a bright enough mind to finish Twilight’s work surely would’ve done something with it. Nimbus looked back to Fluttershy and Oceana, who were playing some sort of game that involved clopping their hooves against each other in rhythm.

“I’ll let you look over it. I’m going to go to Arcadia and find this Johnny Topside.” Nimbus turned and walked towards his gear, sighing as he picked up his empty machine gun. He would need to find some ammo for this thing. Fluttershy’s ears perked up at the mention of Nimbus leaving.

“I want to come with you,” she said, “I don’t want you to get hurt like that again...”

“Me too!” Oceana happily added, “I can find angels for you, Big Brother!”

Nimbus smiled at her name for him, Big Brother. He liked the sound of it. The other term, however, eluded him.

“Angels?”

“She means bodies with ADAM in them,” Twilight explained, passing the little filly a needle not unlike the one she had before, and continuing. “She can still search out bodies, and collect ADAM for you. Just be careful, Splicers might come out and try to grab her if they see she’s collecting ADAM.”

“Won’t she be in danger?” Nimbus asked, a bit concerned for the enthusiastic filly.

“Not with her Big Brother with her, she won’t,” Twilight told him with a sly smile.

The walk through the Ravine was quiet, and surprisingly peaceful. It had very little light though, causing Nimbus and the mares he traveled with to stay close to him. The blue filly rode atop his back, her needle in her mouth. Fluttershy did her best not to panic, even though she was jumping at every little noise and flicker of light in the dark.

They came upon the Sunhoof Performance Hall before long, without any conflict on the way there. The double doors that provided entry to the audience seating were shut, locked from the inside. A poster on a wall next to the door read “Feeling weak? Power up with EVE Plasmid Boosters!”, and showed an earth pony mare holding a syringe filled with a strange blue liquid in one hoof.

“Oh... The door’s locked,” Fluttershy said, watching Nimbus push against the door, “Maybe we should just go back to Twilight-”

“No,” Nimbus said, waving a hoof to a set of stairs, “Those look like they lead into the theatre’s upper seats.”

He was correct, as the stairs led to another pair of double doors that were open. There wasn’t a way down to the floor level, though, where the door to the other bathysphere was. Nimbus noticed a blue hoof in the corner of his eye, and felt Oceana gently tugging on his mane.

“Brother, look! There’s an angel down there!” Oceana was pointing to the body of a mare on the floor in the aisle. She had an orange mane, and a yellow coat. On her flank, Nimbus could make out a cutie mark of three carrots. There was also another Little Sister with her Big Daddy below them, walking around on the stage. Nimbus could also see the chains and lock holding the doors together. If only he had some bullets in his weapon...

“Thanks, do you see anything I can break that lock down there with?”

“Here,” Fluttershy said, “Take this...” Nimbus turned to face her, and found that she was holding a crossbow in her outstretched hooves.

“Where’d you find that?” Nimbus asked, taking the weapon.

“Well... I found it...” she whispered.

“Thanks.” He said, “Try to keep finding things like that around here.”

“I’ll... I’ll do what I can...”

The crossbow had been loaded, but there weren’t any other bolts around anywhere. He only had one shot. Taking a deep breath, he aimed the weapon at the lock on the door. His hoof wrapped around the trigger, and the tension from the string propelled the bolt forward. It struck the lock, the iron bolt breaking it clean in half. They exited back down the stairs they came up.

Nimbus gave the doors a good push, and they swung open, revealing the performance hall. It was completely empty, save the Big Daddy and her Little Sister on the stage. The three of them began to walk down the main aisle, and came to the body.

“Look, there’s the angel!” Oceana pointed, and Nimbus sat her down on the body. She looked around, took the needle, and began to harvest. Fluttershy took a step back as she watched the filly stab the body with her needle, draining it of it’s ADAM. She sang a happy tune as she worked, causing Fluttershy to cringe in disgust. Nimbus pulled out his radio, and tried to contact Athena.

“Hey, Athena, are you there?”

After a moment, the reply came, “Yeah, whatcha need?”

“Thanks for saving me back there.”

“Oh, Twilight told ya what happened? Yeah, I didn’t finish off that Big Sister though, so watch out: she might want to go another round with ya. Where’re ya at now?”

“I’m in the Sunhoof Performance Hall, about to head to the bathysphere to Arcadia.”

Athena chuckled, “Lookin’ for that old Topside, are ya? He’s a real charmer.”

“What do you know about his situation with Ryan?”

“Nopony knows,” she said, “Even someone like me doesn’t know that much.”

“So I uhh...” Nimbus paused for a moment, “I picked up a Little Sister.”

“So I’ve heard. Looks like you’re her new Big Daddy?”

“She calls me Brother.”

“Big Brother, eh? Kinda has a ring to it.”

“Yeah well,” Nimbus began, “You know.”

Their conversation continued. The gathering was short, and didn’t seem to draw much attention. Then again, there weren’t very many ponies around. Nimbus picked up the girl, and put her on his back, and they continued their journey. A single door opened to reveal a hallway to another bathysphere.

“So what do you know about Topside?” Nimbus asked.

“He’s an explorer of sorts. Found this place by accident. Some say he-” her signal suddenly cut out.

“Athena?”

“What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked him.

As they approached, a gate suddenly swung down in front of the bathysphere, blocking them off. Another voice was heard, but it didn’t come from the radio.

“The spy comes along, and steals a Little Sister...” The ominous stallion said, causing Fluttershy to shrink back in fright.

“Oh... who was that?” She whispered, her voice trembling.

“And now...” The disembodied voice said, “He goes to help our other spy, Johnny Topside...”

Nimbus knew that voice. He had heard it someplace before. Thinking back to when he first arrived, it clicked. It was the same voice on the film clip.

It was Andrew Ryan.

Performer

“She followed me down here, and then tried to steal my job!” -Twilight Sparkle, after reading an issue of Rapture Tribune.

Andrew Ryan simply chuckled as Nimbus looked around for a source of the voice. He met nothing, only the walls around him.

“Yes,” he said, “You know who I am, but real question is,” Ryan paused, as if taking a puff of a cigar, before continuing. “Who are you?”

“That’s not important!”

“Really? Which one of the devils above sent you? Was it the Tyrant Celestia, or was is the Rebel O’saddel bin Laden?”

“Neither!” Nimbus shouted, “I’m not here to spy on you!”

Ryan chuckled again, “That’s what they all say. Unless...”

“Unless what?”

“You aren’t here for either of them, are you? I’ve kept loose tabs on you ever since you arrived... No, you’re not a pawn of the Princesses, but you’re a rook of Atlas...”

“Atlas?”

“The one rat I can’t seem to squash.... That anarchist... Very well. Soon enough, I will find the trap, or the right poison,” Then, just as quickly as his voice had appeared, it was gone. The bathysphere was blocked off still, but Nimbus’s radio flickered back to life.

“Ya there, kid?” Athena asked, “I lost ya signal there for a sec.”

“I’m here, and Andrew Ryan is onto us.”

“Oh, that ain’t good. He’s the king of this damned place. All of the Splicers dance to his tune... and if he’s turned his sights on you...”

“He mentioned somepony named Atlas, he thought he was the one that sent me.”

“Atlas?” Athena repeated, in a disbelieving tone, “He’s one of the leaders in the fight against Andrew Ryan.”

“Hmm. Think he might be able to help us?”

“It’s not likely. Even I can’t get much information on him. You should get a move on, Ryan’ll probably send a few of his goons your way.”

“We can’t, he cut us off from the bathysphere.”

“Well, give me a minute to think...”

Nimbus sighed, and looked around. There wasn’t really anything he could see that could help them. He did, however, notice something next to the doorway. It was another recording device. Picking it up, he pressed the playback button.

“There’s something up with that Big Daddy,” a female voice said, “He seems a little... clumsy. And his Little Sister is always calling him ‘Ms. Bubbles.’ Maybe its a girl Big Daddy? A Big Momma? I’ll have to study them further...”

“Ms. Bubbles?” Fluttershy repeated.

“A mare must have signed on for the Big Daddy thing.”

“Alright, I’ve got it,” Athena said, but her voice slowly crackled out. “You’ll...”

“Athena, are you there?”

No response. Maybe Ryan was trying to get through again?

“Think... little firefly,” Another voice came over his radio, this time a mare, “Why do you concern yourself with such a petty struggle?”

“What?”

“Athena, Ryan, Athena, Ryan. In the end, the only difference is how you spell the name...”

Nimbus stepped back into the performance hall, and looked around. He couldn’t identify the source of the speaker. If she wasn’t nearby, then how could she have known what was going on? Unless...

“You’re working for Ryan, aren’t you?”

“You are wrong, for the Great and Powerful Trixie works for nopony!” She put much emphasis on her own name. “We will see who you work for momentarily... Ryan’s Splicers approach.”

“Oh no,” Fluttershy murmured, “Not Trixie...”

“Who’s Trixie?” Oceana asked, looking back at her.

“She’s kinda mean...”

“You’re so descriptive, Fluttershy,” Nimbus said, preparing his pipe. The first two Splicers came through the open double doors, and Fluttershy tried to hide herself in the seating. As Nimbus did his best to beat the Splicers back, he didn’t even notice when the Big Daddy that had been on the stage with his Little Sister this whole time had jumped down and began to fight with him.

It brushed Nimbus aside, and dropped a hoof into one of the Splicers’ face. Nimbus got a look at this Big Daddy, who was the same type as the one he had seen the most of here. His posture and body shape, however, actually suggested that he was mare. The Little Sister that watched her from the stage had a light purple coat, and a blonde mane and tail. She was a unicorn, like most of the Little Sisters he had seen.

More Splicers entered the hall, and began to target the Big Daddy extensively. When she had successfully defeated all of the Splicers that were sent, she turned around and picked up her Little Sister and placed her on her back.

“Yay!” The filly cried happily, “Let’s go Ms. Bubbles!”

The Big Daddy then proceeded to walk off, her Little Sister on her back.

“Where are Trixie’s manners? One who has not heard of one such as she must not go in the dark for any longer! Behold!”

Nimbus heard the sound of an explosion, and saw the flash of light behind him. On the stage, miniature fireworks had shot off, sending a rainbow of colors in all directions. In a puff of smoke, a blue unicorn mare had appeared from seemingly nowhere. The mare had a white mane, and a purple and white star print cape around her neck.

“You’ll have to excuse Trixie, her hat was stolen by incompetent Splicers.”

“Why such a... flashy entrance?”

“Trixie’s entrance must reflect Trixie’s greatness! Allow her to explain. The Great and Powerful Trixie was... humiliated on the surface, and she came to Rapture for a new slate. Here, she receives the appreciation and fame she deserves! That is, until the war began. Even with nopony to truly admire Trixie, she began working to master sciences, and created several Plasmids! Nopony bought them, though, they didn’t find them useful during the war... And now you have shown up,” Trixie paced back and forth across the stage, looking down at Nimbus and the filly on his back. “You just let others do your work for you, you’re a boss! Tell me, where did you study?”

“Uhh... Manehatten University, actually.” Nimbus replied, trying to decipher why she would ask such a question.

“Interesting...” Trixie brought a hoof to her chin.

“Now, what do you want with me?”

“You? Trixie wants to make you a deal. It’s not everyday that somepony like yourself just trots in here and openly resists Andrew Ryan. You have been blocked, have you not?”

“Yeah, Ryan cut off access to the bathysphere.”

“Hmph, he failed to oversee that Trixie has access to the controls! But before she allows you to leave, Trixie must ask for a favor in return.”

Nimbus rolled his eyes. “What do you want?”

Trixie ignored his disrespect. “Not all of the residents around these parts are crazed lunatics, only most of them are. Trixie wants you to go and take photos of her, and then use the photos to make a poster for her performance!”

“I would do that,” Nimbus said, “But I don’t have a camera, or a way to make posters.”

“That is quite unfortunate. You could try and talk to Photo Finish, but she is somewhat... crazy...”

“Photo Finish? Where is she?”

“She works at Photo’s Boothe down in the Ravine shopping center. Trixie knows not if she is actually there, but it is a good place to start looking.”

Nimbus nodded, and turned to say something to Fluttershy, but didn’t see her anywhere.

“Fluttershy?” he called out. A slight movement from behind one of the seats in the audience caught his eye, and Fluttershy stood up. She was covering her face with her hooves.

“Is... is it over?” She whimpered as she cowered in fear.

“Yes, Fluttershy, its over. Trixie said she’d get us through that gate if we helped her.”

Fluttershy looked around, and then quickly darted to Nimbus, as if something was going to grab her from nowhere. Nimbus looked back up to Trixie, but she was already gone. Her voice came over the radio, though.

“Go, little firefly, light the path through the dark...”

“Fluttershy, stay close.”

The walk wasn’t as long as Nimbus has originally thought. In his mind, he imagined long winding corridors, and several dozen obstacles in his way. Instead, it was a simple stroll down the hallway to the right of the theater. Automated doors slid open, and the Ravine’s shopping center was revealed. Dozens of assorted stores and vendors were to either side, the majority of which were closed, or destroyed. A few Splicers loitered in the walkway, but were quickly dispatched by Nimbus as he made his way across the shopping center.

Nimbus raised his radio to his mouth to speak. “Athena, are you there?”

A haughty laugh was the only response, followed by Trixie saying, “Little firefly, do not worry yourself with Athena and her problems. Right now, Trixie needs your help.”

Nimbus sighed and put the radio away. Trixie was obviously jamming her connections to Athena. Another voice came over the radio, however. It was a mare with a Germane accent.

“Get sie out! I have no business vith you or Trixie!”

“And who are you?” Nimbus asked.

“Vha- Who am I? I am Photo Finish! The finest photographer in all of Rapture! All of Equestria! You... you are working for Trixie!”

“Photo Finish?” Fluttershy whispered, just barely enough for the radio to pick up.

“Zhat voice...” Photo Finish recognized Fluttershy, “Could it be? Is it... die Fluttershy?”

Nimbus looked at her. “You know her?”

“I was... one of her models...” Fluttershy said, a blush forming on her face.

“Do you think you could get her to help us?”

“Maybe...”

“I’ve got Fluttershy with me, yes,” Nimbus told Photo Finish.

“Child! Please, return to zhe life vhere you belong!” She sounded desperate, almost pleading, but still kept a formality in her voice.

“I’m sorry...” Fluttershy swallowed, nervously, “I resigned, and I’m not-”

“Don’t be ridiculous, I vill have a schpeck-tacular outfit picked out-”

“No.” Fluttershy said, with in strange assertive, yet calm tone, “I’m not comfortable doing this.”

“But... But, I’ve haven’t had any models nearly as fabulous as you-”

“The mare said no, Photo,” Nimbus said, continuing with what he came there to do, “Look, we need-”

“Nein! I vill have my schtar model,” Photo barked, a crazed tone overcoming her, “Vhether she cooperates or not!”

As he heard hoofsteps close behind him, Nimbus readied his pipe and spun around to face the threat. All he saw was a shimmer of light, and a few rose petals fall onto his muzzle. Fluttershy squeaked in fear as she saw something behind her, but when Nimbus turned to see it himself, there was nothing. Oceana tugged on his mane, and waved a hoof down the opposite way, where they had came from. For a split second, Nimbus saw a pony, a Splicer, disappear into a shower of rose petals.

“Brother, there he is...” Nimbus followed Oceana’s hoof, as she pointed to a trash can. Sure enough, the trash can's lid rattled slightly, as if somepony had bumped into it. In a flash of light, the Splicer had revealed himself, but had little time to act as he was suddenly encased in ice on the spot. Nimbus heard his radio go off.

“What do you wait for, an engraved invitation?” Trixie said over the radio. Nimbus thought he could barely make out her voice from somewhere close, though. “Finish him!”

Without a second thought, Nimbus swung his forehoof out, and the pipe made contact with the frozen Splicer. He brought it down again, and the ice began to crack. One final hit caused the ice to shatter, frozen shards of it shredding the Splicer’s body up. Fluttershy looked away as one particularly large chunk of ice embedded itself in the Splicer’s back, causing him to shake and shiver in pain and fear and hypothermia. Shards of ice stuck out from his coat, and the biggest vein in his neck was slick and shiny. The worst part was, the poor soul was still alive, his screams of pain coming out only as puffs of chilled air.

Even Oceana buried her face in his mane as he swung the pipe one last time, hitting the Splicer in the jaw. He could hear the crack of ice inside of him breaking as his body hit the floor, coughing up water and blood. Nimbus silently damned himself, and turned around. Above them, on a bridge that connected the two sides of an upper floor, Trixie stood.

“Very good, little firefly. Trixie rewards you...” She levitated an object from beneath her cape, and tossed it down to Nimbus. It slid to Nimbus’s hoof. It was an Eve Hypo, like the one he saw in the poster.

“What does it do?” He asked her, using the radio to ensure she heard him.

“It’s an Eve Hypo. When your body’s natural Eve reserves run low, it will start hurting you if you keep trying to use your Plasmids.” Trixie explained, and Nimbus understood why using Plasmids had became so hard now, “You inject yourself with Eve, and you can use your Plasmids again.”

“Alright...” Nimbus picked up and inspected the small needle, and put it into his foreleg. There was no crazy hallucination of his hooves melting, just him suddenly feeling like he could throw a million thunderbolts. “Thanks,” he said, looking back up at her, but she was gone, again.

“Photo Finish will try and stop you, so you will need to help Trixie,” Trixie said, causing Nimbus to facehoof internally. “Trixie will try and get the attention of her Splicers, and you will get to Photo’s Booth.”

“Whatever, just meet me back at the performance hall when I get what I need.”

“Of course, but Trixie must inform you, you must deal with Photo Finish one way or another. If she chooses not to help you, and you have to take her life, I will find somepony else to take my photos.”

“It’s not going to come to that...” Nimbus said, but got no response. Motioning to Fluttershy, he started his walk into the shopping center.

There was very little resistance in the halls, the occasional Splicer here and there, and the female Big Daddy walking around with her “muffin”. Muffin is what he thought he heard her call the Little Sister, at least, but the Big Daddy’s low, guttural groan distorted the speech. Nimbus’s luck found him a gun store, where he found two whole magazines for his machine gun. Fluttershy had found some useful items as well on their trip: two crossbow bolts, a shotgun shell, and a few bits.

They came across the entrance to the food court. Of course, all of the food vendors were closed, but it still was populated by a few Splicers who were idling about. Nimbus hesitated when he saw that the Splicers were armed with guns, however.

“Fluttershy, stay low.” Nimbus warned, but before he could make his move, Photo Finish interrupted him.

“Very silly zhat you come for me...” She said, “It makes my job so much easier...” All of the Splicers were suddenly alerted to his position, and they began to fire.

“Fluttershy, get back!” Nimbus pushed her out of the way of the incoming fire, and tossed Oceana over with her. They both ran into an arcade that had it’s doors open, and Nimbus was assured that they were safe. With his machine gun at the ready, he ran to the nearest table and flipped it on it’s side, giving him some cover. Bullets pierced through the tabletop as Nimbus steadied his focus.

Time slowed down as he aimed his weapon over his cover, and assessed his situation. There was a Splicer to the left of him, trying to flank him. Two Splicers were directly in front of him. Without thinking, he fired a round of bullets into the closest of the two, and then dropped back down behind cover. He lifted a hoof and used Electro Bolt on the Splicer that had came around behind him, and looked back over his cover again.

There was one Splicer, holding a stick of dynamite, but another one was already firing at him. A bullet hit Nimbus in the right foreleg, breaking his skin and releasing a spray of blood on the table. With his left hoof, he hip fired at the shooter, taking him out after wasting half of his magazine, and then turned around to blow the still stunned Splicer away. He ducked down behind the table again, trying to steady his breathing, but a red cylinder found itself rolling around next to him.

No time to think. With all of his strength and mental focus, Nimbus lifted himself over the shot-up table and hit the ground hard on the other side. He rolled a few feet, but was thrown even further as the table and its surrounding area was consumed in an explosion. After prodding him with a hoof, the Splicer was sure he had killed Nimbus. As he began to turn and walk away, he felt something drag him to the ground and crush his skull in with a pipe.

Nimbus fell over onto his side and relinquished the pipe. That swing seriously hurt his leg, and he was certain that he had dislocated something. With his left hoof, he did his best to radio in to Trixie.

“Trixie...” He coughed, “Where are you?”

“Trixie is almost to the Booth, but the door that leads in is locked from the inside. You will have to unlock it when you get there.”

“I’m injured, where can I find medical supplies here?” Nimbus said, doing his best to stay calm.

“Have you not used a Med-kit before? It’s quite the innovation, just apply the cream inside of the kit where your wound is and it should heal itself.”

“Really?” That sounded ridiculous, but then again, so did shooting thunderbolts out of your hooves, and an underwater city, and just about everything else that had happened to him recently.

“Yes, really, now, the Great and Powerful Trixie must-” From the other side of the radio, Nimbus heard a thump, as if it had been dropped. “Fear the Great and Powerful Trixie!” Came her voice, somewhat muffled, but then screams of agony and the sound of burning flesh came across the radio. She’d be fine.

Nimbus picked himself and his equipment up, and made his way back to Fluttershy and Oceana. In the arcade, Fluttershy was hiding behind a Fighting is Magic machine, comforting Oceana.

“Is Brother going to be okay?”

“Yes, don’t worry,” Fluttershy assured her, “See? Here he is now. Oh!” Fluttershy noticed the wound in his foreleg.

“I’ll...” Nimbus began, raising his right hoof to assure her, but then instantly regretted it. A flare of pain consumed his foreleg as he exhaled sharply. “I’ll be fine...”

“We need to find you some help!” Fluttershy said, examining his foreleg closer.

“Trixie said a Medkit should heal me. She didn’t say where to find one, though.”

“Oh, I know, there’s a vending machine that sells them here in the arcade. I saw one on the way in.”

Sure enough, there was indeed a vending machine selling health kits for twenty bits at the front of the arcade. He only had 3 bits, though. However, if these arcades were anything like the ones on the surface, they yielded money in return for a high enough score...

As he approached one of the tall, blocky, arcade machines entitled ‘Fighting is Magic’, he steadied himself on the stool that was beside it. He tried to position his hooves on the control stick and buttons, but found that moving his right foreleg wasn’t an option today.

“I can play for you, Brother! I’m the best at Fighting is Magic!” Oceana had trotted up beside him, and was smiling innocently at him.

"If you say so, kid," He picked her up, and sat her down on the stool after getting off of it himself. She stretched over to the controls, and looked up at the machine’s screen. Nimbus put a bit in, and she began to play.

It was now that Nimbus had realized what exactly it was that she was playing. On the side of the machine, there was a lavender unicorn who appeared to be hoof-fighting a white unicorn. The two resembled ponies that he had seen before, Twilight Sparkle and Rarity. Nimbus realized that their aggression towards each other had been much more than personal. Was there more to Twilight’s side of the story?

“You noticed that too, huh?” Fluttershy was now next to him, looking at the image presented before them.

“This game is about them?”

“It’s about all of us. We were all really close friends at one time, but then... I don’t know what happened...” Fluttershy said.

“Wait, you’re in a fighting game?” Nimbus looked at her in disbelief.

“FLUTTERSHY WINS!” The machine’s voice announced, causing Oceana to clop her hooves together happily. “FLAWLESS VICTORY!”

Photo's Finish

"There's so many constants and variables, I never thought..."- Dusk Shine, in a discussion with the Lutece twins.

Oceana finished her game, and a large quantity of bits was rewarded. Nimbus was able to get 2 Medikits with his money, and got a candy bar for Oceana. Just like Trixie said, the Medkit’s contents healed his wound quickly, as if by magic. Even the bullet seemed to dissipate as his skin closed and his coat grew back over it.

“Isn’t that something?” Nimbus said to himself, moving his foreleg around to test it’s range of motion. He helped Oceana onto his back, and she happily chewed on the candy bar.

“Are you going to be okay?” Fluttershy asked him.

“Yes, I’m fine. We need to get going, Photo’s got a 10 minute advantage on us.”

As they exited the arcade and continued through the food court, they encountered no more Splicers. Nimbus used the grace period to check his machine gun ammo. There were five bullets left in one magazine, and a full 40 in the other.

The corridor that led into Photo’s Booth was eerily silent. There were no Splicers, there were no Big Daddies, there was nothing. Nimbus stopped in front of the door and produced his radio.

“Trixie, we’re outside of Photo’s Booth.”

“Good, now let Trixie in! The door is on the inside of the lobby level.”

Nimbus approached the door, and it opened automatically. He took a few steps inside, and motioned for Fluttershy to stay back as the door shut. He carefully turned the corner, but was met with an Electro Bolt. The searing jolt made him rear back, making him drop his weapon and causing Oceana to slide off of him. He regained his focus, and saw the source of the attack. A light blue earth pony with a white mane stood across the room from him, but a pair of glass doors quickly sealed him off from her. He could still see what she wore, though, an odd black and white striped dress, and a pair of pink tinted sunglasses.

“It is funny,” Photo Finish said, “Fluttershy said zhat she did not vant to help me, but yet, here she is.”

“We just need your camera!” Nimbus said, glaring at her, “We don’t need all of this extra crap you’re throwing at us!”

“My camera, hah! Vhat a joke. Now, come Fluttershy, your career avaits.”

“I...” Fluttershy began.

“You vhat?” Photo Finish interjected.

“I don’t want to. I... can’t!”

“You reject me, Photo Finish, a second time? Nein! Nein! Nein! Bring me zhat foolish girl!” She ordered, to nopony in particular. Suddenly, there was a ravenous shriek as the outside windows exploded inward. In through the windows came a familiar figure, a sleek mare in a diver’s suit. On one of her forelegs was an extended needle, and on her helmet there was a bullet shaped dent.

“You again!” Nimbus turned around to face the Big Sister.

“Do vhatever vith zhese two,” Photo said, and grinned evilly as the Big Sister began to attack Nimbus. Nimbus dove for his gun, but the Sister managed to kick it out of his reach as he fell on the ground. The Big Sister was standing over him, but Nimbus kicked out with his back legs and fumbled for his crossbow. Using Electro Bolt to stun the Big Sister, Nimbus was able to stand up and load the weapon.

“Get her, Brother!” Oceana called to him.

The Big Sister broke from her stunned state with a powerful thrust of her needle, which barely scraped Nimbus’s cheek. Aiming down the sight of his crossbow, he lined up a shot with the Sister’s head. When he pulled the trigger, the bolt pierced the Sister’s left foreleg and pinned it up against the wall, immobilizing his opponent. She screamed out in pain, and attempted to yank the metal out. Nimbus retrieved his machine gun, and began to discharge his weapon on the pinned Big Sister.

Her hoof suddenly came around, pulling the bolt from it’s place in her foreleg and swinging it like a knife. It found itself buried in the wall on the other side of her as she followed up with a stab with her needle. Nimbus dodged the needle by stepping to the side, but stepped right into her grapple, and she pushed him into the wall. She rose her needle, and thrust it, but with whatever luck, the needle completely missed Nimbus and embedded itself in the wall next to him. As she struggled to pull her weapon out of the wall, Nimbus retrieved the used bolt out of the wall, and made his attack with it.

The bolt shattered the Big Sister’s visor, and cracked her skull open. With a warrior’s shout, Nimbus slammed his free hoof into the back of her head, causing her to slam face first into the ground. The bolt was pushed further into her cranial cavity, and blood began to pool on the ground. It was settled.

“Did... did you just kill that Big Sister?” Trixie asked, looking in from a window to Nimbus’s front, “You must finish her, before she recovers!”

“What? What do you mean?”

“Take her ADAM, absorb it all!”

“Wha-”

“Just do it!”

Nimbus lifted the Big Sister’s heavily armored corpse, and placed a hoof over the hole in her head. Focusing, he felt her ADAM begin to drain into him, but he didn’t stop like he would for a Little Sister. He sucked every last drop of ADAM dry, and felt the body become that much lighter. Nimbus let the body drop, and looked to his side, where Photo Finish stood with an expression of horror on her face.

“Vhat have you done?” she called out, “My career is ruined! Fluttershy, vhy have you done zhis to me?”

“You...” Fluttershy started weakly, but her voice got stronger with each word, “You brought this on yourself.”

“That’s enough, Photo, let us in!” Nimbus knocked on the reinforced glass doors separating them.

“Just finish zhe job...” she turned around and pressed a button, and the doors slid open. Nimbus stepped in, and looked at her expectantly.

“Vhat?” She asked, looking around, as if expecting something worse from him.

“Give me your camera,” he commanded.

“Kill her!” Trixie called out, angrily banging her hooves on the window separating them. “Open this door, Trixie wants to do it!”

“Is zhis some joke?” Photo Finish looked at him in disbelief.

“I came here to ask you for your help.”

“You...” Photo Began, but then suddenly became consumed with rage, “Nein! First, you break down my doors, then, you humiliate me, Photo Finish!” She fired an Electro Bolt from her hoof, but Nimbus’s pipe connected with her jaw as he dodged the attack. She fell to the floor, but rose again, steadying herself.

“I came here to ask you for help!” Nimbus shouted, lashing out with his pipe as she attempted to attack again, “I never wanted to hurt you!”

“Please...” She said quietly, “Just kill me. My camera is on my desk right over there.”

Nimbus turned, and saw that the device was indeed there, and Trixie was still glaring angrily at him. He saw her pick up the radio.

“If you want to take your revenge on her, Trixie doesn’t care. You deserve it. Or, you can let Trixie take revenge, if you like.”

Nimbus thought about it for a moment. He needed to be a good role model, not for himself, but for Oceana. She was watching him, and his decision was going to reflect onto her. He wasn’t a killer, he was a protector, and as much as he wanted to take revenge against this mare, he just couldn’t do it.

“Get up,” he said, tossing his spare Med-kit on the ground in front of her.

“You’re... You’re schparing me?”

“Yes, get up.”

“What are you doing?” Trixie fumed.

“Photo Finish,” Nimbus took a gentler tone, “I want you to take Trixie, and make her into your star.”

“What?” Came Trixie’s response, “How can you say that, after all that she’s done?”

“You need somepony who knows what she’s doing. Who better than Rapture’s finest photographer?”

“You... You are kind... I vill do as you ask, in return for you sparing my life, but I do not trust Trixie.”

Nimbus looked to the window, where the magician was looking in.

“Trixie? Can you let this go?”

Trixie sighed, and nodded her head.

“For now, yes. Trixie needs her pictures...”

Nimbus opened the door that kept Trixie out. She walked in, and after exchanging unhappy glares, they shook hooves.

“Danke...”

Trixie stood on the stage, looking down upon Nimbus, Fluttershy, and Oceana. Photo Finish stood behind her on the stage, preparing her camera.

“Like Trixie promised, you may go through to Arcadia, but first, allow me to grace you with a gift. She produced a vial from beneath her cape, one that held a glowing grey substance. “For one who not only possesses such charisma as to lead others, but also has humbled Trixie, you deserve this Plasmid.”

Nimbus took the Plasmid, and prepared it like he always had. Upon injecting himself, he noticed that the pain from getting new Plasmids had died down. That didn’t stop the pain from the ruptures that began to break out of his forelegs. As the Plasmid did it’s work, he saw his fur and flesh opening, releasing a cloud of white hot mist. He blinked, and it was gone. The hallucination from the Plasmid was over.

“It’s called Steam Jet. Trixie created it to improve her disappearing act, but a warrior like yourself might find the force from the jet is rather powerful.”

Nimbus cringed at what Trixie called him. Was he really a warrior? The term implied that he was exclusively good at fighting, which, as useful as it was for a place like this, wasn’t exactly a good trait by some standards.

“Thank you,” Nimbus said, and watched as Trixie disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

“Fly away, little firefly,” Came Trixie’s disembodied voice.

Photo Finish nodded to him, and they began their exit. Just as she promised, Trixie had opened the gates to the bathysphere. When he and his companions stepped inside, Nimbus heard Athena talking over the radio.

“Hey, kid, I just got your signal again, what happened? Are you okay?”

“I had a run in with Trixie,” Nimbus said, pulling the bathysphere lever, “She was jamming the signal so I would help her, but I’m on my way to Arcadia now.”

“Trixie? Wow, thought she would've made you stay longer. Whatever, just be careful, Ryan will know that you’re on the move.”

Nimbus looked out the bathysphere window, and sighed. This city was beautiful on the outside, but how was it any better than the surface?

“Are you okay, Fluttershy?” Nimbus looked to her, who had been quite quiet.

“I... I don’t know what to think about all of this... This place seemed so nice, but...” Fluttershy sighed, “I just want to go home, but we need to make sure your sister is okay.”

“Right...” Nimbus said, as the bathysphere surfaced in a hallway. Outside was a sign indicating that they were indeed in Arcadia. All around the walkway, there were trees, shrubs, and all sorts of other plants surrounding them. Nimbus took a few steps into the forested room, and spoke into his radio.

“Athena, we’re in Arcadia.”

“Good, now I don’t know where Topside will be, but I do know two ponies who could tell ya. The first is Octavia. You can find her in the Music Hall, just follow the sounds of her cello. The other one is Vinyl Scratch, she’ll be at the bar. I’d recommend finding Vinyl first, because she’s a bit more easygoing.”

“What about Ryan?”

“I don’t know, kid, sorry. Most I can tell ya is to be careful.”

The door to the rest of Arcadia opened up, and Nimbus’s jaw dropped. The forest had completely taken over the entire area. Vines and weeds sprouted from all walls and spots on the floor, and flowers burst through the openings of vending machines. Why anypony would stay in this place was beyond him. Although, if Johnny Topside was on the run, this would be a good place to hold up. Nimbus approached a sign that had been tangled in a vine. As he pulled away the loose vegetation, he got a good look at what the sign read.

“Market Place, Bass Hammer” were above an arrow pointing left, and “Oxygen Control, Music Hall” were above an arrow pointing right. Bass Hammer sounded like the name of a bar, so Nimbus turned left and began to walk, clearing a path through the plants for his follower to pass through.

He entered the marketplace, and began to search for a sign towards the bar.

“Look, Brother, an angel... and she has flowers...” Oceana called out, pointing a hoof in the direction of a corpse. It was another mare, this one with a mint green coat and mane, and a lyre on her flank. What was interesting about the body were the odd flowers that were placed upon her. The petals were the same color as her fur, and the center of each one was yellow. They covered all over her face, obscuring her eyes and mouth, and also on her forelegs and body. As he set Oceana down to gather ADAM, she curiously inspected the body.

“They’re pretty...” Fluttershy said meekly.

“There’s no ADAM... oh well...” she reported, tugging at one of the flowers on the dead mare. It gave resistance, and she tugged on it again. Nimbus went to give it a pull, and he realized that he flowers had not been placed on her.

They were growing from inside of her.

Fluttershy was silent as Nimbus revealed a tear in the pony’s skin where the stem of the flower had sprouted from. He could only imagine what is must’ve been like to go through this, especially on the face. Nimbus shuddered and turned to Fluttershy, who had adopted the frozen stance she had made use of so much here in Rapture. She took a step back.

“Fluttershy, we need to get moving.”

“But...”

“Fluttershy.” Nimbus put Oceana back on his back and began to walk in the opposite direction.

“What was that, brother?” Oceana asked innocently. “Why did she have flowers inside her?”

“I don’t know, we’re going to find out.”

On their way to the bar, Nimbus had encountered more of the odd flower ridden corpses. There was a rhythmic thumping coming from somewhere close. Following the beat, he discovered it was coming from what he had assumed was the bar. He approached the door to the bar, a traditional door, and pushed it open. The music became louder, and he instantly picked up the scent of alcohol.

Several ponies were present in the bar, either having a good time, or fighting each other. Amidst it all was a white unicorn mare with an electric blue mane, a cyan streak through it, and a pair of purple tinted sunglasses over her eyes. She stood behind a pair of turntables on a stage, that distributed the loud dubtrot music throughout a large speaker system. The DJ nodded as the three entered, and approached her.

“This ain’t the place for kids,” She called, her voice a bit rough. She probably shouted like that all the time.

“This city ain’t the place for kids,” Nimbus replied, a deep, commanding tone in his voice, and suddenly the DJ stopped the music.

“What? Whoa, chill your jimmies, brony.”

“I’m looking for a Vinyl Scratch.”

“That’d be me. What can I do for you?”

Their conversation was interrupted by a disgruntled patron, who waved a gun around lazily.

“Hey! Music the... on back...” He was obviously intoxicated, as his eyes weren’t completely open, and he wobbled back and forth on three hooves. Nimbus took no chances, though. The drunk fired, but missed him completely. Before he could take another shot, Nimbus nailed him in the chest with his machine gun. Fluttershy only sighed.

“Whoa there, cowboy, I know he had a gun and all, but-”

“Would you kindly tell me what the buck is going on here? The entire place is being overrun by plants, and you’re just in here, playing some music?”

The other patrons began to get rowdy.

Vinyl dropped her voice to a whisper, “Look, I gotta give these guys something. They’re all infected!”

“Infected? With what?”

“They call it the Green Hoof. You get it by coming in contact with the pink flowers around here. Once you have it... you get an itchy rash beneath your coat, in the shape of a diamond, and then...”

Nimbus made the connection. "... I saw..." was all he could say.

“Don’t worry, I have a friend who’s working on a cure. Now, can I help you?”

“I’m looking for somepony named Johnny Topside. I heard he was hiding out up here?”

“Yeah, that’s right, but I don’t know exactly where he is. You might want to ask Zecora.”

Fluttershy gasped, “Oh no, Zecora’s trapped here too?”

“Yeah, unfortunately,” Vinyl replied. “She’s the one working on the cure, actually, you should go find her. She could use the help of a gunslinging slayer of ponies like yourself.” Nimbus flinched internally at the label placed upon him.

“What are you going to do?” Nimbus asked.

“I’m doing what I can to keep the plants from coming in here. I found that the heavy bass keeps them away, but I don’t know how to get rid of them completely...”

Nimbus sighed, and began to exit the bar. All of this was getting him nowhere.

“Hey, wait!” Vinyl called, and raised a radio for him to see. “Keep in touch?”

“Yeah, sure,” Nimbus rose his own radio, and gave her his frequency. Outside of the bar, Nimbus noticed that there was something off. The plants had taken over more of the surrounding area. They grew quickly.

“Nimbus...” Fluttershy said, putting a hoof on his shoulder, “I don’t want to get Green Hoof...”

“You’ll be fine, Fluttershy,” Nimbus assured her, “Just avoid any pink flowers, and you will be fine.”

An ominous, frightening voice came over the radio.

“This is what becomes of those who use my garden for themselves, and only themselves!” It was Andrew Ryan, and Nimbus began to smell smoke. There was something burning somewhere close...

“Ryan? What are you doing?”

“Only what needs to be done to destroy you... you parasite...”

He quickly switched over to Athena’s channel.

“Athena, Ryan’s setting a torch to Arcadia!”

A few moments later, the reply came, “What? Kid, ya gotta get outta there!”

“No, I need to find Topside, now!”

Green Hoof

“I can’t help but wonder, just who is Athena? It’s obviously just a name...” -Lady Rarity

Far from Arcadia, the silhouette of a mare loomed over a desk, attending papers before it. The only light was a few weak slivers coming from the window, leaving the room mostly dark. Her ears subtly twitched as she felt the universe suddenly folding and creating a displacement in the air around her. She wasn’t alone. The mare was still, however, continuing to look over her papers, as if she didn’t notice the two unicorns approaching her desk.

“Athena?” A male voice asked.

Athena didn’t look up as she replied, “That’s me.”

“Very interesting,” A female voice replied. “Are you aware of your situation?”

Athena looked up. “Who are you two, again?”

The stallion let out a short laugh. “That’s not a very accurate question.”

“A better question would be,” the mare added, “When are we?”

Athena turned her head. Through the darkness, she thought she could make out a tan coat, and a brown mane on each of them. The stallion turned his head to address his companion.

“That is an excellent question,” he commented, “Have you ever found it odd that...”

“...We finish each other’s sentences?” the mare finished. “Yes... Interesting.”

“Indeed.”

Athena looked at what she could see of the two. “Umm, excuse me, but how can I help you?”

“Another inaccurate question,” the stallion said, “In fact...”

“Your query is quite to the contrary,” the mare explained, “We are here to help you.”

“Help me?” Athena put a hoof to her chest for emphasis.

“That would be correct,” the stallion said, producing a notecard and setting it on Athena’s desk, under the light.

When Athena looked over it, she read notes about ADAM absorption, a new bodysuit, and drill. Then, she saw the signature, in elegant magiscript was the name “Twilight Sparkle”.

“What? How’d you... Why...” Athena was confused about how this section of Twilight Sparkle’s missing notes ended up in their hooves. Even more so why they were giving it away. These notes were of a genius! Somepony who had them could make millions of bits off of some new technology...

“We hope that it gets returned to the hooves of it’s proper owner,” The stallion told her.

“Yes, and because of your connections with it’s proper owner,” The mare said, “You would be able to get it back to her...”

Athena looked up to thank them, but they had disappeared.

Fluttershy and Oceana stayed at the bar, where they would be relatively safe with Vinyl. Nimbus set out into the quickly decaying forest in search of the stallion Johnny Topside, and this Zecora character. Vinyl informed him that Zecora was the only zebra she had ever seen, so she shouldn’t be hard to miss. As Nimbus walked down what had once been a cobblestone path, he noticed that there was a hut nearby. Outside it’s front door, frantically putting out a flaming bush, was a zebra.

“Hey!” Nimbus called, extending his hoof to use his newest Plasmid. A powerful jet of steam emerged from his hoof, and the cloud covered the zebra and her blaze. The moisture in the air caused the fire to slowly flicker and die down. The zebra turned to face him, and took a few steps forward.

“Many thanks for ending this blaze,

What brings you here on the gloomiest of days?”

She spoke in rhythm and rhyme, but her message was clear.

“I’m looking for Johnny Topside.”

“Ah, you seek the surface one,

But there are much more important things to be done,” she replied.

“I know, Andrew Ryan is burning this place to the ground!”

The zebra motioned for him to follow her into her hut. Inside, she had a small cauldron, with some vile smelling liquid inside of it.

“What is this?” Nimbus asked.

“The cure for the Creeper, which plagues our grass

Or, Green Hoof, you may know it as.”

She looked around for a vial filled it with the contents of the cauldron, and gave it to Nimbus.

“Do you know where Topside is?”

“Spread this cure, though air dispersed

And I will lead you to Ryan’s worst,

Try to end the consuming flame,

But the virus won’t stop for our time frame.”

Nimbus nodded. He remembered seeing a sign for oxygen control, and headed out of Zecora’s hut. When he passed back through the Marketplace, the weeds had grown to his shoulders, and his speed was impeded.

“Come now,” Ryan’s voice came, “You know your fate, why struggle?”

Nimbus saw a fire ignite behind him, but he put it out with a burst of steam. He put out several more fires before he got to the sign, which had been trapped beneath the growth. As he began to gallop down the hallway to the Oxygen Control, he was met with a thick cloud of smoke. It filled his lungs and caused him to stumble backwards, coughing.

“Kid,” Athena told him over the radio, “You gotta move fast, I just realized that if Ryan burned down all of the plants and stuff up there, we’re fresh outta oxygen for the whole city!”

“He’s...” Nimbus coughed, “... He’s insane!”

“You need to put the fire out somehow!”

“I also have to deliver a cure for a virus down here!”

“What? Are you talking about the Green Hoof? There’s no cure for that!”

“I just got word that there was, and I need to deliver it via the air control.”

“Don’t, you have to control that fire first. If you release anything into that fire, that whole place could explode!”

Nimbus waited for the smoke to clear and then entered the oxygen control room.

“What do I do, then?”

“Hm....” Athena thought up another one of her plans, “You’re going to have to shut off the oxygen release!”

“That’s crazy!”

“No, it’s not. Fire needs oxygen to burn,” She explained, “And no oxygen means no fire.”

“No oxygen also means no breathing!” Nimbus shouted, looking over a control panel.

“Look, just shut it off long enough for the fire to die out, then turn it back on.”

Nimbus found a display showing the levels of smoke, oxygen, and other gases currently in Arcadia. Upon finding a lever for the Oxygen release, he pulled it into the off position. Gradually, the smoke level began to die down, a sign of less fire.

“Do you hope,” Ryan asked, startling Nimbus, “that by cutting off the oxygen, you can kill me? I don’t think that’s going to happen...”

“Lookout kid!” Athena warned, “He’s going to be sending Splicers up there!”

Without warning, two Splicers armed with machine guns ran through the door he entered through. Nimbus formed a Hypnotise polyp in his hoof, and struck one of the Splicers with it. The other one immediately shot and killed the Hypnotised one, giving Nimbus time to shoot the other. A bright light came from a sealed door to his left, and it suddenly fell over after being cut open with a power torch. Bullets smashed the window to his right, and Nimbus did his best to take cover behind whatever he could.

Choosing a nearby desk, he prepared to use his Steam Jet. Looking up and over his cover, he fired a cloud of steam in the hallway as the Splicers ran through. The unexpected mist filled their lungs and caused them to start choking. A droplet of water formed on one of their coats, and Nimbus hit them with an Electro Bolt for an instant kill.

More gunfire erupted from both entrances, and Nimbus did the best he could to fight back. He ducked for cover, and his radio went off.

“Yo, Nimbus, right?” Vinyl Scratch’s voice came, “Yeah, we got some trouble down here at the bar...”

“What?” Nimbus said, going up to take a shot, and then coming back down.

“Yeah, uhh, the boys are getting rowdy, and they’re scaring Fluttershy and your lil’ sis. Also, one of them broke out into Green Hoof, right in front of them. Fluttershy isn’t conscious right now.”

“I’m...” Nimbus saw a Splicer attempt to jump over his cover, but a bullet to the face halted his movement. “I’m a little busy right now, I’ll get back to you.”

Nimbus held the room, using skills and muscles he had never used before. He wasn’t a trained soldier, or a barbaric warrior though. It troubled him deeply, but he had more important things to do at the moment, like not die. He had just clubbed a Splicer with his pipe when he felt a shortness of breath. His heart rate increased, and he ran over to check the smoke levels.

They were at zero percent, but the oxygen was dangerously low as well. He quickly shifted the lever for the Oxygen control back on, and held his breath as oxygen slowly filled Arcadia again. Ryan’s voice came back over his radio again.

“You think...” Ryan said, breathing heavily, “That you can... Torture me? With... my own... my own air!? So be it, although I won’t be burning this place down, you can be sure that you will burn...”

Vinyl’s voice came through, and she was also winded. “... A few guys just... just fainted in here. I’m feeling... a bit short of breath, too... What’s going on?”

“A fire... was stopped...” Nimbus breathed. “I also have a cure for the Green Hoof, from the Zebra...”

“That’s great... I’ll just... just stay here...”

Nimbus looked up, and took a deep breath. Now, he needed to disperse the cure for Green Hoof. But before he could do that, he had to wait for the air level out again.

Now that he could breathe, he needed to find where exactly the controls for dispersion were.

“Athena?” He asked into his radio, “How am I going to go about putting the cure in the air?”

“Well, I honestly don’t know. You might want to find Octavia, she knows a thing or two about Arcadia, since she was there when it was first made. Listen for her cello.”

Her cello? He didn’t know what to expect, but as he took a few steps outside of the Oxygen control room, he heard the faintest sound. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he would bet money that it was indeed a cello. The sound led him through a few winding hallways, and into a very small auditorium. As he cracked open the door, he saw inside there was a charcoal grey mare with a darker mane playing a cello. What was strange about her was that she was an earth pony, standing on her hind legs, and using the cello for balance.

Something suddenly jolted him away from the doorway and onto the ground. His fall was softened by a patch of flowers and vines, but it still took him by surprise. Looking up, he saw a particularly dangerous looking Splicer, a pegasus with his wings spread out, and dangerously sharp hooks over all of his hooves. The Splicer did a nimble backflip as Nimbus stood up to fight.

As he aimed down the sights of his machine gun, he found the Splicer nowhere in the hallway. He turned around, and there was nothing. There was an eerie silence, and then he felt something warm on his back, like breath. He couldn’t stop what was coming, as a pair of hooks caught his front shoulders and pulled him towards the ceiling. His gun clattered to the floor below him. When he looked up, he saw the pegasus Splicer hanging upside down from the ceiling, the hooks on his back hooves digging into the ceiling. He let out a insane laugh as Nimbus struggled to free himself from his captor’s metal hold.

Suddenly, the Splicer’s body jerked reflexively, almost tearing Nimbus’s front legs from their sockets. Nimbus was released by whatever luck, and he looked to see what had caused the Splicer’s sudden movement. A look of horror crossed the Splicers face as he saw his belly had a rash that was beginning to stick out beneath the pale coat. As he pushed the fur back to get a better look, he saw four deep red lines on his skin. They were crossed in the form of a diamond.

“No, no, no!” The Splicer screamed writhing from his place on the ceiling, “Not now! I... I can’t... scratch...” He began to frantically scratch the itch on his stomach, but with his hooves being covered by hooks, he only succeeded disemboweling himself. He soon was hanging from the ceiling, lifeless. From the hole in his body, Nimbus saw the sprouts of flowers hanging down amongst his insides. He probably wasn’t going to be sleeping comfortably anytime soon.

Oddly enough, the cello’s song still played. Did she not hear the fighting going on out here? Nimbus retrieved his weapon and opened the door to the music hall, revealing it’s emptiness, save the lone grey earth pony mare who stood on her hind legs, playing her cello.

“Hello?” The mare didn’t reply. He took a few steps into the small chamber, and she seemed to look down on him, as if he was ruining the song for the rest of the audience. Nimbus looked around, taking detailed note of there being no audience.

“What do you want?” She said, “I’m in the middle of a performance!”

“Performance?” Nimbus knew already that this one was a few bullets short of a magazine. He scolded himself internally for using such figurative language, reminding himself that he was not a killer, or a warrior, or whatever. He was just doing what he had to in order to survive.

“Yes, I am one of the most prestigious musicians in Rapture!”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Nimbus said, “My name’s Nimbus, I need somepony who knows a little bit about the air system.”

“I see. My name is Octavia, and although my special talent is in music,” she turned to the side, showing off a treble clef on her flank, “I do know a thing or two about Arcadia’s oxygen control. It’s always going haywire... I’m sure you felt the sudden decrease in air earlier, right?”

“Uhh...” Nimbus answered nervously, “Yeah, I did...”

"Well, anyway, I’d like to help. What do you need the system for?”

“I have a cure for the Green Hoof, and I need to spread it through the air systems.” He produced the vial that Zecora had given him, “It’s concentrated here, so-”

“Give it to me!” Octavia cried, losing the entirety of her civilized atmosphere. Completely disregarding her instrument, she dived at Nimbus like a timberwolf would a small rabbit. Nimbus took a step back, surprised, and Octavia landed face first on the floor.

“What the-” Nimbus put the cure away, and looked at the crazy mare in confusion. She rose to her hooves, and pulled Nimbus’s face directly into hers.

“You don’t understand! Give me the cure! Give it to me so I-”

“Get off of me!” Nimbus shoved her back, infuriated. “You think you’re the only one with Green Hoof? There’s a whole bar full of ponies drinking like it’s their last day, because for some of them, it is their last day!”

“I’m sure you’re talking about the bar that Vinyl Scratch works at,” She scowled, putting a derogatory tone on the unicorn’s name, “And I do not have Green Hoof. I just need to be protected from it, that’s all.”

“Are you going to help me?”

“No, because you’re going to give the cure to them!”

Nimbus glared at her, and turned to leave, but he felt something hit him in the back of the head. It splattered, like a balloon would, and when he lifted a hoof to wipe it off, he saw that it was an unnatural neon blue color. Nimbus turned around, and saw Octavia with the wicked grin of a Splicer across her face, and a neon blue polyp in her right hoof. To either side of him, a small cylinder rose from the floor, each with a mounted gun atop them. As they both pointed their barrels at him, Nimbus realized what exactly they were.

“Now, I’ll give you one more chance...” Octavia whispered maniacally. “It’s not everyday that somepony like you comes along... Just give me the cure...”

Octavia was about to continue her crazy rant, when Athena’s voice came through his radio, “Kid, I heard that a Big Sister was headed towards Arcadia. Watch out.”

“Oh no...” Nimbus looked up at the ceiling, and then behind him.

“A Big... Sister?” Octavia breathed, her insanity replaced with crippling fear.

“Yeah, Athena doesn’t joke about that stuff. Now if you could cut this crap and stop trying to kill me, maybe we could help somepony besides yourself!”

They stood there for a moment, not saying anything. The silence was broken by a familiar ravenous shriek, but by this time, Nimbus knew what was coming. The only thing he could think of was a line from one of his favorite movies.

“Come with me if you want to live!” He shouted, as he used Steam Jet to create cover. The ceiling above where Octavia had been performing cracked, and down through the new entrance came the Big Sister. Nimbus grabbed the petrified Octavia by her foreleg, and pulled her out the door. He held the old fashioned wooden door shut, but his efforts were nullified as a long and sharp needle smashed through it. Through the destroyed door, Nimbus saw the Big Sister emerge from the mist in a terrifying fashion.

Octavia threw her blue polyp at the Sister, and she was suddenly assaulted by the two turrets that had once been pointed at Nimbus.

“What was that?” Nimbus looked at her.

“Security Command,” she replied shortly, “It allows me to control nearby defense, and paint their targets with this polyp.”

“Come on, we need to get to the Oxygen control.” Nimbus said, urging Octavia to follow him.

“But...”

“Just come with me, the Big Sister isn’t going to be distracted forever!”

As they ran through the corridors that led back to the Oxygen Control, Nimbus learned very little about why Octavia wanted the cure to herself. It wasn’t until she tripped over a vine that Nimbus figured it out. A deep rash was on the inside of her right foreleg. It was darker and deeper than the one on the Splicer he had seen before.

“You’re afraid to admit you have Green Hoof, aren’t you?” Nimbus asked.

“Yes... I... I don’t want to become a ruffian like Vinyl Scratch and the patrons at her bar. Now, can we please not talk about it?”

Nimbus had his reason now, but he realized that something was different about Octavia’s mark. He hadn’t seen very many of them, but hers seemed to be much worse. Was it a sign of it’s progression? Nimbus didn’t press it on her, though. They continued forward, until they reached the Oxygen Control room. As he scanned the room, he noticed something wasn’t right. The bodies had all disappeared. He had killed at least 10 splicers on his way through last time, but where were their bodies now?

There was a thump behind them, and Nimbus turned around in time to see a Big Sister holding a Splicer’s corpse up on her needle. The corpse disintegrated, and the Big Sister was surrounded in a golden aura for a moment. Nimbus quickly hit her with Electro Bolt, and then hit the button on door as it closed them off from the threat, sealing it tight. A clang from the other side indicated a successful lockout.

Nimbus turned to Octavia. “What do I do to put the cure in the air?”

“I’m not going to-”

“Tell me or I’ll unseal that door!”

“You- You just-” Octavia stammered, “Put the vial in the slot right there, and then set that knob to that level..” Octavia quickly spat out the rest of her instructions as Nimbus carefully followed them.

Nimbus pulled the final lever, and watched as the liquid drained out of the vial and into the system. He heard a large fan turn on above him, and he smiled. It was done. Unfortunately, the room was now sealed off, for when one door sealed, all doors in the room sealed as well, meaning they’d have to unseal the door to become cured, but that also meant the Sister would be able to attack them.

“What now?” Octavia said, “We can’t just... Oh!” She inhaled deeply, and began to scratch at the inside of her right foreleg, where the rash was. Nimbus began to feel an itch form on his left hoof, and gasped in shock as he realized that he was marked too. How long was the mark there? It looked just as bad as Octavia’s and it was becoming just as itchy as well. Nimbus looked at the vial, just a little bit of the liquid was left after enough was processed to fill the air. He pulled the vial from it’s slot, and just stared at it. It just barely filled a small mark that indicated 1 unit remained. Hopefully it was enough to cure somepony.

“The cure... Give- No...” Octavia said, “You take the cure... I’ve been nothing but selfish...”

As Octavia spiraled into an abyss of self pity, Nimbus realized something. Regret seems to be a reaction to facing death. Assuming the cure was enough, one of them was going to die, but if Nimbus let it be somepony else, he would regret it for the rest of his life. Oceana flashed through his mind. He wouldn't be able to protect her any more if he died. Yet, he had Octavia to protect right now. Even if she had tried to kill him, the only reason she did was because she didn't want to die. That's all it was, life and death. But the Green Hoof didn't have to kill him. Maybe if he could get out into the rest of Arcadia for enough time to breathe in the cure. Without another thought, he held out a hoof, and with a gentle smile, he passed what was left of the cure to Octavia.

"You take it, if we can get out here fast enough I'll be able to breathe in the cure."

"But what about the Big Sister?"

"Don't worry about her, she's after me. You get to the Bar."

“I- ...Thank you,” Octavia was all she said, and she tilted her head back to consume the liquid. Nimbus smiled as she lost the need to scratch herself, and the rash slowly began to fade away. Octavia looked up worriedly at Nimbus, who was becoming overpowered by the itch. He screamed out, and wildly rubbed his hooves on the mark in an effort to make the irritation go away.

He didn't realize that the effects would take him so quickly. There was a pressure under his skin, and he felt something push through his back. Drops of blood marked the floor as he gasped for breath. More pressure formed in his throat, and he screamed out as a flower burst from beneath his jaw. It hung down, but he got a good look at it.

It’s blood stained petals were the same color as his fur, a charcoal grey color. There was another spike of pain, and a rupture in his left hoof, as another flower of the same color tore through the area that he had injected his plasmids into. He tugged at the stems in a futile effort to remove them, but doing so sent a ripple of pain through his body. He felt another burst in his left hindleg. The plants were a part of him, slowly draining and feeding off of his body. He felt something in his face, causing the world to spin around him. The last thing that he remembered before passing out was the pressure behind his eyes.

Topside

“I am not going to lie when I say that Andrew Ryan must be stopped.” -Athena.

Heartbeat, heartbeat, heartbeat. That was all Nimbus felt at the moment. Heartbeat, heartbeat. He then felt his body being moved. Heartbeat. Nimbus tried to open his eyes, but they wouldn’t obey him. Heartbeat, heartbeat. Breathe in. Somehow, he knew his body was intact, but nothing more than that. Heartbeat, heartbeat. Breathe out.

“Is it working?” he suddenly heard somepony’s voice. The voice seemed quiet and somewhat distorted, as if it were coming to him from a great distance.

“I don’t know...” another muffled voice said.

Heartbeat, breathe in. Heartbeat, breathe out.

“The plant is not in full control,

We still have time to save his soul.”

Breathe in, breathe out. Heartbeat.

“He’s starting to wake up! Vinyl, keep doing whatever it is you’re doing!”

As his hearing began its return to normal levels, he became aware of a throbbing in his head. It wasn’t exactly pain; it was more as if his skull was vibrating. As his disoriented mind processed this, he slowly regained sensations in more of his body. As cognitive thought slowly became possible, he wondered what was happening to him. He was warm; a sign that his fur still covered his skin and a sign that he was still alive. The buzzing in his skull that started off so harmless quickly became quite painful as more as his senses returned. Something was covering his ears, releasing wave after wave of the horrible vibrations throughout his body.

The pain mounted as his hearing returned in full. The voices heard were still muffled, but they were much clearer.

“Vinyl, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but turn it up!”

“It’s already at eleven!”

Cognitive thought returned its optimum level, and he realized that it was music playing in his ears. Loud, dubtrot music.

Nimbus’s eyes shot open as he stole a breath from the air.

“He’s alive!” As Nimbus' eyes regained focus, he saw Octavia standing over him. As she spoke, her mouth matched up perfectly with the distant words. She reached down and removed the pair of headphones from his head. Nimbus sat up, trying to catch his breath.

“I honestly didn’t think that would work...” Vinyl said from behind him.

"What...” Nimbus attempted to form the words with his heavy and dry tongue. As memories came to fill his mental vacuum, he let loose a gasp that interrupted his sentence. He remembered getting the Green Hoof virus from somewhere, although the where was unclear, and then dispersing the cure through the air. There was a little bit left in liquid form, so... he had given it to Octavia, and then...

He frantically checked his body to make sure no plants were emerging from it. To his discomfort, he found that a single pair of vines just barely poked from his left hoof. He looked at Octavia, then the rest of his surroundings. He was in the nearly empty Bass Hammer. The only ponies he could see were Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, and Zecora. Several victims of the Green Hoof were piled into the corner.

“What’s going on?” He asked. “What happened?”

“The virus took a hold of you,” Zecora began,

“But the music stopped your impending doom.

The plant will not kill you today,

But it is now a part of your DNA.”

“Part of my...”

“Nimbus,” Octavia said, giving him a hug. Odd, since their first encounter wasn’t exactly friendly. “I thought you were dead...”

“You almost caused that,” Nimbus murmured.

“I know, and I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me...”

“What you suffered from was not only Green Hoof,

But also your thoughts becoming aloof,” Zecora told her.

“A pony’s mind, when death is upon it

Will shift to instinct, instead of logic.”

“Where’s Oceana? And Fluttershy?”

“We’re right here, big brother!” Oceana pranced around him in his peripheral vision. “We thought you were dead, but you aren’t. Are you?”

“No, I’m not. Don’t worry,” he eyed the spot where the remains of the plant peeked through his foreleg. “What happened to me?”

“The cure destroyed the majority of the plants inside of you,” Octavia explained. “Vinyl stopped the growth with her music after the cure destroyed the flowers, but the stalk didn’t die...”

“It’s part of me now?”

“I guess, I’m not a scientist, but Zecora was saying something about how the plant changed your genetic code...”

“The plant that would’ve taken your life.

Can now be used to help your strife.”

"Huh?" Nimbus asked as he tried to understand the Zebra. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Zecora did not reply to that question.

“Now that you have saved this day,

I can send you on your way.

You will find the one you seek

Inside the place where plants are weak.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nimbus repeated, and noticed that everypony else in the room was thinking the same question. Zecora was deep in thought, as if she was trying to think of a slightly less cryptic riddle that he would understand better.

“Try to reach the place below

Where flowers float and water flows.”

Nimbus got that one. Topside was in the sewer system.

Fluttershy, Oceana, and Nimbus swiftly exited through the bar's doors. Octavia didn't follow, for she seemed to be very interested in Vinyl despite her previous opinions about her. Zecora disappeared through the forest of Arcadia, with warning of the plants that caused Green Hoof. Although the cure was in the air, the plant still needed to be destroyed. Anypony could still get it, but Ryan’s attempt to burn the forest down had reduced the number of plants in the area, and the chances of that happening.

“Athena,” Nimbus said, remembering that his mysterious guide would need an update, “I’m on my way to Topside now.”

“Really? What happened? I haven’t heard from ya in awhile...”

“It’s a long story, but I’m on track now.”

“Well, whatever. Just be careful. Ryan’s got his eyes on you, so there's no doubt somepony else will take interest as well.”

“Alright, now, what can you tell me about the sewer system?”

“The sewer system?” Athena repeated.

“That’s where Topside is supposed to be.”

“It’s a sewer. Watch out for electrical breakage, and anything else that doesn’t mix well with water.”

“Where is it?”

“This place is just like the big cities on the surface, kid. Ponyholes lead down into it.”

Finding one of said ponyholes was very simple. After removing the cover, however, Nimbus realized the reason that nopony would follow Topside down one. It was pitch black in the sewer system below. Not a trace of light could be seen coming from the dark corridors. Fluttershy stood, as Nimbus had come to expect, shaking at the thought of being in the dark in a place like Rapture.

“We’re going to have to go down there, Fluttershy,” he told her. She simply shook her head in fear. “This is getting old. You will be safer with me than out here on your own,” he said, “Now get in there before I drag you in there.”

“What if there’s... a monster down there?” She whimpered, genuinely frightened.

“Then I’ll shoot it,” Nimbus deadpanned.

“But what if-”

“I shoot it, end of story.”

“Yeah, nopony hurts my brother!” Oceana chimed.

Fluttershy eventually gave in to Nimbus's gradually raising voice, which explained to her exactly what Splicers would do to her if they caught her alone. It also established that Splicers were attracted to loud noises, much like his own at the time. Her hooves splashed in the thick green water, but the color soon became irrelevant as Nimbus put the ponyhole cover back to avoid any followers.

“Okay,” Nimbus whispered through the darkness, “Just follow the sound of my voice, Fluttershy.”

Her voice trembled, “Okay...” she managed to get out.

“Athena, I’m in the sewers. Not sure what I’ll encounter down here...” Nimbus said.

“Alright. Once you find Topside and explain your position to him, I’m sure he’ll be happy to help you. I know him personally, so just mention you’re a friend of mine.”

Nimbus was about to reply, but a single word caused him to hesitate. Friend. Was he really Athena’s friend? She had gotten him into more close calls than he could count on his hooves, but she had also saved his life. All of this danger was in line with the promise of finding his little sister, but he knew that Athena needed his help as well.

“Hey, kid?” She repeated, after he hadn't responded for a few moments.

“Oh, what? Sorry. I spaced out for a second.”

“After you find him, come back up and meet me at the Rapture Metro train station. I’ll be waiting there for you, and we can find your sister and get out of here.”

“Right, right.”

Nimbus moved along the walls of the sewer, not being able to make out much. His hoofsteps made soft splashes that echoed throughout the labyrinth. His only light fell dimly from the few ponyhole slits above. He didn’t know where he was going, but he prayed he’d find something. Anything.

His prayers were answered when he heard hoofsteps coming from somewhere down the path in front of him. He could make out a red light, and its source became visible as the figure of a sleek mare walked across the t-junction. It was a Big Sister. Nimbus froze, not daring to make a move. The Sister continued walking, and when Nimbus thought that she was going to pass, he let out a relieved breath. He felt the sweat matting his fur as she stopped, and her head turned. The red light slowly cast its beams closer and closer to him as the Big Sister’s head slowly swiveled to look directly into Nimbus’s eyes.

In that second he was pulled off to the side while Oceana still clung to his back. A hoof covered his mouth, so he couldn’t shout out. He thought he heard Fluttershy squeak for an instant as well, but it became muffled. There was a nearly silent click, and he heard a soft voice in his ear.

“Don’t make a sound, understand?” the stallion’s voice wasn’t crazed like a Splicer’s. Instead, it was calm and commanding. Nimbus did his best to nod his head as he heard the same commands being whispered to Fluttershy and Oceana. The room they were in was illuminated by the glow of a dim lightbulb. In this room there were several shelves stocked with canned foods of all varieties and weapons of varying magnitudes.

The stallion that had pulled them aside wore a pitch-black cloak, which concealed the entirety of his large frame. A face mask and a wide brimmed hat of the same color concealed his face and head. However, as he took off his mask the others got a good look at him.

“Thanks for that save... are you... Johnny Topside?” Nimbus asked. The stallion in front of them was very muscular, but not to the point where he was a hulking brute. From what Nimbus could tell, the stallion's fur was red, and he had a blonde mane that looked like it hadn’t seen a pair of scissors in ages. Under each of his green eyes were three distinct freckles.

“Eeyup.” He replied grimly, with a nod.

“Big Macintosh?” Fluttershy asked, “You’re down here too?”

"Haven’t gone by that name in a long time...” the stallion replied. He gazed at the ground for a moment. Out from behind him, a small yellow earth pony filly emerged. She had a bouncy red mane, and glowing yellow eyes. It was a Little Sister.

“Big brother, is that Fluttershy?” She asked, her voice reflecting a southern accent.

“I’d reckon so...” Topside replied.

“Apple Bloom?” Fluttershy’s voice trembled, as if she was about to cry. One of her best friend’s little sister was a Little Sister.

“Eeyup...” Topside confirmed her statement, “And before you ask... AJ’s here too...”

Fluttershy was silent.

“I haven’t seen her since Ryan came ...after me..." Topside pulled the mask back over his face.

“Ryan got Applejack...” Apple Bloom sighed.

“Don’t say things like that, I’m sure she’s fine...” Topside nudged his little sister with a hoof.

“We’re here for your help,” Nimbus stepped forward. “Athena said..."

“Athena?” the masked stallion seemed taken aback, “What’d she say?”

“She said that you might know where I can find my sister. Is that true?”

“Eeyup.”

“Alright,” Nimbus nodded, “Can you help us?”

“Eenope.”

“What?”

“Too dangerous.”

Nimbus sighed. “Athena?” He spoke into his radio.

“Yeah? Have you found Topside yet?” Athena’s voice came through.

“Eeyup.” Topside said.

“Topside? It’s been a while,” Athena replied.

“Indeed.”

“Look, I need you to help this kid find his sister. If you do, I’ll meet you all at the Rapture Metro station, and I’ll get you out of here.”

“Do you-” Topside began, the pause demanding the attention of everypony in the room, “know how dangerous that is?”

“No, inform me,” Athena's voice was dry.

“His little sister has most likely turned, which means she’ll be paired with a Big Daddy,” Topside explained, “In Ryan’s generator room, there’s a database that can locate any of the Big Daddies or Big Sisters in Rapture, as well as the Little Sisters they’re paired with. If you could get there, you could probably find her.”

“That’s easy. You’re a badass, Topside. You go with them and find where his sister is, get her, and we leave,” Athena concluded.

“Hold on,” Nimbus interjected, “We’re talking about Ryan’s generator room. You don’t think he’ll have this place guarded?”

“Eh, you’re right...” Athena agreed grudgingly.

Topside spoke up again, “I’ve got my Little Sister to look after, too.”

“Let me guess,” Athena's voice conveyed annoyance, “Little Sister?”

“Eeyup.”

“Nimbus? Do your thing.”

Nimbus nodded.

“I’m going to heal her,” Nimbus said. Topside gave him a skeptical look through the mask, but Nimbus reassured him. “It worked on Oceana here.”

“Hi!” Oceana waved to Apple Bloom from her place on Nimbus’s back.

“Who is he?” Apple Bloom asked her.

“He saved me!” Oceana replied.

“Saved you?”

Nimbus extended a hoof in her direction, startling her and causing her to jump backwards. Her brother nodded to her and she took a cautious step forward. Putting a hoof over her head, Nimbus began his work, and before long, Apple Bloom had been returned to her normal state. She looked around, and then turned back to look at her empty flank.

“I’m saved, I’m saved!” Apple Bloom cheered, but was hushed by Topside, “What does being saved mean? I don’t feel any different.”

“It means that Splicers aren’t going to try to snatch you up,” Topside told her.

“Oh...” She thought about this answer, then she gasped. “Did I get my cutie mark? Did I?” She began to spin around happily, but then suddenly stop and sighed as she noticed that nothing was there. She then noticed that Nimbus’s flank was also bare. “You’re a blank flank too?”

“Apple Bloom!” her brother scolded.

“No, it’s fine,” Nimbus smiled sadly, “I haven’t found my special talent yet...”

Nimbus was about to speak into the radio, but he was cut off by a loud screech that assaulted his eardrums in a familiar fashion. It was always the same omen. The Big Sister was coming.

“Kid, that Big Sister is coming for you!” Athena said.

“I’ve figured that out, but why?”

“When you rescue a Little Sister, all of the pheromone stuff on them goes away. When there’s a change in pheromones, any nearby Big Sisters can pick up on it.”

"You could've said something about that earlier, you know!"

A loud crash came from the small metal door behind Nimbus. Johnny Topside unexpectedly responded by kicking his back legs into it. The door broke free of its place in the wall and crushed the Big Sister between it and the wall behind her. Nimbus fired his machine gun in her direction, but the Big Sister tilted the door with a hoof. All of the bullets in the clip were deflected, sending water into the air.

The dim light from inside the small room allowed Nimbus to search for another clip as the Sister dropped the door, splashing the polluted liquid all over Nimbus. She lunged at him as he recoiled, but was deflected as Topside knocked her off course. Topside reached into his cloak and produced a Germane styled hoof grenade. Pulling its string, he tossed it at the downed Big Sister. She lifted a hoof, and seemed to catch it with magic. She had no horn, though, and there wasn’t a magical glow around the grenade.

How it was happening wasn’t important as it was promptly thrown back at them. Topside quickly thrust both of his front hooves forward to counter the attack.

With a deafening sonic boom, all of the water in front of him was suddenly swept up in a huge gust of wind. The Big Sister and the grenade were also pushed back, and were swallowed by the darkness. A flash of light followed by a loud bang illuminated the sewers for a split second, and then it was dark again.

“Let’s go. She’ll be back...” Topside said.

Athena wiped sweat off of her face with a hoof. It was time to get going to Rapture Metro. She wasn’t going to be able to keep her game up much longer, though. With the research she had collected, there was a choice to be made. Nimbus had something special about him, but should she betray their trust for her own benefit?

The dimensional tears were also a point of interest. She had only discovered them recently, but she had learned a great deal from them. The tears were gateways to other universes, and Athena knew how to see through them. What she had learned was that one universe in particular had close connections with her own, and she was using it to her advantage.

In this universe was a scientist named Dusk Shine, a mysterious figure named Ares, and a crazed dictator named Andrea Ryan. The most curious of all, however, was the one-winged pegasus mare named Altos.

As she prepared to leave, there was a knock at her door.

Athena

“I believe that it’s time to do something about this Topside character... his presence disturbs my plans...” -Andrew Ryan, about Johnny Topside.

Rapture Metro was a big place, but the signs leading Nimbus and his followers to the train station were very clear. Nimbus' hoof ached as the plant stalk inside of it seemed to writhe and twist with its own life. It had been bothering him ever since they entered the Bathysphere. Fluttershy pointed out that it was moving, and it had caused Nimbus concern. Was something happening to him? His hoof ached more and more as he put pressure on it.

Oceana rode on Nimbus’s back, chatting childishly with Apple Bloom, who was on Topside’s back. Apparently, Apple Bloom had a group of friends who didn't have their cutie marks either. The only name that he heard was Sweetie Belle, before Topside had asked them to quiet down.

“Hey, Topside?” Nimbus asked, and the stallion in question turned his head to listen. “Have you ever met somepony named Rarity?”

Topside thought for a moment, his face unreadable behind his mask.

“Eeyup,” he said.

“You saved her sister, Sweetie Belle, didn’t you?” Fluttershy stopped walking to look at him.

Nimbus nodded, but kept walking. They neared the door to the boarding area when Ryan’s voice came out of the very heart of Rapture, and delivered his message to them.

“Topside... You still resist me? And you...” He said, somehow addressing Nimbus without making eye contact with him, “You’re not of Atlas, are you? You’re somepony else’s...”

Nimbus hurriedly waited for the door’s automated systems to pull it open so he could run through. There was just one more short hallway to clear. He could see the open space in front of the train at the end of it.

“Topside, have you not learned that my will is inevitable?" Ryan continued, "Perhaps your sister can help you see...”

Upon hearing this, Topside halted in his tracks. Nimbus called to him, but he wouldn’t move. There was an expression of shock on his face that was visible even through his mask.

“Fluttershy, get Oceana onto the train!” Nimbus said, grabbing Apple Bloom off of the unmoving Topside’s back.

“Wait, what about my brother?” Apple Bloom looked back.

“I don’t know, but I have to get you to the train!”

Fluttershy and Oceana had stepped aboard the sleek grey train, and Nimbus had followed in with Apple Bloom. He heard the screeching of a Big Sister behind him. Turning around, Nimbus saw Topside. He faced a Big Sister who lunged straight for him. She had scorch marks and dents on her armor. It was the same Big Sister from before, but just now did he understand what Andrew Ryan was saying. That Big Sister was Topside's sister.

Nimbus reached for his radio. “Athena, we’re on the train, get it moving!”

There was no reply. Nimbus poked his head through to the back train car, and realized that the whole thing was a setup. In the center of the train car, a swivel chair with a ponnequin of a unicorn mare in it spun. Attached to her body and covering the floor around her were dozens of small plastic devices, all marked with the characters ‘C’ and ‘4’. Ryan’s voice played through a speaker attached to the ponnequin.

“It’s interesting that you think you’re the valiant protagonist of this journey, but you aren't. Welcome to Rapture, my children.”

Nimbus had only a split second to perform his next actions. He spun around to face the mares he had to protect, and extended his left foreleg. Time slowed down as he watched the thick stalk emerge from under his skin, and extend to wrap around Fluttershy, Oceana, and Apple Bloom. With a flick of his hoof, they were tossed out of the train before it transformed into the center of an explosion.

Nimbus felt the steel coming down on him, and the heat of the fire burning at his back. A feeling of weightlessness overcame him. The stalk that protuded from his leg was on fire, sending severe waves of pain through his body. Something slammed against his belly, forcing the air from his lungs. He struggled to push what remained of the collapsed train off of him and crawl to safety.

Topside had the Big Sister pinned against the wall, but she struck out with her back hooves and hit him in the stomach. She pushed him back, and grabbed a chunk of debris from the destroyed train with her non-magical telekinesis. Topside reached into his cloak, but was hit with flying piece of metal before he could pull anything out.

Nimbus felt a sudden will to fight invigorate him, and he wrapped the Big Sister in his still burning hoof-vine. His anger intensified, and thorns burst from the sides of the stalk, piercing the Big Sister’s armor. The Big Sister extended the needle in her foreleg, and sliced the vine apart. The cut sent another wave of pain through Nimbus, causing him to cry out as if one of his limbs had been removed. The vine was a part of him...

Topside had produced a small revolver, and had it aimed at the Big Sister. Having recently freed herself, she delivered a solid punch to Topside’s face with her front hoof, and he fell to the ground. As he reached out for his fallen gun, the Big Sister put her hoof on his neck. Topside meekly looked up at Nimbus and slid the gun to him as best as he could.

Nimbus took up the weapon and fired it into the Big Sister. One shot, two shots, three shots. The Big Sister was stumbling backwards with each hit. Four shots, five shots-

“Nimbus, look out!” Fluttershy shouted, and he looked just in time to see an armored hoof speeding straight for his face. It was another Big Sister. Nimbus ducked as the hoof went over his head, and he brought the gun around. The last shot went into the new Big Sister’s chest. Having no other option, he threw the gun at her. It bounced off of her armor harmlessly. The surprise move, however, did give him enough time to produce his pipe and strike out with it.

This Big Sister was different. Instead of a needle, she had what looked like spear-like weapon running backwards along her foreleg. It flipped outwards, and he realized that it was a harpoon gun as it jumped from her hoof to the wall behind him in a split second. Seeing that she had missed, Nimbus yanked on the wire connecting the harpoon to her foreleg, bringing her closer for another hit.

He didn’t expect her to stop his pipe swing with a single hoof, but when she did, she looked Nimbus in the eyes, and time seemed to stop. The Big Sister just stared at him, as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She retracted her harpoon, and took a step back. Nimbus punched her in the jaw, and then hit her in the head three times with his pipe. Her armor made a loud clang as it hit the ground. He reached for his crossbow as he saw the unconscious Topside being dragged off by the other Big Sister.

He took a shot, but the bolt missed its target. He lost sight of the Big Sister.

“Big brother!” Apple Bloom cried out, her eyes filling with tears. Oceana and Fluttershy came to comfort her.

Nimbus just stood, breathing heavily, and thought about what had just happened. His back still burned from the explosion, and his head was spinning. Where was Athena? She had tricked him, she was working for Ryan the whole time! She was a traitor... But why? Why would she promise to help him, but and then do this? Why not just get rid of him when he first arrived?

“Athena!” he called, into his radio. No response came. He stomped his hoof on the ground in anger. Why? Why would she do that? It was for Topside! She knew that he’d find out about Topside one way or another, and Ryan probably told her to set them up! He was an idiot for trusting her. He wanted to cry, but his body was just so... so dry.

Thoughts flooded his mind as he remembered the blur that had just happened in more depth. The Green Hoof had given him this power to control the plant in his body, but it was infused into him, meaning it was an extension of everything, pain or otherwise. He remember sparing Photo Finish, and Trixie, and helping all of the Little Sisters. All of it was because Athena was pulling his strings...

“You think you’re a hero?” Ryan asked, “You think because you spare lives, and save children, that it covers up your crime of causing chaos?”

Andrew Ryan, just the thought of the name brought his temper to a boil- no, it vaporized his temper completely. There was nothing there, just the urge to take revenge. And the first step was the Big Sister on the ground in front of him.

Nimbus remembered what Trixie had told him about Big Sisters. If they still had ADAM in their system, they’d recover from the hardest blows. He picked up the Big Sister, and slammed her into the closest wall. With his eyes clenched in anger and frustration, he tore the Big Sister’s helmet off and forcefully thrust his hoof over her head, the other hoof holding her up by the throat. The Plasmid had began absorbing her ADAM, but he heard a raspy voice call his name.

“... Nimbus...” He knew that voice. It wasn’t Fluttershy’s, it wasn’t Oceana’s, it wasn’t Apple Bloom’s. It wasn’t Athena’s, and it wasn’t Andrew Ryan’s. He knew that voice from his time on the surface. He remembered it from Cloudsdale, at the weather factory, and at the Best Young Flyers competition. He knew that voice ever since he was in summer flight camp.

He opened his eyes as a rainbow of memories washed over his mind. He retracted his hooves in fear, and the Big Sister’s body fell to the ground, slumped up against the wall. Nimbus didn’t want to believe what he was looking at. Before him was the still form of a blue mare, whom he knew to be a pegasus, with a polychromatic mane. Her face was still wet with blood, and she had a look of despair across her face.

“... Rainbow Dash...” Nimbus’s voice faltered as the entirety of what he had just done sunk in. She stirred weakly, to Nimbus’s relief, and looked up at him. The dull expression in her magenta eyes tore Nimbus’s heart in half. What had he done to his friend?

“Why... why did you... come here?” She asked him, coughing up a bit of blood. The question hurt more to think about than it did to answer. He had come to find the mare before him, and his little sister.

“I... I...” Nimbus dropped to floor and began to cry into Rainbow’s armored chest. “I didn’t realize it was you... I’m sorry...”

Rainbow put a hoof on his head and brushed his matted mane as if he was a little colt crying to his mother. After a long minute of this, Rainbow spoke.

“It’s okay... I should..” she coughed, “I should thank you... You rescued me...”

“Rescued you?” Nimbus looked up.

“Yes, you drained the ADAM that was driving me crazy,” she managed, “I couldn’t think straight... When I saw you, I tried to stop myself, but...”

“Ryan had you...”

Rainbow nodded.

“Where’s my sister?” Nimbus asked, “She came here with you, where is she?”

Rainbow sighed, “She was assigned to me when I became a Big Sister... but Ryan took her off of my hooves when he told me to come here.”

“And you let him take her?” Nimbus composed himself, wiping the tears from his eyes and standing up.

“Yeah... I couldn’t- agh!” Rainbow seethed in pain as she tried to sit up, “That bullet did a number on me... Nice shot, by the way,” She added, with a friendly smile, “Have you been practic-” She was cut off by another burst of pain in her body, causing her to cringe.

“Come on, let me help you up,” Nimbus said, doing his best to lift Rainbow up onto his back. She was heavy, especially with all of the armor, but Nimbus could manage. Just barely.

“Oh my!” Fluttershy called out, “Is... Is that Rainbow Dash?”

“... yup...” Nimbus called out between breaths as he did his best to walk to her.

“I need to help you two!” Fluttershy began frantically looking around in different places in hopes of finding something. Nimbus let Rainbow Dash fall off of his back, and he collapsed onto the ground as well.

“Looks like they took your mechanical wing too, huh?” Rainbow coughed between breaths.

“Yeah,” Nimbus breathed heavily himself, trying his best to stay awake. Fluttershy returned with only a single Medkit.

“This was all I could find...” She murmured, “Nimbus, let me get you-”

“No!” Nimbus nearly choked on the sudden exclamation, “Give it to her, I’ll be fine...”

“But you’re hurt more than she is!”

It was true. He had burns all across his back, and his face was covered in cuts and blood, but Rainbow had a bullet wound and a possible concussion. She needed it more than he did.

“Just give it to her!”

Fluttershy did as she was told, but Nimbus had already passed out.

Andrew Ryan stood over his desk, looking at the chair across the room. Tied to it was a familiar mare, one that he had been keeping tabs on ever since she had came to Rapture. He had thought of her as just another one of Celestia’s spies sent to monitor him, but this one was much more.

Across the room, tied to said chair, was Athena. She was gagged with a piece of cloth, and had a blindfold over her eyes.

“Did you think you could escape me?” Ryan asked, stepping around his desk, and straightening his tie with his magic.

“Mmph!” Was all Athena could say through her restraints.

“Nopony escapes me...” Ryan growled, pulling off Athena’s blindfold to add emphasis to his name. The terrified look in her eyes caused him to grin evilly. “Not you, not Topside, not Fontaine, not Atlas...”

“Mmmph!” Athena struggled, glaring at Ryan.

“What was that?” Ryan said sarcastically, pulling the gag out of her mouth.

“Nimbus will come and rescue me!” she shouted.

“Nimbus?” Ryan asked, mocking surprise, “You mean the poor pegasus you conned ever since he got here? Nothing but lies and tomfoolery came from your mouth.”

“I... I...”

“And I know that he’s coming, dear.” Ryan produced the radio that she had used to initially contact him. His voice was playing through it.

“Athena! Athena, pick up!” His tone was angry, “I know you set us up!”

“No...” she whispered. “No! Nimbus!”

“Ah-ah-ah,” Ryan said, tossing the radio out of her reach, “No need to let him know that you actually know his name...”

Athena thought about this, and realized that he had never once told her his name. Saying it herself would only clue him in to her deception.

“No need to let him know that you didn’t set him up, either,” he continued.

“Hey, I-” Athena started to yell, but her mouth was soon filled by the cloth again, muffling the noises she made.

“Silence, filly. I need to continue my work without you going on and on...”

Andrew Ryan returned to his desk.

“Athena!” Nimbus shouted into the radio. No answer. He was back on his hooves now, and was headed to Hephaestus, where Rapture’s generator was, and Ryan’s offices were. Rainbow Dash had joined his team, and was standing in a bathysphere headed to Hephaestus with Fluttershy, Oceana, Apple Bloom, and himself. The two fillies had became friends, and Oceana had even chose to join the ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’ after their adventure was over.

“You’ve been yelling her name for like, ten minutes. If she coordinated all of this, what makes you think she’ll actually respond?” Rainbow asked him.

“I’m just... Ugh...” He had found himself a Medkit, but he still felt drained. “I don’t know.”

The bathysphere descended below a building, and Nimbus wondered exactly how far down the generator was.

“Are we there yet?” Oceana asked.

“No,” Nimbus said.

A few moments passed, then he heard Apple Bloom, “How ‘bout now?”

“No.” Nimbus repeated, a bit more forcefully.

“How about now?”

“Look, I’ll tell you when we’re there!” He turned around, only to see who had asked this time. A smile spread across Rainbow Dash’s face. Nimbus put his on best poker face and turned back around to look outside.

The descent slowed, and Nimbus saw they were nearing their target. They were approaching a grand complex of tunnels and buildings, the diamond tiara of these buildings was the large skyscraper-like building with the words ‘Ryan Enterprises’ near its base. The bathysphere dropped into a rail that guided it down until it hit the end of it’s decent.

“We need to get to Ryan and save Topside,” Nimbus said, “You said said capturing him was your mission, right Rainbow?”

“Right, but that other Sister probably has already gotten back to Ryan with him...”

“Rainbow...” Fluttershy whispered, “Ryan said something about that other Big Sister being Applejack... is that true?”

Rainbow sighed, “Yeah, it is.”

“What?” Apple Bloom shouted, startling Fluttershy, “My big sister is... alive?”

“Yeah," Rainbow reluctantly reported, "but she’s under Ryan’s control now.”

Apple Bloom said nothing, but took on a solemn expression . She had assumed her big sister to be dead, but now...

“Heads up, Nimbus,” Rainbow said, “We’ve got company.”

As the bathysphere rotated to face the exit, Nimbus saw that there was six or seven armed Splicers waiting to welcome them into Ryan’s stronghold. Rainbow Dash put her helmet on, and pushed Fluttershy and the fillies back.

“I’m out of ammo!” Nimbus cursed, “For all of my weapons, too.”

“Use that freaky whip thing that’s on your hoof,” Rainbow secured her helmet, her voice a raspy echo. “Also, I’ve got a radio in here, in case we get split up.”

Nimbus prepared his pipe.

The Splicers took aim, and Rainbow kicked open the door.

Things were about to get messy.

Ryan

“A pony is what he makes himself. If a pony decides to be a hero, then he works to make himself one. If he decides to be a villain, he works to make himself one.” -DiZ Thirty Seven, ‘quote of the week’ on the Rapture Tribune.

Andrew Ryan watched the security feed as Nimbus and his new ally, a traitorous Big Sister, fought their way through his Splicers at the bathysphere. As he expected, the Splicers were incompetent. They would not be reaching him today, though. Ryan looked at his captive, and she glared back at him.

“They are near me, but do not yet know what I have in store for them,” Ryan told her. “Now that we have Topside, they cannot stand against us. I do thank you again for... helping me set up that trap...”

Athena struggled against her bonds, and shook her head to his claim.

“Although, I do need to thank Mr. Poole for giving me his whereabouts... Just know that it’s not entirely your doing.”

The door to Ryan’s office slid open, and a Big Sister dragging an unconscious masked stallion behind her entered.

“I assume he’s alive?” Ryan asked.

The Big Sister nodded affirmatively.

“Good. Now, leave him with the gentlecolt out in front of the labs. I need you to stop a few unruly rebels...”

The Big Sister looked away as if to ask, “Why should I?”

Ryan read her expression. “Because there is somepony I thought you might want to take revenge on...”

The Sister glanced back over at him, listening.

“Subject Gamma has betrayed us... And I know you have an exceptionally large rivalry with her...”

The Big Sister nodded, and exited the room, dragging Topside along with her.

“Now... it is simply a matter of time...”

Nimbus looked at the dead Splicers scattered on the ground around him. He glanced over at Rainbow Dash, who was retracting her harpoon from the inside of one’s leg.

“We just killed all of these guys...” Nimbus said. Sure, he had killed a lot of ponies in his time here, but each and every one of them had a life. And with every life, came a story.

“Eh, they’ll live...” Rainbow said, nonchalantly.

“No they won't!”

“Hmm, I guess you’re right.” Rainbow wiped her harpoon clean of the fresh blood that covered it. “Let’s go, Ryan’s probably got more goons heading our way.”

Nimbus sighed. He didn’t want to end up like Rainbow Dash, not caring about the lives he took. Wasn’t he already, though? He had lost count of how many he had killed.

“Come on girls,” Rainbow called to the fillies still in the bathysphere. Fluttershy hesitantly took a step out, and had the others follow her.

The journey through Hephaestus was a long one, mostly because of the heavy resistance that was met in every room, hallway, and closet. The plan of battle was ingrained into Nimbus’s mind by now; Rainbow fought enemies at a range, Nimbus fought them up close, and Fluttershy provided support for them and protected the fillies. The two little ones seemed unphased by the fighting and death around them, seemingly lost in their own little world.

Nimbus discovered that the vine within him worked like a Plasmid. It drained his energy, and required EVE to use. Having no EVE shots to take, he had to use it sparingly. He had to make extensive use of all of his Plasmids to survive, though. He used Hypnotise on smaller foes, Electro Bolt on bigger threats, Steam Jet to provide cover, and his new one, which he called Overgrowth, to pull in enemies.

Rainbow Dash’s arsenal was based on her speed and agility. She used her harpoon to take out distant targets, and the wire the harpoon was attached to to trip other targets. The Plasmids she used caused targets to become frozen, and the other one was a form of telekinesis. As they had cleared out yet another room of enemies, Nimbus turned to ask Rainbow Dash a question.

“Why don’t you have a needle, like the other Big Sisters?”

Rainbow thought about this for a moment, looking at the harpoon that was in somepony’s chest.

“When I signed up to be a Big Sister, I only wanted to protect her... I had no intention of gathering ADAM like the rest of the volunteers did.”

“They were volunteers?” Nimbus asked.

“Well, the original line was. Now they just use adult Little Sisters.”

“What about that telekinesis thing? You're a pegasus.”

“Yes, I am,” Rainbow said, “But Ryan had a dream of allowing everypony to benefit from magic. That’s why he created Plasmids.”

“I see,” Nimbus looked away, off into some strange collection of panels and buttons on the wall. It was no different than any of the other rooms that they had been through before. But Andrew Ryan, Nimbus realized, actually had good intentions. He wasn’t evil, he was just misguided, right? A victim of ADAM?

“Let’s go. We’re almost there,” Rainbow said.

The roar of the city’s heart nearly deafened Nimbus. This was it, the generator room.

“We need to deal with Ryan first,” Rainbow said, “Then we can find your sister!”

“She’s your sister too, now.”

A door was seen on the other side of the massive generator that was in the center of the room. It was the door that led to Ryan’s office. Fluttershy said something, but neither of them could hear it over the machine’s rhythmic grinding. A short walk around the generator uncovered nothing of importance, but Nimbus felt his bones go cold when he saw another dead Big Daddy. Something was coming.

Nimbus saw the door. To his concern, nothing was waiting for him by it. Just the thought of something lurking around that could beat a Big Daddy made his fur stand on end. The door opened, letting a small burst of air flow through from the other room. Beyond the door was a simple hallway, one that was fairly wide and well lit. Three mares lay dead on the floor. Nimbus led the way through.

It was a simple walk through a hallway. Why did it make him so nervous? The lights flickered, and went out, and Fluttershy yelped, trying her best to compose herself and calm the fillies. Nimbus prepared his pipe, his only light the green glow from Rainbow’s helmet. It swept the room, showing them a path to the door at the end of the hall.

The lights came back on as Nimbus was about to walk through the door. He spun around, making sure nopony else was following them. The room was completely empty as Fluttershy led the fillies into the next room. Completely empty.

“Brother, look out for the flower pony!” Oceana called.

In a veil of roses, a Splicer appeared out of thin air. She was an earth pony with pale yellow coat, and a red mane. Her cutie mark was a single rose. She held a spade in her hoof, and attempted to bring it down on Nimbus’s head. He lifted his pipe to parry the blow.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another mare appear in a burst of lilies. This one was pink, with a blonde mane and three lilies just like the ones in the air on her flank. This one wielded a metal hoe, and swung it perpendicular to his head. Nimbus ducked, pushing the rose pony back in order to take a swing at the lily pony.

“Get in, I’ll handle them!” Nimbus said, and Rainbow Dash sealed the door behind her.

“Let me know when you’re finished, or if you need help.” Rainbow said through the radio.

Nimbus was holding the two flower ponies back, but still had his back against the wall. Catching the incoming spade in a hoof, he slammed the metal end into the ground. With his other hoof, he brought the pipe down on the lily pony’s head, causing her to howl in pain. Another cloud of flowers appeared, revealing the last of the three that had ambushed him. This one was a brighter pink, and had a greyish lime green mane. Instead of repurposed gardening tools, she held a gun in one hoof. Nimbus didn’t see her cutie mark, but was almost certain it was a daisy, as that was the type of flower he saw fall.

The rose pony swung her spade again, catching Nimbus in the chest. He stumbled backwards, and then suffered another hit from the hoe wielded by the lily pony. Focusing, he held out a hoof and stopped the spade as it swung at him again. The daisy pony fired her gun, but it bounced off the metal spade and struck the lily pony in the chest. She cried out and fell over, lifeless on the ground.

Nimbus dispatched the surprised rose pony with a blow to the head, and used his Electro Bolt on the daisy pony. With another swing, she was on the ground as well. Nimbus got out his radio.

“Rainbow, I’m ready. Unseal the door.”

“Gotcha. Let’s get moving, we’re lucky there were no Splicers in here.”

The elevator to Ryan’s office was right in front of them. They needed to make sure they were ready for a battle. Fluttershy had found but one magazine for Nimbus’s machine gun, and only a single bolt for his crossbow. He replenished his EVE, and upgraded his Plasmids at the Gatherer’s Garden. His Electro Bolt was more powerful, his Steam Jet lasted longer, and his Hypnotise readied itself faster. There was also increases to his EVE that he purchased, as well as a new Plasmid that he remembered from an earlier encounter: Decoy.

As his new Plasmid was injected, there was no pain, but he swore he saw himself standing in front of him. His hooves met his doubles, and then the double took a step forward, merging into his body. The hallucination ended, and he had yet another Plasmid. He was ready.

“Rainbow?” He looked to the Big Sister, and saw that she was finishing her preparations herself.

“Let’s go.” She said with a nod.

They entered the elevator, and ascended to their goal: Andrew Ryan.

There was one room between the elevators and Ryan’s office, and that was the security checkpoint. Oddly enough, nopony was guarding the room. It was an open room, with pillars supporting the ceiling to the sides, and light shining down in the center of the room. To the sides, the space behind the pillars were shrouded in shadows. Ryan’s voice boomed through the room.

“You think that if you destroy me, your problems will be solved?”

“Ryan!” Nimbus shouted, “We know you and Athena set us up!”

“Very interesting that you think that... But what are you planning on doing to stop us?”

“We’re going to make you pay for what you did, both of you!”

“Interesting...” Ryan mused, “I don’t suppose you’re going to kill us? That’s all a killer like yourself would have to do. Slit the throat. Bullet to the brain. Dead and gone.”

“I’m not...” Nimbus stopped himself. This was what Ryan wanted. He was trying to get at Nimbus. He wasn’t a killer, was he? He only killed because he had no other option, right?

“Come on, Nimbus.” Rainbow said “Let go deal with this chump together.”

“Oh, I don’t think so, Subject Gamma,” Ryan said, “Your colleague would like to have a talk with you first...”

As he said this, a Big Sister dropped down from the ceiling. Her armor was used and burnt, and she had five bullet marks in the chest piece. It was the same one from before. It was Applejack. She beckoned for them to approach with a hoof. As she did so, a needle extended from it.

Rainbow fired her harpoon the the Big Sister, but she nimbly jumped over the projectile and stomped on the wire attached to it. Rainbow was jerked forward, and the Big Sister jumped again and stomped her into the ground. Nimbus knocked the Big Sister off of Rainbow with his pipe, and reached down to help her up.

Rainbow reached out with a hoof, and hit the Big Sister with a burst of ice. The ice stopped all attempts she made to recover as it froze her body.

“Nimbus, take the mares and go up to Ryan. I’ll deal with AJ down here.”

Nimbus didn’t have time to argue. As much as he wanted to stay and fight alongside Rainbow, he needed to get to Ryan and finish this.

“Alright. Girls, let’s go!” Nimbus called, calling the elevator down. A few seconds passed, and the elevator descended. The frozen Big Sister suddenly broke free from her icy imprisonment, and went straight for Nimbus. Rainbow pulled the wire connecting her to her harpoon tight and tripped the Big Sister mid-step. The elevator door opened.

“Go, Nimbus!”

Nimbus stepped in the elevator with the girls. He pressed the button to go up. The doors shut as they began to rise.

Rainbow retracted her harpoon as the Big Sister stood back up.

“It’s just you and me now, AJ.” Rainbow said.

Applejack said nothing. She only made her attack.

Ding!

The elevator reached it’s peak and opened up to reveal the office of Andrew Ryan. Only one light was on, one through a glass window. All Nimbus saw through it was a simple unicorn stallion, waiting for him. His coat was a deep brown, and he wore a grey tie. A short black mane was underneath a just as black fedora. He spoke.

“You defy death... You defy my rule... You defy logic!” He shouted, looking up to watch Nimbus step out of the darkness. He angrily pointed a hoof at the grey pegasus.

Nimbus said nothing.

Ryan composed himself. “You think you’re a hero? You’re a killer, just like the rest of us. We’re all killers.”

Nimbus still remained silent, just glaring angrily at Ryan.

“Not talking? Fine. You can discuss your business with me, but first...” Ryan paused, taking a few steps backward to allow somepony else to come forward, “I’d like to introduce you to an old friend of mine...”

As Ryan backed out of sight, somepony else became visible. It was a large stallion, wearing a diver’s suit. On his head was a metal helmet, and on his flank was a cone shaped drill. This Big Daddy had one feature that differentiated him from the others, though. On either his front legs was a white triangle. The Greek symbol for Delta.

“This, my child, is subject Delta...” Ryan said, “or as you might have known him... Johnny Topside...”

Nimbus still said nothing, but his mind was racing. Topside was a Big Daddy now?

“Deal with them, Delta.” Ryan commanded, and the Big Daddy promptly threw his front hooves into the glass. Nimbus stood his ground as it cracked, and eventually shattered. Delta jumped forward, his drill in hoof, and brought it down on Nimbus. As he did, something odd happened. His entire foreleg went straight through his target.

Nimbus grinned as he watched his plan succeed.. He knew that the Decoy Plasmid would be useful. With his machine gun in hoof, he stepped out of his hiding place in the shadows and opened fire on Delta. The Big Daddy stumbled backward to the sudden onslaught of lead, but found himself shrugging off the bullets easier and easier with each hit.

“Subject Delta’s armor is state-of-the-art,” Ryan said from wherever he was, “Bullets will not keep him back for long...”

Delta charged at him, and Nimbus sidestepped to avoid the attack. His opponent noticed the sudden motion and stuck one hoof out and clotheslined Nimbus. He hit the ground with an audible thud.

“My new process doesn’t destroy the mind completely...” Ryan continued, “So he is also just as intelligent as Topside was...”

Nimbus rolled over from his place on the floor and readied a Hypnotise polyp. Delta turned to face him, and he threw it. It splattered on contact, sending it’s green mist everywhere. They both just looked at each other, waiting for something to happen. After a few moments, Delta broke the awkward silence by slamming a hoof into Nimbus’s stomach. Nimbus rolled to avoid the attack, and got back up on his hooves.

“Delta’s armor is not grafted into his skin either, meaning that Hypnotise will not affect him...” Ryan explained, taking a few steps back to get a view of Nimbus's next attempt of attack.

Nimbus tried using Electro Bolt, but again, Ryan had explained how Delta was immune to electricity. It was almost as if he was simply running down a list, waiting for Nimbus to try something that he was already prepared for. Nothing was working against him. In an attempt to get a moment to think, Nimbus threw down a cloud of steam. Ryan turned on the lights to this, revealing his location to Delta. Nimbus was standing in what appeared to be Ryan’s living quarters. There was some furniture, and a miniature golf set in there with him.

To one side, Nimbus saw Ryan’s actual office. Inside was the mastermind, sitting at his desk, watching the fight go on outside. Across the office, there was somepony tied up in a chair, with a gag over his mouth. Through what little Nimbus could make out through the darkness in his office, he realized that it was actually a mare. It must be Athena.

Delta came slamming into him from the entryway, pinning him up against the wall. Nimbus fired his machine gun the best he could into Delta’s belly, knocking him back off of him. He followed up with a pipe swing, and Delta toppled over onto his back, causing the ground to shake. This was Nimbus’s chance.

He judged that his pipe wouldn’t be long enough, so he took up the golf club resting near Ryan’s mini course.

He brought it down on Delta’s visor, cracking it open and revealing the face of Johnny Topside.

“Do it...” He whispered to him.

“No! Big Macintosh!” Apple Bloom cried out.

“I’m Delta now... Just-”

He was cut off as Nimbus brought the club down on his face. It struck again and again until finally, Topside released his final breath. No, not Topside. Topside died that moment Ryan put the stallion in the suit. Delta had been killed. Nimbus dropped the bent club to the ground in frustration. Another pony died because of his actions. This was no time for sorrow, though, he had work to do.

“Ryan!” Nimbus shouted, looking the stallion directly in the eyes. He then looked over at the shadowed figure of Athena. She struggled to get free. “Let me in, and let her go!”

Ryan simply laughed quietly. “Why do you come to her aid, after what she’s done to you?”

“She didn’t set us up at the train station, that was you, Ryan!”

“That’s not what I mean,” Ryan said, approaching the window to return Nimbus’s gaze. “She only lied to you, Nimbus...”

“I... How do you know my name?”

“How did she know your name?”

“She...” Nimbus’s voice faltered as he recalled that he never once told her his name.

Ryan let out another laugh again as Nimbus put two and two together. Athena had tricked him, for whatever reason she did, she tricked him and led him into more danger... But it was Ryan who had set the trap. Ryan was the real problem. Athena wasn’t trying to get him killed, she just... Nimbus tried to comprehend his entire experience in Rapture now that he knew Athena had another motive.

“Let her go,” Nimbus commanded, and Ryan walked over to the chair.

“Come in, would you kindly?” Ryan asked, unlocking the door to his office.

Nimbus took a cautious step in, and looked at the captured mare in front of him. He couldn't make out any of her features, for Ryan held her in the darkest corner of the room.

“This is the mare that you blindly followed since you arrived here...” Ryan said, taking a step forward and gesturing to Athena with a hoof. “This is the mare that you followed to defeat me...”

“Athena... tell me what he means...”

A muffled response was the answer. Ryan ripped the cloth out of her mouth with his magic, and threw it aside.

Athena coughed, “I’m... I’m sorry, kid... I never meant for you to-”

“You think that you can resist me, just because you follow one mare?” Ryan asked, in an angered tone. “One mare who thinks she’s better than the whole damn city? No. You cannot resist Rapture.”

With that, he pushed Athena into the light. Nimbus automatically recognized the purple irises, the lavender coat, and the dark purple mane with the pink stripe. This mare had given him the power to rescue the Little Sisters, and had been encouraging him to do so throughout the entirety of his journey.

"And neither can she."

“Twilight Sparkle...” Nimbus breathed.

Zenith

“The process is ready, but I have no subject... The only option is to perform the procedure on... myself...” -Dusk Shine’s last recorded audio.

Nimbus took a step back. The mare he saw in front of him was Athena, the voice that had been his light in the darkness of Rapture. At the same time, he saw Twilight Sparkle, the scientist who had given him the power to his own light in that same darkness. What did she want from him?

“Nimbus...” Twilight said, her voice no longer sounding of Athena’s, but only dry and helpless, “I’m sorry...”

“Why? Why would you lie to me?”

“I... I-” She frantically began to think of an excuse, but Ryan cut her off.

“She wanted you for her own experiments. At first, I believed it to be a simple treachery...” Ryan hissed the words, turning his head to Twilight as he spoke, “But when I discovered it was a push against me, well... I took action.”

“Your own experiments? What does he mean?” Nimbus desperately looked at Twilight for answers.

“I had to study the Little Sisters more... When-”

“When she saw you arrive,” Ryan interjected, “She took advantage of your need for guidance.”

“I-” Twilight started, but was cut off as Ryan backhoofed her across the face.

“Silence!” He commanded. Then, turning to Nimbus, his voice lowered. “You have simply been misguided. I want you to kill this rebel, and I will let you walk free.”

“What?”

“Or are you going to be that short change hero that you’ve always been, showing compassion and kindness to those that have done you wrong, only to leave them in a sense of false hope?”

Nimbus looked at Twilight Sparkle. Athena was a trick, all laid down by this mare. He didn’t know what she wanted, but she hadn’t been straight with him. Ryan extended his hoof, and in it, was a revolver.

“Don’t try to be a hero, Nimbus. This is no place for a hero... or a better pony...”

Twilight gasped as Nimbus took it.

“Okay...” Nimbus whispered. “I’ll do it.”

As Nimbus aimed the weapon at the bound Twilight, he thought about what he was doing. He thought about what Twilight had actually done to him. Ryan said she was using him for her own purposes, some experiment. Ryan said she had deceived him from the very beginning. Ryan was also a dirty scoundrel that had done nothing but try and kill him. As crazed as he was, Ryan had a point. There was no point in trying anymore.

“Nimbus...” Twilight whimpered, “I’m sorry...”

“I’m done trying to play the hero.”

BANG!

Fluttershy heard the gunshot, and told the fillies to stay put as she hurriedly ran into the office. She shrieked in horror when she saw Nimbus standing over a unicorn’s corpse. A gun was in his hoof, hammer forward, it’s barrel releasing a wisp of smoke after having just been fired. Nimbus walked over to the chair, and released Twilight’s bonds.

“It’s time to start actually being one.”

“Twilight?” Fluttershy wasn’t expecting one of her friends to be here.

“Nimbus... Thank you...” Twilight breathed, looking up at her saviour.

Nimbus only nodded, and looked down at Andrew Ryan. His eyes were wide open as he reached for the hole in his throat that drained him of all strength he would never have. Nimbus just stared at Twilight for a long moment.

“Let’s go, Athena.” Nimbus said, dropping the gun, “Or Twilight, whichever you prefer.”

The loud clang of metal clashing together echoed throughout the security checkpoint. Rainbow’s weapon deflected Applejack’s relentless attacks. Rainbow pushed her back, and fired her harpoon. Her target propelled herself off of the ground, sending her body in a controlled flip backwards. Her back hooves made contact with one of the pillars, and he pushed off again. This put her in a position to come down on top of Rainbow, who was pulling her missed projectile from the same pillar.

Seeing the incoming attack, Rainbow instinctively took a step backwards. The harpoon wire tightened, and it pulled her to the ground as she tried to move away. Applejack came down on her back, her needle penetrating Rainbow’s armor. Rainbow squirmed beneath her, she was pinned and helpless. She flicked her hoof, and the harpoon tugged against it’s spot in the pillar. She tugged again, and the weapon came free, quickly finding it’s place back on Rainbow’s hoof. Applejack brought the needle up to strike again, but Rainbow was able to turn herself around and shove the possessed mare off of her.

Applejack stumbled backwards on two hooves, giving Rainbow time to line up a shot. She fired, but the harpoon seemed to stop mid flight. Applejack held out her hoof to hold the harpoon with her telekinesis Plasmid. A moment later, it flew away from her, dragging Rainbow in the opposite direction. The harpoon was now in the pillar on the opposite side of the room, tethering Rainbow as Applejack charged her. Rainbow reached out with her free hoof and froze Applejack mid-stride. She used the pause in the action to yank the harpoon from the wall. Applejack had already broken from her frozen state, but Rainbow now had the upper hoof in the battle. She used the harpoon much like she would use one of the Big Sister needles, stabbing it several times through her foe’s body.

She stabbed a final time, and lifted Applejack up on the end of her weapon. She lashed out and struggled in vain, but she couldn’t reach Rainbow. Rainbow fired the harpoon, launching Applejack into the wall and pinning her there. She struggled against the force pressing through her body for a few moments, but found it to be futile. Rainbow yanked the harpoon out of her, sending a shower of blood from her wound. The metal projectile clattered on the floor, followed by Applejack’s limp body.

“You never knew when to quit, AJ,” Rainbow said aloud, her voice suddenly spiking with crackles of sadness. She had just killed one of her best friends, just like that. She didn’t even think twice about it. All of the good memories she had shared with her suddenly rushed through her mind, leaving only a blur of what had once been. This was what she had become, a killer. A heartless, cold blooded killer.

As Rainbow removed her helmet to wipe the tears welling up in her eyes, she saw something above Applejack’s body. It was only there for a split second, but she swore she saw it. It wasn’t a trick of the light, or her mind. There was a ripple there, like something was trying to pull open a hole in the universe, much like one of Twilight’s teleportation spells. The thought of the dear librarian nearly brought her to tears again, for Twilight was probably dead down here, too.

The elevator door opened to reveal Rainbow Dash grieving over the dead Big Sister, much like a Little Sister would to her Big Daddy. Rainbow was on her knees, holding the corpse tightly as if it were a beloved toy.

“Is that... Rainbow Dash?” Twilight said from behind him.

“Twilight?” Rainbow’s head turned to meet the source of the familiar voice.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight trotted over to her friend, and looked at the Big Sister she held. “What...”

Apple Bloom went to follow her, but Fluttershy's wing stopped her. Oceana peeked above the pegasus's head to see what was going on.

“I killed her, Twilight...” Rainbow cried.

“Who is she?”

Rainbow slowly removed the helmet from the Big Sister’s head. A blood stained, blonde mane fell down out of it, slightly concealing an orange coated face. Underneath her eternally shut eyes were three freckles.

“Applejack!” Twilight gasped, “Rainbow, how... how...”

“She was under Ryan’s control...”

"Applejack, no!" Apple Bloom pushed past Fluttershy's wing and ran towards her fallen sister. Fluttershy followed her, Oceana on her back.

Nimbus slowly cantered up behind Twilight, saving his energy instead of chasing after her. He saw the surprised Twilight, and the depressed Rainbow, and the dead Applejack. Then, he suddenly got an image of Trixie in his head, telling him about how Big Sisters will recover if they have ADAM in their bodies. He also recalled how Rainbow was unable to harvest ADAM. The neurons in his brain made a connection, but it wasn’t soon enough for him to warn the blue pegasus.

“Rainbow!” Nimbus shouted, as Applejack’s eyes suddenly opened, revealing the sickly yellow glow commonplace to the Sisters. She opened her mouth, releasing a feral shriek, and thrust her needle right towards Rainbow’s exposed head. It did not reach it’s target, however, for Nimbus had leapt forward and struck Applejack’s foreleg down with his pipe.

“Nimbus, don’t hurt her!” Twilight raised a hoof to stop him, but he already had her friend pinned up against the wall, his pipe against her neck. The stallion considered this request, and rose his hoof to her forehead. Applejack struggled, but soon became still. Her eyes blinked, and they lost their golden glow. Instead, two normal eyes with green irises were in her head. Nimbus felt her ADAM flowing through his body. He could see Twilight smiling from his peripheral vision. This was what she wanted from him, she wanted him to repair the damage that she had caused...

“My... head...” Nimbus heard Applejack’s voice for the first time. It was strong, and had a heavy southern accent. Nimbus set her down, looking back to make sure Rainbow was okay.

“Applejack!” Apple Bloom ran to meet her big sister. “I thought you were dead! Are you okay?”

“Apple Bloom...” The orange mare smiled weakly when she saw her sister. “Am I... What’s going on?”

“You’re free of Ryan’s control,” Nimbus said, “the ADAM infused into you has been removed.”

“Ryan... That no-good backstabbin’ thievin' rat’s gonna pay for what he did to me... and Rainbow... and Apple Bloom...” Applejack shook her head, looking up at all of the others who were now surrounding her. “Rainbow Dash?” She looked at the blue pegasus pony. “If I recall correctly... I was fightin’ you...”

“Yeah, I’m sorry...” Rainbow hung her head, “We didn’t... we didn’t really have a choice...”

“And who are you?” Applejack examined Nimbus. “I remember fightin’ you too, but we haven’t been introduced.”

“I’m Nimbus,” was all he said, before stepping back and allowing the others more room to see her.

“No hard feelings?”

“None,” Nimbus replied. “I understand you had no choice. And I’ve already taken care of Ryan...”

“What about my brother?”

Nimbus did not reply, he only looked at the ground in front of him.

Applejack looked at Twilight, hoping that she’d answer the question.

“He had to... kill him... He couldn’t be saved...”

Applejack sighed shakily.

They all took a moment to regain their breath, and mourn the loss of Big Macintosh. After a few minutes, Fluttershy looked to Nimbus.

“We really should find your sister...”

“No,” Nimbus said, “I’m not losing anypony else. I’m going to go alone. Twilight, can you take the others back to the Ravine?”

“Now hold on,” Rainbow interrupted, “I’m not gonna let you go out on your own.”

“Yeah,” Applejack agreed, “And I owe you. If not for you, I’d still be fighting ya’ll. I’m going to go with you, too.”

Twilight nodded her head. “I agree. Don’t worry, I can get the others back to the Ravine. I’m guessing you... killed... everypony between us and Arcadia?”

Nimbus nodded.

Twilight took an odd comfort in that. The path would be clear, at least.

“First thing’s first, though.” Nimbus walked to the elevator leading down from the security checkpoint. “We’re going to Hephaestus to find out where my sister is.”

The journey back to the city’s core was quicker than going to Ryan's offices. Nimbus caught Applejack up on his goal, and Applejack explained her history as well. She was captured by Ryan while trying to protect Apple Bloom from from becoming a Little Sister. Although she saved her before she was brainwashed, she herself became a Big Sister. They had made some business before that, selling what apples they could grow from their home in Arcadia, before it became overrun. They had to relocate to a place called Pauper’s Drop, where Ryan offered a fortune for the price of her sister. Their big brother, Big Macintosh, took good care of Apple Bloom by taking her into hiding. Unfortunately, the disappearance of Applejack put a lot of spotlight on her brother, and he was forced to change his name and disappear.

“I’m sorry... I didn’t want to have to kill him but...” Nimbus began to apologize, but Applejack stopped him.

“It’s not your fault, Ryan killed him. And you already took him out, so we just gotta move on...” As focused as Applejack was, she was haunted by her own action in his death. Ryan was pulling her strings, but Ryan was dead, so shouldn’t she feel at least a little better? Her face portrayed the thoughts in her head. Although she had her helmet on, she still felt like everpony could see her clearly.

It was true. Twilight easily read her friend's expression through her helmet.

“We’re all sad that he’s gone, but we have to keep moving. We need to make sure his death wasn’t for nothing.” Her words were uplifting, but she wished she could believe them herself. “It’s what he would’ve wanted, right?”

“I guess so...”

They heard the roar of the generators long before they reached the actual room. The generator room’s doors opened, revealing the massive cylinders that upheld the city. This was it, the place that held the location of all the Big Daddy and Little Sister pairs, and hopefully Nimbus's sister as well. Rainbow led them down a flight of stairs and to a small opening that held a computer terminal. It’s displayed showed the current status of the generator, the output levels, and other things an engineer might need to know, but Rainbow didn’t seem to take any interest in it. Around a corner, underneath the doorway they had entered from, was another computer that Rainbow had identified as the one they needed. However, it’s screen was shattered, and several wires that had been connecting it to the wall were torn out. There was no using this machine.

“No...” Rainbow breathed. She panicked, her voice becoming more and more distressed. “No, no! How could this have happened?”

“He was ready...” Nimbus murmured.

“What?” Twilight looked over to him.

“He knew what we were coming for before he captured Topside. He knew that I was looking for her...”

A faint shimmer of light flashed in front of the destroyed computer. Nopony seemed to notice it, and it disappeared as quickly as it came.

“Are there any other places we can look for her?” Nimbus almost knocked Rainbow over when he spun around to face her. Before she could reply, another voice gave him an answer. A very familiar voice. It was actually a pair of voices.

“It’s heads and tails, really.”

“Will it be heads, or tails?”

From the shadows beneath the staircase, two unicorn ponies emerged. They both had tan coats, and chocolate brown manes. One a mare, and the other a stallion. The mare held a single coin in a hoof. When one of them spoke, the other would finish their sentence.

“Perhaps you might want to try looking in a different way...”

“... Before you look elsewhere.”

“Every coin has two sides...”

“... All that matters is which side you look at.”

Twilight glared at the twin enigmas. “You two again?”

“Heads or tails?” The tan mare asked.

“It doesn't really matter,” The stallion told her.

“What do you two want?” Twilight demanded, her tone becoming hostile. “All you two do is pop up out of nowhere and make no sense!”

“Twilight...” Nimbus nudged her. “I think they’re trying to help us.”

The mare disregarded Twilight’s tone. She flipped the coin in her hoof, displaying the heads side. She quickly flipped it again, and it was on it’s tails side.

“All you have to do is flip the coin...”

“...and you’ll find your answers.”

Twilight didn’t like those two, they made things complicated. Sure, they had returned her notes to her, but how had they acquired them in the first place? The notes... They were talking about the tears... Twilight looked back, suddenly realizing what they were trying to tell her, but they had already vanished.

“Twilight?” Nimbus asked her, looking at her now excited expression. “What’s going on?”

“I got it!” She told him, excitedly turning to face the broken computer. “I know what we have to do!”

Applejack just looked at Rainbow Dash, who, in response, looked back. They turned their heads to Twilight, each bearing identical looks of confusion. Twilight stared at the destroyed device, her horn glowing with purple magic.

“We have to flip the coin...”

Coin Flip

“This is wrong... As much as I love science, I believe that it has gone too far...”- Twilight Sparkle.

The grey coated pegasus raised the revolver to line up the shot on the lavender unicorn who fled the room. Her mind raced. His hooves faltered. He couldn’t do it. The grey pegasus, a mare with a long cobalt mane, pulled the trigger. The lavender unicorn, a stallion with a messy purple and pink mane, ducked down, sliding into the elevator. The bullet flew over his head, striking the back of the elevator. More bullets came his way, but his hoof hit the button to send the elevator down. The closing metal doors caught the heated death speeding towards him and he let out a tired breath.

“Dusk Shine!” The stallion heard his name called to him from the dark corner of the elevator. A butter yellow pegasus stepped out of the darkness, a stallion with a long pink mane. He had a cutie mark of three pink butterflies. Some of the other ponies picked on him for his feminine appearance, but Dusk didn’t mind. A small colt poked his head out from behind his mane, who had a light blue coat, and a darker blue, short cut mane. Another colt stepped out by the pegasus’s front legs, a yellow earth pony who had a short red mane, concealed under a baseball cap.

“Butterscotch, there’s not much time to explain,” Dusk Shine produced the revolver he had taken off of Andrea Ryan’s body. He checked the cylinder, finding that only three bullets were left there. “Altos has lost it and we’re in danger. We need to leave, now.”

“But, how are you...”

“I was Ares, Butterscotch. I led you here so we could have a chance of stopping Andrea Ryan together. Altos has finally snapped, now that she has the key to the city, she’s trying to take over. I knew that she'd try to but... to actually go through with it...”

“Dusk... I don’t understand...” The stallion’s voice was very soft, like a dandelion that would blow away in the wind.

The elevator reached it’s stop, opening to reveal the security checkpoint. Slumped up against a pillar was a figure, covered from head to hoof in a diver suit. To anypony else, it would’ve been just another corpse, but the sight stung Dusk Shine’s eyes, for he knew who really was underneath the armor. Altos had killed him on her way up. Why was she so cold, so ruthless? Dusk had tried to guide her in the right direction, but she just killed the little ones she encountered, making an exception for the one with Jocilyn Topside. Perhaps the ADAM was poisoning her? That wouldn’t make sense, because the absorption Plasmid stopped it actually poisoning her. She seemed to just be evil...

There was no time to worry about this, though. They had to flee Rapture while they still could.

The spell that Twilight Sparkle cast did not target the computer, but the space in front of it. A ripple of light flashed, and it abruptly opened up into a ring. When it was looked through, a world of greyscale was seen. The computer was there, the one that should’ve been where the destroyed one was. Nimbus stuck his head around the opening, confirming that the computer was still destroyed behind it.

“This is a portal to another world,” Twilight explained, “I’ve been studying these for a while now, but I never had the chance to open one…”

“How do we go through it?” Nimbus attempted to put his head into the portal, but it only passed through the strange anomaly.

“Well, I have to open it a little more…” As she said this, the opening took the form of a sphere, and began to expand outwards. It passed through the floor, and soon a small area was exposed to the tear. Nimbus stood in the center of the orb, examining the gray scale computer that now occupied the wall in front of him.

“Is this it?”

“Go on, you should be able to interact with it.” Twilight nodded, straining a bit to keep the tear open with her magic. Nimbus reached his hoof out, and began to press a few buttons on the panel that controlled the computer’s display, finding that it was just like any ordinary object.

“Ain't that something?” Applejack tilted her head in amazement, taking her helmet off to see it with her own eyes.

“I didn’t know you could do that, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said.

“I had just recently been studying it...” Twilight grunted as she lost her magical grip on the tear. “Nimbus, hurry up! I can’t keep it open...”

Nimbus looked through the list, not finding what he was looking for. It did show a variety of names under the ‘Gatherer’ and ‘Guardian’ columns, but he recognized none of them. Something struck him as odd, though. As he scanned the list, he noticed that the names under the ‘Gatherer’ column were all names for stallions, and each of their corresponding Guardians were the names that a mare would have. That wasn’t right. Had somepony been messing with the list? Was he not interpreting the titles right? It sounded as if Guardian referred to the Big Daddies, and the Gatherers meant the Little Sisters...

“Nimbus...” Twilight was straining now. A bead of sweat dripped down from her muzzle and onto the steel floor. “Get out of the tear! It could collapse on you and... You’ll be stuck in there!”

“Just a minute longer!” Nimbus replied.

“Get out of there, or I’ll go in there and drag you out!” Rainbow warned.

“No...” Twilight whispered to her.

“Come on... where is it? Where is it?” Nimbus growled at the machine.

“Come on, brother!” Oceana called out to him. She made a frantic gesture with her hooves from atop Fluttershy’s back. Fluttershy attempted to lull her, to keep her from getting hurt, but the small blue filly leapt from her safety and ran to her brother’s leg, pulling on it to get him out of the tear.

“Oceana!” Fluttershy tried to step in, but Twilight stopped her.

“Don’t... it’s... dangerous!”

Nimbus panicked, completely absorbed in trying to figure out just why he couldn’t find what he was looking for. Rainbow Dash confirmed that his sister had became a Little Sister, so why wasn’t she on the list? He felt hooves on his back leg, and turned to see the face of his newest sister.

“Come on...” She murmured. She tugged on her brother's leg again, harder. "Brother, come on!" She repeated, a little louder. "Oh, COME ON!"

“Yes, please!” Twilight breathed through her teeth. The breath was suddenly expelled as a loud shriek, like the scraping of metal on metal, caused her focus to break. She recoiled, losing all grip she had on the tear and causing it to slam shut on the stallion and his sister. Everything else was as it was in the room.

“No..." Fluttershy whispered fearfully, "Nimbus... Oceana...”

Twilight was silent for a moment, trying to take in what she had just done. Nimbus and Oceana had been lost, and it was her fault. She reached out in the arcane realm, trying desperately to re-open the tear, but she couldn’t find it for the life of her. It was simply... gone, vanished as quickly as Nimbus had. Another high pitched screech broke Twilight’s focus, and she felt the armored hoof of Applejack pulled on her. Her helmet was back on, now, it’s green glow filling the unicorn’s vision.

“C'mon Twi, we're gonna have to move, now.” Applejack told her. "Big Sister's coming, and we ain't gonna leave you here to fend for yourself."

Twilight looked up at the ceiling. How was that possible? Andrew Ryan was dead, and there were no Little Sisters nearby.

“Yeah, come on, Twilight!” Rainbow Dash had put her helmet back on as well. “We’re not leaving you behind!”

There was no hope for pulling Nimbus back, but she still took one last glance at the wrecked computer before trotting off with her friends.

Nimbus saw the world begin to collapse around him, breaking into pieces before spreading out to form another, one identical to the one he was in before, but with more color. However, without the colors his friends brought into his world, this world seemed just as bleak as it was before. The same metal plates above and below him, and the same staircase he had descended to reach this area. Only Oceana was with him now, clinging to his side like a frightened filly. But, Nimbus remembered, she was a frightened filly.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you. Are we going to be okay?” She asked him, her eyes wide and desperate.

“Yes,” was all he could say in return. He reached out and lifted her up, placing her on his back. Nimbus turned back around to look at the computer, hoping it would somehow give him answers, or a way back home. If this computer was here in this world, what else was different? The Guardians all seemed to be mares… that meant that in this world, his sister would actually be his brother? Or would his sister be a Guardian instead? There were so many possibilities, so many constants and variables…

He felt something wet on his upper lip. Lifting a hoof to inspect it he found that his nose was bleeding. A voice called out behind him.

“Turn around, slowly…”

Nimbus slowly turned his body, seeing a lavender unicorn who held a revolver level with his chest. This pony looked very similar in every way to Twilight Sparkle, a lavender coat, violet eyes, an identical cutie mark... The mane was a bit shorter, but still was the same colors. The only major difference was, and this truly caught Nimbus off guard, this pony was the opposite gender. His muzzle was pronounced in the way a stallion’s would be.

“How did you…” The stallion began, noticing something about Nimbus. His tone became harsher. “Who are you?”

He still kept the gun pointed in his direction. Nimbus didn’t reply.

“Who are you?” He repeated, “Why is your wing missing?”

“I had a mechanical one…” Nimbus replied, trying to keep a casual tone, “I had to have it removed after it was destroyed.”

This pegasus was almost identical to the one that nearly killed him, but the fact that he was missing a wing made him think. The change in gender suggested that he had used a tear... Was he from a timeline where he never was corrupted?

“You used a tear, didn’t you?”

Nimbus nodded. The stallion kept his weapon trained on him.

“I’m still not sure what’s going on... And I don’t take kindly to guns being pointed in my direction...”

“Oh, I know all about you.” The unicorn hissed, an unusual amount of anger being cast with the words. “You’re just a killer. You don’t care about the lives of anypony but yourself.”

“What? You don’t know me!”

“You came through that tear, and you look almost exactly like Altos. If you’re her counterpart, I’m pretty sure you had a reason for coming here.”

Nimbus looked at him for a moment, genuinely confused. It was obvious that this Twilight look-alike wasn’t a Splicer, there was actual emotion behind his words. He knew about tears, and obviously didn’t like Nimbus’s look-alike.

“What do you mean by ‘counterpart’?” Nimbus replied, trying to make sense of the situation.

“Every dimension has it’s own set of ponies, but they’re all a little bit different in each one. That tear you just went through,” The pony nodded to the space that Nimbus had just appeared in, “That’s a gateway between dimensions. The only difference I see between you and that cold blooded killer is that you’re a stallion, and she’s a mare. And...”

“And what?” Nimbus looked at himself, finding nothing out of the ordinary about his body.

“Your wing is missing...”

Nimbus thought about that for a moment. He was starting to make sense of the multiple dimension thing, although he was still very lost. “What, does the ‘me’ in this world still have a mechanical wing?”

“Yes...” The stallion lowered his weapon, examining Nimbus again. This time, he was actually focusing on the filly riding on his back. “That girl... You’ve bonded with her... How?”

The pegasus was taken aback by the question. Out of all the things that he could’ve been asked, he was asked about his little sister?

“I just treated her like a normal little girl... She was infused with ADAM, but I saved her... I’ve been protecting her ever since.”

The unicorn was quiet for a moment. There seemed to be something going through his head, like he had forgotten to consider something before he approached him.

“Excuse me,” He put away his gun, offering a hoofshake instead. “My name is Dusk Shine, owner of Shining Simplicities here in Rapture.”

“My name is Nimbus,” He returned the hoofshake. “This is Oceana.” He motioned to the filly on his back.

“Nimbus?" Dusk Shine thought about the name, nodding as he did so. "So, Nimbus, would you kindly tell me how you came through the tear?”

Nimbus was confused as to why the sudden hostility was gone. He didn’t question it though, and he explained the situation with his lost sister, and how the computer in his world was destroyed. He told him how the opening collapsed on him, and how he wasn’t the one opening it.

“I see,” Dusk sighed. “So this Twilight Sparkle opened it?”

“Yes, and I think she’s your counterpart.”

“No doubt about it. Hold on a second.” Dusk Shine approached a small staircase that he had came down. After making a few hoof motions, a butter yellow stallion descended, with two young colts following him. As expected, they were all the counterparts of Nimbus’s friends. The situation was explained to them, but they didn’t quite seem to grasp the concept of multiple worlds. They settled with Nimbus being ‘a friend’ and left it at that, even though Butterscotch was skeptical about his appearance.

“Your sister?” Dusk walked over to the computer Nimbus had came for. “Let me take a look here, I may be able to match the names. What is her name?”

Nimbus told him. As he looked down the list, he saw a name bearing similar structure. It was that of a colt’s, but it was definitely his sister’s counterpart. He wasn’t paired with a Guardian at all, he was in the Little Brother’s orphanage. That was back near Fontaine Futuristics... They still had time, but there was still a threat nearby that could-

The computer screen went dark. The entire corridor they stood in became dark. An eerie silence crept over the generator room. Dusk Shine instinctively cast an illumination spell, brightening up a small area.

“Is everypony okay?” Dusk looked around, to make sure no one had been hurt. Butterscotch and the colts were there, as well as Nimbus and Oceana.

“I... I think so...” Butterscotch quivered, “What happened?”

“Altos must’ve shut off the main generators to keep us from escaping. We need to go, before she catches up to us.” Dusk began to walk through the dark chamber, the others following his light. Oceana waved to the two colts below her, who smiled in return.

“Why is Altos so... different? What did she do?” The question was burning at the back of Nimbus’s mind, but he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know the whole story.

“Altos is... She’s evil. That’s the only word I can use to describe her. She won’t hesitate to kill a pony if there’s a gain in it for her. I tried to help her but...”

“She killed Elusive’s little brother, Silver Bell...” Butterscotch said, his eyes welling up with sadness at the thought.

“He also killed a pair of stallions named Snapshot and Trixtor...” Dusk added to the list of significant lives his counterpart had taken. “Trixtor was always a rival of mine but... he didn’t deserve to die...”

“And Snapshot was weird, and a bit crazy,” Butterscotch wiped a tear from his eye. “but he was just trying to make a living...”

“Nimbus,” Dusk Shine said, making sure their path out of the generator room was well lit, “None of these ponies were Splicers. They were all still sane. I’d hardly say they were innocent, but they didn't deserve what she did to them...”

Nimbus was silent. The only thing he could think to say was, “There were two others with me when I left. Both of them, Twilight was close friends with. Rainbow and Applejack were their names.”

It was Dusk Shine’s turn to be quiet. Nimbus could hear Butterscotch begin to sob quietly when he mentioned the two names. The colts looked at each other, trying to comfort the pegasus.

“Altos... killed them too... She would’ve killed us all...”

“I wouldn’t have, though.” Nimbus tried to imagine what would drive a pony to take those lives. “I’ve only tried to help everypony I’ve met down here.”

“Then you’ve already done me a service,” Dusk said, his emotions recollected, “I need your help with something, it’s so we can get to your sister. Or... brother. You get the point.”

“Tell me what I need to do.”

In the office of Andrea Ryan, a grey pegasus mare by the name of Altos flared her wings in frustration. Her hooves stomped against the ground, smashing the grip of the revolver she held. Andrea Ryan was dead, Jocilyn Topside was dead, but they had escaped. Nopony expected a thing until she had turned her gun on that scientist. Now, he and his friends were probably planning to stop her somehow... She glared at a large, glass tube in the back corner of the office, marked as a ‘Vita-Chamber’. It was inactive, but only because she had the foresight to deactivate it when she learned of the powerful regenerative abilities of the machine. If only she could configure it to work for her...

The power was off, but it would only be a matter of time before the backup kicked in. Rapture was hers now, and there would be nothing stopping her from living a peaceful life with her younger brother, except for that scientist... She held a deep hatred of him for making a fool of her. She would find him, and he would pay dearly.

But first, she needed more ADAM. Luckily, she now had all of the ADAM she needed....

Big Brother

”If you are hearing this... my mind is already gone...”- P. D. Pie.

The backup generators kicked on, allowing the Bathysphere station to carry Nimbus as his followers to the forest of Arcadia. When they arrived, Nimbus instantly noticed the extensive lack of plant life. It was as if the fire had burned down the majority of the forest... No time to worry about that, though, they were headed back to the Ravine. They followed the pathway they had taken, until Nimbus saw a familiar opening, leading to a room with valves and pipes running along the walls, and a multitude of displays and panels beneath a window overlooking Arcadia. It was the Oxygen control station. Dusk Shine led the others through, but Nimbus stopped to observe the room. His eyes focused on one thing in particular, and he gasped.

On the ground, laying in a decaying heap, was the remains of a charcoal grey stallion, one with a black mane, and a treble clef cutie mark. The remains were gruesome, for plants had bursted from every opening on his face and were making new openings throughout his body. His mouth was open, as if screaming, but the only thing coming out was a group of flowers, with petals eerily colored the same tone as his fur. Veins running along his hooves and neck sprouted into flowers as well, but those ones were colored red, coated with dried blood. Some of the vines spread out and climbed up the wall, wrapping around pipes and valves to form a small net of green between them and the unfortunate victim.

Nimbus saw that his eyes were not covered by flowers, but they had been forcibly pushed out of his skull by them. This is what would’ve became of him, had Octavia not brought him to safety... The remnants of Green Hoof in his own foreleg suddenly came to the forefront of his mind, much like a healing wound did. Dusk Shine met Nimbus’s gaze as the concerned pegasus turned his head back, as if looking for answers. There were none spoken, though, but Nimbus solemnly drew the conclusion in his mind. Altos had taken the cure, and left this world’s Octavia to die.

They didn’t pass the bar on their way through, so Nimbus could only imagine what his alter had done to Vinyl’s alter. From what he could tell, Vinyl had been very fond of Octavia, even though the latter wouldn’t accept it. If they were friends, or had been friends at one point, how would she react if Nimbus had killed Octavia? He visualized her going beast mode on him and trying to smash his head in with a broken liquor bottle.

As they approached the Bathysphere leading back to the Sunhoof Performance Hall, a few of the smaller lights and vending machines suddenly flickered back to life.

“Altos must’ve turned the main generator back on...” Dusk muttered, looking around for any danger. Nothing came, so he coaxed his group into the Bathysphere and let it drop into the water below and propel itself to the next location.

Sunhoof Performance Hall was drastically different than Nimbus remembered. There were so many more bodies of deformed and mutilated Splicers strung all across the upturned seating, but the one thing that seemed to be the biggest change was the large armored body that lay in the center aisle, and the dead colt laying next to it. The small pony had a blonde mane and tail, and light purple coat. A horn parted his mane, allowing Nimbus a glimpse at the lifeless eyes that waited behind it.

On the stage, Nimbus saw more of what his alter had done. There was the body of a blue unicorn stallion, with a short white mane, and a wand for a cutie mark hanging from the backstage wall on a single crossbow bolt going straight through his neck. On another bolt below him was a wizard’s hat, blue with white stars printed about it. A camera mounted on a tripod was pointed up at him, as if some cruel joke was being played. Nimbus felt anger surge through him, much like he did when he first saw what Andrew Ryan had done to Rainbow Dash.

Altos would pay for what she had done.

”You’re one of them.”

”But, I’m free...”

”No, you will never be free...”

In the wreckage of the train in Rapture Metro, an armored hoof pried itself freedom. A stallion emerged from the metal scrap pile, his head still throbbing from several painful memories. The stallion wore an armored diver’s suit, one that allowed him to be quick and agile like he always was. Altos had killed him, or so she thought, but he wouldn’t let her take what she came here for. Family was too important to him, even if he had once considered Altos family.

The stallion fumbled about through the wreck for his helmet, which he found to still be wearable, despite it’s torn up condition. He was built to last, and he knew it. A grin formed on his face as he looked at his reflection in his helmet’s visor. Magenta eyes, blue fur, and a polychromatic mane looked back at him. Rainbow Blitz donned his helmet, and sprung into the air with a kick of his legs.

The door of the Ravine swung open, granting safety to Nimbus, but more importantly, the ones he protected. Dusk Shine led him into a basement, explaining his plans on the way down.

“You’ll have to go to the Little Brother’s orphanage, that’s where your sister's alter will be. But the only way you’ll get in there is if you become... a Guardian. Altos will be stronger than ever with Rapture in her hoof. The current Guardians are her slaves, but you...” Dusk looked at Nimbus as they reached the bottom of the stairs and stepped into a small, grey laboratory. “You will be Rapture’s liberator.”

Nimbus nodded, wondering if he could really fix all that happened. Dusk Shine gave him a helmet with his magic. It looked almost exactly like the Big Sister helmet. Nimbus put it on, looking at the world through the beveled glass. He could see the smile of the purple unicorn.

“I was going to perform this on myself, but then you came along...” Dusk gave him what he could only identify as a Big Sister suit, with metal boots and horseshoes welded to the leggings. Space for oxygen tanks were on the back, one of said spaces already occupied with one. Nimbus put it on, noting that the suit would probably give him a nice buffer between bullets and himself. He figured he’d need it. Also, a hole in the left foreleg allowed ADAM to be injected, and an opening at the end of his left hoof allowed his Plasmids to exit his suit so they could actually reach his enemies.

“We’ll make a proper guardian out of you yet,” Dusk said, magically lifting the final component that Nimbus would need before going to find his sibling.

“What’s that?” Nimbus asked, eyeing the unusually shaped object. It was an elongated cylinder, roughly about the width of half his hoof. It was much longer though, extending to at least 3 feet. At the base of it was a small grip, where it would attach to his foreleg and he could operate it’s control lever. It was not a Big Sister needle, like he had expected, for the weapon was not thin or smooth. Instead, the length had a curved indent running from the base to the tip. The tip was flattened into four flat bits, almost like a screwdriver... Or a drill.

“This weapon is what I had wanted the Guardians to carry,” Dusk explained, “But the larger, cone shaped drill won the popular vote. This drill is the only working model I ever made.”

Nimbus took the weapon and secured it to his right foreleg. As he examined it, Dusk described more of it’s features.

“The drill bit is retractable, much like the needles you may have seen on other Guardians. However, unlike the needle, it cannot absorb ADAM.” Nimbus pulled on the lever, watching the drill as it begin to spin violently. When he pushed the lever out, the drill retracted, allowing his hoof to touch the ground.

“Anything else?” Nimbus looked at himself. He was truly a Big Brother now.

“One more thing, yes. I have another Plasmid for you. I designed it in case I needed to use it against Andrea Ryan, but with her out of the way, Altos should be a perfectly fine replacement.” Dusk’s magic floated a Plasmid jar to him, one with a purple liquid inside of it. “It’s called ‘Silence’. It will disrupt the Plasmids of others, as well as most forms of magic. I’m guessing that Altos is splicing herself up right about now, so this should prove useful.”

As Nimbus injected himself with the Plasmid, he felt his body begin to quiver and shake. He began to feel very cold, and his hooves began to shiver out of control, much like a drug addict’s would. A small, lavender polyp began to form on the opening of his armor, but he caught it and managed to absorb it before it bursted all over Dusk Shine and himself. The coldness left him. And, like after every other Plasmid he had taken, he was back to normal.

“There’s a radio and a camera inside your helmet, so I’ll be able to keep in touch with you.” Dusk took the empty Plasmid syringe. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, I am.”

Altos removed the syringe from her foreleg. Ryan’s laboratories had enough ADAM to sedate a whale... and more. There was no way she could use it all in one lifetime, but she was more than powerful enough now. Best part of it all, Dusk Shine’s absorption Plasmid prevented it for messing with her head. She passed through the door leading out into Hephaestus, walking up a set of stairs to the database that held the location of her little brother. He was in the Little Brother’s orphanage. That bitch Ryan must’ve put him there to keep her from getting to him... It wasn’t too far away, so hopefully she could get to him before anything too bad happened.

She didn’t notice that a Splicer had approached her from behind until he shouted some nonsense, but he was engulfed in flames and tossed up into the ceiling before he could do anything else. She smirked as she turned to go to the Little Brother’s orphanage, absolutely sure that nothing could stop her.

A figure briefly made a quick movement behind her, seeing her destination and planning to get there before she could.

His wings were constrained by his suit, but Rainbow Blitz was still as agile as ever. He galloped through the maintenance tunnels, swiftly knocking over the Splicers he passed, but not stopping to actually fight them. There was no way he’d let Altos get there first. He had to protect his little brother, even if he wasn’t actually his brother. Altos wasn’t really his sister either, but she was evil, she wouldn’t think twice about offing a member of her family if she benefitted somehow.

Rainbow lifted his foreleg as he approached a destroyed portion of the floor, letting his harpoon fire into the ceiling and swinging on the wire over the water below, which he noticed was electrified.

“Just like Dashing Dare...” He thought to himself, retracting his harpoon without even breaking his stride. If he remembered correctly, the Little Brother’s orphanage was just to his left, just beyond Fontaine Futuristics. Rainbow Blitz opened the door at the end of the tunnel, hoping nopony would be in the research facility, considering that Francine Fontaine had disappeared not too long ago, but became enraged when he saw a grey pegasus with a mechanical wing already there, trying to get past the security door. He came through the maintenance door, which was on the opposite side of the lobby, and charged up the set of stairs leading to his foe. She turned, hearing his heavy hooves clanging on the floor, and struck him with a fireball. The impact knocked him off of his hooves and he went tumbling back down the flight of stairs.

Altos glared at the suited stallion. She didn’t recognize him at first, but when he fired his harpoon at her, she knew him to be Rainbow Blitz. The harpoon was caught by her Telekinesis Plasmid, and sent hurtling back at him. He jumped to the side, and the projectile hit the centerpiece of a marble fountain.

“You...” Altos seethed, approaching the stallion as splashed about in the fountain, trying to recover his weapon. “I killed you.”

“Like you could kill me!” Blitz shot back, readying his weapon.

“Stubborn as ever, Rainbow Blitz.”

Blitz grabbed an upturned trash can using his own Telekinesis, but he found that it was ripped from his grasp by Altos’s. All of her Plasmids were stronger than his. He used his Winter Blast, freezing Altos’s hooves to the ground as he jumped on top of the fountain’s centerpiece. She quickly melted the ice and pulled out her machine gun to get an edge on Rainbow. Bullets missed him by an inch as he pushed himself off of the fountain and lunged for Altos. His harpoon was extended, and fired out, but his drop was suddenly stopped as Altos sidestepped the projectile and reached out with a hoof.

She was holding him in Telekinesis.

Blitz growled, unable to move. “How... How are you...”

“New and improved Telekinesis,” Altos told him, “Pick up large objects, including enemies, and throw them with your mind...” She grinned maliciously. “What more do you need to know?”

“Let.. Let me go!”

“Okay...” Altos flicked her hoof, and Rainbow Blitz was flung through the air, crashing into the ceiling and bringing a few chunks of concrete down with him. The rubble trapped Blitz’s back half, leaving his front half exposed. He defiantly looked up at Altos as she stood over him.

“Why...” Blitz managed, “Why are you like this? We were friends...”

“Friends?” Altos laughed, striking Rainbow’s emotions into shock. “Friends don’t throw one another into grinders...”

“What?”

“You remember... At the Rainbow Factory... the accident...” Altos recalled the ‘accident’ that left her wing mangled, and she in turn would eventually lose her job because of it. “It wasn’t an accident!”

“I... didn’t...”

“You know what you did!” Altos brought her hoof down on Rainbow’s head, smashing it against the ground. She ripped the helmet off of him and struck him again, breaking a few teeth in his mouth and splattering his blood on the ground. Her hoof turned bright red, and she brought it down on his face, singing him with an intense heat.

“Raagh!” He screamed, “I’m sorry!”

“Sorry won’t undo the damage!” She punched him with her burning hoof again. The fur on his cheek was burned black, and his charred grey skin showed beneath it. Altos threw a fireball at him as he attempted to pull himself out of the rubble, striking his left eye and leaving another burn mark on it. Blitz opened his right eye, finding that his left eye would only slightly open. What he saw was Altos, standing over him and preparing to end his life, but she was struck in the head by a flying object before she could. It bursted on impact, covering her in a lavender mist. The fire around her hooves died down, and she cried out in frustration when she couldn’t reignite them.

Blitz turned his head, seeing the source of the attack. Another armored stallion stood in the entrance of Fontaine Futuristics, wielding a long industrial drill along his right foreleg. A small blue unicorn filly clung to his back.

“Nimbus,” Dusk Shine said, reaching the pony in question’s ears through the radio in his helmet, “Altos should be unable to use her Plasmids! Hit her now!”

The stallion jumped forward, his drill spinning up, and thrust the weapon at the crazed pegasus. She stepped back, pointing her machine gun at him and firing it. Her bullets knocked him back, but the armor kept him relatively unharmed. During a break in her fire, the stallion struck Altos with the side of his drill, knocking her into the fountain with a splash. His left hoof crackled with electricity, and a thunderbolt jumped into the water, frying her like a toaster in a bathtub.

The filly on his back cheered happily. “Look Brother, she’s dancing!”

Altos collapsed, her head hitting the rim of the fountain. Rainbow Blitz reached out, hoping this Guardian had come to help him.

Nimbus looked down on the pinned stallion, helping him get out from under the rubble.

“You’re... ” Nimbus whispered, “I thought Altos killed you...”

“I thought she killed me too...” Rainbow replied, weakly rising to his hooves and looking at his saviour. “She would’ve, too, if you hadn’t stopped her.”

“No, I meant... nevermind.” He didn’t feel like explaining how he knew about the events at the train station, obviously Altos hadn’t been thorough in her execution of Rainbow.

“Well, thanks. Name’s Rainbow Blitz.”

“I’m Nimbus,” He replied, noticing the burns on his face, “Are you going to be okay? Those burns look like they need medical attention...”

“Oh, yeah, definitely...” Rainbow said, trying his best to suppress his pain as he walked to the fountain and cooled his burns with water. It helped, but touching the wounds caused him to gasp in pain. The entire left side of his face was deformed, missing fur and even skin in some places. His eye probably wouldn’t completely recover, even if his skin managed to. Even some of his rainbow mane was charred along the blue and green portions.

“I wish I had a medkit to give you.”

“No, it’s alright... I just gotta...” Blitz looked at something behind Nimbus, in front of the pile of concrete. It was a tiny sparkle of light... Nimbus saw it as well, and realized that it was growing, opening to form a window into another universe. He saw the face of a lavender unicorn mare, her horn glowing as she held the tear open.

“Twilight?” Nimbus knew that mare. “It’s me, Nimbus!”

“Nimbus... Quick, get through here, we’ve found your sister!”

“What?” Rainbow Blitz was confused, but didn’t try to make sense of the situation as Nimbus took a step forward.

“Nimbus...” Dusk Shine’s voice told him through the radio, “Go back through the tear, we’ll handle everything here.”

“But...”

“You’ve dealt with Altos, we can get your sister’s alter out of here and-”

“Nimbus!” Twilight shouted, “Behind you!”

Rainbow Blitz looked back in time to get pushed aside as Altos rose from the water and tackled Nimbus into the tear. It opened up completely, and they both were caught in it’s radius as it closed. Blitz shook his head, heading for the security door of Fontaine Futuristics. At least there was nothing standing in the way of his little brother now.

Twilight Sparkle leapt back in fright as the two ponies tumbled through the tear, punching and kicking and doing their best to kill the other. Nimbus was on his back, slamming his helmet into Altos’s head after being punched there several times. Altos leaned back, finding that her Plasmids were returning once more. She set her hoof ablaze and prepared to bring it down on Nimbus, but he raised his own hoof in defense and unleashed his Steam Jet Plasmid. She coughed, not expecting the sudden rush of steam to enter her lungs, giving Nimbus the perfect opportunity to kick her off of him.

Altos rolled into the wall, quickly recovering and facing the threat. She saw the Guardian, the one with the drill, being helped up by another, and a third thrusting a Guardian’s needle in her direction.

“Applejack,” Nimbus sputtered, as Rainbow Dash helped him to his hooves, “She’s too strong, you can’t beat her...”

“Like hay, we’re not letting her kill you!”

Altos knew that she couldn’t beat all three of them, but they didn’t know that, and she wasn’t about to let them know either. She lifted a hoof to ready a new Plasmid, one that had been marked as an “Unstable Teleport Plasmid”. The end of her hoof began to glow brightly, and a bright beam of light came forth from it, blinding everypony around her. There was no trace of her when the light dispersed.

Nimbus looked back at Twilight, finding that she had brought Fluttershy and Apple Bloom. He was relieved to see that Oceana had made it through the tear as well, he would’ve felt terrible if he had left her in that other world without him.

“Nimbus,” Twilight began, “Who was that? She looked almost exactly like you...”

“Yeah, and what’s with the new look?” Rainbow Dash knocked on his helmet playfully, “I'm liking it.”

Applejack sighed. “Rainbow, quit it. Let him talk.”

“It’s alright.” Nimbus removed his helmet, taking a deep breath and parting his mane from his eyes. “That mare, her name is Altos. She’s me, from the dimension that I was sent to when the tear closed on me. Dusk Shine, who is your equivalent there, Twilight, gave me this armor-”

“I know,” Twilight interrupted him, putting the pieces together in her mind, “I was going to give it to you, but we never made it back to the Ravine...”

“But Altos... Altos is evil, she’s not like me,” Nimbus said, not going into the details of what she had done, “And my sister is in an orphanage, just past Fontaine Futuristics.”

“Yes,” Twilight continued, “Rainbow Dash found a recording of Andrew Ryan shortly after we left Hephaestus, saying how he had put your little sister in the Little Sister’s orphanage just before we arrived.”

“What about Altos,” Applejack asked, looking around for the dangerous mare, “Where’d she go?”

“I don’t know, but she’ll find us again.” Nimbus looked up at the entrance to the research facility. It was the last place standing between him and his sister.

Breakdown

“I understand why they have to be children, but why do they have to be girls? Why doesn’t the procedure work on boys as well? When I asked Fontaine, he told me ‘it’s so we don’t have to build as many bathrooms in the orphanage’. I don’t like him, but he is my employer...”- Twilight Sparkle.

Nimbus examined the security door, finding that there was no way to open it from the outside. Twilight Sparkle approached the door, pressing a button on a small panel to it’s side. A mechanical voice prompted her to speak the password.

Twilight cleared her throat. “Agnus Dei.”

The door opened, revealing a small room that contained nothing more than a small, empty chamber with another metal door at the end of it. The mechanical voice sounded again, alerting the group as they entered the room to prepare for a bio-scan.

“Bio-signatures confirmed,” the voice responded, “Welcome, Ms. Sparkle and Subject Gamma. You have two other protectors, two gatherers, and a guest with you?”

“Yes.” Twilight replied, and the metal door in front of them opened up as the one behind them slid shut.

“Twilight, how did you know to open the tear?” Nimbus asked, the thought just now occurring to him.

“We heard shouting coming from somewhere when we got here, but... we didn’t realize it was coming from the tear until Fluttershy noticed it.”

Oceana trotted up behind Nimbus, and he lifted her up onto his back. She held out his helmet, and he put it back on. The front room of Fontaine Futuristics was an open one, but not remarkably vast, having two mechanized doors on either wall adjacent to the entrance. One door was marked as ‘Testing’ and the other was marked as ‘Development’ by dull metal signs resting above their frames. An elevator was in place along the back wall, leading up past the ceiling. It was not operational, as shown by the half shut door that was crackling with loose electricity.

A screen on the wall near the door marked ‘Development’ suddenly came to life, displaying a video of a pink mare, whose deeper pink mane was straight and void of energy, falling around her ears and face. Her eyes reflected blue, and reflected what little hope her voice held.

“My name...” She began, “Is Pinkamena Diane Pie... and if you are hearing this, my mind is already gone...” It was just a recording, but everyone around Nimbus seemed to be in a state of disbelief, except for Oceana, who watched on with curiosity.

“I am a victim of an ADAM induced sickness, not because I am a Splicer, but because I was trying to find a cure for the very illness I now have. My mind is suffering more and more from unstable thoughts... Assuming you’ve spoken the password and passed the bioscan to get in here, you’re obviously sane enough to help... end me.”

“No...” Twilight desperately whispered, breaking Nimbus’s focus for a few moments.

“Before I arrived in Rapture, I was already diagnosed with a Multiple Personality Disorder. This illness I have has... provoked my other personality to... hurt others... Please help me, and I will leave my genetic key with you. I’ve left other recordings in different places in an effort to guide you in dealing with me. The next one will be in the development lobby, just past this door. No matter what the current form of me says, don’t listen to her. I wish you luck.”

Twilight shook her head, backing away from the screen as it went dark. Nimbus looked at her, trying to figure out why she was acting so strange. Rainbow Dash leaned in, and gave her a hug, but her cold metal exterior seemed to do very little for her.

Nimus turned to Applejack for answers. “What’s wrong with Twilight? Did she know her?”

“We all knew Pinkie, we were all such good friends... Now, everything’s all messed up, and it’s all thanks to Andrew Ryan...” Applejack shook her head. “If we gotta put Pinkie down, I guess... I guess...” She couldn’t even finish the sentence.

“Twilight, we’ll get through this,” Nimbus could hear Rainbow’s reassurance over Applejack’s failing words.

A loudspeaker suddenly whined to life, signaling that the intercom system was on. The voice that came over it was eerily happy, but the voice was recognized from the recording.

“Somepony came to crash my party? How rude!” It was Pinkamena, or as her friends had given her the nickname ‘Pinkie’, and she took notice of their arrival. Her cheery tone reflected her ADAM driven madness. “Mister Bubbles? Please show them to the exit! They’re not on the VIP list!”

Through a hole in the ceiling, a Big Daddy dropped through. The ground shook as he landed, rising, and removing an odd weapon from his back. It was a tube, similar to the rivet gun, but it had a glowing yellow capsule attached to a chamber on the top of it. Unlike the rivet gun, it fit around his hoof like the drill would, and wasn’t connected to the tank on his back. This Big Daddy was different in appearance as well, having a helmet that resembled a knight’s, and not having a Little Sister with him at all.

When the weapon was fired, it released a continuous beam of energy. Nimbus imagined that it would’ve burned, but Twilight cast a barrier spell in between themselves and the attacker before it hit him. The beam stopped, and Twilight lifted her barrier, allowing Nimbus and Rainbow to attack. Applejack opted to stay back and protect the others, especially her little sister.

The Big Daddy ejected the now dark capsule from his weapon, and replaced it with a fresh, glowing one, but Nimbus had already readied his machine gun and was firing it into him. The bullets did little, and the Big Daddy easily knocked the gun from his hooves and crushed it with a single stomp. Nimbus fell to the ground, his hooves still holding onto his destroyed weapon, and the Big Daddy fired his laser into his back. At first, he felt only a small sting, but then, it mounted into a greater burning sensation spreading across his back.

CLANK!

His burning subsided as Rainbow Dash rammed her back hooves into the Big Daddy’s head, throwing him against the wall. Nimbus got back up, deploying and revving up his drill. The Big Daddy had little time to get away from the drill as it bore through his helmet and skull, killing him instantly. Nimbus retracted his weapon, turning back to Twilight.

“Look, I know your friend's in there, but we need to deal with her if we want to get through here."

Twilight was silent for a moment. One of her closest friends, one that she knew to be so sweet, had just tried to kill her. Granted, she was driven mad with an unfortunate illness, but wasn’t friendship supposed to be stronger than that?

“Yes.” Twilight solemnly nodded, “I agree.”

Past the door marked ‘Development’ there was indeed another screen. Pinkamena was shown through another recording, but she was frantically looking about through the length of it, as if something was chasing her.

“Hello again, I’m assuming you’ve chosen to help me, which is good. You see, I was one of the bright scientists that helped designed some of the Big Daddies here in Rapture. One of which was the experimental Lancer model, which never made it to the production line, unfortunately. As such, I’ve learned to control them, and will most likely try to use them against you. They carry high power Ion Laser cannons, and can emit a blinding flash of light by overcharging them. One flaw is that they don’t have as much armor as the mainstream Big Daddies, so if you can catch one off guard you should be able to dispatch him quite easily.”

This room led to a larger hallway, which split off either to the left or the right. A staircase also led to a second floor, which wrapped around the hallway, leaving space to look down from the side. Below the screen which Pinkamena delivered her message, a small container opened up.

“I’ve included a gift for you underneath this screen that should give you an advantage against the Lancers. It’s a ballistic ordinance weapon that fires high explosive, heat seeking warheads, a few of which I’ve packaged with it. Don’t use it too close to yourself. The first thing you’ll need to do is restore the power to my chamber. I shut it off when I last went up to... ensure nopony else followed me, but I can’t come back down now. Just find the power breaker, flip it back on, and you should be able to use the elevator.”

Nimbus picked up the launcher, shifting the cylindrical weapon on his shoulders. It was so heavy, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to lug it around everywhere. Applejack saw his discomfort and reached out to him.

“Let me take that off your hooves, sugarcube, I think I can handle it.” She took the weapon and hefted it over her shoulder with ease, loading the missiles provided with the package. “I haven’t used one of these before, but it can’t be too hard, right?”

“Just be careful...” Twilight warned.

Nimbus led them around the bottom floor of the development wing, not finding anything remotely similar to a power breaker. A few large lights from the ceiling showed some something resembling a breaker box above them, so Nimbus ascended the stairs and made his way across the upper floor. His advance was halted as Pinkie’s voice was heard over the intercom again.

“You stole my new party cannon! How could you?” She was obviously faking an angry tone, like she was toying with them. “It was gonna be a blast! Heeheehee!” Nimbus rushed to the box, looking over the many switches and levers, not knowing which one to pull.

“Right there!” Oceana pointed out a lever, “It’s the only one that’s not up!”

“Oh, thanks Oceana.” Nimbus briefly nuzzled her and flipped the only switch on the whole board that wasn’t in the on position. He didn’t hear any confirmation, but it had to be it. Turning around, he saw what new obstacle Pinkie had thrown against them.

In the center of the hallway, on the first floor, two Lancer Big Daddies waited. They couldn’t see them, but the stallions quite clearly knew that there were intruders about. As the they patrolled the lower floor, Nimbus motioned to Twilight and Fluttershy.

“This way...” He whispered, guiding them through a doorway into one of the research labs. He shut the door behind them, hoping that the Big Daddies wouldn’t see them. The room they occupied now had a small table with a few beakers on it, as well as a recording device.

“There’s two of them back there?” Apple Bloom shivered in fear. “How are we gonna get both of ‘em?”

“We’ll think of something, don’t you worry,” Her big sister stroked her mane with a hoof in an effort to comfort her. “Why don’t we just use this thing?” She looked to Nimbus, motioning to the rocket launcher she had slung across her back.

“Yeah, that’s some instant beatdown just sitting around,” Rainbow pointed out. “We should probably make use of it.”

“I know, I just... didn’t want the fillies to get hurt somehow.” Nimbus readied his crossbow, the last ranged weapon he still had on him. He only had a few shots left, but with luck he wouldn’t have to use them.

“So what’s the plan?” Twilight asked.

“You stay here.” Nimbus told her, placing Oceana on the ground, “Protect the fillies and Fluttershy, and we’ll deal with the Big Daddies.”

“What if something happens to you?”

“Don’t worry about me, I can handle myself down here. Now, Rainbow Dash, you hit one of them with an Ice Blast, and I’ll hit the other with Electro Bolt. Applejack, you shoot the frozen one with the launcher, and Rainbow and I will focus on the other one. Once you take down the first one, we’ll freeze the other one and you can start working him over. Try to get them separated before we start the attack.”

The door shut as the Protectors left, and Fluttershy let out an exhausted sigh.

“I can’t do this Twilight...”

“Fluttershy, what’s wrong?” The purple unicorn replied.

“What’s wrong? Just look at all of our friends...” Fluttershy began to openly cry, angry and frustrated because she could only sit back and watch as the world she knew collapsed. “Rainbow Dash and Applejack are... monsters... Pinkie is crazy... and Rarity was upset and couldn’t forgive you... and you...” She looked up at Twilight. “You made those fillies into monsters too... It just doesn’t seem right! I’ve just been quiet because I didn’t want to get hurt, but...”

“Fluttershy...” Twilight gave her friend a hug, and Apple Bloom and Oceana came to comfort her as well.

“I came here because I thought I’d get to see you all as friends again, not like this...” Fluttershy whimpered, “And I didn’t want to cry in front of Nimbus because I wanted to be strong for him. I don’t want to be just... somepony to protect.”

Twilight said nothing, she just held her friend until she calmed down, hoping that it would help her release all of this held-in frustration. Fluttershy cried into her coat, and it somehow surprised her that she didn’t break down earlier. As soft and frail as she seemed, she was very, very resilient to have held in the raw emotion that now openly flowed from her eyes.

“I wish... I wish everything would just go back to normal...” Fluttershy’s eyes began to close, and her head slightly tucked in towards her chest. She gently pushed off of Twilight and tried to make herself a pillow with her front hooves, finding a resting spot on the ground.

A glint of light caught Twilight’s eye, as she looked away from Fluttershy and onto the table. It was not a tear as she originally suspected, but it was a plastic recording device.

She pressed the button to start the playback, and her ear to the speaker...

Nimbus stood in the shadow of the upper floor, watching as the Big Daddies still walked around below. Rainbow Dash was in position, standing at the far end of the upper hallway. Applejack was crouched behind the staircase on the lower floor, ready to jump out and fire. Nimbus nodded, giving Rainbow the signal to kick a piece of rubble off onto the floor below. It made a small noise, getting the Big Daddies’ attentions. One shifted his head, telling the other one to go check out the noise. He turned away as the other walked off, and didn’t see him as he was suddenly trapped in a coat of ice.

Vaulting over the ledge to the floor below, Nimbus fired his Electro Bolt at the closer Lancer, as his companion was frozen. Applejack stepped out from behind her cover and fired a rocket at the frozen one, knocking him over with a loud explosion while Rainbow made a diving leap into shocked one. A laser from behind swept over Nimbus’s head, and he ducked before it could hit him. The rocket had broken the ice, but hopefully it weakened him enough for Applejack to take him down. Rainbow latched herself onto the other Big Daddy’s head, attempting to bring her harpoon into his skull the way Nimbus had taken out the other, but he responded much quicker and tossed her off of him. She hit the ground, but Nimbus was already firing his crossbow, loading the next bolt as his opponent stumbled backwards. Another explosion came from behind him, sending bits of debris and dirt bouncing off of his suit.

Applejack was dodging her enemy’s attacks quite readily, despite the heavy weapon setting her off balance. She lifted her hoof and launched a fireball at him, pushing him up against a wall and causing him to drop his weapon. With a push of her powerful back legs, she sprung into the air and aimed for his helmet. Using all of her remaining strength, the heavy launcher was brought down on him, knocking him to the floor and cracking open his helmet entirely. The Big Daddy did not move, as the impact probably busted his head open as well. A stray laser beam caught her in the shoulder, making her shift her attention to the other battle.

The three on one fight proved easy, Applejack didn’t even need to fire the launcher again as the Big Daddy fell to Rainbow’s harpoon nailing him in the back. Nimbus picked himself up off the ground and took a deep breath. It was time to move on. After he gave the all-clear to Twilight, she and the others hiding with her came down and followed Nimbus to the exit. The screen behind him, which once had given Pinkamena’s initial message, now played a new one.

“I’m guessing that you fixed the power? Good, this message wouldn’t be playing if there was a break in the power system. Now, quickly, take the elevator up to my chambers. The rest of my recordings for you are up there.”

The screen went dark, but Pinkie’s voice played over the intercom shortly after.

“Oh, you got past my bouncers? I told you! This party is for VIPs only!”

Nimbus stepped out into the entryway, moving to the damaged elevator shaft and calling it down. The lights above them suddenly went out, causing them to all gasp in unison. The doors leading off to the left and right slammed shut, locking in place, and party streamers and confetti descended from the ceiling in a horrifyingly festive fashion as the lights returned.

“Surprise!” Pinkie cheered, as a quake came from above them. Nimbus looked up through the gaping hole in the ceiling that the Big Daddy descended from earlier. Following the quake was the bone rattling shriek that Nimbus knew all too well.

“It’s the guest of honor!” The crazed mare above them announced, “She’s here!”

Surprise

“As long as I’m with my brother... everything will be okay...”- Rosalind Lutece

Nimbus readied a green Hypnotize polyp in his hoof, holding it close for the approaching Big Sister. If he was lucky, this wouldn’t have to be a fight.

“Nimbus!” Twilight called to him over the next burst of screeching, “This is the same Big Sister that we saw before, in Hephaestus! She’s got-”

Twilight was interrupted by the sound of metal separating concrete above her, and Nimbus jumping to keep the debris from crushing her. He caught her just in time, and adjusted himself so his heavy armor wouldn’t crush her as they tumbled across the ground. The source of the new hole in the ceiling was indeed a Big Sister, but as Nimbus scanned her over, he witnessed something terribly wrong with her needle. It wasn’t a needle. Where the ADAM gathering device would normally be secured to her foreleg was a massive, cone shaped drill.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Nimbus mumbled, picking himself up. This was just plain ridiculous. To add to the trouble, he dropped his polyp when he jumped to protect Twilight. “I have had just about enough of this!”

The Big Sister looked at him, preparing to block an attack. Nimbus galloped forward and unexpectedly rammed her, head first, causing her to be thrown back. She landed on her hooves, and looked up to focus on Nimbus again.

“There was a hole in that ceiling already!” Nimbus shouted, thrusting his drill into her. She growled in pain as the metal scratched and tore at her suit. The Big Sister returned by slamming her drill into Nimbus’s side, launching him towards the entrance to the testing wing.

“Don’t just stand there...” Nimbus coughed, looking up at Rainbow and Applejack as he rolled onto his side, “Help me up!”

Applejack moved in first, but got slowed down by her launcher’s weight. She fired a rocket at the ceiling, with the apparent intention of bringing more of the ceiling down on the Big Sister. The Big Sister jumped back reflexively, not expecting her free-willed counterpart to catch the projectile with Telekinesis before it hit ceiling, and redirect it at her. Her armor took the hit head on, throwing her back into the wall next to Nimbus. The downed stallion reached out with his Plasmid hoof, stretching out the stalk of the Green Hoof within him and ensnaring the Big Sister in it. Rainbow Dash charged her, but she had already activated her drill and tore through the Nimbus’s plant, causing him to recoil in pain, and shoved the spinning weapon into Rainbow’s back.

Her armor prevented any bodily damage, but the impact took the wind out of Rainbow Dash. The Big Sister jumped over her and threw herself at Applejack, who was taking aim to fire another rocket. In a single, swift motion, the rocket exited the launcher and curved over the Big Sister as she threw it into the ceiling with a Telekinesis of her own. She then threw all of her weight into the drill, hitting Applejack hard enough to break chunks of out the concrete wall she was sent into.

Twilight took a defensive stance, challenging the Big Sister she knew she couldn’t beat.

“Twilight...” Fluttershy tapped her shoulder, “Let me...”

“Fluttershy? No!” Twilight pushed her back, “She’ll run right through you!”

The Big Sister slowly approached the two mares, looking between them as if contemplating which to kill first. A projectile suddenly shot through the air and hit the Sister in her oxygen tank, causing it to begin leaking into the air around them. She turned, howling in rage, letting Twilight and Fluttershy get a look at the damage on her tank. As she rushed for Nimbus, Fluttershy ran out into the middle of the room as well.

“Fluttershy, wait!”

“I’m done being a damsel in distress! I’m gonna do my part too!”

Nimbus lifted his crossbow to block the Sister’s drill. It’s frame bent, and snapped in half with another hit. The weapon now useless, he dropped the two halves in defeat. He shifted himself to face the red glow of the Sister’s helmet as she held the drill over him and prepared to strike. A smile formed on his face as he noticed Fluttershy behind her. The Big Sister burst into flames without warning, and fell over dead. Beyond her corpse was Fluttershy, operating the Ion Laser carried by the first Big Daddy they encountered. She had the heavy weapon propped up on a piece of rubble, still connected to it's former owner's foreleg. Fluttershy ran over to Nimbus.

“Thanks...” Nimbus said, “I owe you one...”

“No, that was for saving my life all of those times...”

Nimbus got up, very weary from being thrown around, and looked at the fried Big Sister before him.

“How'd you think to light up the tank on her back?” Nimbus asked weakly. It wasn’t in Fluttershy’s nature to be so... violent.

“I remembered how you dealt with the fire back in Arcadia,” she began, her voice uncertain, “and how the fire needed oxygen, so if I fired the laser at the tank on her back then... I...”

“Clever...” Nimbus said, watching as Twilight ran up from behind her and gave her a hug.

"I was so worried, give me more notice when you're gonna do something like that again, okay?"

Fluttershy nodded, looking up at Nimbus over Twilight's shoulder.

"Thanks," he said.

It was time to deal with that Big Sister. He removed the helmet, looking at the mare underneath. Her coat was a dull pinkish-purple, complemented by a wavy purple mane. She had no horn, so it was easier for Nimbus to place his hoof over her forehead and drain out her ADAM. When the absorption was complete, he dropped the body and turned back to the others. Rainbow was up, but Applejack still hadn’t moved.

Twilight was over her, pulling her helmet off and checking for any head injuries. Her horn lit up, and she scanned the rest of her friend’s body with magic. Her little sister just clung silently to her shoulder, her eyes clenched shut, not wanting to lose another family member.

“Since I can’t remove your suit...” Twilight reported, “This magical scan may not be completely accurate, but you’re fine underneath your suit. Your head, however...” She cast her detection spell over Applejack’s head, and continued, “I believe that last hit against the wall gave you a concussion.”

“What? That’s it?” Applejack chuckled softly, still trying to regain her breath. “I’ve had worse than a little concussion, Twilight...”

“No, you don’t understand. I know your body has been modified to resist physical impacts, and the suit aids that, but your brain doesn’t have the properties that the rest of your body does. I can heal you... but I need time. I don’t want you passing out during a fight.”

“Alright, Twilight, I trust you...”

Twilight looked back at Nimbus. “I’m sorry, Nimbus, but it’ll just have to be you and Rainbow.”

“Hold on,” Rainbow said, “What if another low life comes along and tries to mess with you? No, I’m staying right here.”

“Rainbow's right." Nimbus said, "I can handle myself, and whatever happens up there, but she's your protection right now. I'll go it alone."

“No, brother!” Oceana scrambled to get in front of him in order to capture his attention. “I want to come with you!”

“I can’t, Oceana... I’m sorry, I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“But you’ll keep me safe, right?”

“Actually, Nimbus,” Twilight said, hearing his conversation with his sister. “She might be able to find ADAM up there for you. It’s important for our survival. If you’re going to go on your own, you better have means of gathering it.”

“Yeah!” Oceana produced her needle, and tried to hop onto Nimbus’s back.

“No, Twilight,” Nimbus protested, “She’s a filly, she’s my sister! She’s not a tool to exploit for my own benefit.”

“Nimbus, Rapture is dangerous, you know that better than anypony else. If she doesn’t gather ADAM, were not going to make it out of here.”

Nimbus wanted to say something, but he knew that Twilight was right. Without Oceana, he had little chance of evening the playing field with Altos.

“Alright.” He said, lifting Oceana onto his back. “But,” he added, addressing the blue filly, “If things get too rough up there, I’m gonna bring you back down here.”

Oceana nodded.

He stepped into the elevator and pressed the button to send him up. The doors at the bottom had opened, but were too badly damaged to shut. The door at the peak of the shaft led them into a dark hallway, only lit by the glow from Nimbus’s helmet. Another door was at the end of the hallway, with a screen displaying one of Pinkamena’s videos on it.

“Hello again, you’ve reached the entrance to my chambers...” She sighed, looking away from the camera for a moment. “Go in and... deal with me. Hopefully, I’ve exhausted all of my defenses on you already, so I shouldn’t be too much of a challenge. I’ve quarantined part of the room off; the part of the room with the controls to the various devices here. I’m afraid you’ll have to... weaken me first, in order to kill me. There’s a biotoxin release at the far end of the room that should release an incapacitating agent into my chamber that should keep me from... well, attacking you the moment you enter the quarantine. Also, the door leading into my quarantine has been electrified to prevent me from escaping. You’ll want to flip the switch next to the door before you enter. Good luck.”

This was it. The screen turned off, and Nimbus pressed the button on the side of the door. It slid open, giving light to a large room with tiled floors, and a short metal staircase leading up to a reinforced glass wall on the right, with a frightening pink mare staring at him from behind it. Instead of straight, like it was in the recording, her mane was curled and standing on end. Her face was cut up and deformed, and looked as if it were stuck in a smile...

“You crashed my party...” she said, pressing her face against the glass, her voice carrying over the room’s speakers. “Congratulations! Mister Sparks has your goodie bag!” The smile twisted into an ugly scowl. Nimbus heard a sharp clicking, and streak of lightning darted past his face. Oceana squeaked in terror as Nimbus pulled back. To the left of Nimbus was a open space, lit only with a single light hanging from the center ceiling. That was also where the source of the electricity came from, a large stallion, covered head to tail in a suit of heavy metal. It was a Big Daddy. His helmet was similar in design to the Lancer’s, having a large piece with slits in it coming down over the face. One notable difference though, was the device on his back. Instead of the usual oxygen tank that went with the deep sea diver theme, there was a large cylindrical device, with a ball on a metal pole sticking a few feet out of the top.

The only other difference was what the device attached to. At the end of a cable that spanned the length of the Big Daddy’s shoulders was a modified version of the Ion Laser. The cable connected where the ammunition capsule would.

“See him out, Mister Sparks!” Pinkie shouted, as the weapon’s tip began to crackle with electricity. Nimbus leapt out of the way as a bolt of lightning raced towards him. As his hooves hit the ground to stop his descent, Oceana lost her grip on his back. She slid off of him, but Nimbus didn’t have time to pick her back up. The Big Daddy was firing his weapon, but if he moved it meant Oceana taking the hit. Electricity coursed through his body, causing his muscles to spaz out of control for a few moments.

“Get him, Brother!” Oceana called, watching Nimbus steady himself and charge at the Big Daddy. Since his enemy only had a gun, he shouldn’t be able to fight well in close combat. Nimbus brought his drill down on him, but received an unpleasant jolt of electricity for doing so. The Big Daddy had been hurt, but Nimbus had taken damage too.

“Heehee!” Pinkie giggled, watching Nimbus unknowingly electrocute himself. “Mister Sparks loves that joke!”

Mister Sparks was now on his back legs, preparing to throw the butt of his weapon down on the recovering Nimbus’s head. On the ground, Nimbus looked up briefly, and used his Overgrowth to pull the Big Daddy’s back legs out from under him, sending him crashing into the ground. Nimbus stood up took a look at the room before Mister Sparks got back up. He spotted the biotoxin release on the far wall, directly across from Pinkie’s chamber. The raised portion of the room which held the crazed scientist wasn’t large, so it should fill up fairly quickly. Pipes ran along the ceiling, leading to the exit of the room. One pipe that caught his attention was marked ‘water’. If he could break that pipe open, he could fry that Big Daddy. He’d have to be careful not to kill himself or Oceana though.

Nimbus’s thinking was cut short as the Big Daddy grabbed him by the shoulders and rammed his helmet against Nimbus’s. Although dazed, Nimbus glared and headbutted him back, forgetting the consequences of doing so. The shock emitted pushed him back, but surprisingly seemed to push the Big Daddy back as well. An idea crossed Nimbus’s mind, and he went with it. Nimbus fired his Electro Bolt at the beast, as he saw the weapon charging up. It went dark for a moment, but resumed charging again.

“What’s that Mister Sparks?” Pinkie pretended that the Big Daddy has said something, “Your gun likes lightning? That’s wonderful!”

The charge seemed to build up, and it was released as a powerful blast that Nimbus just barely dodged. He looked behind him and saw that the shot left a mark on the grey metal wall behind him, leaving it warped and charred. His gaze went up to the water pipe on the ceiling again. The Big Daddy charged his weapon again, but Nimbus had already tackled him, pushing back against the electricity flowing against him. Nimbus wrestled the Big Daddy to the ground, holding himself steady as each time he struck the other stallion he was violently jolted. His gun was still charging when Nimbus deployed his drill, aiming for his head, but he pushed out against the weapon with the side of his gun and thrust the barrel into his foe.

Nimbus rolled out of the way, armor rattling as the shot from the Big Daddy’s weapon blasted into ceiling, rupturing the pipe Nimbus has set him up to be directly beneath. Water began to flow into the room, making the weapon and backpack of the Big Daddy crackle and become silent as Mister Sparks roared in anger. Spotting Oceana hiding in the corner, he ran to her and quickly scooped her up before the Big Daddy’s gear exploded, throwing the wielder into the ground with lethal force. Nimbus was also thrown, and he curled himself protectively around Oceana to cushion her fall. His armor did just that, and the frightened, screaming filly landed safely on her big brother’s chest.

“Oceana...” Nimbus managed, looking to ensure she was alright. He was on his back, utterly exhausted from the combat, but he still had work to do. The floor was wet, and the room was filling with water. Taking Oceana on his back once more, he trotted to the biotoxin release. Nimbus couldn’t see her from his place in the lowered portion of the room. He wouldn’t know if the biotoxin worked until he went in.

“You should be fine now, Applejack.” Twilight stepped away from her now healed companion. “The healing spell might make you feel a bit dizzy, so take it easy for a few minutes.”

Applejack gave her thanks as Rainbow came up next to Twilight.

“Twilight?” She called her friend’s name.

“Yes Rainbow?” Twilight responded with a half-smile.

“What are we going to do when we’re done here?”

“I don’t know... we can’t stay in Rapture, that’s for sure. We’ll have to go to the surface, and start a new life,” Twilight said, looking up at the ceiling.

“Where will we go?” Rainbow asked, “We’re not going to be able to go back home. Not after what’s happened to us.”

“No, the Princess wouldn’t be happy if she knew that I had stopped sending her reports voluntarily.”

“And Big Macintosh,” Applejack added, adjusting her helmet, “Nopony’s gonna understand what happened to him...”

Fluttershy quietly waited in a dark corner, unsure of how to feel, because she wouldn’t be able to see Ponyville, the place she called home, ever again. At the same time, almost all of her friends were there with her. She wanted to take heart in the fact that she was at home among her friends, but in the gloomy atmosphere of Rapture, she just couldn’t.

“And without Pinkie...” Twilight continued, “Nothing will be the same...”

The sealed door of Pinkie’s quarantine hissed as it opened. He waited for the green mist that had eventually formed in her chamber to disperse as the new air came in, blowing through Oceana’s mane as he took a step back. He waited for a moment as the mist dispersed. Now, sure that he would not fall victim to the agent, Nimbus walked through the door, and indeed saw the pink mare collapsed just behind a table in the middle of the floor. It was decorated with a pink and white tablecloth, and had several teacups set up on each end. Nimbus was startled when he noticed blood dripping from the spout of a teapot that occupied the center of the table.

A voice from Pinkie’s control panel was heard. “If you’re hearing this, you’ve successfully gotten into my chamber. I’m... The gas will only leave me in an unconscious or near unconscious state, so you’ll have to finish the job. I’ve implanted a... a neural shock emitter into my brain. A button on this panel will activate it, sending a lethal amount of electricity through my body. If you’re unsure about killing me, think of it like this: I died long before I became what you see, so no matter what I may say in my barely conscious form, please, end my suffering. Thank you. Oh, and make sure to take the print out of my genetic key located at this panel after you’re through.”

Nimbus walked over to the panel as the recording played, looking at the large glass-cased button. It was no doubt the one she spoke of. He looked back at the table, and saw her pink hooves slowly reach out and pull her limp body over the table. There was a look of disparity and genuine fear in her eye.

“No!” She screamed, “Don’t... I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I’ll do anything! I’ll do whatever you want, just... please! Don’t kill me!”

Her eyes began to tear up, and Nimbus sighed. He knew what he had to do, so why did it seem so hard? Just press the damn button and be done with it. Nimbus walked over to the mare, and her ears perked up.

“You’re not gonna kill me, are you? You don’t have to, I promise! Pinkie Pie promise!” She pleaded, lazily making some silly motion with her hooves. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!”

Nimbus walked back over to the panel, looking at the button. This mare had tried to kill him. She was asking for an apology now? He shook his head, pulling the genetic key from the machine. She wanted her to kill him, but that was under the assumption that she couldn't be saved. Now, there were more options. Twilight could probably cure her, as smart as she was. He had to make the choice, though, and if he chose not to kill her now, the room would flood and destroy the console. That left them with having to deal with her if she got out of hoof.

“I’m not going to kill you.” He finally said.

“You- you’re not?” She stammered, unable to believe what she was hearing. “Th-Thank you!” In an instant, she had bounded over the table and wrapped him in a ferocious hug. “But... you killed all of my friends...”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Wha... what?”

“Your friends, your real friends, are with me. Come on.”

Pinkie had already collapsed onto the floor, the toxin and her sudden show of affection draining her energy.

"Or... not."