The Ocean Above Us

“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....