The Ocean Above Us

“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.