The Ocean Above Us

“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.