Bioshock: The Bond Between Sisters

Chapter 7

The Beast

Rainbow felt powerful. She had never come across anything like the behemoth now hanging from her back. It was a death machine, a tool of pure murder, and she liked how it felt on her. Rainbow didn't like feeling helpless; she hated feeling scared. With this, she felt like she was the one in control again. Nopony could push her around anymore. She was a force of nature, not some children’s doll. Scootaloo could be saved, and Dash was going to be the hero she always dreamed of, that is, if she can find the courage to push herself forward.

The path in front of her was a tarry black corridor with blinking red lights hovering somewhere deep inside. From the trail of blood and destruction, it was clearly the path that the filly disappeared down, along with the beast.

Her better judgement was having an aneurysm, but her curiosity pulled her like an overzealous dog yanking its owner by the leash. Rainbow Dash has many strengths, self control has never been one of them, neither has patience, or good judgement. However, her bravery and heroism are nearly unmatched.

The hallway was rotting. The air was stagnant, and every breath felt like inhaling a chemical weapon. Frayed cables rained sparks in a shower of orange fireworks, and death loomed over Rainbow in ominous clouds of acid rain.

Suddenly, there was a demonic cackle from the bowels of the cavern. Rainbow Dash’s heart fractured and she bit down. A cascading spray of lead launched into the darkness.

There was a hair-raising crack, and the low light fizzled to nothing. The ripped cables ceased to spit their lighting.

All noises turned off.

The lights flickered. Like a looming mural smeared on the faded bricks, a tall shadow crawled up the back wall. As the bulbs flashed, the shadow jerked and shrunk.

Whatever was coming, it was getting closer.

Rainbow Dash froze.

I gotta go back!

The pastel blue pegasus wheeled around and began to gallop away. Rainbow leaped in the air to fly, but instead of soaring into the air as expected, she sunk like a rock. As she crashed to the rusty iron grate below her, she could feel all her air being vacuumed from her lungs. A sharp sting jabbed into her legs, and soon a warm trickle of blood seeped from her fresh wounds.

What's different? Why can't I fly anymore? Suddenly it came to her. It was the gun. A long hunk of steel, wasn't going to do her balance any favors. She gritted her teeth and flexed her muscles. Her cuts burned like fire as she peeled herself up, but she put on a brave face.

Rainbow began to limp to the exit, but before she could move more than a few hoof-lengths away, something closed onto her tail.

Dash tried to run. But all she did was scrabble her hooves. Her eyes widened; she was being pulled. Ever so slowly, she was being dragged backwards.

Rainbow Dash did something she hated, something she would only do in a true emergency. She cried for help. She cried and struggled, but no pony came.

After a few moments, she felt a splitting knock on her head. Before she could even know what hit her, she was out like a shattered light.

***

Applejack looked around. She was trotting down a glass tube with only a wrench slung over her back and the voice of a pony she had never met coming through a staticky radio.

Around her was the ocean wasteland. Wrecked buildings jut from massive sand dunes and drooped in unnatural directions. Ecosystems of undersea animals floated by on either side of the orange pony. Everything from massive squid to tiny skittering crustaceans moved by in an endless cascade of alien life.

Applejack's hooves splashed through a layer of ankle high water that was pouring through spider web cracks in the surrounding glass. She was miserable.

“How much farther till we reach that city center ya keep talkin about?” She moaned.

“Shouldn't be too long now sweetheart. But there's something you ought to know before ya go rushin’ in there,” admitted Silver River.

“What is it now?”

“The city center is one of the only places in this shit hole that's still inhabited by anypony. When you get there you're gonna have to be wide.” Silver paused. “Some of the things there are not gonna take too kindly to an outsider.”

“Like what?” Applejack asked as she hopped over some shattered tiles.

“Like the Big Daddies.”

Applejack scoffed. “What in tarnation is a ‘big daddy’? Is that supposed to sound intimidatin’?”

“Laugh all ya want, but this is no joke.” Silver lowered his voice. “Little Sisters are extremely valuable down here in Rapture. There was a time where many ponies were stealing them to make money off their plasmid producing power. So Mother Goose had the idea to make protectors for them. Through a series of heinous genetic experiments that question the very fabric of morality, the bitch was able to create a breed of monsters of which the world has never seen. They're more like machines than they are ponies. If you're not scared of Big Daddies, you have either never seen one, or have a death wish.” Silver sighed. “I'm just sayin’ maybe you should be careful, huh?”

A chill drove up Applejack’s spine. “I'll keep that in mind.”

***

A deep throbbing pain wedged itself in between Rainbow’s skull and her skin. Rainbow Dash was in shambles. Where was she? What had dragged her away? She yanked herself into a more upright position. An aching sense of pumping blood flushed through her head as she opened her eyes. For a few moments, all she could see was stars, but soon the horrors set in.

Standing not far away was the thin body of a mangled splicer.

Rainbow Dash began breathing like it was an Olympic sport. She had to escape, but how?

She took in her surroundings. She was on an operation table in some sort of hospital room. There were large glass windows leading to a long hallway. Down the hall were doorways to more rooms of a similar design.

The splicer was toying with some tools at a workbench on the other side of the room. Next to her was a trolley with a few assorted items such as, a magnifying glass, a pair of scissors, some bandages, and a scalpel.

A scalpel… What's going on here!? Rainbow Dash tried to calm herself and focus on the situation, but everything was overwhelming her senses.

She shook her cloudy head and got ready to run for it. She took one deep breath and lifted a hoof, or she tried at least. Her limbs were bound to the table.

Come on Rainbow, this can't be the end. She took a deep breath and tried to tear herself from the bed with all her might.

Nothing.
It was useless.
She was doomed.

The splicer turned around. It was in a stained lab coat and a strange animal mask. He trotted up to Dash and pushed his face into her personal space. Its beastal mask was grinning.

“Yes yes, you will make a perfect subject.” The splicer stretched out a matted leg and stroked the blue pegasus’ chin in a long sweeping gesture. It cackled and moved over to a gramophone in the corner of the room. Then it pulled a large record from a box underneath and placed it on top of the turntable. Suddenly, the needle fell, and a scratchy, skip-ridden tune pumped from the horn and into the stale air. Rainbow assumed it was supposed to be relaxing, but it was more annoying than anything else.

“What shall I do with this one, Princess Cadance,” the splicer growled as it flipped through a book of photographs.

Cadance? Dash’s head rolled as if she had been hit again. Why is he talking abo… Does he really think she's here?

“No no no. I can't.” The splicer paced around the room in jerky spasms. “No!” He was staring bloodshot into a dark corner.

Is he talking to somepony?

“That killed them last time!”

At that, Rainbow Dash’s constraints felt quite a bit tighter.

“Why would it work this time?” It put a hoof to its face. “I'm trying to make her beautiful not disgusting! No! No no no no NO!” It kicked the trolley next to Rainbow with explosive force, causing it to clatter to the ground and all of its contents to go flying about.

A scalpel lodged itself into Rainbow’s left wing, and a slow bead of blood dripped to the ground.

The splicer cocked his head and stared at the small pool, his neck bent at a supernatural angle.

“DAMN IT!” It screeched. “STUPID! STUPID! STUPID! I always mess them up! I MAKE THEM UGLY! Cadance I'm so sorry! I wanted to please my princess! But all I can do is make monsters, disgusting monsters!”

It trotted over and looked down on Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash looked up, her eyes wide and pleading. Everypony knows those eyes. They may not have seen them first hand, but they know. They were the eyes of an animal at slaughter.

***

After the operation, Scootaloo didn't feel quite the same. She didn't know what was wrong, but it felt like she was looking at the world through a tinted window.

There was something else inside her, something that controlled all of her movements. For her, life was like a windup mouse. She moved, but her direction was predetermined by another force. She couldn't figure it out though; every time she formed an idea, it slipped away from her like a balloon. She knew there was a big metal pony, and she knew that she was supposed to call him Mr. Bubbles?

A few days after the operation, (maybe it was a few months, Scootaloo couldn't tell.) she was going down a corridor with Mr. Bubbles. It was a corridor she vaguely remembered, so they had probably trotted it before. It was in a medical district, one of them. They all looked the same to Scootaloo, so it could have been A or B, who knows.

There were doors going down the hall, doors on both sides, lots of doors, so many doors Scootaloo couldn't even count them. Then again, she couldn't really count at all.

There were scummy windows looking into each room. Inside there were things happening. There were lots of things and noises going on that no filly should ever have to see. Scootaloo saw every single one. Even though she forgot them seconds after they flashed before her eyes, they still left some sort of scar.

After trotting for Celestia knows how long, something changed. When Scootaloo’s neck turned and looked into a chamber, she saw something familiar. It was a blurry rainbow. A fracture of a memory popped into her head.

Rainbow Da…

“Look Mr. Bubbles!” exclaimed Scootaloo’s mouth, but it wasn't her. It was the Little Sister. “I want to see that one!” She pointed a hoof over to the rainbow.

The metal behemoth next to her lurched and let out a rumbling roar. The beastial call rattled the whole hall, and suddenly there was silence.

Everything in Rapture fears the Big Daddy.

It trudged its monstrous iron body over to the window step by heavy step, its legs crushing the tiles beneath like a fallen tree squishing an unsuspecting bunny.

The Little Sister rushed to the window and pressed her muzzle against the glass.

I love you ra…

Before Scootaloo could finish her thought, the Little Sister pushed the idea from her skull like dust into the dustbin.

“Her!” It said. “That one, the rainbow one. She’s pretty; I want to keep her!”

Scootaloo got a strange sinking feeling. Was it fear? That didn't feel right to her.

No, it was dread.