“I really appreciate you coming on such short notice, Luna,” Twilight said as the two walked into the foal and youth wing of the hospital.

“T’was no trouble at all, dear Twilight,” she replied. “I will admit, a filly appearing by magical means and falling into the local lake would be worrisome enough, but what you sent my sister and I all but demanded my personal attention.”

I walked onto the sandy beach, ignoring the damage I did to the pier in favour of observing my surrounding and observers. The sky was a light, carefree blue. I swallowed my nerves at the sight, it went on forever and I suddenly no longer felt like a Big Daddy. I felt small… insignificant even, just by looking up. Back in Rapture, I'd never get this feeling when I went outside the walls of glass and steel and into the ocean’s embrace. The seemingly empty expanse would go on past the lights of Rapture until it became too dark to see anymore, but the sky…

I've never seen a mile before, yet here I was looking at clouds, mountains and even a forest that had to have been dozens of miles away.

It hit me just how little I knew of the world I had left; the surface I've never seen, if it was anything like this one, must have had cities that could rival Rapture in size with ease. There’s so much room, I thought, there could be cities that make Rapture look like a model. A small, but very unique, model.

And the town I was in, by the looks of it, probably covered just as many if not more square miles. Strange, yellow kelp like plants made up the majority of the roofs atop white walls with thick, wooden supports. Most of the houses were one or two stories tall, which made sense seeing as to how they didn't need to build upwards to make the most of limited space.

I brought up a file that had just finished installing and gave it a once over. Gen-Kno 101 wasn't the largest file I had but it was the most useful for this moment. I was likely near or in Ponyville, a small village of the country Equestria, which was a major power of the Hoofprint continent and the planet I was on is named Equis; made up of many pony species which include earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi, crystal ponies, thestrals, zebras, changelings and alicorns; their edible foodstuffs included hay, fruit, flowers, vegetables, pastries and a somewhat vague sub-file about the general diets of the various aforementioned pony breeds; social skills, some common knowledge, little history, some basic manners and the etiquette for interacting with royalty. Each of those had one, two or even three sentences with the bare minimum of knowledge needed to avoid trouble, but the last folder in the file, which I didn't name, only had one sentence. Learn more and update this file.

Not the most helpful of files, but it would act as a starting point and, so long as I add whatever I learn to it when I rest, I would be able to instantly access the knowledge without fault should I need a refresher on anything.

I don't think the other kinds of Big Daddies had that feature, but a great memory was something all Lancers had. I could recall the faces of my creators perfectly and, while that may not sound so useful, I never forget a face. Especially one attached to a Splicer that engaged my protocols or attacked another Big Daddy.

If they weren't killed and they got away, their faces and what I knew of them were added to a file I made and should I see them again, I'd immediately go on high alert or attack and kill them so long as it wasn't in violation of my protocols or against my programming.

Returning myself to the present, having spent a few seconds reading and thinking, I panned over the crowd of unnaturally colourful ponies that made it seem as if they'd popped out of a children's book the Little Sisters would read now and then. Of course, what passed for children's books in Rapture generally focused on how Rapture was a wondrous paradise while the surface was a never ending nightmare.

Even the normal children were programmed in their own way.

As I looked the herd over, I meticulously made as many notes on their expressions as possible. Many were obviously cautious, some were outright scared and a minority seemed largely indifferent to me. No weapons of any kind, no armour and, to my surprise, one BruteMore addict. I had to keep myself from staring at him for too long, lest I be the antagonist and start unnecessary trouble for myself.

He was just sitting there drinking something from a very small teacup and watching me with polite interest, muscular as can be and nearly a foot shorter than me with, laughably, miniscule wings.

I guess that BruteMore does shrink certain aspects, I thought as I turned away from my inspection of the Brute. A file was already made for him and read: White Pegasus Brute, moderate threat assessment and mild temperament. Suspicious, but not immediately hostile. Advised caution.

I heard someone shouting incoherently behind me and turned my head, felt nice to work that creak in my neck out by the way, to see an earth pony with a fishing rod fighting something in the lake. My guess was he never even noticed my destructive arrival as he was too caught up with his catch.

Turning forwards again brought me my first introduction of this world, it also brought snacks because pink horrors that are crazier than a mob of Splicers playing charades, one of whom tried to drag me into the game for reasons to this day I couldn't comprehend, still need to eat.

I don't know what was going through her head when she smashed a cupcake into my porthole, but my programming stated her intentions were non-hostile so I didn't impale her. The small pasty had pink icing, made out of pink cake and covered with a pink paper cup-like wrapper… It was quickly becoming my least favorite colour, and I never even bothered to have a favorite colour before.

She started bouncing and singing something about greetings and well wishes. I caught a few bits of the song as I turned around and did my best to wash the pastry off in the lake to only moderate success. Not even a day in this thing and it’s already getting dirty, I grumbled as I splashed my hooves in the water again. Typical.

Shortly after I cleared my vision to a satisfying degree, I turned around just as she was sliding on the ground and spreading her forelegs in some grand gesture, panting from her little musical and looking up at me with an expecting look.

“Well,” she panted. “What did, you think?”

“Of what?” I asked. My voice as deep as the ocean and just as harsh, but with a slight echo from my helmet and a strong sense of indifference and slight anger colouring my words. “Your lack of forethought and self control? Or the song and dance I didn't pay attention to?”

“My Welcome to Ponyville song, of course,” she answered cheerfully. Just my luck, the first pony I meet is as dense as my helmet.

“Didn't pay attention,” I reiterated, or more like repeated seeing how she didn't catch the meaning from my earlier answer.

“Oh,” she frowned. I thought that would be the end of it until she jumped back onto her hooves with a wide grin. “Then I'll just have to do it all over again!”

Whether this mare had brain damage, ate borax and washed it down with bleach when she was young or simply a natural born idiot, I didn't know. I didn't want to know. I also didn't want to hear her song and see her dance, which ended before it began when I walked past her.

“Hey, where’re you going?” she yelled before jumping into my path.

Obviously, subtlety is not my strong suit. Bluntness and indifference to the suffering of most others on the other hoof…

I leaned down and brought the front of my metal muzzle directly against her fleshy one before opening the vents to the outside with a thought, located not on the back of my helmet but now conveniently in front of my nose, and snorted a small cloud of steam in her face.

“Somewhere preferably far, far away from you,” I stood back up to my full height to empathize my statement. I was easily two feet taller than her on all fours, discounting the horn. The sharp horn that housed my Ion Laser, I assumed. Not like there was a lot of other places it could be, but I would have to read the new file to make sure.

I breathed the fresh air in for the first time and froze. I could smell her, my daughter. Turning from the shell-shocked looking mare, I tracked the scent to a red and white checkerboard blanket spread out on the ground by a tree and looked it over.

To one direction was the lake, where the pheromone trail was strongest, while to my right was a much, much fainter trail that headed towards the rest of the town. The blanket itself had a pool of the scent in one specific spot where it was strongest that was directly connected to the strong trail, while the fainter pheromone trail separated from it and formed a second pool a few feet away from the stronger one.

Something or somepony came in contact with my daughter.

The worst part, however, was the stronger pool where my daughter was for a short amount of time only had a trail to the lake. It was as if she vanished or disappeared instantly from where she was laying. I could follow the faint trail, but that had little to no guarantee of intersecting with anywhere my daughter had been sent to.

“Why are you smelling our picnic blanket?” the pink mare had somehow managed to not only climb on top of me without my notice, but also leaned over my helmet to stare into my porthole. I realized she wasn't attempting to tear me apart with hooks about the same time as I was crouching down to leap onto my back and flatten her beneath my bulk.

Pity, I thought as I stood up again.

“I'm trying to find my daughter,” I answered reluctantly. It was highly unlikely that the village idiot would be of any help, and if she was I'd just have to grit my teeth and leave her with some string and a paperclip to amuse herself once her usefulness ran out.

Shame I didn't have either of those, but I was also sure an empty cardboard box would work just as well.

“Adorable little filly with a dress and ribbons?” she asked with a widening grin.

“Possibly,” I answered eagerly. Maybe I'll make a token effort to find a big box for this mare if she proves useful.

“She fell outta the sky from this ball of light about a half hour ago and landed in the lake,” she gave me an inquisitive glare before she continued. “Kinda like you did, but you sunk and she floated. Are you sure you're related to her, mister heavy-bottoms?”

Did, did this idiot call me fat? I wasn't happy, or neutral, but I also wasn't murderous rage angry… annoyed seemed to best describe the feeling. I could already tell she would be a large source of annoyance in the future so I decided to establish my dominance there and then.

I swung my head and threw her into the center of the lake about thirty yards away, I think I may have even smiled when I watched the large plume of water. It made me feel better. It also got rid of the only pony who'd approached me, one who was also useful, but I should be able to find some-

Pink… Once again, I had a porthole smeared with pink. The moment I turned away from the lake, she was right beside me with one foreleg pulled back as if to throw a punch. Of course. Teleportation, why anyone would have wanted that Plasmid was beyond me. One of the most expensive Plasmids that was also the least stable, they marketed it by saying insanity wasn't a side effect, but a benefit.

Until they realised they had no way to keep anyone with it in prison or out of locked rooms. Ryan had to post additional security to the topmost floors incase anyone tried to teleport out of the city. Of course, he couldn't simply take it off of the shelves, that would be logical and effective as well as against his beliefs on how business shouldn't be restricted.

But none of that explained how she was, to my limited vision, completely dry.

Bloody Tartarus, I groaned as I sat down without any attempt at doing so gently. She was staring at me with an expectant grin that slowly faded as I glared at her through my filthy yellow porthole.

“Aww,” she whined. “How am I supposed to give you surprise cupcakes if you're wearing that suit?”

“That's the point, you dullard,” I sighed. “Now I got to go wash this mess off, again.”

“Oh, here!” I watched through a little bit of clean porthole as she reached into a small, overflowing picnic basket and held out a stack of napkins, smiling bashfully. “Sorry about getting your suit messy.”

Well, if all else, at least she knew some manners. I grabbed the stack with my booted hoof, the napkins crumpling it in my magical grip, and wiped my porthole. It left some smears, but my vision cleared enough to see her looking thoughtfully at me.

“You missed some,” she giggled. “Here, let me get that for you.”

Before I could react, she leapt forward and licked my porthole!

I wonder if she would survive without lasting, crippling injuries if I threw her into a tree, I thought. It'd go against my programming, however, and that only added to my anger. My programming said as long as she wasn't seriously injured, crippled or killed by my actions, I could take moderate measures to protect myself as long as she wasn't a real threat to me. At the most, I could just throw her into the lake until she proved her hostility.

I couldn’t beat her until she had a near death experience, but I also could push her around as long as it wasn't near a cliff. Hooray for morals, I mentally mumbled.

“Thanks,” I said sarcastically. “I always did enjoy total strangers licking me.”

Sadly, this wasn't the first time I'd been violated by someone's tongue. Depressingly, this time I couldn't grab her by the jaw and rip her face in half to prevent it from happening again.

Some Splicer got drunk on rotgut, just walked up to me, bent over and licked my groin like I would somehow take my dive suit off and impale the drunk right there.

The worse part was the Splicer was a guy and the mess he made when I separated his face stained my crotch. Confused the hell out of the scientists until someone watched the security film. Thinking back, their faces were kinda funny.

“You do!?” she yelled gleefully. “I always thought I was the only one!”

It took a moment for me to respond, but when I did I put as much anger behind my words as I could; which is quite a lot. “You are the dumbest thing I have ever met and that includes Leeroy Jenkins, an utter dumb-plot who tried to kill me by himself with only a pipe wrench and charged me while screaming his own name!”

I punched that idiot so hard his neck snapped and then stomped his chest in for good measure. Good times, I'm going to miss excessive violence now that I can actually enjoy it but can't partake in it over the slightest excuse… I mean reason.

She gasped, her eyes teared up and her mane starting losing its puffiness. I was actually shocked when, instead of crying about my insult, she once more leaped forward and wrapped her forelegs around my neck. I was just about to grab her and throw her as far into the lake as I could when she said something.

“Somepony tried to kill you!? Oh no wonder why you're so unhappy and angry and a big ole meanie pants!”

Seriously, I thought. I just insulted you and you're hugging me.

“Now don't you worry, auntie Pinkie is here and won't let anyone hurt you,” she sniffled as she released me and backed up a few steps.

“I'm absolutely sure we have no relation,” I grumbled. Stupid, crazy mare just smiled knowingly and ignored my comment.

“Now how can I make you feel better, hmm?” Pinkie asked, a fitting name for the pink mare. I considered telling her I left a big rock at the bottom of the lake and watching her drown trying to get it, but as much as I would like to get rid of her via loophole, she still had some usefulness to me.

“You said you may've saw my daughter earlier. Do you know where she is now? I really need to find her.”

“Well,” she said, drawing the word out. “After my friend Applejack saved her from the lake, my other friend Twilight brought her to the hospital incase she was hurt because she wasn't waking up and my other, other friend Spike-”

“Pinkie,” I interrupted her, nearly shouting to catch her completely attention. “I really need you to focus. Can you do that, scatterbrain?”

I swore I heard some kind of thunk, thunk, thunk when she nodded enthusiastically.

“Okay,” I sighed. “Where's the hospital?”

“Oh! It's this way,” she jumped up and… bounced away.

“You could just point me in the general- Ah buck it.” I stood up and followed her. It seemed like she was traveling the same direction as the faint trail, so maybe I could keep an eye out for a box and get my headache to finally start fading away.

Author's Note

Protocols,
Programming,
Personality.

Protocol One, in effect under cause; locate your daughter.

Questions? Comments? Let me know below, and I'll reply just before I post a new chapter.