"Oh rise, Rapture, rise!
We turn our hopes up to the skies!
Oh rise, Rapture, rise!
Upon your wings our dreams will fly.
A city in the ocean's deep
A promise that we'll always keep
To boldly turn our eyes upon the pr-pr-pr-pr-pr-" I quickly smashed the aged record player, finding nothing but annoyance from hearing yet another broken record skip continuously. I never did like that song anyways.

As I pulled my arm off of the now shattered music machine, I noticed that my rubber gloves had begun to dispatch themselves again. More than likely, it was because of the recent trek I had made outside for repairs. Bottom of the ocean or not, someone had to keep this city alive. Even if it was already dead.

I sighed as I looked around for a nearby mirror or reflective surface. See, one major flaw of my suit's design was that I could not seem to do any self repairs whatsoever without a point of reference. Personally, I blamed it on the delay that the suit caused my motors skills. Factually though, it was just because the suit was so large that it was hard to figure out what goes where without getting stuck. Nothing quite as embarrassing as trapping your arms together because of one loose bolt.

I lumbered around for a few minutes, my heavy footsteps echoing throughout Fontaine's Department Store, before I found a large cracked mirror near the display table. Comically enough, the mirror was in the best shape that I had seen any other in Rapture for the past seven years. "Seven years. I feel like fate just set that joke up on purpose."

I stepped in front of the mirror and began my repairs, watching as my hand reached over my wrist, avoiding the electrical shock unit, or ESU, that had been clasped over my glove. I was, as many would call it, a Big Daddy. Sorta. I was, like most Big Daddies, covered in metal and armor of all kinds. I had a white under-cloth, barely visible under any of my armor platings and sealants, coupled with several blue strips of paint that ran along my armor, mostly along the edges. The chest plate that was welded to my single, small eyed helmet, was made portruding outwards; Purposely made to look that way purely for intimidation, and protection. My gloves were big and bulky, like those of all the other models. Though, unlike a Bouncer, a Rosie, or even an Alpha series model, I was given an ESU as a weapon, rather than a rivet gun or a drill.

Notice anything odd? A Big Daddy with no lethal weaponry, painted blue, and overly armored platings. Like I had said, I wasn't exactly a normal Big Daddy. If anything, I was more like a security gaurd. The reason? I had to be the worst guardian in existence. When I was first "volunteered" into the Big Daddy Initiative, I lost three Little Sisters within my first year. Knowing that I had lost them, whether I knew they were my daughters at the time or not, always resulted in a strong emotional whiplash.

I would go days on end mourning the death of the little girl that I had known as my daughter, even if I was only made to believe so. What baffled the scientists at Ryan's laboratories though was the fact that I could mourn at all. I was originally a Rosie model after all. Made to be without emotion, thought, or any sort of mindset that deviated from protecting my charge. Try as they might though, they could never seem to truly remove these issues from my system.

After about two more attempts at proving my worth, both of which failed miserably, the scientists finally decided to downgrade me. My suit design and weaponry was changed, and they even went through the trouble of "programming" me to protect people rather than Little Sisters. So, that's what I did. For the next five years, I carried out my duties as a 'Security Daddy', as I had become known as, making sure that everyone abided by Ryan's laws no matter what. I still remember the day it all went wrong, starting off with a bombing on the New Year's Day party, leading to dozens, if not hundreds of rebellions everyday. Rapture fell apart from the inside out.

Splicers, that is to say, once normal people who had taken genetic enhancers called Plasmids, were among the bigger problems. They became obsessed with EVE, a concoction that allowed people to continually use a Plasmid at will, and more specifically, ADAM, a miracle drug that was extracted from rare sea slugs from underwater, often used to buy Plasmids or heal wounds at near instantaneous rates.

Friends began to strangle friends, babies were smothered in their cribs, and even family members began to turn on each other, just for another small dose of ADAM. Time went on, and things continued to occur of this nature, even after Rapture's downfall. Ryan and Fontaine, the two competing heads of Rapture, were both killed by a man known as Jack, who had come and left without a word, taking several little sisters with him as he did so. Their replacement, Sofia Lamb, did little more than to encourage the rising up of splicers on Big Daddies before she, along with a well known Alpha series referred to as Delta and a large portion of Rapture, fell into the briny pits below.

Now, things had gotten worse. Much worse. Before, Big daddies and Splicers weren't the only things that roamed around, with the occasional Big Sister of course. There were survivors, people who had gone through most of Rapture's downfall without any issue whatsoever, and managed to make it by just fine on their own. Soon though, about three years ago in fact, a splicer killed the last available Little Sister in Rapture. That was when all hell broke loose.

Faced with little to no ADAM left, the splicers turned on anything else that wasn't themselves. Survivors were swarmed and killed, along with Big Daddies, and even the mighty Big Sisters. All of them fell like trees, each heavier than the last as they toppled over. Now, I was the last Big Daddy, or survivor, or anything that wasn't a splicer.

Luckily, I couldn't be killed so easily. Well, technically I could, but not really. When the scientists had first demoted me, they believed that I should be made to last. My suit was given an automatic vita-chamber chip, reviving and helping me at any nearby vita-chambers every time I seemed near death, which was often. After enough deaths to make a cat green with envy, the splicers eventually gave up on killing me, claiming me to be a 'metal feline'. It's a good thing too, death wasn't exactly painless after all.

Though death was a given to me, I wasn't immortal, nor was I weak. Anytime I would be swarmed, usually by fifty or so splicers, I would manage to take out an average of about half of them before I would finally succumb. At some point, I had a lost count of exactly how many splicers I had killed after the first hundred or so. As for the "not immortal" bit, the vita-chamber chip actually held a major flaw to it. If at anytime any part of my suit was removed the chip would self-destruct. It was clever in that it wouldn't give anyone else a near endless life, but it was flawed in that, if any part of my suit came off, even by accident, there would be nothing to keep me alive. That's why I had to repair the gloves as soon as possible, to keep myself alive. Not that I had any reason to stay alive that is, but I did want to see what else would happen as time passed in the underwater hell known as Rapture.

As I tightened the last of the bolts holding the gloves in place, I felt the ground below me start to tremble, if only slightly. Splicers from all around the city yelled out monstrously as the trembling began to grow in volume. Screams of excitement. I pointed my helmet towards a nearby window, looking out towards the deep ocean floor as a bright light appeared and grew brighter and brighter, enveloping the outside in white, before fading back to its original level of of darkness. Only this time, the sea floor was gone, and the city seemed to be floating, rather than resting at the bottom of the sea. The ocean itself had a much more clear and vivid appearance, rays of light occasionally making their way down from what was likely the water's surface. "Has it been a year already?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the two princesses of day and night calmly waited in their throne room, the royal guards diligently on stand near them, a loud groan could be heard coming through the door. Both of the princesses seemed to flinch, if only slightly, as the guards opened the door for one of the more infamous members of the royal family, Prince Blueblood. He came in with a grimace, unsurprisingly, and immediately began to do what he was widely known for. Complaining. "Auntie, do I have to go on this diplomacy mission? We don't even know anything about this kingdom!" The 'prince' whined. Several of the guards in the room rolled their eyes while the princess of the sun sighed and forced a smile towards her snooty family member. Were it not for the Prince's arrogance, he could have easily seen through this facade.

"Yes, nephew. If we are to make peace with this kingdom, then we must all be present." She explained in her kindest possible tone, though she held nothing but her utmost contempt behind it. "After all, this kingdom only appears once a year, so you'll only be gone for a day." Blueblood let out a resentful sigh, but he knew fully well that there was no arguing with his 'auntie' once she got like this, so he held his distasteful tongue and once again exited the throne room to await his calling.

The moment the doors closed behind him, nearly everypony in the room sighed in relief. They were stressed as is, Blueblood would only add to the issue. Let alone the fact that they had to deal with him throughout the entire mission. Nevertheless, they resumed to their posts and awaited patiently.

Unbeknownst to them, however, two more ponies had decided to join them in their voyage as well, having hid themselves behind one of the several large pillars that decorated the room. "Are you sure about this, Rarity? We only came to Canterlot to visit Mr. Fancypants. Besides, wouldn't the princesses be... mad, if they found us here?" A timid yellow Pegasus with a pink mane whispered to a white unicorn with a purple mane.

"Don't worry so much darling." Rarity reassured. "While we may be here to fulfill an order, that doesn't mean we can't... look around a little. Besides, I've been hearing a lot about this new kingdom. Apparently, it just a pops up out of nowhere, deep in the Ponycific sea, only to disappear into the night. Oh, it's so mysterious it gives me jitters just thinking about it!" Rarity quickly covered her mouth with both of her hooves, muffling an oncoming squee of excitement. Fluttershy, however, was no less concerned by this display than she originally was. Truthfully, she was afraid. Afraid of what the princesses would say if they were found, afraid of traveling so far away from Canterlot and Ponyville, but most of all, afraid of what this new kingdom would hold.

Suddenly, the loud chiming of a clock rang through the air, the bells seeming to count themselves along. 1...2...3...

The guards stiffened ever so slightly as everypony in the room counted along with the clock. 6...7...8...

Both Luna's and Celestia's eyes narrowed, they're horns beginning to glow in preparation. 10...11...12...

Rarity and Fluttershy's breaths caught. Rarity's out of excitement, while Fluttershy's was due to her anxiety.

"It is time." Princess Luna stated as she looked towards the guards. "Retrieve Prince Blueblood and any other royal guards that you can at once! We have until the clock once more strikes 12 to return!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I could never get used to that. For some reason, once a year for twelve hours, Rapture would be surrounded by a blindingly white light, and the ocean around it would seem... different. I could never get my head around it, but then again, it made no difference did it? If anything, it at least made for a good light show. Even the splicers agreed that it was a welcome change of pace from Rapture's usual dull and red. Red being blood, that is. Honestly, I just wish something exciting would happen for once...

"I have the oddest feeling that I'm gonna regret that wish."

Author's Notes:

Yup. For any of you who are confused, allow me to explain. See, throughout my life, there have been three games/ game series that have always caught my eye. Fallout, Dark souls, and Bioshock. As homage to both my pony and bioshock fandom, I have decided to create this story. Oh, and as a side note, this occurs after the good ending for Bioshock 1, and bad ending for Bioshock 2.