This was getting ridiculous. For some damned reason, the Fontaine Fisheries seems to be the epicenter of annoyances and excitement. I had just finished fighting off another 28 splicers, without dying this time, and I could already hear more coming. I could understand if they had decided to fight me for fun, they do that a lot actually, but they never do it this often. It's usually one fight, and that's it. I've been in three in the matter of two and a half hours!

"Aaararrarrrghhhh!!"

Four. Seriously though, what the hell was attracting them here!?!

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"R-rarity? Do you think they're l-looking for us?" Fluttershy asked her good friend as they both hid and looked away from the violence that the 'metal feline' was committing. Rarity, panting slightly from having to rush around so quickly while keeping herself clean, didn't answer as she heard the sound of the last splicer from the more recent group meet a painful death.

"Aaararrarrrghhhh!!"

It sent shivers up her spine, while Fluttershy simply tried to cover her ears and tune out the death and violence that would never be found back in their home. The two of them couldn't believe that they were actually following this... well, whatever it was. Nonetheless, it was unknowingly stopping the splicers from reaching them, so they couldn't complain. After all, if it died, it would come back within a matter of seconds. If they were killed, then...

"We'd better get moving darling." Rarity suggested as she peaked over the debris she and Fluttershy had chosen to hide behind, flinching as she saw the remains of the splicers that had fought with the metal behemoth, only slightly able to withhold a gag.

"This is your own fault, Rarity." The white unicorn thought to herself. "You're the one who decided to snoop around, and now, your friend is suffering for it." She looked towards the still cowering Fluttershy, a massive surge of guilt jolting through her as she saw the fear and confusion in her eyes.

"The sooner we get out of here, the better."

Rarity was cut off by another sound of a splicer meeting its demise.

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5. Five goddamned groups of splicers in a matter of two and a half hours. I listened closely to the silent cries of the dying city, glad to hear only the city was crying out instead of another group of splicers. They must have realized not to mess with me at this point... That, or they're regrouping. Lets just hope it's the former of the two.

As I scraped the remains of a splicer off of my boots onto a nearby rock, I couldn't help but get annoyed. Someone was still watching me, I could feel it. It's been like this since those ponies from earlier had left. Though I still question how sane I was at the time, I could tell pretty easily that they were real, their fear was real... their offer was real... I shook off the thought before I could get back into another slump. This was really not the time.

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The girls continued to follow the metal giant for hours, occasionally having close calls as either splicers would pass right by them, or the very being they were trailing behind would look over in their direction whenever they had accidentally made a sound.

These instances aside, they still managed to make it just fine. Perhaps they could survive this ordeal after all.

*Crash*

The sounding of a falling structure cut them off. They both quickly peered out of the bathroom that the two were hiding in, nearly screaming right then and there as they spotted what would have to be the biggest splicer they had seen yet. It was nothing but muscle in clothing, seeming more attune to a gorilla than a splicer. Its top half was obviously stronger than its much smaller and weaker looking bottom half, but that didn't mean that they could necessarily outrun it. It let out a horrible yell before jumping down in front of their unknowing gaurdian and sniffing the air, much like a dog. It was looking for something.

As for what it was looking for, Fluttershy and Rarity both began to tremble as it looked towards them and smiled. It was looking for them.

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"They sent a fucking Brute Splicer?!?"

As if nearly getting crushed by a falling billboard wasn't bad enough, but a Brute Splicer would just complicate the narrative even more. Out of all the splicers, the Brute Splicer was the second worst one in all of Rapture. Having overdosed themselves on genetic enhancement tonics like Sportsboost and Armoured Shell, these splicers were a huge threat. Just my luck.

I noticed him looking somewhere before he smiled. I followed his gaze, but all I saw was a pile of rubble. Was there something he was after? I turned back to face the Brute and, due to my pure stupidity, I took a punch to the face. I staggered back as the splicer let out a roar of anger and began to punch me left and right. He wouldn't even let me ready my ESU as he lifted me off of the floor, which is impressive considering how much I weighed in my giant metal suit, and threw me into a nearby wall. I groaned in pain and annoyance. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, when I opened my eyes to look at the splicer, I noticed him holding a large piece of cement from the floor.

"Oh, son of a-"

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Rarity and Fluttershy watched from afar as their lead was crushed by a giant piece of concrete that the muscle-bound splicer threw at it. The lights of the metal behemoth faded from a dark red to an empty black, signifying the death of its host. The two held their breath as the splicer began to laugh.

"Go back to fairyland piss-pot." It said, before sniffing the air once again. It let out a cruel and sadistic smile, before turning towards Rarity and Fluttershy once again. "Come to poppy."

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"Okay then, that brings my death count up to... What? 47?"

Keeping track of your deaths isn't exactly the kind of thing most people would enjoy, I know. But, considering that I'm in Rapture, it's become more of a habitual thing than one of entertainment. I inwardly sighed as the doors to the vita-chamber opened, releasing me into the world once more. I took a look around to get a better bearing of my surroundings. By the looks of it, I had been reborn in the vita-chamber inside of the old police chief's office. I hated this vita-chamber. For good reason as well. One, the room is downright tiny, or at least it seemed so because of my suit. Two, the door almost always jams. Three, it just plain looks horrible. Honestly, who uses a plaid wallpaper!?!

I tested the door to leave the room and, surprise surprise, it was jammed. I groaned as I began to push against the door, barely feeling whatever was holding the door closed begin to budge. The day I find the splicer who kept doing this is the day I paint the walls red with their blood. At least then the plaid wallpaper wouldn't be as much of an eyesore.

I glanced out the paned window to the office as I pushed, watching the Brute Splicer run by the room, completely oblivious to me. It was odd actually. Usually, whenever they aren't fighting anything, they don't tend to do anything physical, preferring to act sophisticated instead of brutish, no pun intended. Before I could begin to wonder why it was acting like this, I heard a pair of screams ring throughout the room. Normally, this wouldn't bother me, but these weren't splicer screams.

"INITIATIVE PROTOCOL: PROTECT."

I broke the door down with a heavy punch, shattering the couch that was holding it back with little to no issue. I didn't like breaking anything in Rapture, but my directive comes first. If those really were survivors I had heard, then I couldn't afford to waste any time.

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"Come 'ere you!"

The two ponies were running as fast as their hooves could carry them, weaving and bobbing through debris and obstacles of all sorts, hoping to slow the muscled splicer down, if only slightly. No matter what they did though, the splicer simply tore through these obstacles as if he were a one man stampede.

As the two ran, they both eventually came up on a split in the path. "W-which way?" Fluttershy asked as she ran, panting heavily as she did so.

"Left! Go left!" Rarity yelled as she barely managed to make the turn with her current speed. Fluttershy and the splicer were not so lucky however. Slipping on an unknown liquid on the floor at the speed it was going, the splicer fell forward and began to tumble and slip. Before it had tumbled past Fluttershy however, it reached out for her, hoping to take her down with it. It was only partly successful as it nicked the back of one of her rear back legs, just enough to cause her to lose her balance and tumble as well.

After a few more seconds of running, Rarity noticed that she could only hear her own hoof steps, rather than a pair. She skidded to a halt and turned.

"Fluttershy?!?" To her surprise, Fluttershy wasn't with her. Her eyes widened as she once again broke out into a sprint, running back the way she had come from, hoping to find her friend. "Fluttershy!"

As she turned the corner, she gasped in fear. The large splicer was standing above Fluttershy, who currently had her eyes closed, a small bead of blood dripping down across her face. "Don' worry. I'll notch my belt for ya... Sweetheart." The splicer began to raise both of its large arms, ready to bring them down and end the life of Rarity's good friend. Fluttershy's eyes opened ever so slightly, looking upon what she believed would be her last sight. Rarity could only scream out Fluttershy's name in tears as the two arms went down upon their target.

Finally, when the moment of truth came, everyone/pony were stunned with surprise as a large metal arm broke through the wall behind Fluttershy, slamming into the splicer and sending him flying backwards into the wall opposite of it.

The arm then pulled back through the crater in the wall came from, before promptly breaking a much larger portion of the wall out, causing it to collapse and reveal an incredibly angry Big Daddy.

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The wall fell down in front of me, finally allowing me to get a clear view of the situation I had come in on. The Brute Splicer groaned in pain before it began to pick itself off of the ground, delaying slightly as it continually flinched in pain. I heard a pitiful whimpering below me, and I quickly put my attention towards the source. There, laying its arms over its head, looking back at me in fear while also giving me a plea for help, was a yellow winged pony, much like the ones from earlier.

"Execute Prime Directive: Guard Little Sisters. Execute Prime Directive: Guard Little Sisters." I was confused when this message began to echo through my head. What did it mean, 'protect Little Sisters'? Suddenly, as I looked down towards the pony that laid below me once more, my vision seemed to flash, if only for a moment. I didn't see the pony anymore. I saw a Little Sister, crawling backwards as a splicer closed in on her with a machete at hand. The flash ended just as quickly, returning my sight to the pony and the splicer that had by now managed to stand itself back up.

I saw red, and not just from the tint of my helmet. I may not have known why this pony was still here, but I had already let my Little Sisters die out to these goddamned splicers, and I was not going to let that happen to this pony.

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Rarity could not believe what she had seen. The metal creature from before had come from out of nowhere and stopped the splicer. Her friend was safe, but for how long?

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

The Brute Splicer let out a chuckle as he looked towards me, a sadistic smile splayed across his face. "Right big tough, ain'cha?" He said as he popped some of the joints in his neck. I let out a metallic groan in response. If I could talk, I'd be telling him to piss off. Since I couldn't though, I just stepped over the pony below me and placed myself in front of it, my ESU already beginning to crackle at the thought of ripping the splicer apart. "Right den, first you, den Baby Alice."

He let out a yell as he slammed his arms against the ground, preparing to charge. I let out my own roar as I ran towards him with my ESU primed, meeting him in the middle as he began the charge. When he hit, I slid backwards, my feet grinding against the metal floor as he pushed me back. Times like this that I wished that I was a stronger Big Daddy. Nevertheless, I managed to stop myself from sliding any further back and began to push back against him myself. The two of us were in a power struggle, trying to get any advantage we could use over the other as we struggled to push past each others grip. If I could, I would have turned him into a living example of a tesla coil with my ESU, but the arm it was welded too was being held back by the splicer's.

I glanced around the room using the peripheral vision my helmet provided. If I couldn't take him down with my ESU, then maybe I could improvise. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a blackened spill on the floor, the liquid coming out of a pipe that broke nearby. I knew what that pipe was, same with the liquid, and I let out a chuckle in response.

"W-...What's so funny den?" The brute grunted, glaring at me through my helmet's porthole. "Oh, you'll see."

I pushed off of him, causing him to stagger slightly, and grabbed onto his arm with both of mine before quickly launching him as far as I could. He landed exactly where I was hoping he would land, getting covered in the black fluid and slipping over himself repeatedly as he struggled to stand up. "What's all dis den?" He yelled in frustration before he slipped once again. I just smiled behind my helmet though, as I reached for the pipe that led to the spill and broke it again, making a trail towards the splicer and the mess that he was in. As I charged up my ESU for what would hopefully be the last time against him, a cynical thought escaped my mind.

"Oil can be used for more than just greasing my suit." I let out one last roar as I slammed my ESU into the trail of oil, making the spark that I needed to set the entire liquid trail on fire, the splicer joining in the flames.

"Augh, it burns! It burns!" He continued to yell for a minute or so, his screams of agony filling the room before he finally succumbed to death. About time too, his screams were starting to give me a headache.

"Fluttershy! Oh, are you alright dear?" I heard somebody behind me say. I turned around and saw that another pony was sitting next to the first one, having a horn rather than wings. While the winged pony was yellow with a pink mane, this one was white with a purple mane.

"I- I'm fine, Rarity... Ow." She wasn't a very good liar was she? I made my way towards the two, my heavy footsteps accompanying the sound of the crackling fire behind me. The white pony took notice of me quickly, as she took a defensive position in front of her friend.

"Don't you dare touch her you brute!" She yelled. I had to give her credit, either she was incredibly brave, or incredibly stupid. Ignoring her demands, I slid her aside and kneeled on one knee in front of the yellow pony, my helmet casting a faint green glow over her. She looked at me weakly, trembling slightly as I looked her over. There was a small amount of blood coming from her head, but other than that, she was fine. More than likely, she suffered a minor concussion. Aside from a headache, she should be fine. I heard the distant yell of a splicer and reached for the pink maned pony.

"Ill figure out what to do about them later. First, I'd better get them out of here."

Before I could grab her, the sound of several metal thumps came in through my helmet. I turned to my left and noticed that the other pony was currently hitting against my helmet. Daintily. As if she had just done her nails (hooves?) and didn't want to break one, let alone the fact that they were rather weak.

"I said not to touch her you brute! You ruffian! You- Oh dear!" I didn't have the time to deal with this, so I grabbed onto the white pony and held her to my side under my arm, much like an average man would hold a rolled up newspaper. She flailed against me, trying to loosen herself from my grip, but it was ultimately useless. As for the winged pony, I carefully grabbed her around her midsection, watching as she shivered from the coldness of my large rubber gloves, before putting her on my back and having her use her forelegs to hold on.

"Oh... thank you." She said quietly. I groaned in return, before turning with the two ponies at hand and heading to the nearest bathysphere. As I did, I put one arm below the pony behind me, giving her more support while letting me make sure she didn't black out. Her grip slightly loosened as she seemed to notice that I wouldn't let her fall.

It felt so familiar, having someone piggyback me while another, more fussy person, or pony in this case, was being held in my arm. It was almost like I had two Little Sisters again.

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After I placed the two ponies down onto the cushioned seats of the bathysphere, blocking the door as much as I could so the white one wouldn't try to escape, I shut the door behind me and looked over the buttons to the different locations it could go. The buttons had labels on them, but...

"Let's see, 'For the house of the poor, go up once, then right once more.'" I mused to myself as I pressed the button that was up and right one from the bottom left corner. It was a good thing I made those rhymes a long time ago, or I'd have been lost more often than I would have liked. I looked out the porthole of the bathysphere as it sunk below the water surface and began its journey to its next location.

As we submerged, I heard a whimper come from behind me.

"Oh, poor dear. Fluttershy, are you sure you're okay? Does it hurt?" I turned towards the two once more. The horned one was sitting closely to the winged one, holding and caressing her gently in an attempt to comfort her. The yellow pony didn't do anything to stop her as she tiredly breathed in and out, her eyes struggling to keep open. This wasn't necessarily a bad sign, since concussions often caused people to struggle with their alertness and consciousness, but it was probably best that a bandage be put around the part of her head that was bleeding, just in case. I rummaged around the bathysphere, looking for anything that resembled a red cross. It wasn't easy with a suit as big as mine on, but I managed.

Unfortunately, no matter where I looked, I couldn't find the first aid. Had I forgotten where it was already? I inwardly sighed as I resentfully reached up to a switch near the top of the door and flipped it, causing a white screen to cover up the porthole of the bathysphere and an image of Andrew Ryan, founder of Rapture, to be projected, I took a step back and sat myself on the cushioned seat opposite of the ponies, watching the screen and awaiting the message I needed. The ponies opposite of me flinched, more specifically the white one, but watched the projection just as well, both having fascinated expressions on their faces. Within another moment or so of introduction music and advertising photos, the actual presentation began, as a woman quickly took her place as the overly peppy announcement lady.

"Hello, and welcome to your brand new bathysphere, one of Rapture's more effective means of private transportation. Designed by Frank Fontaine of Fontaine Futuristics, bathyspheres offer all kinds of useful things that a person may need for travel. For example, an area for food storage can be found under the left most seat, while a medical kit, which comes standard with your bathysphere purchase, can be found under the most right seat." I quickly reached under my seat as I heard this, fumbling with the small notch underneath and failing repeatedly. It wasn't my fault these gloves were so big. "So, enjoy your bathysphere, and remember, nobody wants to be a parasite!" The projection was finally brought to an end as the white screen once again lowered itself from sight, allowing for a clear view of the ocean once more, though this time, we were going through Rapture rather than open waters. As the two gawked at the sight that I had seen hundreds of times, I let out a mental cheer as I finally managed to gain access to the first aid cabinet below my chair, and by that I meant that I ripped the door off in frustration, but it worked nonetheless.

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Though her head ached, Fluttershy, as well as Rarity, could not help but gawk at the much more clear view of the underwater city they were traveling through. It was hard to believe that such a beautiful place could hold such horrible hostilities. As they watched, they both flinched when a white box was put in their sights, a red cross drown on top of the casing. The two knew instantly what it was as Rarity hesitantly grabbed hold of the box from the large rubber hand that held it and quickly went to work on dressing Fluttershy's wound.

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"T-thank you." I heard suddenly as I watched the pony get her head bandaged. She hadn't said anything, but the white one, who had originally been so resistant, did. "You certainly helped us in that... situation of ours." She continued before she took in a deep breath, finishing up the bandaging of the yellow pony as she did so.

"I've been... Rude haven't I? Please do forgive me, as I was simply trying to protect Fluttershy, and I wasn't aware if you had come to help or not." I nodded both my head and helmet in undestanding. She hadn't caused too much trouble anyhow.

"At the very least, allow me to introduce myself. I am Rarity, and this," she said as she gestured to her now bandaged companion, "is my good friend Fluttershy." She smiled softly and let out a low, almost inaudible 'Hi' in my direction.

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"Now if you would be so kind as to introduce yourself as well, I'm certain that we-" She was cut off as the bathysphere abruptly came to a stop, quickly surfacing itself as it reached its destination. "I suppose it can wait until later."

Author's Notes:

Chapter 3 is up and running everyone! Whoo! I'm especially glad that I managed to pull off the fight scene and introductions between the Big Daddy and everyone else. Also, I hid a little hint about a flaw that the Big Daddy had in the text. As an extra hint, lets just say that as of yet, we aren't too sure of how long the Big Daddy had been in that suit of his. >:D