Lost Cause
Prologue: The Future, and Firearms
“A story? I haven’t been asked for one of those in a while.” The voice was gruff from experience, yet still held an element of class from its original tone and the youth of the pony.
The pony in question looked over the counter at the fillies who just entered his store, mostly customers just paid him for ammo or information, but he was also regarded as a brilliant storyteller, and colts and fillies used to flock to his store to hear tales of both the New World and the safeties of the Old World, so much to the point he even did it for free, just to see a smile, a look of wonderment on the faces of young ponies as they left. However as time passes, things change and a lot of people moved or simply heard enough, the storyteller part of this pony’s job just seemed to have died off.
“Alright, you three come around back, I’ll drag out a bench or two. How’d you find out I tell stories anyways? I haven’t told a story for a good year or two.” He said, scratching his head.
“Oh that's easy sir,” A pink filly said in the middle of the trio “I come from Faction, which is a few miles to the east, before I moved my grandmother told me to come to this store, she’d heard of an old storyteller from one of the merchants someone who told stories about the old world.”
“Old? Heck kid I wasn’t your age too long ago, I mean look at me, I bet you if I walked around town for half an hour with ya, people would think I’m your brother or something.”
The ‘Old’ pony stood at his full height, smaller than a full grown stallion as his age should suggest and more along the lines of a tall buck, a good five years his junior. His coat was white, yet had a non-existent dirty look about it that gave it a hue of smoke. Along his body there were brown spots, at the base of his neck, his flank and a pro-dominant one over his right eye, his mane matched the spots and was a brown the shade of coffee, although his mane was often hidden by a red bandana. His tail was kept short and again matched his spots and mane. The pony looked strong and agile despite his size, his eyes gave off a flair for adventure and exploration, this pony had seen the worst of the New World and faced its trials, he took from it as much as took from him, learned its lessons and eventually abided by its rules. The New World was dangerous after all.
The pink filly looked distraught and ashamed at the stallion’s response, “Oh, I’m sorry sir I didn’t mean to-”
“I’m messing with you kid, if anything its a compliment, I normally get jokes the other way if ya get me, small size and all that, its how I got my name. Anyways enough about that, you three came here for a story and that’s what you’ll get. So, what do you want to hear? Something Old or something New? A story about great fighters or something a little less violent?”
The ponies sat down, the three fillies collectively on a bench and the stallion sat on his own chair which he kept for slow business days.
The fillies whispered and discussed amongst themselves briefly, much to the amusement of the shopkeeper, before they finally decided, “How was this world made sir? I mean how come we all live here instead of the Old World?”
“That’s a touchy subject kid, gimme a sec,” The shopkeeper scratched his mane, removed his bandana and played with it in thought, before finally moving to get some drinks before calling, “Do you all have time? I mean this one is quite long.”
“Yes, mister we all do” The pink filly called back.
After returning the stallion sat down drink in hand, and began to recount the creation of the New World.
“It started a few decades ago, a while after the Chrysalis incident, you’ve all learned about that right?”
The question was met with nods.
“Well, a while after the First Changeling War, Princess Celestia set her top scientists and the head of the Canterlot University of Magic to begin research into the differences between standard Equestrian magic and Changeling magic. In other words, their abilities to change form, drain power and turn love into power source which then increases their standard magical powers, which is why Queen Chrysalis was able to defeat Princess Celestia in a magic fight
After a while they made a breakthrough, the types of magic Changelings learned were based off years of environmental effects, throughout hundreds of years the first Changelings in history learned magic from an environmental mutation.” The shopkeeper paused for a moment, “You’re all still following me here, right?”
The fillies looked immensely interested and nodded slowly, not removing their gaze from the shopkeeper.
“So yeah, the rocky habitat of the first Changelings contained massive magical deposits within the core of each rock, the magic was so potent and strong that is was able to seep through the rock layers in tiny amounts and eventually get into the Changelings that lived in the area. They didn’t know at first because the amounts of magical radiation were so small, which is why they didn’t switch their habitat until it was too late and most early Changelings already suffered the radiation effects.
You see, Changelings weren’t always hate filled pony-looking maniacs that lived miles away from mainland Equestria, study from the Old World shows that in early years Changelings were just ponies with darker tones, who were undergoing the original evolution process of standard ponies, in other words they were just like ‘normal’, and I use that term lightly kids, ponies with a darker tone. At the time they were beginning to grow horns and wings just like early-day ponies. But then the magic deposits changed the nature of their bodies... Oh now I know I’ve lost you.”
This time the fillies looked confused and just nodded, again to the shopkeepers amusal.
“Ah sorry kids, I spent a while teaching in a town up North, kids twice your age, sorta never got the ‘teacher-talk’ outta me. To make it a little easier, Changelings weren’t as crazy as they are now, and I’m talking cave-pony days. They used to be just like us but something happened with them in those days that made ‘em the way they are now, something to do with the rocks near where they lived. Made ‘em all whacked up in the head.”
“But mister,” said the filly on the left, a white pegasus pony, “What do the Changelings and cave-ponies have anything to do with the New World?”
The shopkeeper staggered, “Yeah... um, I’m getting there, I said it’d take a while. Well, the magics from these rocks started to change the changelings bodies, instead of being normal ponies just darker, their skin went super dark, their eyes became narrower and gave off that weird glow,” At this point the shopkeeper shuddered, “Ugh, the thought of it goes through me every time. So their skin, their eyes, what else?..
Yeah, their horns became crooked and only a few can use magics effectively, those are the Queens and Commanders of the armies. Every Changeling grew a pair of those insect looking wings, and finally those fangs they got. The radioactive magic in their body allowed them to use their fangs as a feeding source for a pony’s love. This added with the ability to change form and look like a normal pony makes them dangerous to ponies because they can literally feed off our emotion. Makes you sick doesn't it?
Aside from those little changes over time one of them thought it’d be a good idea to crack open a rock for whatever reason and turns out this magic stuff burns. A lot. That's where they get the holes from, patchy legs, patchy bodies, patchy wings and even patchy horns, all passed down genetically because some dummy decided to go ahead and burn themselves.
So now with that out of the way I suppose-” There was a tinkle of a bell which cut off the shopkeeper, “Ah crap, gimme a sec girls,” The three fillies went back to whispering amongst themselves, held in the idea of new thoughts about Changelings, and again questioning what the heck they had to do with the new world.
“Welcome to the store friend, I may be small but the bullets ain’t, what are you looking fo- Sweet Suns of Celestia thats big.”
The shopkeeper was cut off mid-question when he saw the size of his customers gun, a long elegant rifle that looked capable of punching a hole through solid steel. The customer who had it holstered was wrapped head-to-toe in gear, the only features visible were a pair of deep red eyes, nearly concealed by a full head wrap.
“What does that thing fire? .50s?” The shopkeeper asked
The eerie looking customer laughed, his tone of voice was cold and quiet, as if the pony had to constantly shroud himself. “No.” He replied, “.72s, which I’m out of.”
“Well I should have a case of 40 bullets out back, it’ll cost a good 400 bits though, that kinda ammo is rare round here.”
“Done.” The customer said, taking a seat in the store, waiting patiently.
After he left, the shopkeeper sat down again with the fillies, continuing the story.
“Sorry about that girls, business calls and all. Anyways, now that the top brains of Canterlot knew where Changelings got their advanced magic from, they just needed to find the same type of rocks that held the original magic. Problem was, the only rocks they could seem to find were either deep in hostile Griffin territory, or deep in Changeling territory. So instead they turned their attention to the stars.
Over a bunch of years these scientists began to work with Luna’s top astronomers... y’know? Space scientists? And began working primarily on finding planets where these rocks existed, oh yeah they're called C-Rocks nowadays. So they were looking mainly for planets that held C-Rocks and secondly they were researching ideas for full-blown space exploration. Rocket ships.
Eventually they did both, relatively at the same time. About the same time they found a planet with a collection of C-Rock, they perfected a rocket ship capable of flying there with some ponies and extracting it. It was a major success too. Over the years they began collecting more C-Rock and learning from the magical properties within it.
When finally, they found the jackpot, a massive amount of C-Rock or something stronger than it. A whole collection of that beautiful magical rock just stockpiled underneath a planet in space. Considering the size of the payload, Celestia sent out a bunch of excavation teams, security, and her most faithful student to watch over the operation.
However, shortly after Twilight Sparkle and the excavation teams landed, the Second Changeling War hit Equestria, the armies were stronger this time, a full-scale attack was planned instead of Chrysalis’ original idea of getting into Canterlot undetected. When it seemed that all hope was lost, Celestia used the remainings shuttles to transport a huge amount of civilians to the C-Rock excavation site.
Unicorn magic was used to make the ground fertile as Pegasi ponies naturally controlled the weather, during this time the remaining Earth Pony population began to build settlements. The leaders of the settlements decided to name their new planet The Cause, with the idea that overtime, their new world would grow in strength and re-take Equestria from the Changelings.
However as more months passed, the war back on Equestria was stabilizing, the Equestrian troops were holding their own against the Changelings, no ground was being retaken but no ground was being lost, the war wasn’t lost, but it wasn’t being won anytime soon.
Meanwhile The Cause-ites were experiencing their first natural Summer seasons, and this is where things got bad, the local wildlife came out and saw a whole bunch of new things that looked weaker smaller and tastier than they were, a lot of ponies died and the leaders that survived began calling their planet the Lost Cause, those who kept the faith just called it the New World or stuck with The Cause though.
After much deliberation... A big arguement. Celestia finally agreed to produce non-lethal firearms for the Second Changeling War and gave permission for the production of lethal firearms for the wildlife in The Cause, thats why we got things like these.” The shopkeeper pointed to a rack in his store, showcasing a variety of low powered pistols and rifles.
“So that’s the end of it kids, were all her because the Changelings are a little better at magic than we are, and when they realised that, they beat our asses so hard a bunch of us moved to a different planet.”
“But sir,” One of the fillies said, “If life is so dangerous out here, and we need guns to protect us from the monsters, why doesn’t everyone go back to the Old World if the war isn’t lost.” She questioned.
“Well that’s just it kid, the war might not be lost but its not over, it’s really dangerous back home, it’s really expensive to get back too. Besides its much safer around here now that we’ve got the guns. I’m not happy to admit it, but those things are the best thing to happen to Lost Cause, we need ‘em to survive y’know?”
Another one of the fillies started up, “But mister, what happened to all the C-Rock Twilight Sparkle came here to find.”
“Ah well here’s the kicker fillies. It hasn’t been found yet, they know it’s somewhere here on the planet and as far as they know it could be better than C-Rock, stronger, that’s why you still get people coming to Lost Cause, they’re all here looking for that C-Rock treasure, if it can make Changelings powerful over time, maybe it can give someone enough power to fight off hundreds of Changelings, they could sell it and become filthy rich, the secret is kid, is that no-one would be here if they could help it. Lost Cause just has a treasure trove of C-Rock that everyone, rich and poor, young and old, wants to find. Power, wealth, glory. Its all hidden here kid.”
The kids suddenly looked amazed, the idea of becoming treasure hunters filling their minds, a big bunch of money for whatever they wanted, and the ability to learn magic without having to go to school? It seemed too good to be true.
“Thanks mister, Grandma said it was 30 bits for a story?” The pink filly asked.
“Nah kid don’t worry about it, it’s free, just feels good to tell a story again.”
“Well... Okay, thanks again mister.” And the three ponies rushed out the shop excitedly, the idea of treasure hunting fresh in their minds.
The shopkeeper smiled, cleaned up the back of his shop before grabbing himself a glass of whiskey and turning on his favourite radio station.
“Treasure.” He said to himself. “That’s why we're all here, each and every one of us some kind of pirate.”