• Member Since 19th Jan, 2015
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Meep the Changeling


Channeling insanity into entertaining tales since 2015-01-19.

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70 years ago, Equestria was rocked by an arcane cataclysm which warped the bodies, minds, and magic of every equine species in the world. In the modern era, Ponykind is forced to rely more on technology than magic. Mages work to discover how to use their new bodies to cast ancient spells Equestria once replied upon. International politics are weaker than ever. Eldrly ponies lament they are entering their twilight years at a mere 120 years of age.

In this new world, some have gained abilities once rare or even unheard of outside of the pages of comic books. Some of these ponies, inspired by the Elements of Harmony's work last century, chose to use their powers for the good of all. Others, decided to walk down a more selfish path. The conflict between these groups spills out into the streets of nearly every city and town in the world, and has plunged Equestrian into chaos.

With Princess Twilight focusing nearly exclusively on undoing the effects of the Cataclysm, there is little the Crown can do to keep Equestrians safe from themselves. It is the absolute worst possible time for an existential threat to come to Equis... And so, one has. Unbeknownst to all, an Interstellar Empire works in the shadows, priming Equis for invasion.

Fate has chosen one Equestrian archeologist to be Equestria's shot at remaining a free people. Fortunately for all ponykind, their unknown enemy has enemies of its own.

Chapters (3)
Comments ( 41 )

Thanks for the chapter, meep!
I quite liked it, especially as I'm currently taking linguistics!
Your prose was exellent, as always, and I'm looking forward to what comes next!

I really enjoyed the language puzzle. I straight up had this whole train of thought about Mbě.

Hi, Meep!

Damn, one chapter and you got the fishhook sunk deep, haven't you? Already tracking this, so I don't miss it.

Looking forward to the next!

10999082 Wait I conlanged well enough to pass muster to a linguistics student? Woo! :D I wrote a program that generated this language :3


10999167 Well, I mean... I can do two kinds of work reliably with my writing style: What I was doing for Beta, which was meant to be for younger folks (YA) and then I can do this, which is meant for older people.

10999195
What's this Beta you mentioned? Doesn't ring a bell to me.

Oh dear, that's a very not-good box.

I really feel like there's a lot more to Morning Snow than we are seeing so far, though I'm not 100% sure which direction he's going to lean on that. Makes me want to think he's one of those vigilantes.

The sovereign stones seem too dangerous to make, let alone use. That's an example of a device that's simply too easy to mess up when you try to use it.

Alerted ponies, supers, I recognize a sectoid when I see one, oh my!

That's one fatalistic archeologist. Though it's understandable when your job has such a high attrition rate that losing two people, one of them an apparent friend that was teaching your a language, barely deserves a mention. Poor gal needs therapy, and a lot of it :fluttershyouch:
The asshole boss certainly doesn't help.

Ouch. Losing life expectancy hurts. I imagine how desperate we'd become if suddenly being 40 was the same as being 90. The elder one has a lot of reason to hold out to hope... And the young ones have no idea of how much they lost :pinkiesad2:
Gotta give it to though, hands are very nifty.

10999222 Beta is an old series of stories I wrote with the hope of making something interesting to others such that I could have a shared universe. It didn't work out that way but a lot of folks like it. There's a read order on my user page if you're interested.

A fair assumption, given the buildings impaled by uprooted traffic lights, flooded subway tunnels, and the thin sheets of black ice coating the streets.

Wow :moustache:

It in no way made Amber want to have a good long cry then hug her toughbook when she got home and apologize for ever calling it crappy.

Sure it doesn't :trollestia:

Shame we don’t know why they underwent a collapse. Especially since they could make reality warping artifacts!

The "reality warping artifacts" might have been why :moustache:

Whatever somepony wished for with a Sovereign Stone was done for or to everyone. A wish for a million bits would give everypony a million bits. A wish for a swift death would kill everypony. Or, more relevant to ponykind’s current obsession with locating a Sovereign Stone, a wish to change one’s physical form would change everypony’s body as the wishmaker specified.

...that's a pretty scary thing :unsuresweetie:

Penny sighed and took the report back from Amber. “Thank you… Sad to see such a bright young colt slide into a conspiracy theory… Dooo you have any documentation of Lyra’s wearabouts I could use? I don’t want to get into an argument with the Princess without proof.”

Which Princess is this? :trixieshiftright:
It's clearly not Twilight like I first thought :trixieshiftleft:

Amber stopped reading, blinking several times. While her face remained scrunched in confusion, her inner filly was busily hopping from hoof to hoof while chanting yes repeatedly.

:trollestia:

“Ya know how stairwells work? Act like you’re gonna go down even though you can't see any stairs. Floor slides open magically. Uh, it hasn’t worked without having my badge on me. Just so ya know,” Morning rambled before turning to leave. “See you soon?”

...interesting :trixieshiftleft:

11001784

Which Princess is this? :trixieshiftright: It's clearly not Twilight like I first thought

It's Twilight. You don't think it would be a bad idea to debate her without proof of your claim? I do.

11001870
I might be confused :applejackunsure:

Wasn't it Twilight that defended Lyra, why would Penny need to debate with her about Lyra's innocence?

Or was it to prove to the student that even Twilight said that Lyra was innocent?

Sorry if I'm just misunderstanding/misinterpreting something wrong :twilightsheepish:

11002022 Maybe I stated it wrong? The implication is this teacher is afraid to confront Twilight Sparkle on her child being wrong on a paper without being able to prove that they are in fact, actually wrong. The Professor wants to not have to be given an impromptu history lesson for 30 minutes that starts with "Um, actually..."

The moment is here to show the reader that Lyra didn't do it. The character within this universe, to whom this is her reality, doesn't much care who caused The Change and is just thinking about her job and the politics thereof.

11002029
Oh okay thanks for clarifying that for me :trollestia:

I had been wondering how the XCOM side of things was going to come into play, that was an interesting way to do it.

I could get to like this.

Okay, okay... I DO like it! You caught my interest, Meep!

I quite liked the Hitchhiker's Guide reference, as well as the chapter overall!

Absolutely loved this chapter! Even before things get decidedly lethal in the X-Com tradition, and before Asaru is there to help, we can see that Amber is rather capable all in her own right.
Also, Asaru seems to much prefer how things turned out here, since he actually gets to have a proper friend while playing back-soul driver instead of them combining into a temporary gestalt. And the League of Mages as the EXALT of this story is particularly fitting, though also extremely worrying.

I wonder if Amber remembers that Morning Snow said he frequently uses the tunnels? That being the case, he's likely down there, too.

Bradford is the last human I'd want handling first contact... except in situations exactly like this.

11004839 Also a canon way, but so few people played The Bureau... Don't play it because of it being the thing that sets up the game's lore tho. Just watch the cutsceens on YouTube. It's a TERRIBLE game, but it's still canon.


11004724 Hi only other person to play The Bureau!

Hopefully this thing olds up to one or two of their spells… Better yet, hopefully I can get out of this stupid tower unseen.

Yeah, that would be great wouldn't it :trollestia:

Amber nearly screamed as her body contorted and twisted back into the correct shape. Her ankle slotted back into place, the tendons relaxing and knotting their rips back into a singular whole. Her knee popped, fluids receding as swelling vanished. Her shoulder clicked, its spatial dislocation shlooping away with an unpleasant grinding of bone on bone. Glass pushed out of several of Amber’s more major cuts as they sealed up.

Well, doesn't that sound pleasant :unsuresweetie:

I am never going to do anything that cool ever again and nopony saw it… Aww…

Give it some time, I think you'll be suprised :trollestia:

And so began her descent. Land, run, jump, scream nope.

Well that's certainly a way to get down faster :trollestia:

An alien presence filled the space around her. Something ancient. Something twisted. Something hateful. A wounded animal, but much much bigger. A plural entity unfathomable to an individual mind existing outside of itself.

Well that's concerning :moustache:

“P̶o̷n̷y̸…̸” the living presence said with an endless hunger and bottomless lust.

That is even more concerning :pinkiecrazy:

And even those of us who don’t care about ending their threat understand that if they win their invasion of your world they are a threat to us again, and will almost certainly come right for us to take revenge. We kinda killed most of their religious leaders this one time.”

Yeah, that tends to piss people off for some reason :moustache:

“Sup!” the glowing creature of pure magical essence said with shocking casualness.

I like him already :trollestia:

11005122

Also a canon way, but so few people played The Bureau... Don't play it because of it being the thing that sets up the game's lore tho. Just watch the cutsceens on YouTube. It's a TERRIBLE game, but it's still canon.

I did that once... probably gonna do that again now just to refresh my memory :moustache:

11005726 Okay just don't do the hardest difficulty. I don't think you can actually beat the final battle on that mode. Not because "OMG! HARD!" but because, well, I don't think there's enough ammunition on the map to actually kill everything at that difficulty, and you have to kill everything before you can push the big red button to win. Like, the actual mathematics of damage output vs enemy HP just don't fucking add up. 5 sniper rifle shots? Yeah well, takes 3 head shots to down anything WITH the equipment that boosts head shot damage. The fight was clearly not tested for that difficulty level, because if you can win, you need prefect play. Oh and your NPC allies? They are of no help. They're too dumb to be of real use at that difficulty. They'll die long before you, and long before they take down anything. Also, I factored them into the damage calc.

It's a real shame, because the story is great, and is the only example of a second person shooter I know of.

11005739
Ah no not play the game, watch the game on youtube :trollestia:

Thanks for the chapter meep!

I can recognize save scumming when I see it! :rainbowwild:

Poor Amber, you can't get things past The Commander. The Commander sees all. The Commander knows all! :pinkiegasp:

heh Poor Amber...she's going to end up dealing with a lot of embarrassment and feeling dumb with misunderstandings with Asaru. Having someone literally living inside her head makes it pretty much impossible to dissemble and pretend to not be bothered.

Morning Snow to the rescue! That was a brutal chair throw!

Yeah....he's a combat veteran of Powered Wars? Snow is almost certainly powered. Asaru is going to push to try to recruit Snow once he and Amber get somewhere safe.

Okay, Amber, you want to take Mom's RV, that's all well and good. Get a tow hitch and bring your jeep and bike as well if you can. Having multiple vehicles can only make things easier in the long run if you have time to do it.

I’m used to rooks sprinting headlong into the enemy when they panic… That or pulling off an impossible shot through several walls…Shame RNGsus won’t bless shots like that normally.

*Urgh* tell me about it :trixieshiftleft:

The mage snorted and waved his free hand dismissively. The other drew a small gray-blue crystal wand from his robes. “Do not presume to know the League’s goals! We don’t want the Stone to be used. Not yet. This time of change is what our species needs to survive. We’d grown too stagnant, too fat, too complacent.”

He has no idea what the leaders of the League would do with one of the Stones does he? :trixieshiftright:

A folding chair smashed rim-first into the mage’s horn, shattering it.

Ouch :applejackunsure:

Amber spun around, jumping up to her hooves, more than ready for a fight. Morning Snow stood in the center of the tunnel, left arm extended, right arm holding a second folding chair.

Now, I will freely admit that I am paranoid enough to be very suspicious of Morning here, simply because of his timing :moustache:

Morning snorted and grinned. “Nothing like that. Ah just gotta do what my heart tells me is right,” the little stallion’s ears drooped back, his eyes dimmed as despair slid across his face. “Ah’m a soldier… Ex-Soldier. Saw too many poor ponies hurt in the Powered Wars to not help when ah can.”

Thanks Morning, my paranoia has calmed a bit :moustache:

<We are super fucked if the Aliens take your planet!> The commander said in a way Amber found far too excited and fancoltish.

:trollestia:

Probably not. That’s pretty advanced and I don’t think I’ve ever heard even a rumor of the League knowing teleportation spells.

Even if they could, they'd probably need to have some understanding of where they teleport :applejackunsure:

Yeah. Sort of. Open court on Mondays, but anypony can make an appointment for urgent business. Which we have. Amber said as she stood up.

Gonna have to figure out how to word it though, because not many are gonna believe the "Alien Invasion" thing at first :trixieshiftleft:

<Is that a psionic anti-theft system?> The Commander asked. <By the way, Commander is a rank. My name’s Asaru. It means rummage in one of my homeworld’s languages. That way in the event anyone ever called me by rank and title near a Japanese person, they’d get a giggle. Cuz, you know. “Good morning, He-Who-Leads-Those-Who-Disorderly-Search. I have the intel you requested.” Good times!>

Commander rummage eh? XD

Asaru snickered. <You know that I can tell you’re doing this to hide your toy collection, right?>

XD

Long hot summers in a chrome plated rolling trailer home lacking a comfort talisman to keep things cool. Freezing winters with only the wood stove and blankets to keep warm. Her mother ducking out multiple times a night for “work” and coming back home exhausted but satisfied and smelling of changelings, or bitter and sullen and smelling of strange stallions.

Lings make great cuddle partners. And "cuddle" partners too.
Alas that there's the other side of that job...



11014522

I actually didn't catch where the commander used save scumming in the chapter...

11017148

I actually didn't catch where the commander used save scumming in the chapter...

What is Save Scumming if not going through all the possibilities and picking the best one? Save Scumming = living across potential timelines

11017174
Ahhh, I actually thought that was something like a reference to some minor inconsistencies in the lore of each game and declaring them to be technically seperate timelines for the purpose of this fic.

Save scumming it is then, I think that makes more sense than the conclusion I jumped to in my tiredness XD

Finally got around to reading this, verra nice. Looking forward to seeing what the princesses are like, Twilight is going to be enchanted I 'm sure.

<Just blame Doctor Vahlen. That’s what I do, and it’s worked out pretty well so far,> The Commander said, his thoughts carrying a strange sincerity.

:(
I like Vahlen . . . given, I've barely started XCOM 2 (though I am vaguely aware she is responsible for the snake waifus).

The Bureau, eh? Probably the only XCOM game genuinely bad in every aspect, though I still played it because XCOM. Not for the first time, I find myself pleased that 2K went back to their roots for XCOM 2, having the game play similar to Enemy Within instead of the strange hybrid The Bureau is/tried to be. Even more sad is that The Bureau would have been better if it hadn't been so rushed for its release. Releasing only a year or so after Enemy Within, and you could feel the game was just slapped together purely to ride the coattails of Enemy Within's reception. I'll be looking forward to where this one goes, Meep. The fandom has too few XCOM fiction imho.

Something silver flashed over Amber’s head.

A folding chair smashed rim-first into the mage’s horn, shattering it.

Nice.

Amber spun around, jumping up to her hooves, more than ready for a fight. Morning Snow stood in the center of the tunnel, left arm extended, right arm holding a second folding chair.

Good throw, dude.

95th percentile implies hundreds of thousands of horrifying chair throwing earth ponies, depending on the population size.

<Interesting. I’ll have questions later. Not that I imagine you could answer strategic and tactically relevant…> The Commander trailed off. <I’m... sorry… D— Did you just imply that you had a war against Supervillains?>

Things happen.

Morning seems like a potential recruit if and when the local XCOM gets up and running.

We could just go see the Princess. Her mental voice now quite hesitant. I doubt the League thinks I’ll just head straight for Canterlot.

Seems like a reasonable plan, assuming the princess isn't compromised somehow.

Well, this story is frickin' awesome! I can't believe I dipped out of FIMfics for a while and got here two months late! I love how you've put together the concepts of XCOM and ponies in such a smooth way whilst simultaneously detailing a unique pony setting in which anthos both make sense and are a relatively new development. Oh, and there's superpowers, but magical ones, while magic also had a believable nerf.

And all that in three chapters on top of good character building and an engrossing plot. Your worldbuilding skills really are ridiculously good.

Where is more... More is required

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