Fic Cancellation #4 - Pre War Events

Sunset Shimmer is the original creator of the Impelled Metamorphosis Potion, since she has been studying ever since she was young on how to become an alicorn. In the early days of the war, when it was just starting out, she presented her first batch to Twilight, as a way of creating super alicorn soldiers. However, because the war was only just starting, Twilight thought that it was too extreme and turned her down. Sunset tried to reason with her, to reconsider, telling her that they needed to start research as soon as possible to get it working in time. This is proven correct in the final days of the war when Twilight finally does start her own research on it. With them running out of time and to try and make up for her mistake, Twilight uses her connections at Stable Tec to give one of the stables in Trottingham batches of Sunset’s Impelled Metamorphosis Potion, with instructions to continue research if she is unable to crack the code in time. She then gets Sunset a place in the stable as overmare and head researcher. After her first meeting with her, despite turning down her project, Twilight recognises Sunset’s brilliance, and offers Sunset a place in her ministry, which she accepts, quickly becoming one of the highest ranking ponies in the MAS. When the meeting is finished, Twilight notes that Sunset seems different from the selfish, uncaring pony she used to be; since Alicorn Twilight doesn’t happen in the Fallout Equestria timeline, that means that Equestria Girls never happened either, so Sunset never went to the human world after she left, and she never had her redemption. Sunset simply responds that she grew up. While working at the ministry, after her initial project is turned down, she later begins researching the curse that King Sombra placed on the Crystal Empire, to try and turn it into a megaspell, with the intention of using it to remove entire cities and then place them back later, which would nullify the threat of the zebra’s long ranged missiles. She knows that Twilight would be against such a project, because it uses dark magic, so she took a team with her and moved all her research to a Hub building in Trottingham. One of the ponies on her team is Pipsqueak, who she has send false reports back to Twilight so that she won’t become suspicious of her and come and to investigate. In return, she promises to get Pipsqueak’s family into Stable 2, implying that Littlepip is a descendant of Pipsqueak. She originally goes to Shining Armor, at the Crystal Empire, to obtain information on the megaspell; however, Shining Armor refuses to give her access to the information for two reasons: One is that the Crystal Empire is neutral in this war and they can’t appear to be helping one side. The other is that even if they weren’t neutral, he still wouldn’t give her this information, because this spell uses the darkest of dark magic and it should die out with the last unicorn to use it. Sunset makes a quip that technically the last unicorn to use this magic was Shining’s younger sister, but Shining Armor just says that she knows what he means and tells her to drop it. Shining Armor is then called for an emergency by one of the crystal pony guards, and he then tells her to make her way out. She tells him that she will, and Shining Armor leaves the throne room. However, she then turns to her guard escort and immobilizes him with a paralysis spell. She then walks into the centre of the room, uses dark magic on the crystal above the throne, revealing the secret staircase to King Sombra’s castle. She then turns to her guard, tells him to wait, and then goes down to find the information she needs for the spell. Her guard is revealed to be Flash Sentry, who was assigned to her as her personal guard by the ministry, when she became one of the big three at the ministry, alongside Twilight. As time goes on, the two grow closer to each other, and they start a relationship, and Sunset eventually ends up pregnant. Back at the Hub building in Trottingham, research continues on the megaspell. One day in the testing labs, they successfully remove a small object and have it return several hours later. The next day, however, when someone enters the test labs, they then suddenly collapsed, dead. Sunset is about to step inside as well, but her pipbuck starts clicking, indicating extremely high levels of radiation in that room, that wasn’t there yesterday. They discover that when the spell is activated, as a side effect of the dark magic used in the spell, it releases a huge amount of magical radiation. Less radiation is released the longer an object is made to disappear; since the Crystal Empire was gone for a thousand years, when it returned, there was almost no radiation left. The research team then bars off the testing lab and continues with the research on the spell, to try and find a way around the radiation leak when using the spell, which would completely undermine its use. Many ponies on her team are worried that she shouldn’t be on a project like this while she’s pregnant, with all of the radiation nearby; however, she just brushes them all off, saying that she’ll be fine, though she is a bit worried as well, though she is still taking precautions. As research progressed, in addition to moving objects through time, it could now also move them across space, allowing it to be used to transport objects or even entire cities far away. However, as big a step as this was, it would still be useless if they couldn’t find a work around for the radiation released when it’s used. As time went on, Rarity began to become suspicious of her work, and paid a visit to the Hub building to find out what was going on. Feeling cornered, Sunset revealed the secret of the project to her; the power source for the megaspell is King Sombra’s horn, which Sombra had turned into a soul jar. Rarity is horrified at this revelation. Sunset tries to reason that they need a familiar power source to re-enact the spell, from when it was originally used, and that the only other viable power source is the Crystal Heart, but that’s locked up tighter than Celestia is in her school. During the conversation, she inadvertently gives Rarity the idea to start researching soul jars. When she leaves, she decides not to report her to Twilight, but warns her about the dangers of using such things. Sunset reassures her that she has already accepted all the risks; for the good of her country, and her family. After this, and just a few weeks before the end of the war, Sunset has her foal; a unicorn colt. She finds him to be the most important thing in the world to her, but she still continues her work on the megaspell, saying that everything she does in stopping this war will be for him. At this point, Flash Sentry retires from his work as a soldier and begins caring for his son. In the days when the war was wrapping up, Pinkie Pie came to the MAS Hub with Maud, and she was acting really strange and hyper. Sunset was worried that Pinkie was here to bust her, and she tried to justify her methods, but before she could speak, Pinkie cut her off, saying that there wasn’t any time, and that she had to leave a message for Lightning. Sunset is confused, since she doesn’t know who this ‘Lightning’ is, however, before she can say anything, Pinkie says that the pony that she’s talking about hasn’t been born yet. Sunset is now even more confused, but Pinkie then asks her if she trusts her. After a moment, Sunset assures her that she does and that her strange Pinkie Sense has never been wrong before. Happy that she decides to go along with it, Pinkie then says that now they just need someone to provide this memory, and Maud volunteers, to which Pinkie responds that she’s the best sister ever. She then takes Maud’s face in her hooves and starts talking directly to Lightning, who’s viewing this memory. Pinkie tells her that it’s really important that she get to get to this room, press the button on the console over there, and remove the power source for the megaspell. Sunset tries to object, but Pinkie just quickly shouts her down. “Do you mind? I’m trying to talk to Lightning.” Pinkie then tells Lightning the moral, that while no one can do everything, if everyone each does their own little part, then there’s nothing they can’t do. When she’s finished, she gestures to Sunset to perform the memory spell. She walks forward and is about to do it, but Pinkie stops her for a moment and whispers something into her ear. Confused, Sunset asks her if she’s serious, to which she just happily nods back. She then turns back around and says, “Lightning… I’m proud of you.” She then performs the spell and the memory ends. On the Final Day and the megaspells are falling, the Trottingham MAS Hub is a direct target for the zebra’s missiles. Even though research isn’t completely finished, Sunset activates the megaspell, removing the entire building, and then the megaspells fall on where it would have been. Several days later, the Hub building returns, though to them it was instantaneous. However, because of the radiation from a direct megaspell strike, and the radiation released from the spell only removing the building for a few days, the nearby area becomes the most irradiated area in the entire Equestrian wasteland. This also causes all of Trottingham to have higher levels of background radiation for hundreds of years to come. For the first few decades after the war, the area is completely uninhabitable, which is what attracts the remaining changelings to the area, and why Necropolis is set up so quickly. The ponies inside were trapped and refused to use the megaspell again, so the research team is still slowly dying. Realising her own folly in creating such a megaspell, in her final moments, she locks the megaspell and all of the files relating to it with a genetic lock, so that it can never be used again. This is far more advanced than the bypass on the laser defences outside, and only she or her descendants could lift it. As she’s dying, she worries that she’ll never see Flash or her son ever again, but prays that they both got into the stable in time. She then succumbs to the radiation and dies. Because of this, she never makes it into the stable like she was supposed to. In the decades to come, the old MAS Hub becomes one of the most infamous ruins in the wasteland. Even two hundred years later, the radiation around the area reaches over a thousand rads before you can even get close, and there are deadly laser defences along the huge wall surrounding the Hub building on all sides, so even ghouls and alicorns can’t get through, and the Enclave can’t fly in because of the deadly levels of radiation. Because the facility was never hit by the zebra’s megaspells, it is still completely untouched after two hundred years, containing all the advanced technology and research files from before the war. A lot of different groups have wanted to get in over the years, but between the radiation and laser defences, it was deemed impossible and everyone just ignores it. No one still living knows about the megaspell that was researched there or how the building supposedly survived a direct hit from the zebra’s assault unscathed, though there are still some pre-war files relating to it, but with the radiation and laser defences, everyone just ignores it.

Before the megaspells fell, Flash Sentry and his son managed to survive by making it into Stable 64 in Trottingham. Since Sunset never made it, Flash then became the stable’s first Overstallion. After getting his instructions from Stable Tec about the stable’s experiment, the first thing that he did was ban any research on the IMP that they had been given, saying that without Sunset here as the head researcher, it would be too dangerous, and had it all locked up. He then altered the stable’s original project and just turned it into an ordinary fallout shelter to stay in until it was safe to leave again, fully intending to open the stable when it was safe again and help the surface. Flash served as a great Overstallion, and with the years he was in charge, the stable flourished. Decades later, Flash passes away peacefully and his son becomes the next Overstallion. Although there were some ponies that wanted to continue the research on the IMP and use it to become alicorns, Flash wouldn’t allow it, and his authority as Overstallion was absolute. They also knew that they wouldn’t be able to try anything under his nose. After Flash passes away and his son becomes the next Overstallion, the stable ponies take advantage of his inexperience and have him exiled from the stable. When they kick him out the door, they give him a single 10mm pistol. They say that, “It has twelve bullets; make sure to save one for yourself.” While he was making his way through the ruined city of Trottingham, he eventually met a ghoul stallion, who, unbeknownst to him, was his grandfather. Diamond Flash could instantly tell that he was a stable pony, not knowing about ghouls. He agrees to take him back to Necropolis. While they’re walking, Diamond Flash asks him his name, and when he gives it too him, and seeing his eye colour, he immediately realises that this pony is his grandson, though he doesn’t inform him of this. He then later escorts him safely out of the city ruins. The pony then eventually makes it to a nearby settlement, settles down, and his family line continues until the start of the story. The main character of the story is a descendant of Sunset Shimmer.

When the ponies of the stable had kicked him out, the new Overmare allows research on the IMP to resume. The research is a success, and the IMP is capable of converting ponies into alicorns, though Sunset’s batch was completely different from Twilight’s, being based on her earlier research, there are several differences from Twilight’s batch. Because her formula for IMP was created in the early days of the war, it doesn’t use flux, like Twilight’s does, so her result isn’t as chaotic, but also not as powerful. With this batch of IMP, any type of pony can be successfully converted, not just unicorns. The conversion is also much safer, with a much higher rate of successful conversion. Males also stay males. There isn’t any Goddess figure, and there aren’t any templates. The only noticeable change is that the ponies gain wings and horns. However, unlike the other alicorns, this conversion doesn’t give the ponies any extra strength; they get wings and horns, but they don’t know how to use them any more than a foal. They can learn to uses their new wings and horns, but not any faster than an ordinary unicorn or pegasus. These alicorns are also just as susceptible to radiation as ordinary ponies. A feature that Sunset’s batch of IMP shares with Twilight’s is that ghouls can’t be converted. After research had blossomed, the overmare then gave an order that everypony in the stable would be converted and become alicorns; and then when the stable finally opened, they would be the rulers of a new Equestria. However, they discovered too late that the IMP had made them all sterile, so with everypony in the stable converted, lacking the immortality of the other alicorns, and no way to reproduce, the whole stable died off within a generation. Decades later, the stable was found by Red Eye’s forces while they were tracking down the source of IMP. Red Eye’s forces seized all the remaining samples of IMP. They then started their own research on it, to alter the formula, so that they could merge a unicorn, pegasus, and an earth pony, to create a true alicorn, with all the powers of a natural alicorn, like Celestia and Luna, for Red Eye’s own ascension. Unfortunately, while Red Eye had plenty of earth ponies and unicorns, the wasteland had a lack of viable pegasus test subjects. However, fortunately for him, the Enclave had a strong presence on the surface in the Trottingham wasteland. He then set up one his major bases in the area, on top of the stable, and put one of his generals from Stable 101 in charge. While research was proceeding along steadily, the researchers theorized that if they could find a subject of each type of pony, who were all closely related, they could acquire much more data. Then Cipher, Red Eye’s general in charge of the area, found out about three such ponies in the area who fit that description. Lightning, the main character of the story is a pegasus, her father is a unicorn, and her mother is an earth pony. Cipher then sent his forces to Mareland, to capture the three ponies for the research, as well as any other they can get, as slaves.

During the war, the Crystal Empire remained neutral and didn’t participate. The zebras told them that they were only interested in Luna and her kingdom, not the Crystal Empire, which is a separate kingdom of ponies. The zebras never said or did anything to contradict this, so the crystal ponies resigned to not get involved in the war. This also meant that Shining Armor and Cadance couldn’t help Equestria either. They may have been the rulers of the Crystal Empire, but Equestria was their home, and they weren’t going to just sit back while it was being attacked. Shining Armor used his connections to contact Applejack, who then had her ministry secretly construct a suit of ‘Prototype Shining Power Armor’ which was a power armor that could be worn by a unicorn, but also served to hide his identity. Shining Armor then joined in the fight against the zebras, but not officially signing up with Equestria. He was incredibly skilled, serving as a one-man army. Stories starting popping up about a legendary unicorn soldier. He also became one of the zebra’s highest priority targets, alongside Big Macintosh, Rainbow Dash, and Princess Luna. As the war was coming to an end, he eventually found out about Sunset’s megaspell project, and that she was using stolen information and dark magic in her research. He threatened to turn her in to Twilight; however, she then mentioned that she knew that Shining Armor was the mysterious armored unicorn, and threatened to turn him in if he told anyone. After thinking about it for a moment, Shining Armor still decides to turn her in. He then removes his power armor and leaves it behind, and leaves the building. While Shining Armor was on his way back to the Crystal Empire, the megaspells fell. Despite the zebras saying that they intended to leave the Crystal Empire alone, they still launched missiles against them. The Crystal Heart was able to sense the danger, and it then activated on its own and performed the same spell that King Sombra used on it a thousand years ago. The difference from the spell at the Trottingham Hub is that the Crystal Heart didn’t have any specifications for how long to remove something, and so it could be gone for another thousand years, and it’s still missing two hundred years later. Only a handful of crystal ponies were outside of the empire when it was removed, leaving the crystal pony race on the verge of extinction. Crystal ponies have a slight resistance, though not immunity, to radiation, because of their crystal coats, though this also prevents them from ghoulifying. Two hundred years later, there are only those of crystal pony descent left, though they do still have their shiny coats and radiation resistance. Cadance is still technically alive, but she’s temporally displaced, along with the other crystal ponies, and there is no telling when they’ll return. Shining Armor survived the Final Day, and he became a ghoul. He made his way back to the Crystal Empire, to find the whole place gone. He deduced that the Crystal Heart must have removed it in order to keep it safe. He knows that Cadance is still alive, and he is resolved to wait for as long as it takes until the empire returns and he can see his wife again. He also completely subverts the thinking that she might not love him any more now that he looks like this, and is confident that she will also be ecstatic to see him again as well. He doesn’t return to Equestria after that, instead spending all of his time up north, around Stalliongrad and where the Crystal Empire was, waiting for it to reappear. His desire to see his wife again is what drives him and keeps him from going feral. He is still alive two hundred years later and there starts a wasteland legend about the ‘Ghost of Stalliongrad’ who’s supposedly a spirit of the old world that hasn’t learned to die. Not many people believe it, however, and Shining Armor has had no contact with anyone else in all that time. He did, however, at one point meet Homage, who also recounts the tale of the ‘Ghost of Stalliongrad’ but also prologues her stories with ‘I may have been experimenting with Dash at the time’ to keep from revealing his secret. Later in the story, when Lightning’s group attempt their second attack on the fort, Homage contacts Shining Armor and convinces him to help Lightning and her friends with dealing with the situation.

During the war, Chrysalis and the changelings allied with the zebras, to destroy the ponies. Chrysalis believed that Luna was no big deal, and that Celestia was the one they had to worry about, having faced her personally. During the war, the changelings mostly helped the zebras to sneak into Equestria, for reconnaissance and assassination missions. Before the Final Day, Chrysalis died, and she was the last queen, severely crippling the changeling races chance of survival. The queen changeling is capable of reproducing asexually, but other changelings reproduce sexually. After Chrysalis died and the war ended, the changeling race was declining rapidly. Because of their actions during the war, ponies were all hostile to them and shot them on sight, and without a queen, there was nobody for them to rally under, which lead to infighting and splitting off, resulting in more of them being killed. A few years after the war ended, the remaining changelings made their way to the Trottingham wasteland, since the high levels of radiation at the time kept most races away. Changelings are immune to magical radiation because of their hard chitin and advance anatomy. Whereas ghouls and alicorns can absorb radiation to heal and get stronger, for changelings, it simply doesn’t affect them. Despite this advantage to living in the new world, however, they still need to feed off of love in order to survive, and there was so little of it left, and ponies shot them on sight. With this in mind, some changelings purposed that this was an opportunity to begin again. They could live alongside the ponies, working with them, instead of preying on them. Some of them were in favour of this, seeing as their best chance of survival, and to free themselves of how other species viewed them before. However, others saw it as the death of their race, throwing away who they were, and that it wasn’t worth it. From here, over the next few decades, the remaining changeling race split into two. The ones who sought to live alongside ponies peacefully, became known as second generation changelings. They evolved a lot in the last two hundred years, gaining many new abilities. In addition to feeding off of love, they were now also able to get strong from any positive emotion, like friendship. Though they didn’t become as strong as they used to when feeding off of love, but surviving was now much easier, and the ponies around them weren’t harmed in any way. They were also now able to maintain their disguises indefinitely, even if they were knocked unconscious or killed, which is something their first generation cousins lack. If changelings were in the form of ponies when they gave birth, then their children were also born in the form of ponies, but were still changelings and had all the abilities of them. This made sure that their true identities weren’t revealed. Some changelings had lived their entire lives in the form of ponies. While these changelings have no ill intentions towards the ponies they live alongside, the ponies don’t know about the changelings splitting apart, and still shoot them all on sight. They also retain their immunity to radiation, and they can fly and use magic. They’re even capable of breeding with ponies. The first generation changelings, however, refused to live peacefully with ponies. This made surviving in the wasteland much more difficult for them. They still became more powerful than the other changelings when feeding off of love, citing how even a hundred fully empowered first generation changelings could take on an army, and how they once almost took Canterlot in a single day. First generation changelings, however, are much more dependent on love, and if they go too long without it, like several months, they end up in a state similar to a feral ghoul. However, while they were exploring the Trottingham wasteland, they came upon the MAS Hub in the region, used for megaspell research. Their immunity to radiation let them get close easily, and they were able to get passed the laser defences by changing into matches of the ponies that the defences had bypasses for. The changelings now had access to a Ministry Hub that had been left completely untouched since the war, with all the technology and research intact. They now also had a base that was completely impenetrable to anyone else. They were able to use many of the research and technology to find other ways to survive, and they were better equipped than even the Steel Rangers or the Enclave. They were even able to create new things. One such thing was a small talisman worn around the neck that made the wearer immune to radiation. They used this to capture ponies; put the talisman around their necks, and bring them back to their base. The radiation talismans for them, served the same function as bomb collars; the captured ponies had the choice of either being their slaves, or taking off the talisman and burning to death in the intense radiation; so they still had a continuous food source. However, despite this advantage, while they did survive, their race was still getting weaker and their numbers were so low that they started resorting to inbreeding in order to survive. Their advanced technology and their impenetrable fortress was the only thing that offset this and gave them an edge against the other factions. Their leaders then later came up with a plan involving the megaspell stored here. They could uses its ability to move whole towns across space, to group all of the ponies settlements together, and the radiation that the megaspell released would keep them boxed in, unable to leave. The changelings would bring in supplies to keep them alive, while keeping them contained and feeding off of them, essentially turning the wasteland into a giant hive. However, a problem they faced with this plan was that the megaspell was sealed under a genetic lock, and even they couldn’t get through it. The only one who could lift it would be the one who originally placed it, or anyone significantly related. While trying to find a way around that, the changelings tried to find some other way to spread radiation, while looking for anyone who could lift the genetic lock on the megaspell. Not many people in Trottingham are aware of either of the changeling races or their residence, but do know enough about them to shoot them on sight. Outside of Trottingham, however, very few know of changelings at all, as they haven’t been seen outside of the area in decades. There are a few rogue changelings that don’t belong to either faction, living with raiders; however, they don’t tend to last long as there is nothing for them to feed off of.

Of all of the species in the show, the crystal ponies and the buffalo were the only ones who didn’t participate in the war at all. However, they still ended up suffering just as much as the ponies and other races. With the crystal ponies presumed wiped out, the buffalo believe that they’re the only species left who didn’t participate in the war, but still ended up suffering because of it nonetheless. This has led to many of the buffalo to have an open dislike for all other races, and keep to themselves, living far away from anyone else, which is why they’re not seen much. However, Little Strongheart, who is now just called Strongheart, is still alive as a ghoul, and is the tribe’s new chieftain. She knows that ponies aren’t all bad, even saying that her husband was a pony before he died, implying that is was Braeburn, and tries to keep the other buffalo from acting out against any innocent ponies they see.

Growing up, Pound Cake still acted a lot like a kid, even with a war going on, and everyone else around him contributing in their way towards a solution. After he hears that his father has been killed on the battlefield, he finally decides that he needs to grow up. He then runs away to join the army, leaving a note for his family. After he joins the army, he is given a set of pegasus power armor, and is put into a squad with Flash Sentry, who he serves under. Flash Sentry is the one who teaches Pound to be a soldier, and is the one who makes him the great soldier he turns out to be. Pound fights in many battles, and proves to be a valiant soldier, rising through the ranks quickly. After Flash is transferred to become Sunset’s personal guard, Pound Cake is then moved to the front lines in Trottingham. He proves to be a very capable soldier, being responsible for many victories, and rising through the ranks quickly. During the war, he decided not to communicate with his family back home, so that if he did die, they would not be told and they could just believe that he was still alive, and they wouldn’t have to go through what they did when they found out that his dad died. After the pegasi secede from Equestria, Pound Cake joins them because he’s so high ranked. On the Last Day, while the pegasi are charting the zebras missiles, Pound Cake asks how long until Ponyville is hit. When he hears that it will only be a few hours, he decides to make a quick visit home, just to make sure that his family made it into Stable 2 safely. When he arrives in Ponyville, he finds Sugarcube Corner boarded up and abandoned. Panicking at this, while the citizens are frantically running up towards Stable 2, he asks someone what happened to his family, and they tell him that his mother passed away recently, and several days ago, Pumpkin went up to Maripony and it was bombed. Because the pegasi have charted all of the zebra’s attacks, he knows that this is true. Thinking that his family are dead, he then flies back above the cloud cover again. With his family dead, the Enclave is now all he has left, and is the only thing that he is left loyal to. He dedicates the rest of his life to protecting the pegasus race, continuing to rise through the ranks, and is highly praised by the pegasi. Pound Cake is a part of the ponies who side against Rainbow Dash’s motion to unseal the sky, believing it’s too dangerous yet, but unlike the others, he really believes this and would like for them to eventually return when it’s safe once again. With everyone at the trial arguing about what they should do, he makes the proposition that they send a scout team down to determine whether or not it’s safe. Rainbow offers to go herself, but he refuses, since she’s biased and would just say whatever she needed to get them to agree. Director Mephitis then volunteers, which the council allows, and they make everyone agree that the decision made will be based on the results brought back and that everyone will agree. After Pound Cake dies decades later, he is highly respected by all pegasi for his leadership and combat abilities, even two hundred years later. The Enclave also name a squad of elite rangers after him, who all wear tesla armor and are second only to the Wonderbolts: Pound’s Rangers. Pound’s Rangers serve under Major Hurricane.