And we finally reach the big battle. Time to cheat like mad.

Just so people know, the "war" part is winding down. There's still going to be some fighting, and there will be little bits of military stuff going on, but the rest is going to be generally smaller scale and closer focus on Whisper and her companions. I don't want people thinking that it's just going to be a war story for the rest of it. There may be fighting left to do, but Whisper's still got plenty of sneaky-bug scheming and sneaking to do.

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media0.giphy.com/media/T423nX9htFiY8/giphy-downsized.gif

They keep trying, but they havent been able to break the web, only now to try and wash it away.

An update? So soon!?
YAY!!!!!

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defeat will mean great changes are coming to the Serenity Hive, will they accept such visions of truth? maybe yes, maybe no, but still, the changes that come may be of benefit to these Changelings even though the War will continue regardless of which side wins. because war...war never changes...

They have to start getting suspicious that the ponies are reacting TOO well >.> They have to

Great chapter.

For the record I'd suspect something like this to be a ploy by the queen, their first serious move after figuring out their channels were compromised.

Y'know, I might have mentioned this before, but Serenity could totally have gotten volunteers to hang out in their sim. I'm sure there's plenty of ponies who would've loved to just ditch the wasteland and hang out in the matrix.

I'm loving this arc so much!

THAT was one hell of a battle dude!
Sandstorm! NNNOOOOOO!!!
Awesome chapter dude. I feel that the next next chapter is when the reach serenity. And the climax begins. So cannot wait!

I'm not sure what the difference is, but I was far more engrossed in the military strategy in this chapter than I was in the last chapter. Awesome work!

Oh I am sure it sucks but I will give it a read.

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Given my progress, I think I can proooobably guarantee similarly speedy updates through the rest of the story. I won't promise, because this last year seems to have been stacked against such a thing, but I'm feeling a bit more optimistic.
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You're very likely correct. If 'lings like Emerald had been in charge of the hive, things could have ended up very differently.
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Hah, cool, glad to hear it! And thank you
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Poor Sandstorm. Sadly, the Beast was just something Mantis couldn't pass up...

And yeah, we're getting to the climax of the story. The end is within sight. Just a few major obstacles in the way first...

Aaaw, yeah. That's the good stuff...

Someome get the X rating.

'Cause Serenity just got fucked hard.

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Yeah. Although, tbh I was actually thinking less "Emerald" and more "Ferengi", even considering their ability to just manufacture caps. Charge ponies a crateful of caps (with discounts available in exchange for services) to make a money sink to help counteract the dangers of hyperinflation produced by their ability to print caps...

Has Echo spent any time refining that changeling disguise disruption spell, or has she been too obsessed recently with preparing the power armor for Whisper? With the Serenity forces and field command structure decimated and smaller elements now operating with some independence (at least those units that Queen Chrysalis didn’t just give new orders to), it seems like they might want to try for another assassination attempt during the storm cover, either before Brachinus engages or after it (ostensibly) fails.

"quite nicely alleviated us of that concern"
"quite nicely relieved us of that concern"?

Did Sandstorm not back up when told to or was the tank just that slow? I'm just wondering, because they got ample warning, and if only the gun was exposed, backing up into safety should've been easy peasy lemon squeezy.

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Sandstorm is headstrong and stubborn, and felt that continuing to fire was more important than taking cover from some "cannons" that she probably thought would have a hard time getting through her armor. She's got the baddest machine of war on the battlefield, and probably felt pretty much invincible. Basically, she had incomplete information and misjudged the situation, and she paid for it.

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I thought as much. What a damn waste of one hell of a force multiplier..

Another great installment. It's a shame this is coming to a head but if I think what will happen, happens, then it's going to ruin those poor ponie's day.

How is this story just getting better.

Yeah, and its just the time to reduce the total war aspect, it started to feel the same but dayuum its good.

Nice, I caught up!

Wait, noo, I caught up...

(seems I still had this review lying around... ugh I missed a lot!)

Despite this, there is no denying that some moments are more significant than others. Some moments are crucial. These moments test us in new ways.

...that doesn't bode well

And we have to be ready to do things we may not be entirely comfortable with. This is why I was in my natural form, while Echo stuffed me into the set of power armor she had been fixated on for the past two days.

Ha! That's what it all led up to? Well played.

“(...) and I suspect you are only wearing that armor because I made it a condition of leaving your side.”

No, really?

About a hundred yards away, and just behind the ridge itself, about a dozen Mareford ponies were gathered around their mortars.

Ooh. They got artillery! That's gonna leave a mark

I cast a quick glance to my PipBuck. Three minutes.

They're stalling for something, hm? I'm assuming that something is whatever Echo's doing.

A flash, and the tank was engulfed in a fireball. The blast was deafening. The massive turret crashed down beside the tank, blown entirely clear of the chassis.

Oh, yikes! They actually took is out!

“Whisper, get on Trotsen’s channel. Make sure Axle knows he’s in charge and get him on the command channel.”

Oww. They lost Sandstorm with the tank

...and their new commander isn't taking it well

The faint tingle of adrenaline ran down my spine. Their megaspell was readying to strike.

Ooh, is that what "Echo" is? Well, I suspect they got a counter-Echo ready

What followed, however, was impossible to miss. The flash of green lit up the western edge of the valley.

Wait wait, what? The megaspell?

Echo had teleported the second balefire egg right into the middle of their logistics company, detonating motorwagons and stocks of spark batteries.

Oh! The balefire eggs! Hah!

“Command, Ghost Two. Please respond, urgent.”

“I think command is down.”

Yup... they just cut off the head. Whoo. Nice.

I got to see the full power of the deceptively tiny device. Alchemical fire burst forth, tearing through and consuming everything in its wake. The pillbox disintegrated, flinging slabs of concrete out across the slope before it.

Yikes.

“Who’s in charge?”

“I think you are!”

Look at that preparedness in case of chain of command interruption on the Serenity side

I leaned over toward Dusty. “The southern defenders are trying to retreat.”

From the way she's saying "trying to" I assume they already have measures in place to ensure said retreat is not successful...

Yup. Dey all ded, mon.

Equipment bounced haphazardly in the back of the wagons, while ponies clung on. I could see Sickle’s distinctive armor among them.

If not for the gunfire, you'd also hear her cheering, I bet

There were no cheers or celebrations, but these ponies held their heads high with pride. They’d faced the enemy head-on and prevailed. The way to Serenity lay essentially unguarded.

Must be good for morale, despite the losses.

“You cunts missed a hell of a fight!” she called out as she drew near.

Yeah, she's fine. Poor changelings

One platoon commander tried a more aggressive turn, trying to rely on speed and violence to catch us off-guard. If they’d achieved surprise, it might have even worked. Instead they flew into the jaws of a trap.

You have to wonder if they'll figure it out at some point, heh.

The worst was when Mantis returned. They had taken losses during the previous day’s battle, but they were still able to fight. Our position at the center of the army meant we never presented ourselves to them, but other motorwagons were not so safe.

Ah, the missile team. Ow.

Communications were short and brief, and could basically be summed up as “follow me”. Nothing was reported back to the company commander.

Ah. Did they figure it out?

Hm. Nope. Still, problematic.

Mantis had been six changelings in Steel Ranger armor, with a variety of heavy weapons, including the missile launcher Starlight had spotted. None had survived the raid. All heavy weapons had been destroyed.

Booyah.

There was nothing they could do to stop us.

Which is why they decided to change the game.

Whoops.

“To that end, I will be deploying specialists from the hive. At precisely three A.M., they will turn the ponies’ own clouds against them. They will initiate a massive downpour to blind these ponies.

Ah yes... that brewing storm...

“Brachinus. You will move to Point Firefly. At exactly three-thirty, you will set out, using the cover of the storm to close on your target. Your target will be the center of the enemy army.”

Well, whoops.

Remarks and corrections:
> because I made it a condition of leaving your side
"because I made it a condition [for] leaving your side"

Well this is definitely a war. Complete insanity, chaos, plans just barely going on, and that strange necessary detachment needed to cope with it all.

I really don’t want to see the changelings to be slaughtered.

I'm just wondering how long you'd been waiting to use the balefire eggs. Those have been sitting around for a LONG time.

Not one, single changeling captive? Are the ponies executing all the changelings who're too wounded to flee or fight? The ones who're too weak or unconscious? Like, it's particularly notable that Whisper talks about the numbers of wounded ponies versus killed, but doesn't note anything about changelings except the killed. For engagements like the first few, or the harassing actions, I can accept the changelings taking efforts to minimize captures, but the battle of the fords gave them no such luxury. Even the Japanese island defenders near the end of World War Two couldn't achieve a 100% death rate, though they tried in some cases.

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Part of it is the whole cultural thing of being willing to die for the good of the hive. The wounded would continue fighting until they're literally incapable of doing so, even if that means holding onto a grenade until a pony gets close enough. Or, as was the case earlier in the day, playing dead only to pop up and try to kill the Militia soldiers who approached the seemingly dead or wounded changeling. After that, the militia wasn't taking chances. As much as Whisper felt uncomfortable about it (And probably Dusty, too), she understood it. Serenity had adopted a tactic where even seemingly incapacitated soldiers were still a potential threat.

But really, most of this was fighting that tended to be quite fatal for the defenders, especially in the bunkers. The army was attacking a hostile position with no possibility of bystanders or friendly captives, and were well equipped with lots of ammo and explosives. That means that the most likely way of storming each position was putting a grenade or two into each room, storming it, and shooting anyone they saw inside until they were absolutely sure none of them would fire back. Which generally meant that any defenders that remained were either dead or so severely injured that they would need significant and immediate (And probably magical) medical care to survive, but the ponies' forces got priority for medical treatment.

And even the ones that fell back from the fortifications were caught in the open by the flanking force and subjected to heavy fire, and with the amount of ammunition available, it's pretty natural to put extra rounds into downed targets to make sure they aren't just going prone to return fire.

So it ended up being an exceptionally fatal set of circumstances, and while some Serenity soldiers had likely only been wounded, they'd set the precedent of those wounded still being quite dangerous. It's a bad situation.

Though unlike the Japanese island defenses (Like Iwo Jima, where only 1% of the defenders were captured!), they had the option to withdraw, so some of the army was able to escape.

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So, yes, the ponies are executing every changeling they find.

Because, sorry, I just can't suspend my disbelief to accept a 100% self-inflicted KIA rate, even for fanatics.

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Those ponies would probably say "confirming their kill" or "better safe than sorry".

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Even the Gemstone ponies, who pride themselves on being better than the wasteland's horrors? I could see some severe contention there.

EDIT: I was going to say something about the not-so-wounded changelings who surrender because they've given up hope that their side will do anything but get them killed. Something, something even fanatics can have turning points/not everyone is equally fanatic. I don't know. Probably is more realistic that those few changelings who dip out wouldn't seek asylum so much as just disappear a la Emerald. Maybe those deserters would contritely show up much later, after the assumed time that Whisper ascends to a true changeling queen.

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Not the Gemstone ponies, no. They'd probably disagree strongly with the practice. They've generally been in the core of the army, with their energy weapons, to provide air defense. At the Rot, they were positioned up along the ridge giving fire support. It was mostly the Mareford Militia that conducted the assault and most of the fighting during the move, with help from the Trotsen ponies. The Militia is used to dealing with raiders, who they don't tend to take prisoner because they're just going to be executed anyway (That's where Dusty got his practice of putting an extra round into downed raiders), and they tend to be fairly practical, tactically speaking; once Serenity soldiers started using the play-dead-ambush tactic, it was a pretty easy switch to treat them similarly to raiders when found on the battlefield. And the Trotsen ponies aren't exactly the most well-behaved lot...

Unfreakingbelievable! It's like you're the next Tom Clancy! The way you do the large battles are so well developed. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if you had read some of his books. If not, totally take a look at them. Seriously though, you should write more fiction like this.

Maybe I should've just dumped all these in a PM
> Two Bit’s reply was almost instant.
Again, "Two Bits’s reply"

Gotta love glorious chaos sometimes.
Also, ya know things are serious when ya queen takes command. Seems Chrysalis the Sixth is done with this. Not that I really blame her. She's probably lost at least like... a quarter of her Hive or so by now. Definitely has taken some heavy casualties. Look forward to seeing how this all ends.

Its so strange seeing a Fallout story playing from the point of view of a commander instead of a heavy gunner.

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Heh, yeah. I know a lot of Fallout: Equestria characters tend to be very combat-focused, so one of the goals I had with this story was to create one who wasn't. Whisper is competent in many ways, but she's probably at her weakest in a fight. Fortunately, there's a lot more to a conflict than just the up-front fighting, and it was a lot of fun to lean into those aspects with her.

With how well the main Serenity defense crumbled I am biting my nails in nervousness of how bad is it going to get. It's going too well and they have a megaspell.

I am surprised that the changelings have not caught up with what is going on. The one time they planted the mines without any radio information it staggered the ponies more than usual. Might've tried more of those tactics.

Why was Whisper so against wearing the power armor in the beginning of the chapter? Last time on the ship she said she had no time getting used to it while they were getting boarded. Understandable. So why is she throwing a fit about it now?

And Lacunae Echo. Isn't it weird that most of her interactions with Whisper end up exactly the same: looking off into space with a thoughtful expression followed by "I guess that's reasonable".

Everything else is great/ perfect

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Why was Whisper so against wearing the power armor in the beginning of the chapter? Last time on the ship she said she had no time getting used to it while they were getting boarded. Understandable. So why is she throwing a fit about it now?

Imagine you have this amazing magical power that lets you change into anyone or anything you want. A magical power so useful that it's practically your defining feature. One that you've relied on for your entire life, in a profession where that power is one of the few things keeping you alive.

Now imagine you get strapped into a bulky mechanical contraption that will horrifically injure or kill you if you try to use that power for anything beyond the most minor adjustments. That's blatantly overt when your survival has always relied on remaining covert. That was stolen from a friendly faction and makes you look very similar to the enemy, when you're used to relying on appearances to make things easier.

And to top it all off, it's being put on you by someone who has been harping you on and on about it for days and is possibly being over-protective to the point of babying you.

Whisper doesn't have a problem with the armor as a tool. Like she said, she was probably going to wear it anyway (and, well... see next chapter ). But she's not a fan of Echo being so over-protective. Whisper isn't exactly a proud person, but she is skilled and knowledgeable at what she does, while Echo often treats her more as someone that needs to be babied and protected rather than an experienced Infiltrator. They have different priorities, after all. Whisper wants to use the tools that are best for accomplishing her goals. Echo wants her to use the tools that are best for keeping her alive. Optimizing for one may mean compromising on the other.

And Lacunae Echo. Isn't it weird that most of her interactions with Whisper end up exactly the same: looking off into space with a thoughtful expression followed by "I guess that's reasonable".

Echo kinda doesn't "get" a lot of common pony things, so she's often having to stop what she's doing and process new information that most people really take for granted. It doesn't help that she has an overly analytical mind and has this need to analyze everything to its full extent (doing otherwise would just be careless, after all!).