Fallout: Equestria - Change of Heart

by The Tainted One

Staring Down the Barrel

Looking around, I saw beautiful buildings and screaming ponies. I was in Canterlot. With a sigh, I walked forward. A loud wail pierced my ears and I turned to face a foal, not more than five. The foal saw me and began crying louder. With a loud buzz, my superior landed next to me. His name was Lieutenant Switcheroo. "Vice, what are you waiting for? Disable the foal so we can capture it!" he yelled at me. I took a step back, horrified at what he was asking me to do. "Oh for bucks sake." He turned to face the foal, a malicious grin on his face. His horn lit up and a burst of energy began to build on it. I looked at the foal and she was curled up into a ball. Knowing that I would be severely reprimanded, I tackled Switcheroo and the burst of energy went wide and impacted into the side of another changeling flying after a Pegasus.
"Run!" I yelled at the foal. The foal didn't need to be told twice. She ran into an alley and around a corner
"What has gotten into you, Vice!? You'll be imprisoned for this!" He shot a smaller burst of energy at me and it impacted into my chest. The spell taking effect, I began to have trouble breathing and collapsed. I heard the Lieutenant yell to another soldier. Something about 'treason' and 'empathy sickness'. The dream faded out as I came to.

I awoke to the sound of arguing. Apparently, sometime during the night, I fell from the rafters. I opened my eyes slowly and found myself staring face to face with the barrel of a gun. Panicking, I recoiled and hid behind a desk.
"Do you know what that 'thing' is?" I heard Rhubarb's voice yell frantically. She glared at me and cocked the revolver's hammer back with her magic.
"YES! She's a friend. I found- er, she found me when I was half dead and saved me. If she wanted to harm me she could have done so long ago. She means well." Rose screamed back, stepping between myself and her mother. I saw Rhubarb relax slightly and uncock the revolver. She reholstered it then said:
"Alright, I'll trust it." I cringed at 'it'. " For now. Come down for breakfast when you're ready. Leave it up here though." she said while gesturing to me. I let out a sigh and stood up. I flew over and started kissing Rhubarb's hooves.
"Please don't tell anypony! I'll be nice." I said between kisses. She nudged my head away and smirked at me.
"Fine, but I've got my eye on you," she emphasized by squinting one of her eyes at me. She turned to walk back downstairs and I breathed a sigh of relief. Re-establishing my disguise, I put my armor back on and checked to make sure the Starblaster was un-loaded. No need to burn bridges by having a loaded gun. I turned to face Rose and I noticed that her eyes were red. She wiped a tear away and smiled gently at me.
"Thanks for defending me," I said while hugging her.
"No problem. I'm not as biased as my mother is. I don't judge on appearances." She trotted over and took the radhog meat out of the fridge. "I better go give her this so we can have a decent breakfast. Nothing against 200-year old corn, but, I mean come on. It's bacon! There's some food in my fridge if you want it." She grinned and walked downstairs. I opened the fridge and saw something called Fancy Buck Cakes, a couple Sparkle Colas, and a couple pieces of jerky. I chuckled, wondering how Rose was in such good of shape and grabbed the jerky and a cola.

After about an hour I was drifting off to sleep again when Rose's door opened and she walked in.
"Eat well?" she asked.
"It was pretty good, especially that jerky." I replied. She smiled.
"It seems I'm not the only one that likes Hellhound jerky." she smirked. I gasped.
"That was hellhound meat? By the Queen, it was good! We gotta get some more." I responded.
"Good luck with that," she laughed. "So, how are you feeling?" She asked me.
"I'm okay. I doubt I can stay here much longer though. It's only a matter of time before one of your parents spills the beans or someone else sees me without my disguise." Rose gasped at me. I gave her what I hoped was a stern look and she sighed.
"I suppose we should get you armed." She walked over to her closet and flipped the switch next to it. Suddenly, a whole section of wall opened up, revealing an armory. I fell to my haunches and gaped at the sudden reveal of enough guns and ammo to supply a small army. "I may not be good with explosives, but I'm damn good with guns." She smirked. She tossed me a sweet looking jet-black rifle. "That's something I custom built from a zebra carbine and an Anti-Machine rifle. It fires three-round bursts." I set the gun down and tried to focus my magic on it. It took me about a minute to realize that Rose was sitting there giggling at me. I hated not being able to use my magic. 'There's really only one solution for this.' I thought. I focused and a horn sprouted from my head. Rose fell over backwards, apparently startled by my sudden use of magic. I lifted the gun with my telekinesis and held it up to inspect it.
"What, so now you're an Alicorn?" she inquired. "What kind of Alicorn has a camera for a cutie mark?"
"I suppose I should change it," I focused my magic and my cutie mark warped from a camera to a pair of clouds with a beam of light going between them. "Lets just say that I really know my way around a light spell," I grinned. She rolled her eyes and resumed digging through the secret compartment. I spied a round shape on the floor and squealed when I realized it was a Pipbuck. I always saw them on ponies and have dreamed of having one.
"Would you mind if I have that Pipbuck?" I asked Rose with puppy-eyes. She let out a small laugh and grabbed it with her mouth.
"Ere ew go," she said with her mouth full and tossed it onto the floor in front of me with a little more saliva than I was comfortable with. I grabbed a nearby towel and wiped the Pipbuck off. Rose just grinned sheepishly. I put it on with a small stab of pain and an alert flashed across the screen.

With a puff of smoke, the Pipbuck popped off of my leg and landed near Rose. She prodded the still smoking Pipbuck with a hoof.
"Well, that was weird." She said as she poked it again.
"I don't suppose that you know anyone that can keep a secret and is good with arcano-tech?" I asked as I rubbed my stinging hoof.

"Since the general store doesn't open for a couple days, I might as well take you on a hunting trip. Use the carbine. The starblaster just melts the things it shoots, and we need the meat." Rose said while kicking a rock. I floated the carbine out of my borrowed saddlebags. I sighted a nearby rock and squeezed the trigger. All three bullets hit the rock in a perfect vertical line.
"What exactly are we looking for?" I asked, loading three fresh bullets into the clip and then re-inserting it into the carbine.
"Anything edible," she replied ducking under a branch. I was about to retort, when I heard a branch snapping from a ways away. Rose motioned for me to go left. I ducked around a couple more trees. 'By the Queen, how I hate forests' I thought. I heard a low pitched growling noise and stopped to look around. There was another growl followed by a slightly higher pitched growl. I saw what looked like a clearing about fifty feet away. Tiptoeing, I approached the clearing to see a sight that made my jaw go slack.
A Manticore, clearly an adult from the size of it, was engaged with a small pack of Timberwolves. I heard the mic in my ear crackle to like and Rose whispered:
"See anything?" I was figuring out how to reply when the mic crackled again, "press the button on the earpiece." I was pressed the button, but the words caught in my throat when I noticed that one of the Timberwolves was looking my way. In a panic, I cast a spell and turned invisible. The Manticore lashed out at the distracted Timberwolf, taking it's head off. I put my rifle away and pulled out my Starblaster. I snuck away, and once I was a good ways away from the battle, I cast a flare spell.
"Was that you?" Rose whispered into my ear. I hit the button and replied with:
"Yeah, one of my many talents." I released the button and dispelled my invisibility spell. I heard an 'eep' and the sound of branches snapping and I turned to face a shocked Rose. I recast it and her mouth gaped even wider.
"That another one of your talents?" she chuckled. I silently flew behind her and tapped her on the back of the head. She screamed and fell forward. "Don't do that!" she yelled at a volume I wasn't comfortable with. I shoved a hoof in her mouth.
"Don't yell, I saw a Manticore a ways back," I whispered. She gasped and I nodded towards Acropolis. "Let's get going." Giving the area with the Manticore a wide berth, we trotted out of the forest. "Glad to be out of that creepy place," I said while stretching. No sooner than that moment, three Timberwolves ran out of the forest towards us. After we ducked down, the Timberwolves leapt over our heads and kept going.
"Run?" Rose asked me with a horrified look on her face.
"Run! This way!" I ran in a different direction than the timberwolves. we got about 200 feet when the slightly bloodied Manticore breached the edge of the forest. It looked around and then sniffed the air. Then it look directly at us. My eyes widened, but it took off in the same direction as the timberwolves. Breathing a massive sigh of relief, Rose went to wipe her forehead, only to realize she couldn't see her arm. I inadvertently cast my invisibility spell over both of us.
"That's... really handy. Rose said while dusting herself off. "So, what other spells can you do?"
"I can shoot a laser from my horn if I focus hard enough and I have a solar flare spell." I replied.
"Can you use the laser to cook radhog?" she asked, grinning.
"Only if you like it blackened," I shot back.
"Well, we should get back before one of those Timberwolves decides to attack us." Rose said. I picked her up and took to the air. She screamed for the first five seconds, but then realizing what I was doing, quieted down and held on.

The whole flight took about an hour. It was a little past dark when got back. We were greeted by Rhubarb with a stern look on her face.
"Why did you fly back? If you hurt Rose..." but Rose interrupted her.
"Mom," she snapped, "I'm fine. Flash flew back because we had a run in with a Manticore." Rhubarb's eyes widened. "And before you ask, no it didn't see us." Rhubarb breathed a sigh of relief. "Plus, I'm sure that Flash's Starblaster could have made short work of it anyhow."
"Well, as long as Rose is alright, did you get anything?" Rhubarb asked me.
"No, we came back after we saw the Manticore." I replied. Rhubarb scoffed and turned to go back inside. Wordlessly, we followed her and went back up to Rose's room. I dumped my saddlebags onto the floor and set it on the bed.
"So, know anything I can do to get Rhubarb to like me?" I asked to Rose as she took a sip from her last Sparkle Cola.
"She loves gems, but they're so damn rare and usually only dragons have them nowadays." Rose took another sip. "I'd imagine that if you brought her a saddlebag full of gems, she'd warm right up to ya."
"So, basically bribe her to like me?" I asked and Rose nodded. Sighing, I began to dig through the pile of assorted odds and ends that I found while pillaging an abandoned house. Five caps, I set them in a small pile that Rose had started. A coffee mug, I tossed it on the bed. A can of Cram, I tossed it with the coffee mug. A small, black box. Where did I get this?
"You ever seen anything like this?" I asked Rose while holding the box up to her.
"Nope, open it." she replied. I gave the box a once-over and upon finding the latch, flipped it. The box opened and a single Star Ruby with a small note fell out of it. I read the note out loud.
"Dear Spike,
This Star Ruby is to pay you back for the one I got all those years ago from you. I really hope you enjoy it; you deserve it. Especially after all that mess with Goldenblood and Twilight.
Kisses,
Rarity."
"Rarity? As in the Ministry Mare Rarity?" Rose gaped. "Wow, whoever Spike was, he must have been once lucky buck."
"Well, I guess we have a bribe for your mother now," I grinned and put the Star Ruby back in the box. "It's late, we should probably get to bed." I said while suppressing a yawn. "Goodnight, Rose." I called back as I flew up to the rafters.
"Goodnight, Vice." she replied as she cleared off her bed. I was asleep in minutes.

"She did what!?" I heard the resonating voice of Queen Chrysalis bounce through the chamber. I remembered this place. This was my trial about a week after the failed invasion. I gazed into the eyes of the incredibly enraged Queen. She looked ready to strike me down herself.
"Yes, my Queen. Shards was killed by the reflected spell. She has empathy sickness, your highness." Switcheroo replied in a low voice.
"Take her to the rehabilitation center. We shall get rid of it one way or another." Queen Chrysalis replied, a grin forming on her face, I was dragged to a spiral pathway that led further into the mountain. I was strapped down to a table where three other changelings were surrounding me. I heard muffled voices all around me, followed by all three changelings casting a spell on me. It was a dull pain at first. Then it started to build up to a throbbing ache, followed by a searing pain. I screamed and screamed, but I had no voice. Then it slowly started to subside.
"Again," I heard Switcheroo's voice from somewhere nearby. Then the pain flared up again. This repeated for about an hour until the three torturers left and Switcheroo was the only one remaining in the room with me. "This happens every day until the empathy sickness goes away. It's up to you when it stops." he said coldly then walked outside and motioned for a pair of guards to throw me in a cell. I heard a distant voice calling to me.
"Wake up! Wake up! You've gotta wake up!" It sounded like Rose's voice. Slowly, I came out of the hellish dream.

"Come on! Snap out of it!" Rose screamed into my face. I opened my eyes and saw that her's were incredibly bloodshot. I saw another pair of eyes behind her. Rhubarb was watching me with a worried expression. She was worried about me? "You're awake!" Rose hugged me tightly. "You've been screaming and muttering stuff in your sleep for the past hour. I was so worried. What were you dreaming about?" Rose asked, wiping tears from her eyes.
"It was after the Invasion of Canterlot. Chrysalis sentenced me to forced rehabilitation for empathy sickness. Which pans out to having a torture spell cast on you for an hour a day, every day, until you're either rehabilitated, or you die." I said, rubbing my throat. Apparently, screaming for an hour straight really does a number on your vocal cords. Rose's and Rhubarb's eyes widened.
"You poor soul," Rhubarb said while wrapping me in a hug. Wait, she was actually worried about me? I returned the hug with a bit of reluctance. "I'm so sorry about that mess yesterday, you kind of surprised me." she said. I waved a hoof, at which point I realized I still had my disguise on. Did I go to sleep with it on?
"It's no problem, most ponies don't like changelings anyhow." She hugged me again. "I probably should have told you right off, since I'm staying for a little while." She released me. I got to my hooves and stretched. It was at this point, that I realized I was in Rose's bed. "Did I fall again?" I asked. Rose nodded.
"Yep, landed right next to me. Knocked me clear off the bed." I rubbed my head sheepishly. "My mom heard you screaming and came up here. She brought you some water." Rhubarb floated a canteen towards me. I drank greedily, then wiped my mouth. Rose giggled.
"Thanks, what time is it?" I asked.
"Almost morning, I'm surprised that none of the neighbors came over to see what the fuss was about." Rhubarb replied. "I best be gettin' back downstairs to make breakfast. We got a long day ahead of us." she turned and walked out of Rose's room. She called back, "You're welcome to join us, Flash." "Thanks, ma'am." I replied. Wait, long day?
"Uhh Rose?" I asked. "What did your mom mean by long day?"
"Oh shoot, I didn't tell you?" I shook my head. "Horseapples," Rose muttered. "Well, tomorrow- er today, is my birthday!" She grinned. "I'm twenty-one!"
"Happy birthday," I hugged her. "Plan on getting good and drunk, eh?" I nudged her chest with a hoof. She chuckled and nodded.
"I'm hoping you will too, seeing as you're well over the legal limit," she smirked. I laughed.
"Maybe." I responded. "I don't remember, did I go to sleep with my disguise on?" I asked.
"I think so, I thought you said you couldn't maintain it while asleep?" Rose yawned.
"I thought I couldn't. I guess I was wrong," I replied. Shrugging, I got up and shook myself off. "We should get down for breakfast." We trotted downstairs where the smell hit us like a ton of bricks. Bacon, pancakes, eggs, and toast. Rose's and my mouths were both watering by the time we entered the kitchen. I was surprised to see that Rose's dad was making breakfast. "Morning, sir." I said to him while yawning.
"Wait, I thought you were a Pegasus. When did you get a horn?" He questioned. I looked at Rose who looked at Rhubarb entering from some back room levitating a couple gifts.
"Hold that thought," Rose told him. "Mom, Flash, join me in the living room please?" Rhubarb and I followed her into an empty room. The paint was peeling off of the wall in places, revealing a duck pattern wallpaper. "You didn't tell him!?" Rose whispered to Rhubarb who suddenly had a panicked look on her face. "Why didn't you tell him?"
"Oops," Rhubarb whispered back. Then a loud voice came from the doorway.
"Tell me what?" Striker said in a serious tone. "Tell me, what?" He repeated. Sighing, I walked over to him.
"No sense in dragging this out," I said glumly. I focused my magic and shed my disguise.
"Oh, that." he said weakly.
"Dad, don't freak out." Rose said with a touch of worry. "She doesn't want to harm any of us. She's... different, from other changelings."
"Don't freak out?" he said, his voice rising. "Don't freak out!? You're friends with a changeling and you're telling me not to freak out!?" he was yelling at this point and Rhubarb was looking pale.
"Honey, please. She saved our daughter. Twice, I might add." Rhubarb's voice was barely above a whisper.
"How can you be sure? Maybe it has our daughter under some kind of mind control spell?" he shot back. "Wait, where did it go?" he looked around and ran outside. 'Oh, horseapples. I am so dead.' I thought. Hey, I finally get that expression now. Except in my case I probably am as good as dead.
"Vice, you can come out now." Rose's voice echoed through the house. I released my invisibility spell and heard an 'eep' followed by a thump from behind me. I turned to face a stunned Rhubarb laying on her back. 'Like mother, like daughter.' I chuckled inwardly.
"Crap," Rhubarb ran out the front door. "Striker! Get back here!" she yelled. I saw a group of ponies walking toward this house and started panicking. I put my disguise back on and trotted out the front door with Rose in tow.
"Get away from it, Rose." I heard Striker yell from the front of the mob. She looked at me with a horrified expression.
"Sorry about this everypony," I said while activating my magic. A small light went from the tip of my horn into the air about ten feet. The light suddenly grew incredibly bright and washed over everyone. I had my eyes closed so I was unaffected. I opened my eyes and turned to look at the temporarily blinded crowd. They were on the ground writhing clutching their wounded eyes. I saw Rose lying on the ground next to me. She too, had her eyes covered. I leaned down close to her. "Sorry Rose," I touched a hoof to her neck and then flew off, away from the town.
(A/N)
Level Up! Level 2:
New Perks: Quick Change: You assume and shed disguises 20% faster. (I'm sorry, I had to do it.)
Alicorn Presence: You have the presence of a goddess. When nearby, good-aligned characters will gain a 10% damage boost, while evil-aligned characters will suffer a 10% damage penalty.
Current Sub-Perk: Power of the Sun: When in direct sunlight, you gain +2 to your Strength, Endurance, and Perception. When in clouded sunlight, these benefits are cut in half.