//------------------------------// // Finale // Story: Fallout Equestria: War Never Changes // by jarmari //------------------------------// Final Chapter: (Well here it is, the end of the story. I just want to thank everyone for all their input and sticking with me through the whole process. Special thanks to Alamut for being my most involved fan, you've helped shape this story more than you know :D Also just because this is the finale doesn't mean this is the end of the story.) We entered the building quickly, escaping the madness of the war zone just outside. The whole place was well lit and immaculately kept. It was the first building I'd seen that looked genuinely untouched by the ravages of the war. “Seriously, no guards and we're just going to waltz right in?” Brutus asked. “You know it's a trap right?” “Wait wait, how do you know it's a trap?” Lily asked, the helmet of her Mare-Do-Well suit springing open. “You heard the conversation right?” I asked and she nodded. “Did you hear us fight?” She shook her head. “It's a trap.” Everyone chimed in at once. “Alright everyone be ready.” Brutus said. “CB, you and Xem go through the vents, explosives at any major weak points, we want this place coming down HARD when we leave.” “Yes sir.” The filly and zebra both saluted him, then looked at each other and giggled quietly. CB's horn lit up and she floated into the air for a moment before flipping around and sticking to the roof, pulling open a vent in the ceiling and climbing in before wrapping Xem in a magic field and lifting him up through the vent and out of sight. “Now that's how you sneak through a vent.” Ruby smirked. “I'll keep that in mind.” I nodded. “Lily and Crackshot you two see if you can find the children and free them.” Brutus said and they nodded and started down the hall quickly. “Alright you two, lets hit it.” Brutus said, reloading his shotgun, his powerhooves still sparking against the ground. Ruby double-checked the gem packs in the Gatling laser and the bullets in her carbine before nodding. I spun Ebony and Ivory around in front of me rapidly until the little indicators lit up nice and bright again. We started down the hallway and into the building proper. It was the kind of building Venture and I had always talked about having. Every door we passed was another computer server room. He had to have thousands and thousands of computers networked together. Whatever he was planning on doing with this teleportation mega-spell must have required massive computing power. “Should we be trashing these to slow him down?” Ruby asked when we entered what had to be the 30th server room. “Probably no point.” I shrugged. “Most of these will be redundancies in case some fail. We could trash dozens of these rooms and it wouldn't even dent his power.” We continued up the hallway. I didn't like it, the path was too straightforward. We were being led all too readily towards Venture, but there had been no divergences in the path since the actual entrance. We finally reached a set of stairs leading up and Brutus stepped forward, creating a shield and pushing it along the stairs in front of us in case there were any traps, but we reached the top of the stairs with no incident. “I don't like this shit at all...” Ruby grumbled. The hall lead down past another dozen or so server rooms before finally opening into a large area. We were on the second floor, obviously, of what had to be the warehouse section of the building. Computers and machines lined the walls, a walkway wrapping from where we were, all the way around the room, and most of the floor was imprinted with the symbols of a mega-spell, along with dozens of smaller zebra glyphs. I could feel the warmth of the magic enhancement talisman around my neck, tucked under my barding, against my chest. It seemed to be reacting to all the magical energy in the room. On the far side of the area was a small control room with it's blast shutters closed. I could see a ladder leading up to the roof of the room with another doorway, probably to the hallway beyond. “Alright, you two go left, I'll go right.” Brutus said, moving out slowly and quietly. My EFS didn't indicate anyone else around so I nodded and we started out. Still no sign of anyone anywhere. Outside we could hear the explosions and gunfire still in full swing. We moved quietly around the room, staying well back of the area below us. We finally reached the building on the far side and Brutus called out as loudly as he dared. “One...two...THREE.” We pulled the door on either side open and raced into the room, only to find there was no floor and we tumbled down to the floor below, a ramp throwing us across the floor and dumping us into the middle of the room. Ruby spreading her wings and landing gracefully, Brutus and I barely righting ourselves with our magic and both ending up in a heap on the ground anyway. “SUGAR!” Venture's robotic voice boomed out of the speakers in the room as a platform lowered from above, landing on top of the fake room. It had dozens of computers more sophisticated than anything I'd ever seen, and something that looked like a cryo pod, though it had been stripped of the equipment that was normally built into it and instead it was wired into all the computers. “What took you so long dear brother?” Venture stood on the platform, Xekron beside him, no goggles, no mask, his mane pushed out of his face, the scar on his muzzle looked all the more menacing, fully uncovered as it was, and he looked like he wanted nothing more than to rip us to pieces. He'd obviously cleaned himself up for this encounter because his coat shone with the light one would expect from a crystal pony, even if he was only, as Xeha had said 'a half-breed'. Venture was even more terrible to see face to face. He was some kind of robotic skeleton, surprisingly closer to the monster he'd appeared as in the memory cube than I'd have expected. “Come down here and look me in the eyes and tell me why...” I said simply. He laughed and leapt off the platform, but instead of just landing he twisted and bucked me with his back legs, sending me backwards into Brutus. Brutus growled and levelled his shotguns but I waved him off. “This is my fight.” I pushed myself back up and rushed back at Ven, my horn sparking with concussive bolts, but they just seemed to burst against against his body pointlessly. I leapt up on my hind legs and drove my right fore hoof into the side of his head but he just laughed it off. “Come on Sugar, do you REALLY think you can take me?” He taunted. “Your magic is weak, your body is weaker...” He was cut off when I returned his first attack, putting magical power behind it as I smashed his chest with my hind legs. I could feel the amulet warming sharply against my chest again. He pushed himself back to his hooves and dove at me, plasma blasts launching out of his eyes, I dodged to the side, rolling past Ruby and Brutus who had fallen back against a wall to try and stay out of the way, and I leapt into the air, magical energy rippling out from underneath me as it propelled me upwards, I turned in midair, my hooves pressing against the ceiling for a moment before I kicked off again, another burst of energy from my hooves as I shot down, my horn sparking and firing a beam of magical energy. Venture was caught in the blast and screamed in pain and terror as the blast enveloped him, the force of the attack slowed my decent and I turned and landed on the ground in front of Brutus and Ruby, panting hard from the strain of the magical output. Ven still stood where the blast had hit him but he wasn't moving, his eyes had dimmed and after a moment the body fell to the side and stopped completely. Ruby was about to say something when the sound of a slow clap started above us. I looked up, still trying to catch my breath and saw that a new pony had joined Xekron on the platform. This one looked like a protecta-pony, but with pieces from a brain bot too. His skull had a transparent top and I could see his brain inside the jar, floating in faintly glowing liquid, his horn was the only part of him besides his brain that wasn't metal, though I could see thousands of tiny strands going from his horn to all over his brain, thin wires to replace the regular nerves no doubt. He wore a lab coat over the frame but I couldn't imagine it served much of a purpose anymore. “That...was...beautiful Sugar.” Venture's voice came from the device and I cried out in anger and frustration. “Did you just Doom-bot me you asshole?!” I screamed, feeling all my strength draining from my body. “Why yes, yes I suppose I did.” He laughed loudly, his voice echoing around the room. “I haven't thought about Doom-bots in two hundred years...but that's EXACTLY what I did to you.” “Venture please, stop this now. I don't know what you're planning with this mega-spell but so many have died today, I'm begging you to stop. We could work together to restore the wasteland to it's former glory. There's already so much evil in his world...” I looked up at him, trying to plead with him, knowing it would be futile. “Just STOP.” Venture snapped. “I'm not interested in what you think or what you want. I've waited 200 years for this moment. I'm not about to have a change of heart, I don't even HAVE a heart anymore.” He laughed. “What the fuck happened to you Ven?” I sighed, shaking my head. “Mom and Dad would be so disgusted to see what you've become.” “MOM AND DAD?! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING?! They HATED me! They blamed me for you running away! Said the pressure got to you because I didn't do enough to help!” He snapped. “YOU FROZE ME IN A CRYOPOD! It WAS your fault I vanished!” I retorted. His power didn't matter, what he was capable of, or what the pyro beside him would do to me, in that moment he was my brother throwing a tantrum, and this sort of thing was giving me back my strength. “They might not have actually known it was your fault but damn if they didn't know all the same!” “You vanished and it was like I stopped mattering! They took care of Rosa, of your foal...your son that you never got to meet. They named him Sugar you know that?” He laughed and I felt my anger boil over all the more, compacted by my sadness. “I taught him how to code, I taught him about life before the war, I protected him and took care of him He was more MY son than yours. Probably why Rosa married me a few years later. Even with the world gone all to hell we were protected enough with my set up that we managed.” “I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!” I screamed, finding myself blinded with a burst rage at the thought of him stepping in to care for my family, Ebony and Ivory lighting up as I unloaded both clips at him. They exploded harmlessly against a green shield that sprang up about 20 feet in front of me. “The hell?” I turned and saw an Alicorn sitting underneath where we had come in, our one blind spot in the room...or perhaps she had come in while Venture had us distracted. She had a green tint to her mane and her horn glowed brightly. She wore a control mask and sat expressionless, eyes closed. Venture leapt off the platform and landed in front of me, smirking “Oh Sugar you're so dramatic.” Venture laughed, hopping down off the platform, the hydraulics’s of his legs hissing as he landed, steam shooting out before he stood back up and walked towards me. “You don't need to worry anymore. Just sit back and watch as I save Equestria.” The platform hissed loudly, much like Venture's legs had only moments ago and it sank the rest of the way, the fake room sliding down with it and seeming to sink into the ground until the platform was flush with the ground. “H...how did you control an Alicorn?” Brutus asked softly, fixated by the black creature. “Zebra glyph magic is amazingly powerful, but it took a lot of effort all the same to rear her.” Xekron answered, walking around the platform and starting up the machines on it. “Torture, mind manipulation, memory stripping. The so called 'goddess' put up a hell of a fight to keep her but we got her.” I stood inches from Venture, separated only by the force field, all my rage, all my confusion, burning to try and get to him, but helpless to do so. “Oh seriously Sugar, take a few breaths and relax. This is the part of the movie where I'm supposed to start monologuing and you find a way out while I'm stalling, but this is real life, not a movie. So you're only going to get me for as long as it takes the systems to boot.” “Fight me like a Buck.” I demanded but he ignored me. “You broke the encryption on the hard drive, you know I'm working on a teleportation spell.” He began, pacing along in front of the shield. “You don't know what it does, but you'll LOVE this.” He said, turning and looking at Brutus, who just glared back. “Equestria is lost, there's no way to fix this world. It's too sick to survive, BUT, what if we could find a place that wasn't destroyed by the ravages of war? Restart anew?” “The whole world was ravaged by the war.” Ruby answered flatly. “You're correct my dear it was, but you're not thinking 10th dimensionally.” Venture countered, breaking into a demonic metal grin when he saw my eyes light up with understanding. “You wouldn't...you couldn't...” I said slowly. “Couldn't what?” Brutus asked. “The teleportation spell. It's not designed to move his armies around rapidly to invade towns or bases. It's designed to move them out of this dimension and into another one...one where the war never happened, where he can lay waste to an unsuspecting Equestria and take over the whole world.” “AND X GETS THE SQUARE!” Venture burst out laughing. “But the calculations would be insanely complex.” I added and Venture just rolled his robotic eyes. “I've had two hundred years to work out the math.” “But the computational power you'd need would be astronomical, you have the storage and power, but not the processing speed...there's no way you made a computer that good, even in two hundred years. Even you're not THAT good.” “You're right dear brother, I'm not. HOWEVER, Stable-tec WAS that good. This...” he gestured towards the computer systems Xekron was booting up. “Is my very own Crusader computer. I stole the plans almost two years before the end. Built my own. Made some improvements. Used genetic encoding to secure the system against other users, created bio-organic storage, it's beautiful beyond words.” “But the Crusader needed a living host to be the CPU.” Ruby said, getting surprised looks from all of us. “WHAT? I read stuff!” She snapped, turning her head away from us. “Obviously I'm not a prime candidate for it, not just because I intend to take over the other world but because I'm not longer pony enough to do it even if I wanted to. However I came across some interesting tech out in a part of the Wasteland called 'The Hoof', used to be Hoofington, remember that place?” Venture asked. “Genetic encoding software much like what I'd made myself. I can use someone genetically similar to me to run the machine.” “Me.” I said flatly. “I'll kill myself first.” “Oh no no Sugar. I found out the genetic markers work on a much broader base than that. Remember I said I'd never have bothered waking you up since I had learned I didn't need you anymore.” He stepped back slowly. “No, I could use a descendant of mine, or, amazingly, of yours. Say a great grand daughter?” I stepped in front of Ruby defensively, Brutus moving to do the same. “You'll have to go through us to get her.” Brutus said, pushing her to the wall. Venture looked at us curiously. “What?” He burst out laughing. “Oh Sugar, sweet innocent Sugar. What makes you think Ruby is your grand daughter? I never said that. That's weird, like I'd want you hooking up with your descendant.” “What?” I looked from him to Ruby and back. “But in the memory orb...Gauze said we'd met and they were manipulating our relationship, hoping to work it towards love.” “I had no control over who found you Sugar. I'll say it for the millionth time, I hadn't planned on ever waking you up. Think about it...You were just on your first day in this hell hole...You met a lot of ponies that day, but who have you met that has bloomed from knowing to liking to loving...?” The door on the second floor above the platform opened and a familiar sight stepped forward, standing silently with a guard, a blank expression in her eyes, a control mask covering her muzzle. “CB! NO! Let her go Ven!” I cried, firing pointlessly into the shield again, making Venture burst out laughing. “I'll do it! I'll take her place! Please don't hurt her!” “Right there.” Venture smirked. “That's the exact reaction I told you you'd have when this day came.” “Ven please...” I begged, fighting back tears. “She's just a little girl, don't do this to her.” She floated herself into the air and down to the ground below, standing silently beside the control pod. He turned and walked towards the platform, ignoring me. “DAMMIT VENTURE LET HER GO!” Ruby screamed at him, her Gatling laser opening fire at the shield, but it did nothing. “Alright little one, into the pod.” Venture said to her. She nodded and hopped into the pod, laying down as it powered on around her, her eyes closing as the ground started to glow, the mega-spell activating. A column of light shot from the middle of the room, spreading open to the size of a sky wagon. I could see another world beyond the gate, but it was a snow filled wasteland. “Start cycling through the worlds!” Venture called to Xekron, watching the portal with an insane glee. Ruby finally stopped firing into the shield and looked around in a panic. “Sugar we have to do something!” She said. “I know I know!” I said, struggling to think of what we could do...something...anything...The portal flashed through worlds, some wastelands, some under water, some frozen... Whatever Venture was looking for it wasn't coming up quickly enough for him. “FASTER!” He screamed at the Pyro. I felt the talisman on my chest almost burning with energy as it tapped into the mega-spell. “I know what to do.” I said, looking back at the other two. “I know it's not easy, but stand back.” I closed my eyes and focused my magic directly through the talisman like Xeha had told me, feeling it increasing in strength, adding power from the mega spell to my own before it cycled back to my horn. I fired a massive concussive blast at the shield, but it dissipated on impact. “Dammit it, I need more power.” “Sugar no.” Ruby said, putting a hoof on my shoulder. “Xeha said it could burn out your magic!” “I already lost a family once, I'm not losing another.” I smiled bitterly and kissed Ruby passionately, it was good to know I didn't have to worry about our future together. “You ARE still going to marry me right? Miss pony who is in no way related to me so we don't even need to worry about it being a problem?” “You're asking NOW?!” She snapped and I just grinned, turning back to the shield and focusing again. I could feel the power of the mega-spell passing through my body, burning my insides with it's intensity as I focused it into my horn. Wave after wave of power condensed into my horn, it felt like my skull would split open from the intensity. “Brutus! Get ready to throw me to CB when the shield drops!” I didn't hear his response but I felt his magic wrap around me, along with another surge to the power I was harnessing. Finally I let it out, a massive blast of energy. I heard Ruby scream and the sound of the magical barrier exploding as I was yanked into the air and thrown towards the platform. Reaching out with my forelegs I grabbed CB and continued on, tumbling to the ground and rolling behind one of the computers quickly. “NO!” I heard Venture cry. “The portal is destabilizing!” I felt wind tearing through the room, ripping violently at me. I clung to CB tightly, holding her to the ground to shield her as I leaned out, just in time to see Venture yanked through the portal before it dissolved in a flash of light, a chunk of ground vanishing along with it, leaving a crater underneath where the portal had been, now just a bright, but fading, light in it's place. Everything went dead silent for a long moment before Xekron backed away from the panel he'd held himself against to keep from being pulled away. He looked at me and started to back away until he realized Ruby and Brutus were coming up behind him before he bolted for the ladder leading to the second floor, but as he reached the top he came face to face with Crackshot. “Where you going honey? The party is just beginning.” Her rifle fired point blank into his skull and he tumbled off the ladder and crashed to the ground hard, never to move again. “That's for EB.” She said, leaping to the ground beside him and spitting on him before turning to us. “Looks like I missed a hell of a party...Lily and Xem are getting the children out. They ambushed Xem and CB when they came out of the vents, Xem was knocked out when we found him, but no CB, I see you found her...” I finally pulled back from CB and pulled the mask off her face quickly. “Come on sweetie, please wake up...” I said, shaking her gently. She groaned and squirmed against me. “D...daddy?” She muttered, pressing a hoof to her eyes and groaning again. “No CB it's Cane...” I replied, feeling a huge rush of relief that she was okay. She opened her eyes and looked at me, smiling softly. “I like mine better.” She said firmly, giving me that 'matter of fact' look she did so well, but she paused and watched me for a moment, her eyes taking on an uncertain worried look. “If that's okay with you?” “Of course it's okay with me.” I fought an urge to cry and hugged her tightly as Brutus and Ruby came around the corner. “Cane...” Brutus said softly, putting a hoof on my shoulder. “What?” I looked up, still grinning stupidly, but his grim face gave me pause. “What?” I asked more seriously, stepping back slowly from CB. “Your horn...” Ruby said softly, reaching up and touching my forehead and I realized she passed right through where my horn should be. I reached up and grabbed at my forehead...no horn...just a flat slightly raised part where it had once sat. “I...but...what...?” Brutus gestured for me to follow and I walked out from behind the computer and he gestured to the Alicorn at the far end of the room. She was pressed to the wall, dead, my horn driven clean through her neck and pinning her to the wall. “That's why you screamed.” I said softly, looking at Ruby and she nodded. I closed my eyes and tried to focus my magic but found nothing, no power, no swelling of energy...nothing. I grabbed the chain of the talisman around my neck and pulled it out from under my barding. It was black, the gems in it cracked or shattered completely. “Oh...well shit...”I sighed, slumping heavily. “It'll be okay Sugar...you don't need magic anymore anyway...you have me and CB to do things for you.” “That's right Daddy.” CB grinned, hugging me comfortingly. “Oh thanks for making me sound useless...” I laughed. “Hey I hate to break up this touching moment but you need to see this.” Crackshot called, standing on the edge of the crater where the portal had been only moments earlier. We walked over and looked down into the pit. In the middle lay the strangest creature I'd ever seen, pale white, mostly hairless skin, a short yellow mane that stopped well before what I was pretty sure was it's neck. It's four legs ended in strange appendages and it wore some kind of armour that had clearly been tailored for it's odd form, it appeared to be unconscious and was bleeding from it's mouth and nose. For a moment I thought maybe passing through the portal had mutated Venture but Ruby gasped softly and started down into the hole quickly. “Wait Ruby, we don't know if it's safe!” Brutus snapped. “We don't even know what it is!” “I do...” Ruby said, landing beside it and rolling the strange creature onto it's back. “It's a human...” Footnote: Game Over. Please purchase DLC- FoE: War Never Changes: Brother from another Mother to continue. This fanfiction is based on Fallout Equestria by Kkat; a familiarity with the source material may aid your understanding. You can read Fallout Equestria by Kkat on Equestria Daily The Fallout: Equestria logo used above was designed by DotRook, who, according to the original deviantArt page, allows usage in supplementary materials created for and associated with the series. Images really do make a difference, so he has our eternal gratitude and respect. If you enjoy Fallout Equestria Side Stories, you will want to check the Fallout Equestria Side Stories post on Equestria Daily and the Fallout Equestria Side Stories thread on Ponychan The Ponychan group is also a hatching ground that you can join if you want to share your experience, writing or comments with us.