Intermission: Infiltration in progress…
Intermission: Infiltration in progress…
“Ah, must have noticed my night vision goggles. Ooh! Night vision-y!”
About a month ago...
Log, day four.
Finally, this place wasn’t the waste of time that I expected it to be. The ponies brought back a pegasus who just so happens to be owned by the Steel Rangers that showed up. This might be my ticket in. Scratch the merchant mare and the caravaneers, those stupid Rangers might not care enough about the pegasus to ask questions. Makes her the new candidate, but… I’ll have to see whether I can get into her head and create a passable persona of her before the Rangers take her back.
Reminder: Avoid the doctor. He might blow my cover.
Notes concluded, I slapped my trusty hardcover journal closed and tossed it onto the growing pile of stuff in my rucksack. If this was going to work, I needed a plan. As far as yesterday went, those Rangers had already located her, so I needed to find an opportunity to slip in undetected and observe. If I’d known that the pegasus had been in the tool twins’ hovel, I could have easily broken in and did my work there. Darn.
My little bug wings buzzed in excitement at the prospect of a challenge. If I was going to pull this off today, that meant I needed a disguise for the approach. I stood up and scooted myself into view of the fold-out mirror that I had strategically unfolded by the door of my rented room.
As always, the plain little changeling drone in the mirror blankly stared back at me. I had a few personas in mind, but I just couldn’t decide. Hmm…
Time and time again, he’d been reliable, so I closed my eyes and began to envision him in my mind—a simple earth pony with a medium build, a smoky gray coat, and a swept-back dusky mane topping off the perfect unassuming look. Dark, shadowy, and simple enough to not warrant a second glance. Horn and wings melted away in the green fire surrounding my body, instantly being replaced by what was in my mind. I opened my eyes and blinked back at the oh-so-dependable Sir Veilance in the mirror. Maybe the red eyes was overdoing it, but I liked the look. I nearly forgot the butt-tattoo, so I slapped on his default security camera cutie mark.
“Just on business,” I grunted at the mirror, my voice coming out with a bit too much gravel. Clearing my throat, I felt my vocal cords change slightly then I tried again. “Ahem. Just on business. That’s all.” Unassuming, normal, plain. Sounded fine.
Unfortunately, unassuming probably wouldn’t get me close to the pegasus. “Maybe she might be more partial to her own kind?” Sir Veilance suggested back at me.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d used a pegasus persona. They were so rare in the Wasteland, especially with the Enclave’s shoot-to-kill policy on Dashites. I’d gotten a glimpse of a fresh Dashite a few weeks ago, so I did my best to recall his look. He’d been red—garishly so. That I couldn’t forget. Green fire flashed across my body as I altered my appearance again. His mane I could replicate by simply changing Sir Veilance’s brown, so that wasn’t too much of a problem. His eyes could have been some shade of silver or gray, but I couldn’t have been sure so I decided on silver. Oh, and I couldn’t forget his giant freakish wings.Those popped onto my body at the last second.
But what about his voice? I decided on a sort of whiny jock voice because it… well, it fit. Personality? Well… actually, maybe the Deadshot Calamity accent too? Most pegasi sounded like that, right? “Howdy there, li'l lady. Iffin' y' don't mind me sayin' so, yer right purdy as the moon an' stars in the midnight sky, sure as m' name is… Red.”
Nah. Too silly.
On retrospect, that one had been a stupid idea. I burned away the disguise and decided that I needed visible spellpower—which meant I needed to be a unicorn. Staring at my reflection, I realized that I hadn’t been a mare in a while, so there was the first step in building a persona. Magical green fire wreathed me again and the reflection changed to a bored-looking emerald mare, slightly shorter than I had been before.
“What color shou—by the queen, that’s frightening,” I abruptly declared once I heard my own deep-ish voice coming out of the mare. A quick change later then I tried, “Hi there. I’m… uh… I’m new here.”
Cutesy, not too fillyish, but just enough rasp to pull off the “awkward filly” thing I was going for.
“I need a name.” Names, names, names. Screw it. “Trouble. Call me Trouble. Yeah, sounds good.” As for my mane, I decided that something short would do. Maybe a shade of blue? Good enough.
Now that I looked like the average Wasteland mare, I fished out a set of equally unassuming rags to throw on. As an afterthought, I applied a generic pickaxe cutie mark just in case anypony managed to get my barding off.
I pranced back and forth in the mirror one last time. “Lookin’ good. Maybe a little too good.” All the ponies in this town always looked tired and exhausted, so I quickly altered my appearance to match: dark circles under the eyes, disheveled coat, and a bit of fake dirt to complete the look. I threw all of my combat gear into a small saddlebag and slung it onto my back, safely hiding it underneath a poncho tied around my midsection.
“Dressed to kill, as always.” I winked at my reflection in the mirror and swished my billowing tail at it. “Time to ride.” Thankfully, nopony saw me leap out of the window and land face-first where my exit dumpster should have been.
~~~~~
It only took twenty minutes of sitting in the back of the Smashed Spritebot inn and a few free drinks to Burly the shift manager to find out that the pegasus was scheduled for the next shift—the same shift as he was. After a little sweet talk, he’d even signed me into his shift without any extra “encouragement” on my part.
About an hour later, I found myself on the cargo elevator down to the mines. I’d surreptitiously managed to scoot and nudge my way through the small group of haggard ponies to stand right next to the pegasus. I used my proximity to get a good look at her so I could create my persona of her for later. Cyan-teal coat, mostly white mane—the blue stripe would be hard to get perfect, but once I had her cocooned I’d have an easier time. My eyes lingered on her prosthetic limb and realized that it might be a problem to copy.
Still… “That’s really cool,” I muttered under my breath. Apparently too loudly, because the pegasus noticed and glanced at me curiously. “How’dja get it?” I innocently asked as the elevator lurched into action.
The pegasus looked uncomfortable as we descended, something that I noted for later.
“I don’t remember,” she instantly replied.
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Typical.
“Wanna help me out?” she continued. “I’m… I’m Pat. I’m new here.”
A blatant lie for sure, but I let her get away with it. Instead, I sweetly smiled and replied, “You’ve got a silly name too? The ponies around here call me Trouble.” Shit, I hadn’t come up with a cover story yet! Uh… “I operate in the south tunnels. You?”
Damn, I shouldn’t have said that. Shouldn’t have said that. At least I did my homework on this place, so at least I could make my way around. What was the worst that could happen?
~~~~~
Thanks to my quick thinking and momentary lack of planning, I quickly lost track of where “Pat” had gone. The original plan was to make her think that she was alone then follow her, but she had somehow disappeared into the woodwork. My new plan turned into scrounging for goods and updating the map that I had been creating of “Seapony Energy”.
As I plodded down the thoroughly-scrounged tunnels, I caught sight of an intact air vent. “Air vents are secret passages, right?” In no situation ever was that the case, but I actually knew where the central air conditioner was. Maybe this one was different.
Without giving it much further thought, I broke out my multi-tool and popped open the vent cover. The smaller stature of this disguise allowed me to fit in the claustrophobic vent without much difficulty, provided that I took off my gear and pushed it in ahead of me. I began the menial task of pushing my kit forward, grabbing a hoofhold, then pulling myself forward. Everything would have been fine until I accidentally pushed my kit into a downward junction in the vent. It must have fallen through, because I heard a grate hit the ground right before my stuff.
“Shit,” I silently swore to myself. “I guess this is my stop.”
Well, it would have been if I hadn’t gotten stuck trying to slither out of the vent. I’d misjudged how far I needed to bend myself to fit and now my flank wouldn’t let my legs bend far enough to get out. I wiggled my hips and literally humped at the vent with no avail.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I groaned at the floor. In a fit of frustration, I flailed my trapped legs in the vent. “Somepony’s probably out there thinking some bugs are having a great time in the walls,” I belatedly realized.
Reminding myself that at least I wasn’t trapped inside that oil barrel on that refinery, I exhaled and shifted my butt forward again. Eventually, I managed to slide myself out of the vent and flawlessly land on the floor. “Well, that wasn’t too hard.”
Just for opening my mouth, the loose vent cover broke off its last hinge and bounced off my head.
“I hate this place.”
~~~~~
Log, day five.
Cover might be blown. No idea if anypony was watching, but there was an active security camera watching me. Also a reminder: the metal armor probably isn’t necessary. It seems like the townsponies here did a good job clearing out all the hostiles in here, even the radscorpions.
As for the pegasus, I managed to link up with her later after I stashed my gear in the air vent. Attempts at mingling failed, but I tailed her to her “other plans” which consisted of terrorizing a shopkeeper then going home. I got a few of her quirks nailed down for my persona of her, but I still need more information. Headed out again in a bit to try and follow her around in the “mines”. Wish me luck.
WE HAVE A PROBLEM. STEEL RANGER BODYGUARD SHOWED UP. BUCK.
I slammed my journal shut and buried my face into my hooves. Couldn’t I just have a simple walk in the park for once? My best option now was to separate Frosty the pegasus from the Steel Ranger so that I could extract everything I needed from her the old-fashioned changeling way. Of course, that also meant that my Trouble disguise was now irrelevant and I could switch to my favorite combat disguise.
Using the limited space I had in the cubicle that I had discovered yesterday, I threw off my rags and began to change form. With a burst of green fire, the mare was burned away to reveal my true form beneath. “Ah. That feels better,” I sighed, buzzing my little wings to get some feeling back in them.
Down to business. Over the course of several years and under the advice of a lonesome queen that I had met in my travels, I had assembled a persona that was perfect for combat. Being a large stocky earth stallion gave me a little extra staying power, since stamina and a gun was more reliable than magic. Everypony seemed to be frightened by scarred ponies, so that became my next obvious choice. At some point I’d decided that purple eyes looked good against a burnt orange coat and maroon mane—cropped short, because long manes and tails got caught in things. Like helmets. And doors.
Especially doors.
I shuddered at the thought.
Never again.
As I was digging through my bag of goodies for my combat barding, I remembered the pegasus’s cybernetics and her Steel Ranger master. “Hm. Maybe I should be wearing the metal armor.” Every Ranger was a walking tank, so I’d need all the protection that I could get. I burned away my disguise and cast a silencing spell on my armor so I wouldn’t clink clank my way through the tunnels. Alternatively, invisibility was a fun spell to use, but in the case it failed or if I was spotted, I’d be toast. Stealth… brute force… actually, stealth probably would work better. All I needed to do was separate them.
Once I was suited up in my tactical combat barding—plus gas mask—and armed, I unfolded my map and started to narrow down my plan of action. From what my listening devices around town had picked up, the pegasus and her owners were headed down to the reactor room to investigate something or other that didn’t concern me. Assuming her owners weren’t completely incompetent, they’d eventually find their way there, so…
I’m going to be a cheeky shit and hide in the ceiling. Good plan. I gave myself a pat on the back.
~~~~~
Less than twenty minutes later, I found myself shoved into yet another air vent. Waiting. Stalking. Idly wondering how a pretzel had cemented itself into the metal surface next to my right forehoof. I was beginning to think that I’d been misled by my own intel. Either that, or the pegasus was a lot more spontaneous than I’d expected and had subsequently gotten hopelessly sidetracked, leaving me on the fifth most uncomfortable stakeout I’d had.
I was even contemplating leafing through the well-worn saucy magazine rolled up in my barding when I heard voices. My hoof unconsciously wandered to the stun baton strapped to the front of my barding’s tactical vest.
But then they blathered on, and on, and on! I thought they were never going to split up until the pegasus finally trotted into the control booth I was hiding in. Finally, something was going according to plan!
“…no idea. Come over here. I need to see what these buttons say.” That was the pegasus.
“You find anything else back there?” The doctor? Why would he even be here? “It’s getting boring out here.” Pacing noises. Or was that just me breathing? “Hey, what’s this?” I faintly heard him trot out of the room—probably the distraction that I’d placed earlier.
“Doc?” Predictably, no reply. “Ha ha. Very funny, Doc. Where’re you hiding at? Doc?”
This was my chance. She was separated, alone, and vulnerable. Soundlessly, I slithered out of the vent and landed on the ground behind her on padded hooves. Even more carefully, I drew my stun baton and clicked the “on” switch. I’d forgotten about the charging noise and I cringed when her ears perked up. Thankfully, she still didn’t turn around since she was too busy looking around the doorway.
I couldn’t help but quietly grunt, “Gotcha.” Then I smashed in the back of her face with hard plastic and thirty volts of electricity.
The pegasus instantly crumpled to the ground into feathered heap. A quick glance out of the control room window revealed that the Steel Rangers hadn't noticed a thing, and the doctor was still distracted. In order to get the pegasus to a good place, I needed to goop her up and drag her out of here before somepony noticed she was gone.
Looking over her prosthetic, I quickly found the release mechanism and unplugged it so she wouldn’t be able to attack me in the unlikely case she managed to wake up. I coughed up a gooey ball of multi-purpose construction slime into my hoof and prepared to gag the pegasus by covering her mouth with it.
That is, until the queens-damned doctor came trotting back—lab coat, smug grin and all.
Problem was, I knew him and he definitely knew me. We’d been comrades once, but “unfavorable circumstances” had ruined things. Bad decisions were made, ponies panicked, some died. I separated myself from that organization shortly thereafter, but he’d been a decent fellow for the time I knew him.
“You know, the ‘motorized scrap pile’ trick only works if the pony hasn’t actually seen it before.” The doctor-pony chuckled. “It’s been a while, Backy. What’s it been—five months? And you still don’t have the decency to ask a mare out to dinner before turning her into a green burrito?”
I inwardly groaned and shoved the goop back into my mouth for reprocessing. Wiping my slimy hoof on the underside of my barding, I snapped, “I’m in the middle of an op, and you’re about to blow it.” And then I had to remind him, “And don’t call me that, Stitches.”
“You don’t know how adorable it is when you use stupid handles, Mister ‘Back S. Tabber’.” The former doctor laid down on the ground and stared at me like a damned schoolfilly. “So, tell me moooore.”
“Stop that.” Briefly, I considered shooting him. It wasn’t like he was going to actually squawk about my plans. It was more like him to sabotage my efforts at the last second, just like the last time. “Obsidian Equestria’s paying for gear, relics, guns, anything that’ll do damage. I’m here for some classified tech and the whatever the Rangers have got in their arsenal.” I began to unroll rope from my kit and tie up the pegasus as we talked.
“Do you have a plan?”
“Yeah.” I left it at that, refusing to elaborate any further.
“Does it involve eggs in my rectal cavity again?”
“We were drunk. You passed out with your ass in the air; ergo, you asked for it,” I matter-of-factly replied while finishing the trussing on the pegasus. On that topic, I asked, “What happened to those eggs, anyway?”
“They live in a formaldehyde-filled mason jar somewhere.” He then noticed the length of rope that I was hefting in his direction. “Aw, Tabber, are you tying me up too?”
“Yup.” I glanced out of the broken window and curiously watched the two Steel Rangers kick down a door and disappear. “Dignity or without?”
“Can I hang from the ceiling?”
I rolled my eyes. “…Fine. Without it is.”
“Awesome.” Galactic held out his hooves and grinned.
And I still needed to put my metal armor back on before the Rangers came back to killerize me. If any more wrenches got thrown into this plan, I could open a hardware store.
~~~~~
An inadvertent betrayal later…
From when I’d been a youngling larva, my brood mother always chided me about believing in myths and occultery. They were things for silly ponies to worry about, not for a strong little changeling like myself. At the moment, I was extremely upset about being right about it for once—a queens-damned spirit with a gun had shown up at the last second to save Frosty, and he’d blown off a good chunk of my right hindleg.
“Giggle at the ghostly my ass,” I angrily muttered under my breath, warily eyeing the hardening all-purpose goop holding my leg together. Ironically, the mystery holes that every changeling had in their limbs had actually saved me by breaking at their weakest points. “Of all the mares in the wasteland, she’s the one with a guardian angel.”
I couldn’t head back to Obsidian Eq. empty-hoofed, and especially not after I’d burned dozens of favors and hundreds of caps to get this far. “Agh, shit. That hurts.” I tried to apply a little more goop to my makeshift cast, groaning in pain when I accidentally shifted my wounded leg. Chitin grew back, but a good third of my leg was missing! Hydra wouldn’t even work on me and healing potions could only do so much, so…
My mind shifted back to Frosty, the luckiest mare in the Equestrian Wasteland. “You know what? You think you’re hot shit?” Out of spite, I transformed myself into her and hobbled to the broken mirror. I had her look perfected—the gaudy blue stripe, the confused green eyes, her somehow endearing expression. “Let’s see how you like it when it’s you. Versus. You.” My eyes flared with emerald fire and my preferred purple irises replaced Frosty’s green.
It only took an extra second to alter my voice to match hers. "There's only room for one asshole, and it’s gonna be me."
Footnote: New character unlocked.
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I just read my updated favorites and went back to the main page and then I saw this update...
Edit: This chapter is great.
Meet Toasty the raider, asshole.
A changeling hu? Good to know.
By the way, this was technically foreshadowed in Chapter 8.
Technically.
Das ist gut.
Silly changeling, there's no way he can pull off The Frosty correctly. Actually, "Frosties" is more correct.
Q: When do we get back to the deal with death thing? I feel like it's not getting enough attention.
4930050
There's a reason for everything. Hang around and you'll find out.
This is the most confused, Ive ever been. What just happened?
4930892 This chapter is from the point of view of Tabber, a major character who appeared from Chapters 5 - 11. He is actually a changeling. "Log, day four" and the scenes following it take place during Chapter 4. "Log, day five" and the scenes following it take place during Chapter 5. The final scene ("An inadvertent betrayal later…") takes place immediately after Chapter 11.
This wasn't really meant to be confusing. It sounds like the reason you're confused is that you've forgotten a bunch of events from the earlier chapters.
Changelings!
And this bit...
'and maroon mane—cropped short, because long manes and tails got caught in things. Like helmets. And doors.
Especially doors.
I shuddered at the thought.
Never again.'
Damn those doors! The nemeses of all true villains!
I would say this chapter explained a lot, but it didn't. It just changed a few of my ideas about Tabber.
Krahka would be proud, little changeling spy.
frost is going to be surprized with the changling
Hehe and now I get a twist I like where this is going.
4930947 Probably
Yes good.
Review time! What? I mean who does reviews anymore, no, today we babble about stories. And babble about changeling because changelings are awesome! So is Tabbers here a girl? Eggs? Or are your changelings unisexed? This small detail intrigues me, I'm big on the gender thing, but often times changelings and shape-shifters break these gender roles down to more of a mental image and preference. Heck, I'm working on an original story about a shape shifting creatures. So what's Tabber's preferred gender here, or is he/she one of those strange ones who simply don't really identify with either gender that much. I have a lady friend who is a square. She really doesn't know what gender she is inside, so she's a square. Damn cute square, but off topic. Tabbers, is he a square, or a lady, or a he? Must know, I must know!
For now I'll go with the pronoun of he. It says new character unlocked, though really he ain't a new one. More of an old character returning. It's good to bring back old characters, and this is a super fun twist here. Now we've got changelings and I like the small details you did of what your changelings are like in this fic. I'm real excited now, where's this antagonist taking us? What's his true motives? Obsidian sounds like they want some damn juicy tech if they're going after Frosty... And I bet it ain't any laser guns they're after.
Gosh, we've broken away from the normal drawl and slow pace of the story to something really exciting. Thanks, this freshens things up again. I love your story and the character interaction, don't get me wrong. But at the same time for those new readers that's a lot to get through. Really fascinated to see the meat of this story showing and maybe some dramatic conclusions here soon. But hey, the pacing has been pretty slow so far, so it would also be hurtful if you picked it up too fast. No, this is great here. We get a small break, different perspective. Puts us on the edge of our seat again. Reminding us there's a bigger plot here than Frosty wandering the wasteland without a clue.
I think the only issue I have in this chapter is that Trouble was just another disguise... I know most people forgot about her, but after you reminding me with this piece I feel like a character just died without ever being truly alive. Oh well I guess. What sort of shenanigans will our 'new' impostor Frosty do now? So many Frosties to keep track of, I love it. Hehe!
Quaver Ava
P.S. Ice is a bad-ass asshole. :P
4941643
Man, I love these reviews. Makes me feel bad I can't do these for other people since I know it makes me happy. Anyway!
IMO I like to think that 'Lings don't have a specific gender, but have the fun bits for both for disguise reasons. I very badly alluded to Tabber being a 'guy', but I guess we could just go with genderfluid because he's pretty good at being both. Iunno.
Character unlocked thing was just because I'm still going with the whole 'game' sort of look to the story. Tabber's working his own angle which will get looked at in a few chapters. You can find out what Obsidian Equestria is up to in FoE Outlaw, ehuehue.
But yeah, this intermission brings the plot back since I really do like the whole bit where things are always happening in the Wasteland (Which is also why Frosty appears in so many other places!)
Well, sorry about Trouble. It wasn't actually my intention to use her like that in the first place, but I saw an opportunity while coming up with this new intermission and I took it.
Yeah, and Ice is kinda a butthole.
4941847 It's easy, just start babbling about what you like and don't like and soon enough you start to learn how to critique and point out stuff. But it takes some time and a little effort, though it feels wonderful when you see people's happy reactions to your appreciation of their story. it's like a back and forth flow of happiness and everyone wins!
Thanks for answering my questions. Tabbers did come off as a guy, but he seems like he's got a lady side to him as well. ; )
Quaver Ava
4941643
For clarification here, Obsidian just wanted Steel Ranger tech. It was Tabber who went after Frosty to achieve that goal, because he figured that capturing and imitating an insane pegasus would be easier than doing the same to a Steel Ranger.
4945375 Oh, and here I was thinking there was a little larger plan with these 'new' antagonists... But I guess it's still eerie that they've got a changeling trying to infiltrate the Steel Rangers. And our food based named ones as well! D:
4989560
Yes. From now on, they all are.
Doc has cemented his spot in my favorite characters list.
Everyone loves evil twins! Especially dramatic battles between them!
Okay, something short, quick simple, and given how badly I reacted to the last interlude chapter... at just what it revealed and the good/bad points to it. What does this one hold?
So around the time Frosty went below and got stuck?
Okay, so after she came down, and it's from somepony in the town. So, seeing some events from behind the scenes that went on?
Wait, somepony trying to imitate Frosty?
Also, somepony wanting to get into her head? I feel sorry for whoever that is.
Wait.....
A changeling!? Well, things just got a lot more complicated.
Redundancy is redundant.
It took me a moment to get the pun there.
Also, don't recall seeing him before so... just so ordinary I missed it, or Frosty never noticed him?
Ummm, what? Dashites are exiles. If they wanted to kill them, they would just kill them rather then going through the whole branding thing. If they try to return, sure. But not once they are under the clouds. At least not for a few more weeks.
Hmmm, sounds familiar but, maybe just imagining it, can't really remember. Damnit now I'm going to want to re-read those parts to see.
OHHH her.... well then....
Heh.. though why does she want to cop her so badly?
Reall need to go re-read that chapter now. But, well she already feels like she'd fit right in with Frosty.
FO2 reference I take it?
Didn't she hear it hit the ground already?
You have not seen anything yet. She is like 90% quirk.
So want to know...
Okay been thinking this but.... is that Tabber!
Yeah pretty much. Attention Deficit... oh shiny! Also, only fifth?
... And Doc KNOWS THIS! And didn't tell anypony!? WTF Doc!
Well that explains the rather odd name.
Okay this time... I would rather know less.
Oh I've missed Doc's awesome insanity
Hey you are the idiot that tried to backstab her.
OHHHH SHIT!
Okay that... HOLY FUCK I did not see that one coming.
wait, Doc never did have a good reason for why he was at the place they all met up at... was that really Doc?
And, Tabber, you have no idea that shit you are getting yourself in for trying to imitate her but... just, DAMN! Okay THAT reveal, holy fuck was that reveal awesome! This is really going to be good.
Well Tabber is a changeling as well as a ass i see a showdown coming soon.
Question: what is Frosty's level cap.
Couldn't help but laugh a little right there.
I’m going to be a cheeky shit and hide in the ceiling. Good plan. I gave myself a pat on the back. yes the bast plan
Oh shit. Anybody else sensing a incoming shitstorm of framery?
Also, #NewArchEnemeyDetected.
Talk about accidental arch enemies.