• Published 28th Jan 2018
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Fallout: Equestria - War Does Change - tom117z



It has been nearly two hundred years since the megaspells rained fire down on the world, reducing it to a tainted wasteland. And ever since that day, the changelings have never been sighted in the wasteland...

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14 - Friendships

Chapter Fourteen: Friendships

“Yeah, yeah! Friendship and flowers and ponies and bleh!”


I’m getting tired of constantly running for my life.

I mean, the exercise is good… I guess. But I’m not so sure it’s so healthy to accompany it with torrents of bullets each and every single time.

At least we’re running in the right direction.

I had no idea what had happened to that power armoured griffon and his marginally less armoured buddy, but I was okay with that. The guy in combat armour probably became a ghoul’s lunch like the other griffons, though I could see the power armoured guy getting out of there. I certainly don’t envy whoever would have to scrub the blood and gore off that exoskeleton.

Or maybe the ghouls found a way to pry that can open and have a turkey dinner. But who could say? I’m was just glad that my E.F.S. was showing an absolute zero on any nearby red bars.

But we didn’t stop the moment it was clear, we didn’t want to be found by any search party that the talon company might send after us. So we kept on moving, and every now and then I would check my PipBuck map just to confirm that we were getting further and further away from the border of the Frozen North.

The lessening frost was also a good indication.

Finally, we slowed to a canter as we spotted a nearby collection of rocks. One of the rocks had a small little section cut out of it that looked like it would provide us some moderate shelter, so we headed there. It was a short walk over, and when we got under the alcove we all slung off our saddlebags and collapsed into three exhausted gasping piles.

Yeah, I was starting to feel the burn alright…

“Ow…” The others seemed oddly nonplussed about my verbal complaints. “It hurts. Everything hurts. Am I the only one?”

“No, no you’re not,” Cobalt grumbled back, shifting from his back up onto his haunches again. Oh boy, he did not look happy… “Bastards. What do they think they’re doing in a Ministry of Arcane Sciences facility!”

“You’re asking us?” I deadpanned, shifting myself back into a sitting position also. I made sure to levitate out some water, taking an incredibly relieving gulp before passing it on to the others. The bottle wasn’t radioactive, but to be honest I would have taken dirty water at that point.

But despite my discomfort, and I was still aching like a bitch by the way, I did also have to wonder…

“Why would slavers want that bunker, anyway?” And just how many of them were there out here? “That was a lot of firepower. Those mercs aren’t screwing around.”

“It is curious,” Stripe responded. “And worrisome. But we are away, and we can not know why unless we find out what is in that bunker. I do not recommend we return, however.”

“Ya think?”

Cobalt groaned, taking the bottle and having another swig. “Ugh, the others won’t like this. Not only are they taking ministry property, but the last thing we need is that maniac getting those kind of resources.”

“Like what, exactly?”

“Weapons, experimental technology, who knows?” Cobalt shrugged. “Or they could simply be scrapping it to build up more of their steel mills in Fillydelphia. Either way, whatever those griffons bring back to Red Eye means a bad day for more wastelanders out there, and a headache for everypony.”

“Well, unless you have a suit of T-45 laying around there’s not much we can do about it right now,” I pointed out. Sure I didn’t like it any more than Cobalt, but dealing with that crap wasn’t our job. “That power armour almost killed us then and there. Besides, we still need to get to Stable 84.”

“Indeed,” Stripe concurred. “Hm, though we did not come away from the town empty-hooved. Our new supplies should serve us well.”

Well, she did have a point there. “Yeah, I guess you’re right, Stripe. It wasn’t a complete bust. We should be good for a little while.”

“Then we can get to the hive and do what we came here to do,” Cobalt concurred. “The moment we get back to Tenpony, I’m going to have a word with the others about Red Eye.”

“Think they’ll actually do anything?” I asked, somewhat sceptical they would lift a hoof for something so far out of the way.

“If it was a Ministry of Wartime Technology bunker, I wouldn’t hold my breath,” Cobalt admitted. “But it’s MAS, that’ll get them to at least hire a couple of guns to go and take a look.”

Hooray for the Twilight Society…

“You are quick to admit your Society’s shortcomings,” Stripe noted, and I saw Cobalt avert his gaze. “It took much probing to get you to admit anything of the sort previously. And even then, you still adamantly defended the Twilight Society.”

“Stripe, it’s my home.”

“You did also tell us about the changelings,” I added in. “You weren’t meant to do that.”

He gave me a rather unamused glare. “Your point?”

“Come on, admit it. You like us!”

Oh look, his eye twitched! “…Excuse me?”

“You heard me! Come on now… I mean, you practically blackmailed me when we first met. I think we’ve done some bonding since then.”

“Bonding? Really?”

“Don’t deny it!” I was enjoying this. “Feel the love!”

Now even Stripe gave me a deadpan look. Too far?

Cobalt glared at me for a moment more and then snorted. “Dumb scavs.”

Oh yeah, he likes us.

“Strange ramblings aside…” Oi! Stripe, I’m not strange! “You have opened up towards us, I realise.”

“Yeah, well… It’s not every day you get into as many life-threatening situations as I have with you two,” Cobalt muttered. “You know, I knew it was bad out here. But I never expected… ‘this’ kind of bad.”

Right. He’d lived in that tower all his life, hadn’t he? “I guess you weren’t prepared, huh?”

He sighed. “I guess not. I’ve got to admit it, when I first met you I thought you’d be little more than a necessary liability. And Stripe, I didn’t think you had any place coming with us; just some random zebra.”

I kinda expected Stripe to at least frown at that, though her features remained neutral.

“But I know if I hadn’t had the both of you with me, I’d be dead by now,” he concluded, looking the both of us dead in the eyes. “Huh,” he half snorted, “I guess I was the necessary liability after all.”

“Do not sell yourself short, Cobalt,” Stripe gently scolded.

“Why? I can’t even shoot a gun straight. I probably alerted those talons to our presence by hacking that terminal. I led us to Our Town!”

“And we probably would have died each of those times if it wasn’t for your spells,” I pointed out, tapping the unicorn on the horn. “You teleported us out of the inn, and away from the mob. Your shield spell stopped us from being vaporised back at that bunker. And yes, I do need that password in your head or I’m not getting paid.”

“We all would have died, if we didn’t have each other to rely on for the past week,” Stripe concurred. “Do friends not look out for each other?”

“…Friends, huh?” he mused to himself. “Huh, just a few days ago I would have snorted at the notion.”

Hopefully not now. I asked him as such.

“Now? Well, we are having this conversation. I never really had any friends back at Tenpony. Colleagues and family, sure. But not friends.”

“Join the club,” I stated. “After my parents went, I was always a bit of a lone wolf. And I’m sure Stripe never interacted with others outside her family.”

“Until they did what they did,” Stripe confirmed.

“Exactly. This is the strangest job I’ve ever done. Top three.”

“I dread to think what made two and three,” Cobalt deadpanned.

"Well, my first solo scavenge after my parents' deaths wasn't the... smoothest. Suffice to say there was an issue with a pack of dogs, a drugged-up raider and a fridge."

"A fridge?"

"We don't speak of the fridge."

“Ugh, what are we doing…?” Cobalt groaned into his hooves. “We were running for our lives a few moments ago. Now we’re doing… whatever this is.”

“Welcome to having friends, buddy,” I remarked as I tapped Cobalt on the shoulder. “Warning: may be whiplash.”

“Well, enough of that,” he interrupted. “Didn’t you get that orb from the bunker?”

Oh! I’d completely forgotten about that! That probably should have been the first thing on my mind, but better late than never.

I wordlessly grabbed my bags and used my PipBuck’s sorting spell to bring the orb right out to me. I gently held it in my hooves, being careful not to drop it into the rocky ground. I had a feeling these things were fragile.

Cobalt nodded. “I thought so. Well, we wanted to know what the talons were up to, I see no better lead.”

“And you have ample time to see, I have a feeling we still need rest after our escape,” Stripe noted.

“Plenty of time for you to take a look,” Cobalt agreed. “I might even take a dive in after you’re finished. But for now, I’m just going to make sure we didn’t drop anything while we were sprinting over half the Equestrian Wasteland.”

I suppose an inventory check couldn’t hurt, though my PipBuck had already confirmed that I had all my things. And I was eager to know what that swirling ball of magic had to show me, just so long as it wasn’t something so terrible as to kill the cheery mood we’d just created…

Well, only one way to find out.

“Oh, and Cobalt?” I said without breaking my gaze from the orb. “I told you that you like us.”

“Get in that orb before I teleport you off a cliff.”

And with that, the connection was made as the world faded from view.


Well, this body felt familiar. It just wasn’t the one I was expecting.

Why was one of Queen Chrysalis’ memories in that bunker?

That was the very first thing I realised as the world began to gain focus. The decidedly female body, along with the lack of pony fur combined with the tall stature. This was definitely Chrysalis I had found myself in, there was no forgetting it.

Though, something felt different. When I was in Chrysalis before, there was a power to her. A strength unlike anything I knew in my normal body. This Chrysalis, however, felt… weak. Well, maybe not weak. Just… diminished, like she wasn’t at her best. I couldn’t really explain it, but that power I had felt before simply didn’t seem to be there.

I also felt hungry for some reason.

Once I had stopped noticing all the nuanced sensations of this alien body, I began to take note of my, or rather her, surroundings.

I never realised such a wasteland existed while the goddesses still lived…

Wherever this hive was, it wasn’t Equestria. Chrysalis seemed to be standing on a high up balcony, simply gazing out at the dusty brown landscape spanning for miles in all directions. From what I could glean from the corner of her eyes, the hive seemed to rise high into the sky like black spires piercing the heavens. And it was just as jagged and full of holes as the changelings themselves.

When was this? I couldn’t feel a PipBuck on Chrysalis’ leg, so it had to be before Stable 84. In fact, since this clearly wasn’t the Equestrian Hive…

Oh.

I felt Chrysalis’ heart clench, her head slowly following a group of changelings as they flew around the hive and into one of its many entrances. I wish I could have known what exactly it was she was thinking at that moment, but her despair gave me a good idea.

“My Queen,” a voice said from behind the Changeling Queen, and she gave a small glance back at a changeling drone in archaic dark blue armour. “Is everything alright?”

Chrysalis’ lips curled into a small snarl. “Alright? Drone, does the hive look alright to you?”

Now that I gave it another glance, it did look… well, almost sickly. The hive seemed to be made of far more organic… stuff than the hive I saw from the other orb.

“T-the latest group of love collectors should be back soon, your highness,” the drone tried to assure her, though his tone betrayed his own uncertainty. “But a few hours.”

“If they return,” Chrysalis stated. “And even if they do, with how much? This accursed war of the ponies and zebras has rendered adequate love collection an almost impossible task.”

“We will adapt, we always do.”

“We have been trying to adapt for a decade,” Chrysalis retorted. “And we did get by, just barely. And yet as the years progressed, the more aware and alert they became. Damn zebras and their infiltrations, and their getting caught. It’s only taught the ponies how better to defend against such attempts, by zebras or otherwise!”

Chrysalis began to pace back and forth, and I could feel her anger rising while the drone dared not move an inch.

“But we still got by, because we are changelings! We always adapt! Their war was pathetic anyway! True battles so far apart, both sides so timid and unwilling to kill. That was our saving grace, they were so slow at warfare it was more a spat between two grubs!”

“M-my Queen…” the drone tried to interrupt, but Chrysalis’ rant would not be stopped.

“And then Littlehorn,” Chrysalis growled, kicking a piece of the balcony so hard it came away and tumbled down to the ground far below. “Those striped fools had to decimate the Moon Princess’ beloved students and escalate things! Now soft, kind Celestia had been fully replaced by her far more ruthless sibling. Ministries are propelling Equestrian technology, tactics and safeguards to new heights! And their guard has been replaced by a tried and true army.”

I was beginning to understand how close the drone to wetting himself as Chrysalis pounded her hooves into the ground, her horn sparking with wild green energies fuelled entirely by her rage.

“And now our changelings seldom come back at all! Our technology cannot compete with theirs! And our powers are dwindling as a result!” Chrysalis proclaimed, turning on the drone and standing menacingly over him. “So no, my little changeling. I am not alright.”

The drone gulped, sinking down slightly. “I-I know, my Queen. We’re doing the best we can.”

For a moment I thought Chrysalis would bite the drone’s head off, but then I felt her anger die away and be replaced with… sadness. She gave a sigh, turning away from the drone and looking out over the landscape again.

“I know…” she muttered. “But we are too unfamiliar with their new tactics and technologies. And due to that fact, we can’t even get close enough to begin understanding it. I fear the Badland’s Hive is all but doomed.”

“Your Highness, surely there is some hope?”

“For the hive, none,” Chrysalis replied. “But for the changelings. Maybe…”

Chrysalis turned, and this time she moved past the drone while motioning for him to follow. What followed was a silent trip through the halls of the hive, and was it just me or were the walls constantly moving?

Even if it was, Chrysalis knew exactly where she was going. And as the changeling drone followed on dutifully, my host eventually brought us out into a vast chamber with some kind of large jagged rock in the centre that looked vaguely like a throne. The rock that was Chrysalis’ throne was definitely something different than the rest of the hive was made out of, though I’m not sure what…

“Is there no saving it?” the drone asked, looking directly at the throne.

“The magic in the rock is dying, soon others will be able to use their magic here, and we shall be vulnerable,” Chrysalis solemnly confirmed, though I wasn’t exactly following what she meant. “Which further highlights the necessity of what we must do to survive.”

“My Queen?” the drone asked questioningly. “What is it? What do you mean?”

“If we could understand the new technology preventing us from thriving, their security and tactics, we could finally adapt our own methods to get around them more effectively,” Chrysalis mused. “But stealing anything worthwhile has been an uphill battle. We need a pony to take us through it, one who understands them.”

“We’ve tried taking ponies who hold such knowledge,” the drone pointed out. “The last group we sent was publicly executed.”

“I know,” Chrysalis replied, her wings buzzing as she hopped up on her throne and looked down upon her subject. “I wasn’t speaking of taking such a pony by force. No, we have tried and failed. If we want a guaranteed future, we must ally with Equestria.”

The drone froze, his eyes going wide as he gaped at m- Chrysalis like she had grown a second head. “My Queen! Ally with Equestria!? They would never accept such a thing!”

“Oh, I think they will,” Chrysalis said with a small purr in her voice. “As I said, all we need is an understanding of their tactics and technologies, and perhaps use of the latter. And when our infiltrators are trained to counteract what we currently cannot, they will be most effective. The ponies could use that. I think the Ministry of Awesome would be most interested.”

“The MOA?” the drone muttered with a frown. “But they don’t do anything…”

“And I can be a lowly pony walking through Manehatten, completely unnoticed,” Chrysalis said with a knowing chuckle. “They may fool their own populace, but they can’t fool me.”

The drone didn’t seem sure, but he didn’t voice any opinion of his own. Instead, he simply listened as the Changeling Queen continued.

“Yes, they could use us,” Chrysalis said with certainty. “And as much as I hold no love for those love hoarding rats, we sadly need them. In return for our allying with them again the zebras we demand a steady supply of love energy, and perhaps even a hive befitting our new station. Hm, and I’m sure they won’t mind if we use… excessive love collection techniques on their enemies.”

“If you believe it best…” the drone stated. “But, my Queen… How do we approach them? We have been enemies ever since the wedding. Who would listen?”

I felt Chrysalis lean back in her throne, gazing upwards almost wistfully. “I think I know one who couldn’t resist all we have to offer…”

But Chrysalis didn’t clarify any further, and instead she looked back towards the drone again. It was then, to my surprise, I felt her heart clench once more. She closed her eyes, and I could feel… Wait, were those tears?

“I must do this…” Chrysalis muttered. “For Insidiis’ sake.”


I gave a sharp intake of breath as I was ejected from the memory. I scrambled up to my hooves, quickly checking the area to make sure everything was where I had left it.

Stripe and Cobalt jumped at my awakening, though I couldn’t see anything else around. They seemed to have been talking to one another, though now they fixed me with looks of concern.

“Scrap Heap, are you alright?” Stripe asked worriedly, getting to her hooves and approaching me. “You were in there for some time.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m good,” I assured them, regaining my bearings and calming myself. “Just… didn’t expect that particular memory.”

It’d been the beginning. The start of the changelings’ journey to Stable 84, and their own part in the end of the world. They’d been starving, desperate. They sought an alliance out of necessity above all else, not because they truly wished it.

And for the sake of ‘Insidiis’, whoever the hay that was.


Footnote: Level 13

New Perk: Ferocious Loyalty - When you drop below 50% HP, companions gain +50% DR.