Fallout: Equestria - War Does Change

by tom117z

25 - Alicorns and Queens

Chapter Twenty-Five: Alicorns and Queens

“So what shall it be? Do you join the Unity, or do you die here? Join! Die! Join! Die!”

---

The subway was damp, cold and full of mould. The tracks we followed were filled with constant caved in sections and the twisted hulks that were once trains. Morbidly, each of those hulks was occupied by the skeletons of those who were down here when the world went to hell, right alongside their buddies who didn’t have the good graces to die alongside them.

We fixed that with each ghoul encountered.

Good news was, we hadn’t seen any more of Red Eye’s goons since coming down here. If they were following us, they were probably back at the last junction. But the thought that they might even be there at all was enough to keep us moving. We had yet to stop even to rest, not wanting to risk it. If we hauled ass we could be back at Haven in a day, and back at the hive in another if we skipped on some sleep.

We’d rest when there were secure stable walls around us.

We began passing by another wrecked train, this one quite heavily scorched from a long-doused fire. As we reached the front of the wreck, I spotted the charred remains of the driver hanging out the front window, a hat that was probably part of his uniform still sitting on top of the skull.

And then the tunnel opened up into a far larger space. Two platforms sat either side of the track, illuminated by lights that were barely still running after two hundred years. Both platforms had a bunch of equipment strewn about the place, small and large. The platform to our left had a stairway leading upwards, while the platform to the right had a doorway in the wall next to a smashed window. The track also seemed to split at the other end of the platforms, and on the alternate path sat a single train car, the most intact one we’d seen so far, parked and waiting for a driver who would never come.

“I didn’t think there was another metro station until we reached Haven…?” I asked Cobalt.

“I don’t think this is a commercial station,” he replied as he hopped up onto the left platform, trotting over to the staircase as the rest of us watched. “Hm, it’s caved in further up. But it probably led to a small staff building on the side of the road.”

“And?”

“It was probably a service station,” he clarified. “Look at the equipment. Refuelling and repair, an extra car parked and waiting. This was probably used for maintenance between stops.”

That made sense. I guess if a train car needed a bit of work done, they’d drop it off here and be on their way.

It also looked undisturbed, so my scavenger senses were tingling!

I hopped up onto the right platform. “Let’s take a look around. Might be some goodies for us to use.”

The others all followed me up, while Cobalt elected to rifle through the discarded equipment on his side of the station.

On first glance, there didn’t appear to be all that much. Plenty of scrap metal, if I was still striving to collect that. I could tell some of the electrical components would probably have made a few caps back at Absolutely Everything, it was a shame I didn’t have the room or time to collect some of it for later.

I miss my wagon.

Still, one thing that was immediately of note was the red bar, make that two red bars, coming from the other side of the door.

I could already guess what they were.

Instead of barging in, I motioned to the others to convey the danger, before drawing my pistol and creeping steadily towards the smashed window. Stripe, meanwhile, took up position by the door with Moon Blossom drawing her knife and Altrix hiding behind some empty fuel barrels. At least I hope they’re empty, or that’d be some terrible cover.

With everyone ready, I levitated up my pistol and peered in through the window.

FU- Oh come on! What is it with ferals and jumpscares!?

Fortunately, when the ghoul had seen my face emerge and instantly jumped to tear it off, the zombie pony had also driven itself into the sizable glass shards lining the frame and skewered itself. But even though it was trapped for the moment, the feral ghoul was thrashing to break the glass and continue its lunge towards me, completely ignoring any injuries it was taking in the process.

I lifted my gun and fired a round point-blank into the ghoul’s head, the blood emerging from the other end spraying the opposing wall.

Stripe kicked in the door, and after a single crack of her sniper, the second red bar blinked away.

With Altrix remaining outside, the three of us all piled in and examined the room. The other ghoul lay dead by an overturned chair next to a console filled with all kinds of knobs and buttons. There were a few other such consoles in the room, alongside some filing cabinets and two more doorways leading elsewhere. Beneath the window, where the first ghoul now lifelessly laid, was a desk with a tipped over coffee mug reading ‘Best Dad in Equestria’.

“Aw come on, that was it?” Moon Blossom complained. “I didn’t even get a go!”

“Your thirst for another’s blood is disturbing,” Stripe scolded.

“Hey! If it’s a bad guy’s blood, who cares?” the pegasus retorted. “And is anypony gonna complain about fewer zombies in the world?”

“It’d be better if blood needn’t be shed at all.”

“Well, it does, it’s the wasteland. Good thing you have me around, huh?”

“Check the other doors,” I interrupted their debate before it got heated, checking a drawer in the desk and finding some caps and bobby pins. “Might be some stuff back there.”

As they went to do that, I continued to go through the remaining drawers, finding nothing of particular use. There didn’t seem to be much more than old junk around the room, aside from the few bits that were actually useful I’d already pilfered, so I went over to the door Moon Blossom was trying to force open while Stripe had long entered the other.

“Locked?”

“I’m going to break the fucking thing…” she muttered in annoyance.

“Let me,” I said, pulling out the same bobby pin I’d just taken as well as my screwdriver.

It was a simple lock, and in a few moments, the door clicked open.

“Heh, not bad,” she commented, pushing the door and entering the room. “Ohh, bathroom.”

It was quite small but sizable enough that it accommodated a toilet and a sink. There was also a medical box on the wall. I moved to open it, finding the usual assortment and dumping them in my saddlebags. But just as I did, I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see Moon Blossom.

“So…” she said with a coy smirk. “That smooch with Stripe…”

Oh, fuck my life…

“Can we not, at least not right now?” I asked her with a sigh. “It’s awkward enough as it is.”

“Oh come on, dude. You clearly wanna bone her!”

I felt my eye twitch. “D-don’t just… Stop. Now.”

She rolled her eyes. “Fiiiine, but now I’m bored and curious, so…”

She pushed me up against the wall. Why did she push me up against the wall?

“Really, this trek down the tracks is really boring. So while we’re here…”

Um.

“Wanna have some fun?” Um… Huh? “Come on, you know you- Huh?”

Moon Blossom landed on her face as Stripe bit down on her tail and yanked it, a grumpy look on her face as she began to drag the pegasus out of the bathroom. Moon Blossom herself, however, just started to laugh her ass off.

“Totally worth it!”

What just happened?

Stripe then returned to the bathroom, looking thoroughly unamused as she spat out a few purple hairs.

“So… I guess she was just joking, just trying to get a rise out of me…” I muttered. “At least, I think…?”

“The other door led out into an access tunnel, though it caves in part way down,” she said, ignoring what I said. “Nothing of use. Any luck in here?”

“Uh…” Right, mind rebooting. Back to business… “Y-yeah, a medical box with some potions and Med-X. I think that’s about it though.”

“Um…” Altrix mumbled as she poked her head in through the door. “Do you mind if we rest here for a while longer? My hooves are killing me… If that’s alright with you, I mean.”

Stripe looked back at the changeling. “We need to keep moving, Altrix. Those slavers may be close behind.”

“Five minutes can’t hurt,” Cobalt commented as he joined us. “Oh, and what happened back here? Moon Blossom looks like she’s heard the funniest joke on Equus.”

“Nothing,” Stripe and I said simultaneously. Oh crap, now I’m blushing again…

“Right…” he replied with a raised eyebrow. “But if we stop for a five-to-ten minute rest, it’ll give Scrap Heap time to check that memory orb we recovered from that griffon.”

“Don’t you want to check it?” I asked the unicorn.

“I’ll check it out later, depending on what you find,” he stated. “Besides, this is your little quest. You can do the honours.”

Right…

Well, if it’d escape the air of awkwardness that had been doubled thanks to that fucking former raider of ours, I was all in.

The others all piled in and around the room, Moon Blossom responded to Stripe’s irritated glare with a faux smile of innocence.

Definitely heading into that orb now…

I laid down, levitating the glowing magical object and holding it out before me. As I had done before, I closed my eyes and concentrated my magic onto it. It took a few moments to make the connection, as always, but when I-

---

Well, here we go.

Everything began to shift and blur into focus, the feeling of the body I now inhabited all also starting up… And I was increasingly familiar with what it was like to be Queen Chrysalis. She was strolling along a long metal corridor with a drone flanking each of her sides. And… No, this definitely wasn’t a stable corridor. It just didn’t have the same overly clean feeling to it, the colours were far darker and more subdued.

At the end of the corridor, where Chrysalis was walking towards, sat an industrial metal door, further cementing that this wasn’t anywhere near the hive.

Where am I? Or rather, where is she?

When Chrysalis reached the end of the corridor, she lit up her horn and watched as the door slid open with a whine of metal scraping against metal. And when the changelings stepped into the next room, I had to take a moment to process exactly what in all of Equestria it was I was seeing!

The room was just big, it was gigantic! A vast chamber that had workstations up above connected to the outer walls, and I could just make out the ponies inside through the windows, looking down at the Changeling Queen as she entered. These stations were connected via catwalks above my- above Chrysalis’ head, though I couldn’t see any visible way up for non-fliers around her. The ground floor, meanwhile, was a different matter altogether.

And it started off with the giant column in the middle, rising up to the ceiling and then back down into a deep pit that dominated the centre of the room, said column blinking with all kinds of machine parts I had no idea about. Around the column was a circular bit of catwalk that then had four other catwalks leading away from it in a plus shape. The outside of the room was a much more stable metal floor that had the pit separated with railings, and several consoles running around the entire exterior with ponies in full body hazmat suits working them. In each corner of the room was also a giant tank of… something, with pipes coming out of them and leading into the pit.

And what I spied in there gave me the biggest question mark.

In the pit, running right underneath all the catwalks, were four large open vats of… I wasn't really sure what. Some kind of magical pulsating liquid that cast the chamber in an eerie glow.

And there, right in the middle of it all, was Twilight Sparkle.

“Adjust the thaumatic monitor by point zero-three,” the Ministry Mare said to one of the scientists undoubtedly under her specific employ, hoofing them a checklist to act out. “Rerun the trials, I want that report.”

“Yes, Ministry Mare,” the pony answered, trotting off to carry out her demand.

“An efficient workforce. You might have made a mediocre Changeling Queen, in another world,” Chrysalis said to Twilight, the barb in her voice obvious.

“More efficient than you,” Twilight shot back, causing Chrysalis to snarl. “So, how’s the hive? I hope the stable hasn’t given you any issues.”

“It is surprisingly durable, for a pony design,” the Queen replied, leaving her drones by the door and walking towards Twilight by the centre column. “And now Insidiis is becoming infuriatingly enamoured with you Equestrians.”

“I bit of potential friendship in the world. That makes a change,” the Ministry Mare said sadly, looking almost nostalgic for a moment. “Now, I take it you’re ready to hear the update?”

“I did agree to this little project of yours, I would be amiss to let you use our magic without supervision,” Chrysalis answered. “And I must say, you have upgraded this facility since my last visit.”

“Yes, this entire chamber is modelled after our site at Maripony,” Twilight nodded, turning to a terminal on the column and beginning to type. “Fewer vats, but everything here is only a testbed for the real deal. But first off, the StealthBuck MK II-B…”

“Don’t tell me that’s its final name.”

“We’re thinking of the ‘ChangeBuck’ when it’s in full service,” she explained. “But for now, that’s the project title. Here, why don’t you have a look?”

Twilight turned from the terminal, and instead levitated something over to Chrysalis. It was a small device, and I wasn’t certain about what it was exactly…

Chrysalis took hold of it, studying the device cautiously. “And how does it work, exactly?”

“Just plug it into your PipBuck, like a normal StealthBuck.”

Chrysalis studied it for a moment longer, before inserting the device into the holotape slot. The PipBuck gave a beep before rolling text appeared that was quickly replaced by a menu.

“You will be able to scan targets using the S.A.T.S. uplink eventually, but for now we have some pre-sets,” Twilight stated. “Try one.”

Chrysalis looked through the list, selecting a simple earth pony mare that seemed to hold a similar colour scheme to her own. Intentional on the unicorn’s part, if Chrysalis were to surmise.

The moment the option was selected, and the confirmed, the Changeling Queen was surrounded by green flames originating from the PipBuck. It was over in a moment, and I visibly saw Chrysalis shrink down to the Ministry Mare’s eye level through the Queen’s very own eyes.

“Hm, an adequate recreation,” the ‘pony’ mused. “Though the PipBuck being visible may be of concern.”

“Unfortunately, it has to be if you want to cancel the spell,” Twilight replied. “Though we may add an option to hide it from view if the user wishes, at which point they’ll have to wait out the full hour. We’re still working out the kinks.”

“And how long until it is ready for production?”

“I can’t really say right now. Hopefully, by the time my alicorn potion rolls out. Or maybe a little after, we’ll have to wait for Robronco to sign the contract for the PipBuck compatibility and get them into military use.”

Alicorn potion?

“And I take it your ‘sort of’ alicorns will be ready soon?” Chrysalis enquired.

“Now that I have a direct supply of flux, we’ve been making incredible progress,” the Ministry Mare said, though seemed visibly uneasy at the mention of the substance. “And now that we’re on the subject…”

Twilight pressed a key on the terminal and directed Chrysalis to take a look.

“This chamber was created to double our output and research for the alicorn potion, but it was built in this specific facility for another reason…”

Chrysalis regarded the unicorn with a cool glare. “And what reason might that be?”

“Our projections for the transformation process show that our chances of success are increasing, but the process for any pony would be… lethally painful.”

I felt a small smirk cross the Queen’s features. “So, in other words, your key to ending the war would die of agony during birth. Quite the design flew.”

“As I’m aware…” Twilight replied with an irritated tone. “But as I just demonstrated with the new StealthBuck MK II-B, the process of changing for a pony is seamless. Just as much as any changelings’ would be.”

“And?”

“And I think that changeling magic could be the key to solving that issue,” Twilight Sparkle concluded. “One final ingredient. If we add changeling magic into the mix, specifically the part that facilitates your change of appearance, then we could make the transformation all but painless. Or at least not lethally so, if nothing else.”

“So our magic is required to make your little taint solution work? Hm, that was not part of our agreement.”

“But this could end the war!” Twilight stressed, a panicked look crossing her features. “A whole generation has practically grown up in a world where millions of ponies are dying! Every day this farce has gone on, it’s just gotten worse! I… I can’t let it continue! Equestria isn’t even recognisable anymore, I don’t want to see how much further we’ll stray in another decade of this.”

“Then you will have to trade something in turn, Twilight Sparkle,” Chrysalis said, releasing the pony guise and beginning to circle Twilight in an almost predatory manner. “If it is as desperate as you say, surely that won’t be an issue?”

Twilight gritted her teeth. “What do you want?”

“If changeling magic is going to be a component in your little potion, then I’ve got a thought,” she began. “Could your potion not be modified to, instead of reacting to a pony, react to a changeling?”

The Ministry Mare gasped. “You... you want to create Changeling Queens…?”

“Would it not be possible?”

“I mean… maybe? With time and research, making the changeling magic more prevalent, changing some of the parameters the flux is acting under…”

“Then we have a deal?”

“Goldenblood would never allow it.”

“Goldenblood’s days as director of the Office of Interministry Affairs are over, and you know it,” Chrysalis spat. “And I’ve done some digging on this ‘Mr Horse’ that’s taking over, a small ‘donation’ his way would be sufficient to convince him.”

“Why…?” Twilight whispered. “Why do you even want this?”

“My race, much to my knowledge, has long been reduced to but one hive. My hive,” Chrysalis replied. “Insidiis will be a queen one day, but reproduction is too slow. My people are few, but if some of my most trusted subjects were to ascend, then we would soon be many.”

“So you can conquer?”

“So we can thrive,” Chrysalis shot back. “When you fools started this war you nearly killed us by consequence. I saw my people starve and die. I’m saving us.”

Twilight silent for a moment, seemingly having an internal conflict inside her own head.

And that was nice because it gave me a moment to process everything as well. I mean, what the hay!? I was clearly seeing some of the origins of Splendid Valley’s alicorn infestation, but this… This is what Cobalt was after. The MAS project, what they were working on. And not just this StealthBuck, but…

And Kronos knows about it.

“Could this not assist an Equestrian victory as well?” Chrysalis asked, breaking the silence. “What is one more compromise?”

“I’ve been asking that for years…” Twilight muttered. “I don’t like the answer I’ve gotten time and again.”

Another moment of silence, but then the Ministry Mare sighed.

“Fine, damn it. Fine!” she decided. “Hmph, it’s a good thing we had this place built even more now. This is going to take a lot of recalculation. Our alicorns are still the priority though, don’t misunderstand me.”

“Clearly,” the Queen replied. “But I nevertheless look forward to seeing the result.”

Twilight, however, looked far less enthusiastic. A grim look on her face, she turned from Chrysalis and towards the glowing vats, leaning up against the railing and staring down into the magical liquid below.

“Just one most step, Twilight…” Chrysalis heard her mutter. “It’ll all be over soon…”

---

I emerged from the memory orb exactly where I’d entered it, my friends all relaxing as much as they could in the room beyond the bathroom.

And my mind was racing.

Twilight Sparkle created the alicorns? She also tried to make Changeling Queens? Did she succeed? Well, obviously not or there would have been more than just Insidiis back at Stable 84, that memory must have been weeks or so before the bombs fell. At most, I’d think. I don’t know… Still, they must have at least started during that time if they finished up the so-called ‘alicorn potion’. Maybe that research still existed somewhere? Like… if Red Eye were to somehow find that facility Twilight Sparkle built. And then…

Oh shit.

The Goddess.

Fuck!

I bolted from the bathroom, all but sliding into my friends as I hoped the ‘oh shit’ expression on my face was enough to convey just how ‘oh shit’ of a situation this was!

“Scrap Heap? What is it? What was on that orb?” Cobalt asked, the first to rise on seeing me awake.

“Right, so… I know what Kronos is after! Why they want changelings!” I announced to them. “They, uh… well, Goddess wants them for Unity!”

They all glanced between one another.

“Um, as far as anyone knows only ponies can be turned into alicorns, Scrap,” Cobalt refuted.

“Who said anything about alicorns…?” I said, holding out the memory orb to the curious unicorn.

Suffice to say, when he too emerged from the memory he was as frazzled as I was.

I mean, this was huge! Like, really huge! The Goddess and her alicorns had been terrorising the wasteland since the bombs dropped, doubly so when she made an alliance with Red Eye. And yet her numbers were always limited, and it’d be obvious whenever they were getting close to a settlement. But if she were to get changelings into their ranks, shapeshifting changelings… A whole hive of them…

I didn’t even want to think about how fucked we’d all be.

Our saving grace, in our minds, was that there was no way they could actually do it yet. As Cobalt saw fit to point out, if Twilight Sparkle never finished it then they wouldn’t be able to convert any of them.

But if they somehow managed to finish it…

After that, we didn’t stop moving through the metro system until we were out of there. We had to warn Insidiis about what we had found, she had to see the memory. Were it ghouls or radroaches, we stopped for nothing until we reached that metro tunnel and found ourselves back where we’d encountered the ice ghouls.

The entire station was pretty frozen over, even more so down the tunnel to the Crystal Empire. But the ghouls were gone, probably wiped out by the slavers by now. That served in our favour, though, meaning getting out and back into the town was a breeze. From there, we just had to move carefully to get passed the slavers. Where once the town had been quiet, now there seemed to be regular patrols around the old pre-war settlement.

Still, we managed to get around them. We had to, and we had no time for another fight. And when we were out of there, we began to make our way straight for the hive as fast as we could. Even faster than the last time we walked this trail, there was no time to waste on this. No dawdling, no random side quests.

Because if what we’d come across was what we thought it was, then it was more than just Stable 84 at risk.

The entire Equestrian Wasteland was in danger.

---

Footnote: Max Level

Comments

[Keystroke Cascade]

dun dun duuuuuun!

[tom117z]

9107855

So they want and army of changeling queen that can produce there own hive

Um... Queens don't birth the drones, so no (Altrix has talked about her parents, if you would recall). Goddess just wants a fuck ton of Queens. They're still solving the gender problem through the Black Book.

Add that they have hive mind which unity also wants makes them even deadlier

They don't have a hive mind in this either, or else Altrix would have warned Insidiis already...

That's something from Change, which was started before the lack of a hive mind was demonstrated in the show.

but wonder what has happen to chrysalis, I do hope the queen hasn’t died.