Fallout Equestria: False Notions

by Chaotic Dreams

Chapter 2: Of the Mirror

FALLOUT: EQUESTRIA - FALSE NOTIONS

CHAPTER TWO - Of the Mirror

* * *

Nuclear Force

I wasn’t sure what was going on at first. There was a huge explosion from a nearby city, then everyone kind of just looked at each other and took off. I was having trouble following them at first, but I eventually found my running legs.

My hooves pounded into the dirt as I surged forward, leaving little imprints with each step. Those two pegasi were flying in front of the group, the two unicorns and Diz right behind them, with me and the twins’ phoenix bringing up the rear. Out of all of us, I appeared to be the only one wearing armored barding. Running—not the easiest task while wearing it. I wasn’t an adult either, so I had to stride quickly to keep pace with the grown-ups.

Either way, after looking behind over his shoulder and realizing that I was trailing, Diz let up on his speed and fell back to float beside me. “You okay, kid?”

I snorted. I was not a kid, but I would be angry about that later. “Yeah, I-I’m fine,” I panted. “I’m just carrying a lot!” Did I mention that my barding was damn heavy? As the landscape flew by, steadily transforming from dirt and more dirt into concrete and sparse buildings, my muscles began to scream at me for pushing them like this. But I couldn’t stop running, or I would fall behind.

I was so focused on maintaining my speed and keeping my legs from giving out that I didn’t notice the dirt road transition to a hard street, or the chunk of broken concrete sticking out of it.

One of my legs was swept out from under me, and after a thud and a flash of white, I was lying face-down on the concrete. I spat out little granules of it, my face stinging. I heard the sound of hooves skidding farther ahead of me, before clopping approached my position.

I felt two limbs—one scaley, one furry—lift me off of the pavement. “Uhm... Did we really need to sprint all this way? Force here isn’t exactly as big as the rest of us, you know.” That was Diz. I could tell from the way his voice grated a little.

“Oh... right. Sorry. He’s wearing that barding, too, and I can tell it’s a bit too big for him,” one the unicorns said. You don’t say, Silver-eyes?

I groaned, pawing at my horn. It had scraped against the porous cement, and was sending fresh waves of sharp, stinging pain to my brain with each cold breath of the wind. For comparison, think of pumice stone scraping against your teeth, and the way the feeling makes you shudder. Now multiply it by five or so.

Held in Diz’s arms as the group continued moving at a slower pace, I looked around me. Surrounding us were many dilapidated buildings, like incomplete jigsaw puzzles, most of the walls having crumbled away long ago, revealing the framework and interiors. The sky was as grey as ever, the omnipresent clouds blocking out the sunlight. The pavement itself was broken and bunched up in many places, creating very uneven terrain that was slightly painful to walk on.

You know, I really didn’t like being held. I squiggled out of Diz’s grip and planted my hooves on the ground, walking with the rest of the group.

“Does anyone know where we’re going?” Silver-eyes asked, bathing me in her gaze. Why was she looking at me? I didn’t know!

“We were going to investigate the explosion around here, if I recall correctly,” the hovering brown pegasus clarified. What was his name again? “But, I do not remember which building it came from.”

The group looked around for a moment. The brown pegasus cleared his throat. “Well, I suppose this is a superb time for introductions. For those who don’t know, my name is White Light, and this—” he gestured to the light-blue pegasus next to him. “—is Sunfire.” He looked at me for a moment, his eyes scanning me. I noticed that he had a little scar beneath his right eye. “Nuclear Force, I apologize if this is rude, but I must admit I am very curious about your stripes.”

…

It was like someone turned on a furnace in my brain. I remained silent, restraining myself from lashing out at him for saying that. I broke eye contact, looking up at the highest point on a building nearby and ignoring what was probably the most awkward silence in history. I idly wondered how he knew my name, but I chalked it up to Diz telling him. They were talking earlier, if I remembered correctly.

One of the unicorns scuffed at the ground with a hoof, staring at it with her chalky eyes. They were almost white, like her hair. Her coat was a silvery grey. “Uhm... I’m Chrome.” She motioned to the unicorn next to her, who had a white coat, and silver mane & eyes. “This is Mono.” A brilliant bird-shaped fireball perched on Chrome’s back, cawing in greeting. “Oh... and our pet phoenix, Emberwing.” Okay, I could swear I saw it smiling at me. Seriously. Something was up with that bird.

I immediately recognized the play-on-words. Monochrome. Heh. Eh heh. Uhm... Well, it made sense, seeing as both of them were fittingly monochromatic in color.

The unicorn’s quietness was broken by Diz’s bombastic voice as he puffed out his chest. “As you all know, I’m Dizzy!” His crimson eyes flicked to each member of our little group—were we a group now?

I noticed Chrome was surveying me with a scrutinizing eye, scanning me. Was she looking at my stripes? She raised her hoof, mouth open, but shrunk away suddenly. I think I could see Diz shaking his head at her out of the corner of my eye. “Uhm... nevermind...”

Celestia, I was sick of this. I sat down on the pavement, leveling a glare at a nearby rock. Maybe if I glared hard enough, I could split it in half. That would be an interesting story to tell.

My ears perked as I heard Sunfire whisper to White Light.

“Is he okay?”

“I’m sure he’s fine, dear.”

Our little moment of silence was broken by a faint blast of gunshots, and then a much louder explosion that shook the ground and disturbed piles of rocks precariously balanced upon one another. We began moving again without a word towards the source of the noise, eventually coming across a concrete barrier laid across the width of the road. Behind it was a... What was that??

It looked almost like a bug, kind of, except pony-shaped. It had a black carapace and big, beady, solid cyan eyes, along with inconsistently-placed holes in its extremities, such as its hooves and wings. It had a horn, although it looked more like a black carrot with holes shot through it, and it was glowing the same color as the submachine gun hovering beside it. It rapidly turned its head to and fro, as if keeping watch for enemies.

Wait... I remembered what it was now. It was a Changeling, a creature of darkness and espionage, a parasite that took the form of others and fed off of their love. Mom told me about them, about how they are innately evil and the world would be better without them. Unconsciously, I formed a blistering, volatile green fireball with my horn, preparing to turn the changeling into chunky black salsa.

“Stop!” White barked at me, and I looked at him, letting the fireball fizzle out. His face was twisted with anxiety. “We don’t need to pick fights with somepony who could potentially be an ally.”

“That’s not a pony,” I snarled. White shook his head.

“Perhaps not, but an ally is an ally.”

I was about to blow up on him, screaming about how a monster like that would never even consider helping ponykind in any way, but instead stamped out the little fuse in my head. “Fine,” I growled. I was going to regret this, I just knew it.

Diz cupped his hands over his mouth. “HEYYYYY!!”

The changeling’s head whipped in our direction, and he glared at us, raising his weapon to fire. Mono, Chrome, Sunfire, and I ducked beneath the barrier, and Diz dove aside in comic slow-motion—how was he doing that?—but White Light held his ground.

“Wait, hold your fire! We’re not enemies!” he announced, jumping into the air and hovering, a hoof raised. The changeling shifted his gaze upward, before lowering his weapon a few degrees. He said nothing at first.

“Not enemies?” he asked, his voice buzzing like the insect he was as we peeked over the barrier.

My ears perked as I began to hear an electronic charging sound and methodic thumping, before the changeling dove away from us. A solid wall of red energy tore between him and us, making a noise that sounded like a constant, ear-piercing, extra-loud bug zapper, before it receded like a yo-yo. The changeling got up with a roll, before firing his gun at a target we couldn’t see with his machine gun. Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat.

After a few more thumps, the wall of energy came back, at a slightly different angle. The changeling jumped away deftly, firing more shots at the source. The laser sliced into a nearby building, cleanly chopping off part of its wall, which crashed down into a pile of rubble on the ground. I could see the metal framework of the building, now. The wall of energy looked a bit like a vertical laser, if that made any sense. Like, it was super-thin, but very tall, so if you looked at it from the side, you would see a transparent wall of redness. I suspected that from the front, it just looked like a vertical line heading right towards your face. I looked up and over the building to my right, hearing more thumps. The wall came again, but I could also see it over the building. The laser was shaped like an expanding circle, a disk, which extended a ways up into the sky as well as forward and backward, before retracting back to the center, the source. A solid disk, I might add; if I tried to walk through the field while it was firing, I would surely be vaporized.

A few more shots from the changeling’s weapon, and the ground was rocked by a furious explosion that knocked some of us off our hooves. After we all regained our footing, we looked at the changeling again, who was growling at what was probably a pile of wreckage behind our view of the building. “Freakin’ machines. ‘The Light’ my well-polished ass.” He turned to us. “Hey, can I get some help here, if you don’t mind? I’m, uh, lookin’ for something.”

We complied, each of us hopping, flying, or floating over the barrier and approaching the changeling. “What might you be looking for? And... what are you?” White asked.

To be honest, it was kinda nice to hear that question directed at somepony other than me.

“I’m a changeling. My name is... well... I don’t really have a name, per se.” The changeling looked sad for a moment. “Some other changelings call me Number Forty-Four. But I think that’s kind of invalid, since I was unable to receive an official name from my queen.”

“Queen?” Mono piped up, tilting her head. “Changelings have a queen?” Emberwing, still perched on Chrome’s withers, squawked in agreement.

“Of course we do,” Forty-Four answered. “But... she’s being held captive here, by these robots. It’s my duty as a member of the hive to rescue her.” He blinked. “I’m having trouble with these robots, though. You saw their weapon’s blast, right? It’ll slice me in half!” Two black forelegs spread wide in the air, the changeling’s posture supported by the buzzing wings on his back. His face suddenly lit up with an epiphany. “Oh! Erm... could you be so kind as to help me? I’ll be sure to make it worth your while...”

Every muscle in my body tensed up at the thought of helping this monster, but I sucked it up and nodded. “Okay.” The others nodded as well.

The changeling grinned cheerfully, allowing me to see his fangs, teeth made for cutting meat. They were surprisingly uniform and white, like those ponies you see in prewar toothpaste advertisements. Colgate-brand toothpaste! Surf’s up, Molars! “Excellent! Thank you!” The changeling, his mood having done a complete one-eighty, sat down on the ground.

“Okay, my queen is being held in a facility deep underground,” Forty-four began. “You see that huge tower in the center of Applewood?” He motioned with a hole-covered hoof to a very slim, very tall building that seemed to burst out of the concrete and reach for the sky. There was a faint but ominous red halo of energy around the tower, making it look extra evil. “The facility is located directly under it. There are doors at the base of the tower, and inside is probably a staircase or something leading down, but here’s the problem: there are like twenty of those freakin’ robots guarding said door. I can’t get through on my own.” The changeling scuffed at the ground with his hoof. “There are also robots patrolling the city, so be on guard.”

Our group made various noises of approval. The changeling stood up, and began walking in one direction. “Alright, follow me. Check your six often. Make sure a robot doesn’t sneak up on you, because you’re dead if one does.”

Sunfire brought out a metal hoofball bat and rapped her hoof with it, grinning confidently. “I heard metal isn’t very effective against blunt force! I’ll just smack them until they stop working!” She laughed cheerfully, although her eyes didn’t look as sure as her voice sounded.

Diz whipped out the two pistols he carries around, as did Mono. Chrome made a face, but Mono wrapped a foreleg around her withers and gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry Chrome, I’ll do the shooting. You just keep lookout, make sure robots don’t catch us by surprise.”

“A-alright,” she complied as Emberwing took off, surveying our surroundings.

White Light fished around inside his saddlebag, before extracting a small pistol. I myself brought out the rifle I had stashed away in my own bag, not wanting to rely on my magic to defend myself. It was powerful, but I couldn’t use it very much.

And with that, we set out. The changeling lead, walking slowly and carefully, his gaze sweeping back and forth as he constantly checked our surroundings. Diz and I were just behind, our weapons fully-loaded and ready for action if we were to be attacked. Our pegasi hovered just overhead, staying at low-altitude as to not be spotted from far away. Mono and Chrome brought up the rear, Chrome looking over her shoulder every few seconds, scanning for enemies. From the look in her eyes, I gathered that she was worried that she’d be seen as useless if she didn’t do well with her current job.

Suddenly, a door from a nearby building broke off its hinges and flew towards us, striking Diz and knocking him to the ground. In the doorway stood what looked like a cyborg from an old prewar movie. It was mostly pony, but several limbs and sections of its torso were replaced with a glossy, grey steel, including one of its eyes. The cybernetic eye glowed red at us, soulless.

Our group opened fire, Mono blasting off a stream of bullets with her twin pistols, the changeling pelting it with his submachine gun, White joining in with his single pistol, and me trying to line up my shot. Even Emberwing was helping, trying to blind the robot with his really shiny phoenix magic, but I wasn’t sure if it was having any effect. The robot turned to me, seemingly unaffected by the bullets. It began to glow, a blinking red shine that made a thumping noise with each pulse, small dents appearing beneath its hooves.

The next thing I knew, there was a vertical yellow line racing across the pavement directly towards me, and a buzzing sound louder than the gunshots of my companions. I jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding a perfect bisection and getting a good view of the rapidly widening wall of energy. It sliced into the ground and the building behind me, along with the building behind the automaton. The laser reeled itself back in after a moment, the robot’s expressionless face turning to me again.

Bullets sparked off of the robot on impact, but I could quickly see dents forming in the metal plating, and holes in the fleshy parts. They seemed to be sewing themselves shut, but our combined firepower was easily tearing it apart faster than it could mend itself. Holy crap, these things could regenerate?

I didn’t have time to contemplate that, as another disk-laser bisected the land, clipping my back left hoof. I cried out in pain from the awful burning sensation, whipping my head to look behind me. A chunk of my hoof had been completely sliced off, complete with the barding, which turned out to provide absolutely zero defense against the laser. I was also losing blood fast, my injured hoof trembling. Gawking, I looked back at the robot, who was pulsating again. Shit.

But then, the robot sparked and twitched, the glow shining a lot brighter than before. “Take cover!” Forty-Four shouted, diving behind a large rock that was jutting out of the street. We scrambled, Diz noticing my wound and scooping me up, taking me into a nearby alleyway.

It was as if somepony had detonated a crate full of C2. The roar was unbelievably loud, and I pressed my hooves against my ears, watching as fire, smoke and debris blanketed the area I was just in. It was over after a few seconds. Gently uncovering my ears, I looked out into the street, which was filled with that post-explosion silence that’s weirdly louder than regular silence. I took a few steps, but upon stepping on my back-left hoof, lightning shot up my leg, and I screamed, collapsing onto the pavement. Breathing hard, I looked at my injured hoof again.

Blood was pouring out of it like a geyser, staining the concrete a violent red. Diz quickly picked me up again, reaching into my bag and extracting a bottle full of purple liquid. Hey, that was one of my healing po-mmph!

The bear’s paw stuffed it into my mouth, and I drank the brew like a foal. My hoof started to burn and itch, and I whimpered as I felt my flesh crawling and reknitting itself, before suddenly the pain dulled to a small ache. I looked at my leg again. Hey, it was back! But it was bald. Man, I never realized how cold it was here.

“Feeling better?” Diz asked, setting me down and wiping my blood off of his torso. I hummed the affirmative, smiling up at him.

“Thanks,” I said. He nodded once, smiling back. Returning to the street, I joined up with the others, who were steadily crawling out of their own cover positions. I looked at the mangled doorframe the robot used to be in. The whole wall of the building was blown out, and there was a huge scorch mark on the ground.

“Celestia, what was that?” White Light asked, descending from his position on a rooftop, followed by Sunfire. “I didn’t think they would explode like that!”

“They do,” the changeling confirmed. “Since they can regenerate, that’s really the only way to kill them. We’re fortunate, because shooting them enough times breaks their circuitry and causes them to self-destruct.” He smiled a toothy smile.

Sunfire looked indignant, pouting at the ground. “I wanted to hit it with my bat...”

“Next time, honey.” White pecked her on the cheek, and she blushed and gave a soft smile.

We pulled ourselves together and continued, walking slowly and quietly in the general direction of the tower. These robots were quieter than mice, I swear... And seeing what one of them was able to do to my leg, I was afraid of what would happen if one of those lasers hit me head-on. Would I be cut in half? I would be dead immediately, and seeing as how these automatons were so quiet, I would never see it coming.

Chunks of ice started forming in my lungs at the thought, straining my breath and wracking my body with shivers. I was too young. I wasn’t even grown up yet! I didn’t deserve this... Well.... I... I’ve murdered a pony before, so maybe I did. Would I go to hell?

“Are you okay, Force?” White’s sudden voice made me flinch, my gaze whipping to him. He was giving me this weird sympathetic look from the air. I also noticed that my eyes were leaking.

I swallowed. “Y-yeah... I’m fine.” I sounded about as confident as I felt. I wiped my eyes with a hoof, setting my sights forward. Damn it, I was crying. I hoped that none of my other companions would notice before I calmed down.

We climbed over a pile of crumbled and broken rock, peeking our heads over the summit and surveying the area before dropping to the other side. “Hide!” our changeling suddenly hissed, diving under a nearby crumbling structure. Down the street was another robot-pony, this one different in color and the configuration of its metal plates. I squeezed in with Forty-four, hoping the others found hiding places as well. After the previous battle, I really didn’t want to challenge one of those things again.

If Forty-four had eyebrows, he would have been raising one at me from the look on his face. I smiled awkwardly, but said nothing.

Metal footsteps grew louder, the robot-pony swinging its head around to scan the area with that glowing red eye. My horn lit up as I felt around in my bag, wondering if I had any potions that could blow that overgrown toaster up. I didn’t think so... I had one healing potion-broth in there, an empty bottle, my gun, and some herbs I had picked earlier. I could tell from the texture that I had quite a bit of Sekn-err... What was the pony name for this plant? Fireweed? I think so. It was highly flammable, and was an important ingredient in an explosive potion. I suddenly remembered that I needed to get more bottles, especially if I was going to brew liquid explosives, and I mentally smacked myself. I should have bought some from the bartender in Krater-oh. Nevermind, they wouldn’t sell alcohol to a minor, even if I technically was not going to drink it.

Well... maybe they had empty bottles. Yep, back to smacking myself.

The robot eventually turned a corner, and I let out a sigh of relief, crawling out of my hiding spot, as did the others. I looked at the changeling next to me. “Are you sure you know where you’re going?” I asked as we resumed our trek towards the dusty grey tower, its shadow looming over us.

His buzzing voice filled my ears. “Yes, but we are taking the longer route. There may be items of worth or use in these buildings.” He swept his hoof across the air.

Fittingly, I just then noticed Diz floating out of a broken window, holding an armful of glistening, crystal-clear bottles! I beamed and galloped over to him, my eyes alight, but he just raised an eyebrow at me. “What’s up, Force?”

“Can I have those bottles?” The whole group looked at me. “Uhm, I know how to brew all sorts of potions, like healing ones. Please?” I smiled real big.

“You can make healing potions?” Sunfire breathed, turning to her coltfriend. “Ponies can make healing potions? How do... I thought they were just lying around, and ponies just found them!”

“There are some ponies that know how to make them, but they are usually made in pre-war laboratories with synthetic materials,” White clarified. “Nuclear is giving me the impression that he can make them here and now, and the only way he would do that is with certain plants. I don’t know where he learned the methods to make them, as alchemy is prominent mostly in zebra culture, and—” He suddenly stopped in his tracks, his eyes snapping wide open.

Four sets of eyes widened in turn as they each reviewed the implications. My expression matched theirs, and my blood turned to ice as I realized that they must’ve been connecting the dots.

Oh no. They’re going to shoot me because I’m part zebra. I knew it. I need to get away, I need to—

“I... read a lot of books, if you’re wondering,” I muttered as I turned around to hide my fear-stricken face, hoping they would buy it. Please let them buy it. Please please please please, Celestia, Luna, I don’t want to die here! I swallowed, my fur growing cold as I braced myself for a slew of bullets from my ‘companions’, praying that it would be quick and painless.

“He must have a library, maybe,” Chrome said. “Does anypony know where he lives?”

I released the breath I was holding. Thank the Goddesses.

“Not a clue here,” her twin answered.

While my ‘friends’, who were kind enough not to shoot me, discussed possible explanations for how I knew how to brew healing potions, I decided to poke around in a nearby building, whose door was thankfully clinging onto its frame by only one rusty hinge. A forceful tug with my magic, and it came crashing down. I slowly peeked inside, my eyes raking the fancy carpet on the floor and the mostly-wooden interior. My tail brushed the doorframe as I brought myself to what looked like a kitchen, the tile defiantly asserting its place over the more reticent red carpeting. Nudging open a cabinet with my snout, I lit my horn for some illumination. Nothing except some dust bunnies playing a game of soccer. Carpet Crusaders were winning ten-to-seven. Go team!

Next cabinet. This one had a small bottle full of a mysterious opaque teal liquid. I held it up, my horn casting a green light over my dark surroundings and reflecting off the bottle. ‘Open your eyes,’ it read in fancy cursive on a small label of masking tape. I took out the cork and took a whiff—it smelled salty, like saltwater, mixed in with antiseptic and honey. I shoved the cork back in and put it in my saddlebag. It might have some use later.

One of the higher-up cabinets, which I had to stand on a table to reach, had a small locked safe it in. My face scrunched up as I tried to bust it open with my magic, but it held fast. Levitating it by my side, I brought it outside for the others to see. “Hey, does anypony know how to pick locks?”

Dizzy raised his hand, and I gave the box to him. He stared at it for a few moments, before extracting a small metal tool from his squirrel tail and sticking it in the keyhole, his tongue hanging limp out one side of his mouth as he concentrated. “Don’t worry, I’m good at this. Just gotta... find the right... C’mon...” Snap. “Aw!”

In general, I had a fairly big hunch that a locked container would have some good loot in it, so I left Diz to his work and walked back to the others. They were looking at each other like sheep, except for our changeling, who was keeping watch for robots.

Upon noticing me, they turned to look at me again. They did not meet my gaze, their eyes instead wandering along the stripes on the rest of my body. “What’s up, guys?” I smiled at them, trying to seem extra-friendly.

Their heads snapped up, except for Chrome, who backed away slightly. None of them spoke. I knew what was on everypony’s mind, but apparently none of them wanted to say it. Did they want me to confirm?

...No. I would tell them later. Not now.

Sunfire yelped as something struck the ground near her hoof, shooting a small jet of dust into the air and leaving a small hole. I immediately whipped around and brought my rifle’s scope to my face, searching the area. There! A small glint of something caught my eye, and I increased my weapon’s zoom. Lo and behold, a robot-pony was standing on a building a fair distance away, aiming its own gun at us. “Sniper!” I yelled, lining my crosshair up with my target’s head and pulling the trigger.

My gun’s report cracked like thunder, no doubt giving away our position. I had forgotten how loud this thing was, but thankfully this dog had just as much bite as it did bark. Through my scope I saw the robot spark and twitch, glowing a brilliant red, before answering my rifle’s blast like a lion to a housecat. Hmm... Apparently this robot was less armored than the ones weilding disk-lasers.

Lowering my gun, I turned around again to find all of my teammates still staring at me, although there was a bit of awe mixed in with the shock. I felt like I was under a spotlight, and you can probably figure that I don’t do well a crowd looking at me. You know, half-pony half-zebra, freak of nature, come buy your tickets today?

Mono apparently read my expression, turning to Diz, who was still focusing on the locked box. Snap, another bobby pin broken. “Dizzy, have you opened it yet?” she asked, changing the topic. Thanks, Mono!

“I almost got it!” Ker-chak, the box clicked open. “Ha! Finally!” He grinned from ear-to-ear as he opened the box, very slowly, bright light filtering out of it and shining like a spotlight as the top was slowly flipped...

Inside were two bright red healing potions, some ten-millimeter ammo for pistols, and a strange inhaler with the word ‘Jet’ on it. What was Jet? I levitated it to my face, twirling it around as I inspected it. ‘Feel awesome!’ it said beneath the logo. Awesome how? Curiosity overtaking me, I slowly brought it to my lips, preparing to press the button and take a deep breath.

A brown hoof suddenly snatched it away. “Force, you really shouldn’t use that. You’re, erm... underage, if I understand correctly.” What? I shouldn’t? What was it, anyway?

I looked at White Light. “Why? What is it?”

He returned the look. “You don’t know what Chems are?”

“Nope.”

He looked at the inhaler. “Chems are drugs. They’ll enhance some part of you for a little bit, but they always have some sort of backlash. And trust me, you definitely don’t want to get addicted. Adult ponies can take them every now and then without becoming hooked, but you’re just a teenager...” He gave me that sympathetic look again. I was starting to hate him for it.

“I wasn’t planning on using it...” Actually, that was a lie. I was very much about to use it. But he and the others didn’t know that.

A cyan hoof draped over my withers, and Sunfire brought her head close to my ear. “Yes you were... But really, drugs are bad.” Damn it, I hate being proved wrong. I looked at her, before wriggling away.

“Oh! Oh! Can I have it?” Diz chirped with a grin. I shot him a look.

“I think we should hold onto that and sell it later,” Mono chipped in, blinking. “Ponies pay good caps for Chems. What do you think, Chrome?”

We noticed that someone was missing from our group. “Chrome?” Thankfully, the silver mare soon emerged with a particular phoenix from a nearby building, having liberated a clip of shots for my rifle and some submachine gun rounds. She also found a neon yellow potion that appeared to sizzle and bubble inside its bottle. Corrosive acid, I’d say.

“We’ve stayed here long enough,” a buzzing voice chimed in, breaking us out of our reverie. “The green one’s rifle probably alerted them to our position. We need to move.” Yeah, I could agree with that.

After dividing the ammo to those who could use it, we continued to approach the tower. It looked pencil-thin from far away, but up close like this it was freakin’ huge. Its grand stature made it seem almost as if it was judging us, and the evil red halo really didn’t help.

Speaking of ammo, everyone in the group except me used some form of pistol as a firearm. Diz’s seemed to use a different caliber of bullet, however (which he apparently had plenty of), so he opted out. I got to keep the rifle clip all to myself! Yay!

Fortunately we didn’t run into any more robots on the way to the tower, but once we actually got there, I discovered that the foul changeling wasn’t lying about the battalion of robots guarding the entrance. They stared ahead soullessly, like tigers ready to pounce.

“Alright, does anybody have a plan to get past these idiots?” Forty-four buzzed, looking at us over his shoulder.

“I thought you had a plan!” Sunfire whispered with indignation. The changeling simply shrugged at her.

Emberwing held the edge of one wing on the underside of his beak, as if deep in thought. He suddenly squawked, gathering everyone’s attention. I seriously would not have been surprised if he suddenly starting explaining a complex plan in Equestrian to get past the robots. I was actually pretty surprised when he didn’t. Although, he did take to the air, performing an extremely quick fly-by in front of the guards. They shot at him with all sorts of different weapons, from disk-lasers to rifles to miniguns, but he deftly weaved in-between the shots and returned to us without a scratch. Looks like we were up against some massive firepower. I noticed that some of the disk-lasers slammed into the tower behind the guards, but did not damage it, leaving little more than tall scorch marks. That tower must’ve been made of some pretty tough stuff.

I kind of wanted a spell or weapon that fired a laser like that. I would never have to aim up or down, because it would essentially do that for me. But how would I get one?

Absent-mindedly I approached the guards, examining them with a sharp eye in an attempt to see how that laser worked. Was it really magical, or fired from something? I think I heard my companions yelling something to me, but in my focus I didn’t hear them.

Obviously I got a little too close, as two of them flashed and fired disk-lasers at me. I froze up in fear for a moment, the memory of what happened to my hoof flashing across my mind, but I ripped myself away from it and dove sideways. The two lasers formed a luminous X as they crossed at my previous location, eager to cut me into slabs of raw pony meat.

Successfully rolling to my hooves for once, I bolted back in the opposite direction and carved around a building, narrowly avoiding another glowing wall sailing behind me.

I flinched when I came face-to-face with a pair of blank cyan eyes. "Hello." Forty-Four smiled nonchalantly. "Are you hiding here? I'll go... hide over there." He started to walk away, but I stopped him with a hoof on his shoulder. Whoa. He was like, smooth. Like a bowling ball.

“How did you get here?” I asked. He blinked at me.

“Those lasers have a long range. One of them almost hit me, so I jumped in here.” He gestured with a hoof to a nearby dumpster. “Chrome’s here too.” Upon closer inspection, I saw a silver pony crouched beside the dumpster, looking at me. I think I saw the slightest hint of hostility in her eyes.

The dark alleyway was bathed in red light for a moment as a disk-laser shot past the opening, probably after one of my group members. Were they my friends? They were the closest thing to actual friends I’ve ever had, especially Diz. He seemed to like me and, being a creature of mismatched parts himself, apparently didn’t care about my zebra stripes.

After a momentary cease fire, I peeked around the corner of our little alleyway, looking at the guard robots. They seemed to have forgotten we were here, again staring straight ahead with those soulless eyes. Hmm... they were standing really close together. I bet, if we were able to defeat one of them, the resulting blast would scatter the rest and allow us to isolate and destroy them. Or just run into the tower before they could regroup. They seemed stupid enough for that to work.

I looked behind me. Only Chrome and Forty-Four were here, so I couldn’t exactly tell my whole group to focus fire on just one of them. I was also afraid that my rifle's report would attract a bunch of the guards to us, and I didn't want to fight them inside a narrow corridor. Where were the others?

A brief zephyr brushed the fur on my ears as White Light and his marefriend landed quietly in our alleyway, smiling at us. Right, pegasi. They must have been on the rooftops above us. “Hey, guys,” the brown pegasus greeted. “I see now that the changeling was unable to breach the tower’s doors due to lack of a plan.” He smiled playfully at Forty-Four, who met him with narrowed eyes. “Any ideas? Force?”

I looked around for a moment, stretching my muscles. “Uhm... where are the others?” Mono and Diz. Oh, and Emberwing. What, were they playing inside a dumpster?

I started imagining what they could possibly be doing, but my teenage mind conjured images that were most inappropriate. Ugh, go away hormones. I don’t need you right now.

Unfortunately, Diz poking his head out the dumpster near Chrome didn’t exactly help. “Hey! I was wondering where you all ran off to!” His teeth shined at me. Was he in there this whole time?

“Were you in there this whole time?” Chrome asked, echoing my thoughts. Get out of my head, mare!

Diz stared blankly at her. “No?”

We decided not to question it further. Chrome suddenly picked herself up, trotting to my side at the mouth of our hiding spot. Again her eyes flickered to me for a brief moment, with the slightest subtle hint of a glare. I arched my eyebrows. Was she mad at me? What did I do?

“Sister! Where are you?!” Chrome’s voice rang out across the dusty grey city, echoing down every street and between every building. I cringed at the unnatural volume. How was she shouting so loudly?

After a moment, my eyes widened and my head snapped to the guard robots in front of the tower. They hadn’t moved. Okay, so they were nearsighted and deaf? Works for me. Maybe I should get my rifle...

“Sister!!”

Ow! I covered my ears with my front hooves to calm my throbbing eardrums, lying down on the cement. Seconds later, I heard another voice blast out from somewhere nearby. Focusing, I saw the snow-white form of Mono standing tall behind a fallen steel pillar. She shot towards us, her hooves rapidly striking the pavement as a particular fireball followed her.

Then the entire other half of the street disappeared behind a shining red curtain, buzzing like an extra-loud fluorescent light. Mono kept running as the curtain retracted and reached out again, like a hungry two-dimensional monster.

The curtain sliced inches in front of my nose as Mono rushed past me, followed by a thunderous crash as half of the building composing one wall of this alley collapsed. I backpedaled as hard as I could, knocking over Diz, who wrapped his large hands around my torso.

“Careful now,” he said, placing me aside and standing up. Er, floating... up. “Well, looks like we’re all here!”

Emberwing squawked in approval, spreading one of his wings and sticking his beak into it. Sunfire cleared her throat. “So how are we gonna get in there, mister changeling?” she asked, a tad snidely.

Forty-Four looked at each of us apprehensively. “I... don’t know. Can’t we just blow them all up?”

“I believe a frontal assault is too dangerous. We’re severely outgunned,” White commented, beginning to hover. I resisted the urge to reply with a snide 'You don't say?'

A lightbulb flickered on in my head. “Hey, Chrome.” I turned to the silver mare, who was staring daggers at me. “Can I see that bottle of yellow liquid you picked up?” She levitated it to me without a word, and I popped the cap. It reeked of ozone, like it would vaporize anything it touched. Neat.

I extracted a small bushel of Fireweed from my bag and skinned off the tiny leaves clinging to the string-like branches, filtering them into the bottle. The liquid inside dissolved the leaves, turning a rusty orange. I quickly screwed the cap back on, shaking the bottle a bit.

The glass container starting vibrating in my grip, the liquid inside roiling and evaporating. The bright orange light was almost blinding. It was fascinating. Unfortunately, when cracks started splitting the bottle from the cap down, I knew I had to get rid of it, now.

I sprinted to the mouth of the alleyway, pulling back with my magic before vaulting the small glass bottle as hard as I could. I watched the little orange star soar through the air toward the group of robots, who were contemplating whether to shoot it or not.

It was definitely corrosive acid in that bottle. I just added an ingredient that turned it into a live chemical grenade. I continued to peer around the corner, a smile crawling its way across my face as I awaited the fireworks. I think Diz’s head was just above mine.

There wasn’t a massive explosion. I would need different ingredients for that. But, with a sharp pop, the glass bottle burst just above the group of robots, spraying six or seven of them with bubbling orange liquid. They whirred and whined as the liquid ate through their metal and flesh, partially dissolving them and reducing them to piles of detached matter lying in pools of slag. To be honest, I was a little disappointed. I was hoping for at least one of them to erupt in a mushroom cloud. Sighing, I opened up my rifle and tried to insert the clip of bullets I got from Chrome. They didn’t fit.

Luna damn it!

The ground suddenly shook as one unlucky robot had his circuits melted before the rest of him, presenting me with the mushroom cloud I so desired. I almost let out a whoop as I looked around the corner again, seeing several cyborgs lying on their backs or sides several yards away from their established positions.

I quickly turned to the others, bumping into Diz’s leg. Turns out, he was floating right above me. “Let’s go!” I beckoned to them with a hoof before bolting off towards the now-unguarded entrance to the Evil Tower of Doom.

It was a huge set of double doors, each inscribed with the word “PUSH”. How convenient. Apparently the designer of this place optimized it for user accessibility. Unfortunately, before we reached the doors, one of the robots lying on its side decided it wanted one last shot at us. It began flashing, a familiar thumping noise shaking the ground, before it fired its disk-laser horizontally. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the circle of death reached out from the robot’s hull, slicing everything just above the ground in all directions.

White, Sunfire and Forty-Four were flying, so they were safe. Mono and Chrome’s horns surged with magical power as they disappeared in a wink of light, teleporting somewhere safe. Diz was floating above the ground, so he wouldn’t be hit.

That just left me, on the ground, and I wasn't exactly a World Champion at the high jump.

I was going to die.

I shut my eyes tight, surrendering myself to the glowing horizon rushing towards me.

But then I felt two limbs, one scaley, one furry, lift me into the air. My eyes snapped open just in time to see the solid wall of burning, coarsing energy rush beneath me. I looked up to see a smiling, mismatched face.

“Don’t worry, kid. I gotcha.”

After the laser had receded, Diz set me down, his crimson eyes beaming at me. I quickly checked the toppled robot, but it appeared to have completely shut down. I sighed with relief, looking back at the draconequus. After a moment, I smiled back at him, rearing up on my hind legs to wrap my forelegs around his chest and bury my face into the crook of his neck. He was kinda soft. “Thanks, Diz,” I muttered. He had saved my life. I was some pony-zebra freak; half my blood belonged to the ponies' enemy in the war, but Diz cared enough about me to save my hide when he could have easily left me to my fate.

“No problem, kid,” he said, returning the hug. The way he said ‘kid’, like a term of endearment, the way a big brother would say it... for just a moment, I felt like I had family. With both my parents dead, the warm, soft feeling of family had been absent from my life as of late. Now it was coming back, and I just now realized just how much I missed it.

He released me after a few seconds, and I dropped to all four hooves again. “We should go inside,” I said, my voice having lost its angry edge. I felt... calm, now. I was paranoid before, always on guard, but I felt a lot better now that I had someone I felt I could really trust. Diz had now proved that he cared about me, and that was just the thing I needed.

Mono and Chrome reappeared in a flash of light, slightly woozy. “Awwwghhh... Warn me before you do that next time, Chrome...” Mono mumbled, shaking her head. Chrome just giggled softly.

I began to walk to the double doors, and looking over my shoulder, I saw that my companions were following. Smiling, I pushed one of the doors open with my snout, leading my party through.

The Equestrian Wasteland is cruel, but sometimes you can find good ponies, who really care, to help you through it. Even if they aren’t ponies.

Footnote: Level Up!

New Perk — Scavenger (Chemist): You find more and better items in containers than you normally would. Mostly potions. You like potions, right? Of course you do!

Comments

[Brony Tom]

Hm. I can roll with this. I'm just a little concerned about the specialness of the characters. Anyways, please continue.

[NahB]

1310961

*laughs evilly* I will, thank you.