Fallout Equestria: False Notions

by Chaotic Dreams

Chapter 3: The Hive

FALLOUT: EQUESTRIA - FALSE NOTIONS

CHAPTER THREE - The Hive

* * *

MonoChrome

“Well... if anything, it’s dark,” Mono said as the group entered the area.

All the members of the group agreed. Ahead of them was a long hallway, so dark that they couldn’t make out the end of it. They stood waiting to see if the lights would turn on by themselves. No such luck.

White Light cleared his throat. “Well, we can’t go on in the dark like this. We need to check and see if we can turn the lights on.”

Forty-Four looked at him. “I can see well enough. Perhaps I should go ahead and try to light the place up?” his buzzing voice asked.

“Hold on,” Nuclear Force said. He rummaged through his things, and brought out a bottle containing some teal liquid. Upon closer inspection, one could see ‘Open Your Eyes’ written on a small label. “Could this help?”

Diz frowned. “Couldn’t you unicorns just use some sort of light magic?”

Mono shook her head and stared at the bottle. “No, not in this darkness. It would hardly do anything to make it brighter, and the pony lighting things up would be a target. Nuclear, can I see that?”

Nuclear Force nodded and levitated the bottle over to Mono. His green aura was extinguished as Mono’s silver magic took hold of the bottle. She uncorked it and took a deep whiff. “Okay, seriously, I don’t know what kind of crazy luck you have, Nuclear, but it is amazing. This is Cateye. Helps you see in the dark, and generally improves your vision. Well then. There’s enough here for two ponies to drink this up and be able to see for a couple hours. Two of us can go with Forty-Four here and find the power. I volunteer.”

It was obvious that White Light was going to say something, but as he rose into the air, Nuclear Force’s voice broke in. “I’ll go,” he said. Everyone looked at him in surprise. In fact, he looked kind of surprised himself.

“You sure, Nuke?” Diz asked, looking at the young colt strangely.

“Yeah,” he said with a little more confidence this time. “I’d like to be able to collect ingredients as we go. Place like this might be a wellspring of materials. There’s no telling what we’ll wake up if we turn on the lights, so I want to be able to grab as much as I can.” He looked a bit surprised, as if he didn’t expect to be so convincing.

Diz, however, looked unconvinced. “The power might be behind a locked door. I don’t think any of you are as good with locks as I am.”

Nuclear opened his mouth to respond to that, but felt a restraining hoof on his back. Looking back, he saw Mono with a smile on her face. “I admire your enthusiasm, Nuclear, but Diz is right. We need him with us more than you need those ingredients. There could be countless locked doors between here and the power station. The only reason we can see now is because of Emberwing, and even then, it’s not much. He should stay here with you all while we get things working.”

Frowning, Nuclear Force nodded. “It’s decided then,” Diz said, and grabbed the bottle. Before anything could be said, he downed half the bottle and held it out to the white mare. Smiling, she took it and downed the other half.

“Augh, that tastes terrible. But... woah. Everything is blue. But I can see! Diz, Forty-Four, you ready?” Mono asked.

They both nodded, and moved forward. Mono looked back to the others and waved as she left the Phoenix’s light. “Don’t worry everypony, we’ll be back in a jiffy!”

The group of three moved down the hallway, glancing around. Many of the doors were open, but inside the rooms were empty shelves and broken items. At one point, however, Diz reached in and grabbed what looked like a pile of broken things. Mono looked at him questioningly.

“Scrap metal,” The draconequus said amiably. Mono shook her head, amused at him. She didn’t know much about him, however. Suddenly, she felt a bit concerned that she had just rushed into an unknown place with a Changeling, of all things, and a creature she had only learned about today.

“So. Diz. You said something about looking for a ‘Discord’?” Mono asked as the group moved down the hallway.

“Yep!” he said, waving his arms up in the air. “God of chaos and all that.”

“God of Chaos?” Mono asked, peering into a room. Again, there was nothing inside. Ahead, the hallway they were traversing legged off to the right.

“That’s right. I’m looking for him, so that he can restore this broken land into what it was before you ponies and zebras blew it all up.”

Mono glanced at him, and continued in front of the group. She’d gotten used to the blueness of her vision from the Cateye, and it no longer bothered her. “Oh? And what was that?”

Diz rushed out in front of her, stopping the pony and the changeling. “Imagine; houses floating in the sky, roads of soap, and,” he intoned, peering at the pair. He raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Chocolate. Rain. Oh, and no more of that stupid radiation,” he added.

Mono chuckled, not entirely believing that such a thing was impossible. “Chocolate rain, eh? That I’d like to see. Of course, any world without radiation is okay by me. Stuff gives me the creeps.”

Mono pushed past Diz, who seemed to be daydreaming about said rain. He looked down to find Forty-Four staring at him. “What? Seriously, you changelings have no idea what you’re missing with chocolate milk. And bacon.”

Forty-Four shook his head, and his buzzing voice was heard. “I’ve had both. Food is tasteless to me, and barely helps my hunger.”

“Speaking of, how are you holding up?” Mono asked, turning back to them. “I don’t know a lot about Changelings. If you don’t eat food, what do you eat?”

Forty-Four suddenly looked at the ground, his large, multifaceted eyes seeming forlorn. “I... I thought you knew.”

Mono looked at him, head held at an angle. “Knew what?”

Forty-Four looked at her. “Changelings feed on positive emotions. I’ve been absorbing the emotions radiating off you six in your attempt to help me. I thought you were okay with it,” he explained, his buzzing voice wavering.

Surprised, Mono thought about it a minute before answering. “Well, Forty-Four, we can’t change what we are. Sometimes we may want to, but it’s simply impossible. I can tell you don’t harbor any ill intent. I trust you,” she said, moving towards him. She wrapped a white foreleg around him, catching the changeling in a hug. “Everypony has good in them. I can tell that your good far outweighs your bad. So here, have a big dose of happy.”

Forty-Four only looked at the white mare, astonished that she would be so accepting. Mono caught the look and laughed. “Forty-Four, my sister is always telling me that I trust ponies too easily. Well, I guess I’ve got her here — I’m not trusting a pony. Now come on, let’s get those lights on.” As she turned around, she caught a look from Diz. “What? Not all ponies are bigoted jerks.”

Diz and Forty-Four looked at each other, then at the pony walking away from them. They started forward again, looking around for anything that could possibly turn on the lights. The group hadn’t gone far when they reached a door at the end of the hallway.

“Hope this is it,” Diz said, and then brought himself down towards the door. It was locked, of course. “All the important doors are locked,” he grumbled to himself.

While Diz worked on unlocking the door, Mono and Forty-Four looked around nervously.

“Anypony else wonder why we haven’t seen any robots other than the ones guarding the entrance?” Mono asked.

Forty-Four gave her a strange look. “I would ask you to not tempt fate, please.” Mono only laughed at that.

“Trust me, we’ve never really been on great terms. Fate has a sense of humor, and Chrome and I have been the butt of a few jokes in our lives.”

A snapping sound was heard, and the two heard Diz muttering under his breath, something about poorly made materials.

They lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. The darkness, even though it was somewhat mitigated by their ability to see in the dark, was quite oppressive, and the entire group was hoping they’d find what they were looking for very soon.

Finally, Diz managed to pick the lock. “Got the stupid thing,” he announced, irritation in his voice. The door opened outward, and the three of them moved forward into a large room.

“Looks sort of like an observation area,” Mono said, walking around. Investigating the area turned up a few things. It seems that the room had hardly been scavenged at all.

“I might have found it,” Diz said. Forty-Four and Mono looked at the draconequus, who was pointing at a rectangular box on the wall with yellow and black stripes around it. It had a lever connected to it, which was pointed downwards.

“Well, flip the lever, Diz,” Mono said, wondering why he hadn’t just done it right away.

“It might not be the power. It could, I dunno, alert a thousand killer robots to come to this location and kill us all.”

“Diz, that’s a risk we have to take. If we ignore this stuff, we’ll never get the power back on. ‘Sides, not knowing is the fun part, right?” Mono asked, grinning.

Diz shrugged and a grin appeared on his face as well. “Absolutely! Now that you put it that way...” He reached over and pushed the lever upward. For a moment nothing happened. The group was disappointed... until a loud humming noise was heard. Slowly but surely, the lights above them turned on.

“Augh!” Mono exclaimed, and covered her eyes. “Too bright!”

Forty-Four spoke. “You two let your eyes acclimate. I will retrace my steps and retrieve the others.”

Diz and Mono only nodded, eyes covered.

******

“Well, I guess they found the lights,” Nuclear Force reasoned as the immediate area suddenly brightened.

“Should we stay, or should we wait for them to come get us?” Sunfire asked.

“I think we should stay,” Chrome replied, looking around nervously.

“I agree with Chrome,” White Light intoned. “They’d expect us to be here, and come get us. We go after them, and we could end up somewhere completely different.”

The group of four fell silent as they waited, and even Emberwing was uncharacteristically quiet. Only White Light and Sunfire really knew each other, and Chrome was still suspicious of Nuclear Force.

However, they didn’t have to wait long. After just a few moments, Forty-Four appeared at the end of the hallway. He motioned for the group to move towards him. They complied, with Chrome bringing up the rear.

As they neared the changeling, he spoke. “The other two are ahead, allowing their eyes to become used to the light.” He turned and walked ahead of the group.

White Light nodded. “Sensible. That Cateye is strong stuff, and they took a lot more of it than they needed to.”

Sunfire watched as Nuclear Force poked into every room they passed. “Find anything?” she asked him. He shook his head.

“We looked. All the rooms have been swept clean, except for the one your companions are in,” Forty-Four added, hoping to speed them up.

Nuclear frowned, but stopped looking in the rooms. The group made its way through the hallway, and finally found themselves entering the observation room. Diz and Mono were inside, poking around the room for valuables.

At their entry, Mono glanced over. She gave her sister a smile, and went back to rummaging around. Chrome walked over and hugged Mono to her, glad to be reunited. “You know I hate it when you go off like that, Mono.”

“I know, sister. We’ll be fine.” Mono looked at Chrome. However, the silver mare glanced at the others in their group, suspicion in her eyes. Mono frowned at the action, and moved towards the center of the room.

“Okay, everypony. And non-ponies. I don’t care. I’m getting tired of this, and we’ve hardly been together at all. Listen to me,” she began. The others stopped whatever they were doing in the room and turned towards her. White Light, Sunfire, and Forty-Four had impassive faces. Nuclear Force and Chrome seemed a tad nervous, and Diz floated with an amused expression. Emberwing preened himself.

“We’re not going to have this stupid suspicion. We’ve all proven that nopony here is out to get anypony. So let’s get this done with.” She turned, orienting on Nuclear Force. He shrank under her gaze, and her eyes softened. “We all can see that Nuclear Force is different from normal ponies.” She stomped a hoof down, looking all around. “Who gives a hoot? He’s saved our hides more than once and he’s given freely of himself.” She turned to Forty-Four and pointed. “Forty-Four here is a changeling. Get over it. He ain’t a pony, but he ain’t evil either. He just wants some help, and if he wanted to stab us in our collective back, he could’ve more than once.”

“I think we understand your point well enough, Mono,” White Light interjected. “And you’re right. We’re not going to get anywhere while we watch each other like we’re all going to hurt each other. It’s good to be careful, but we’re all obviously ready to help each other.”

Neither of them had singled a member out, but those accused knew who they were. Chrome looked at Mono, who held a sad smile on her face, and dropped her eyes guiltily. Nuclear Force glanced at Forty-Four and shook his head to get his thoughts together.

Mono and White stared around a while, and the group resumed their various activities. After a short while poking around the room, Mono found a switch.

“Found a switch,” she announced. Her companions moved towards her, and stared at it. It was an innocuous thing, not very notable. Diz very calmly reached over everything in his way and flicked the switch.

“Hey!” Sunfire said, looking at him angrily. “Who knows what-”

She was cut off as a grinding metal sound was heard. The room’s eight occupants looked at the metal wall that fell away to reveal that it was actually, in fact, just a shield behind a wall of glass. They all clambered over to see what it revealed.

At first, it only showed an inky blackness that wasn’t affected at all by the lights in their room. However, after a few moments, several lights switched on on the other side, revealing a huge chamber. The walls were covered in a strange, green material that almost seemed like webbing. Vaguely circular, the room slanted inward and downward. In the middle of the floor stood a large, cubical object.

Forty-Four pointed at it. “That is where my queen is. I can feel it,” he stated. Without waiting for a reply, he moved over to the side of the room and smacked a hoof against a door control. It opened with a hiss as the others turned toward it.

The door opened to reveal a stoic robot with a very active red eye. It swept the area.

Within a few seconds of the door opening, the room’s occupants scattered. The robot, instead of erupting with an energy disc like those outside, opened up a side compartment. A long tube slid out of it, and a swarm of bullets appeared from it. The group took up cover behind various objects in the room, hiding from the barrage of lead.

“On three! Shoot the hell out of it!” Mono yelled. Without waiting for a reply, she began counting, hoping she was loud enough to be heard over the din of the machine gun.

“One!”

She brought out her two pistols, and cocked both. Unused bullets shot out of the openings. She didn’t mind — better safe than sorry.

“Two!”

The robot paused in its firing, likely to cycle its firing mechanism or reload. Mono policed the two rounds and tossed them into her saddlebags.

“Three!”

Mono rose out of her cover and looked at the robot. At her movement, the red eye swept towards her and the barrel of the gun followed. With barely a breath, Mono opened up with her two pistols, and the bullets ripped into the thing. Other sharp reports from the others sounded out, and the robot was pushed back in a hail of gunfire. A hail of bullets flew from where Mono assumed Forty-Four was and smacked right into the robot’s head.

She assumed that the last hit had been a little too much, and it started twitching. She fell back behind cover just in time to hear a loud boom as the thing exploded, sending shrapnel into the room and the hallway from which it had come.

All was quiet for a moment. The first to say something was White Light. “We okay?”

The group looked around. No one had been hurt. They emerged from various areas of cover and gathered in the center of the observation room. “Hey Forty-Four, we might want to be more cautious next time,” Mono said, placing a hoof on his back. He nodded, looking sorry.

“Alright,” White Light started while those who had discharged their weaponry paused to reload. “It’s obvious that the interior of this area is guarded well. We’ve gotta move slowly, and be on the look for the robots. They have different types it seems, so extra caution is needed.”

“We’ll need fighters in front then,” Mono said. “I’m thinking as we move down the hallway, we have Diz and I up front to get into doors and such while on the watch for enemies, and then we have Forty-Four and Nuclear Force in the back... well, watching our backs?”

Diz slapped his knee with a restrained snicker, but otherwise sounded his agreement, as did the others. With that decided, the group moved into their position and began moving into the hallway Forty-Four had revealed, stepping around the charred remains of the robot.

There were less doorways in this hallway, but the rooms were still empty. It was obvious that Nuclear Force was irritated at the lack of usable supplies. However, the end of the current hallway split left and right into another pair of hallways.

“Tell me we aren’t splitting up again,” Sunfire said, annoyed.

“It may be for the best, dear,” White Light responded. “We can cover more ground, and if a group finds a way forward, just wait for the other.”

“It makes sense,” Mono added. “Now, who to go where...”

She looked around at the group. Diz was their best lockpicker, but was there any other who could manipulate locks? She voiced her concern to the group.

Nuclear Force spoke up. “I’m good with fire magic. I could use it to melt through locks,” he suggested. Mono nodded.

They’d have to go with separate groups, something Mono was loathe to do again. She wasn’t blind — contrary to popular opinion, the loudmouthed mare was quite perceptive. It’s WHY she spoke so much — she saw it all, or if not all, a lot of it.

“I suggest Chrome and I go to the left with Nuclear Force. He can burn through the locks. The rest of you can go to the right. First group to find something stops and gets the other one, agreed?” Mono suggested. The group nodded. With that decided, they split up to go different ways.

This time, it was Mono in front, Chrome in the middle and Nuclear Force in the back, though Chrome looked quite put out at having the adolescent behind her. This hallway had far fewer rooms than the last, and all unlocked. They peeked inside each one, disappointed to find each one empty.

However, when they came to a room marked “R&D,” it was a different story. Mono pushed the door open to find that the room it concealed was far larger than the others. It spread out into a large chamber, with a desk in the middle of it and several rooms in the back.

“R&D. Research and development, right?” Mono asked. Chrome walked up beside her and nodded. “Yeah, I remember reading something like that once. I think they made stuff here.”

Nuclear walked away from the pair, investigating a large cabinet at one end of the room. He opened it drawer by drawer, more and more disappointed with each one he opened. The last drawer he opened contained a little bit of material in a square pattern. It seemed plastic, so he grabbed it with his telekinesis. “Found something,” he said, grabbing the twins’ attention.

“What is it?” Chrome asked, watching him carefully. No matter what her sister said, she’d be careful around new ponies. And non-ponies.

“I don’t know. It says ‘ChangeBuck’ on it on the side.” Nuclear responded.

Mono shook her head. “I have no clue, really. Just keep it, and we’ll find out what it is later.”

The trio searched the rest of the room, but found nothing but tables, empty cabinets and broken terminals. They left the room, and were surprised to see a frantic Sunfire flying at them at top speed. “Everypony! We need help. Diz and White are pinned down in a room against two of the robots, and Diz has been shot! Forty-Four is the only thing holding them back,” she alerted them, panting at her pace.

“Let’s go,” Mono said without hesitation, and burst in the direction they had come. Sunfire dropped to the ground and ran beside her, with Nuclear Force and Chrome behind them. They galloped through the hallways, and Mono noted how the lights turned from white to blue as they reached the other group. As they came to a turn, Sunfire stopped them.

“This is where the robots are. There’s a little bit of a hallway, and then a room. They’re behind some tables,” she said, out of breath. Mono nodded, taking it in.

Mono crept forward towards the turn, keeping slow so she wouldn’t accidentally put her head in the line of fire. But how was she going to get a look at them? She thought a moment, and then began to concentrate. As a silvery sheen overtook her horn, the wall in front of her seemed to extend. The pale white wall shot halfway into the hallway beyond, and a very small hole appeared in the wall. Mono moved forward cautiously, and put her eye to the hole, being very careful not to disturb the illusion.

Ahead, in a blue-lit room, stood two of the gun-variety robots. The machines stood stoic, staring at the overturned tables in front of them. On the side of the tables facing Mono, Forty-Four, Diz and White Light crouched out of sight of the killer robots. Forty-Four occasionally raised his beam weapon to take a few blind shots at them. Diz sat against a table, hand to his side where his fur was matted with blood. Behind another table sat a very distraught-looking White Light who stared at Diz, obviously wanting to treat the draconequus.

Mono wracked her brain. How would they get past the robots? “Anypony have any ideas?” she asked the three behind her. They all shook their heads, worried. Annoyed, Mono stomped a hoof down on the ground. She couldn’t get close enough to fill them with bullets, which seemed like the only way to... fill them with bullets...

They were machines. Machines were stupid, Mono knew. Perhaps, if she got them to shoot each other, they’d identify each other as hostiles. If only she could get them to initially do so.

With her eyes widening, she concentrated again. With a grunt at all the exertion and range, a very scared-looking Mono appeared behind the robots. At the image’s appearance, the robots turned, and their firearms aimed at the fake mare. Beginning to sweat now, Mono had the illusion run right in between the robots.

As she had hoped, both opened fire at the thing. As the bullets passed through it, it became too much to maintain the illusion and Mono collapsed in the hallway. She looked up and smiled as she saw the robots tear each other apart, refusing to stop shooting. Forty-Four took the opportunity and fired repeatedly at them. After a short while of bullets slicing through the air, the machines fell to the ground, completely disabled. White Light immediately flew over to Diz and passed him a healing potion, and the draconequus drank it greedily.

“Mono!” Chrome ran to her sister and dropped beside the exhausted mare. “What’s wrong?”

Mono just shook her head, trying to rest a moment. At Chrome’s voice, those in the other room turned towards them and approached. Mono at last spoke when the three had reached them. “I’m not really sure. Normally, an illusion like that would be easy to maintain. But it felt like something was... I don’t know, suppressing me.”

Nuclear Force frowned and turned away. Without warning, a fireball shot from his horn at a wall, dissipating before impact. With a choked gasp, he slumped against a wall. “She’s right,” he said, suddenly very tired-sounding.

Forty-Four frowned at that and looked at the weaponl he had in the air above him. “Telekinesis seems easy enough.”

Chrome, frowning as well, levitated out a bit of scrap metal she had picked up. “The same here.”

Mono looked around a minute, and attempted to stand. She got to her feet, but leaned heavily against her sister. “Maybe that’s the blue lights. Could be suppressing our magic other than basic Telekinesis.”

Forty-Four looked around at them, and then closed his multifaceted eyes. He disappeared in a gush of green flame. After just a small moment, he reappeared as he was before, but fell against a wall.

“Okay, that’s definitely enough testing,” White announced, frowning. “All of you tired won’t do.”

Mono nodded. “Definitely. But, we’re in a magic-suppressing area. Does that mean we’re getting close to the queen?”

“Hopefully,” Diz responded, looking ahead. “I think we should stick together now, and keep going this direction. It seems like the right way.” The others nodded, and rearranged themselves into their original pattern. The blue lights were fairly annoying, and the unicorns of the group glanced upwards occasionally, obviously bothered by them. Mono in particular found that something like that unnerved her - simple lighting could suppress her strongest illusions. She shuddered to think of what might have happened had she not been able to sustain the illusion that killed the robots.

After just a moment of walking, the group found a staircase leading far down.

“This could be it,” Mono said. They all proceeded down the stairs, which switch backed quite a bit, likely to conserve space. As they got closer to the bottom, the blue lights became purple, and Forty-Four’s submachine gun clattered to the ground.

“I can’t even maintain a basic Telekinetic field anymore,” he stated, annoyed. He grabbed the thing in his mouth and proceeded forward. Frowning, Mono drew out a pistol from her saddlebags with her mouth and walked forward, ready to fire at a moment’s notice. Finally, after a few moments, the stairs leveled out. A short walk later, and they found themselves before a great door, twice the size of even Diz’s height.

In the middle of the door was a large circular handle, which seemed to be the only opening mechanism.

“No magic. I think you’re going to have to do the honors, Diz,” White Light said.

“Gladly.” The draconequus floated over to the door and he gripped the sides of the wheel. WIth a grunt, he managed to turn it a bit. He looked back at them, smiled, and flung the now-loose wheel to the side. It spun at an incredible speed, and the door slowly swung outward to reveal the room they had seen from the observation deck above. The light was strange, but they could see everything.

Forty-Four approached the large cube in the middle of the room immediately. It also had the same kind of door-opening mechanism. “Why would they make those?” Chrome asked. “It’s not like anypony could do that alone.”

“Probably as a precaution,” White Light said, flying up to inspect the top of the cube. “Make it so more than one entity had to be present to open it up.”

“Makes sense,” Mono said, staring at the cube. She turned to their changeling companion. “You sure she’s in here?”

He nodded. “I can feel it.” He looked imploringly at Diz, who stared right back at him.

After only a few moments, Diz capitulated. “Alright. All of you, get your guns ready. She might be... hostile, I think.”

Forty-Four’s eyes widened, but said nothing, knowing it might be true. The draconequus dropped to the ground, walked forward, and slowly began opening the cube. A few moments of turning resulted in a soft hissing sound as the seals on it were broken. The group gathered, and those with guns prepared themselves. Diz swung the door open wide, and only blackness could be seen within.

Forty-Four approached, head held low.

“M... my queen?”

For a moment, there was nothing. At first came a clicking sound, and then a loud sigh. From the darkness came a large, towering form. A jagged horn emerged first, followed by a head covered in chitinous armor, which revealed piercing greenish eyes. The rest of the body came out, staring at the group awaiting it.

The changeling queen looked around at the group pointing weapons at her, and squinted.

“Tell me why I shouldn’t kill the lot of you right now,” she intoned. Her voice sounded hoarse, as if she hadn’t spoken in a long while.

Mono looked down at Forty-Four, who seemed to be frozen by indecision. Seeing him unable to act, she dropped her firearm. The noise caused the queen to stare at her. She stepped forward.

“Because we just saved you from whatever that was.”

“Oh?” She asked, narrowing her eyes.

“It is true, my queen,” Forty-Four said.

At hearing his voice, the changeling queen stared at the lesser changeling. “You smell different from my normal children. You are of my emergency clutch, are you not? What is your designation?”

“Forty-Four, mistress.”

“Forty-Four?” She seemed taken aback. “That means it has been around two hundred years since my initial imprisonment. I had not expected you ponies to... is that a draconequus?!”

She appeared to notice Diz for the first time. He bowed in response. She continued. “Ponies associating with a draconequus willingly. As well as a changeling, and what looks to be some sort of zebra mule. What in the world has happened in these years?” At the comments, Diz and Nuclear Force’s demeanors took on elements of anger at her tone.

White Light frowned. “Your majesty, Equestria was destroyed. This is not the world you knew. Balefire bombs... only now, in these last few dozen years has the surface become safe enough to travel without encountering radiation every few feet.”

The changeling looked disturbed. “You ponies would destroy everything. It’s all about you, after all,” she said bitterly. “At war with the zebras? Let’s capture Chrysalis and use her and her children for horrible purposes. Typical,” she spat, narrowing her eyes. Mono snorted.

“That wasn’t us. That was the ponies two hundred years ago. We aren’t them. We’re here to save you, Chrysalis or whoever you are, and you’re being extremely ungrateful to those who could have just let you and Forty-Four here rot,” Mono retorted angrily.

Chrysalis watched the white unicorn for a moment, and then nodded. “You are right. The world has changed, and if you are correct in your descriptions, then perhaps I should be grateful that I wasn’t in there for quite a while longer.”

She looked around at them and frowned. “Thank you,” she said, though it sounded insincere.

Mono shook her head. “Don’t thank us yet. We’re still not out of here. We need to retreat out of Applewood, and the magic dampers in the hallway are going to give us trouble if more robots show up.”

“Robots?” Chrysalis asked.

“Machines in the shape of ponies, with guns and lasers. Generally hostile. We need to go,” Mono replied, picking her gun up again. She turned around and strode towards the exit of the room. Chrysalis watched her go, and the rest of the group turned to walk with her.

“Sister, even I think that perhaps we should help them,” Chrome said, walking next to Mono.

“Mmph mmph,” Mono responded, forgetting momentarily that she couldn’t speak with a weapon in her mouth. She replaced it in her saddlebags. “We did as asked. We helped them. If she’s going to be a bitch about it, then that’s that.”

At her words, a large crash was heard behind them. Turning back, they saw that Chrysalis had fallen to the ground, and was being helped up by Forty-Four. She looked at them sheepishly. “Perhaps... perhaps I need your help. I...” She swallowed, as the statement was obviously unpleasant to her. “Could you please escort myself and my child out of this place?”

Mono smiled and looked at her companions. Looking sunnily at Chrysalis, she nodded. “Sure, your majesty. Glad to help. We’ll go slowly, but there’s some stairs up ahead.”

The group made its way up the stairs slowly, allowing Chrysalis time to do things slowly. As they left the blue-lit rooms, Diz spoke up.

“Um... anyone wonder about how the fact that even though we opened up a big, secure box in the middle of a military facility, nothing has shown up?”

Nuclear Force scowled at the draconequus. “You just had to say something, didn’t you Diz?”

The floating patchwork creature shrugged and drew his pistols. Frowning, Mono copied the gesture now that her TK worked again. Chrysalis looked at the firepower being shown and didn’t say anything, leaning against Forty-Four, who struggled to keep her on her feet.

The group of eight worked its way through the facility and finally reached the front door. “Hold up,” Mono said, and peeked out. All the robots that had been guarding the area previously were either gone or out of commision. To make sure, she projected an illusion of herself into the area. None of them got up to attack it, nor used their weapons from the ground. “Safe,” she said.

The eight of them piled out into the open air. Chrome sighed, glad to be out of the crazy building, and saw that a few of the others might have held the same sentiment.

Mono smiled and opened her mouth to speak.

“Clever.”

All of the whirled to look at the downed robot that had fired at them last. It had spoken.

“I assume you all heard that, too?” Nuclear asked, already knowing the answer, by his tone.

“You fools infiltrate this facility and liberate the very thing your ancestors attempted to seal away. Very clever,” the voice said. It was harsh and impersonal, and was complete monotone.

“Who are you?” Mono asked, staring at the broken robot.

“That is unimportant, taking into account your impending demise. Goodbye, clever ones. Oh, and I thank you for bringing out the last loose end for me. I appreciate the help.”

Ten forms appeared above them, silently flying. They landed in front of the group, and they stared at each other. They all looked vaguely like a changeling, but with noticeable differences. The newcomers had reddish, leathery wings as opposed to the insectoid wings that Forty-Four and Chrysalis had. They also had pinkish, soft-looking spots instead of the holes on the regular changelings’ bodies. Their horns were solid and wicked-looking, a reddish sheen on them making it look as if they were covered in blood. Their reflective red eyes only accentuated the look.

All in all, they exuded ‘deadly’.

“Those... are not my children,” Chrysalis breathed.

Footnote: Level Up! (Mono)
Footnote: Level Up! (Chrome)
(Mono)New Perk — Counselor: You may be a bit naïve, but that doesn’t stop you from trying to make everybody happy. Permanent +1 to charisma.
(Chrome)New Perk — Observer: You’re constantly watching everything and everybody. You take in all information you possibly can before making a decision. Permanent +1 to perception.

Comments

[Deathpony]

good