A changeling, cut off from her Hive and forced to survive in the cruel Wasteland.
A changeling, cut off from her Hive and forced to survive in the cruel Wasteland. How will she cope with being on her own for the first time in her life? With the dangers of a world vastly different than the one she is used to? And is she the only hope for the Wasteland? Probably not in all honesty but she just might have an important part to play.
It is such a simple word, with such a simple meaning.
The absence of sound, stillness.
It is strange to think that out of all the things that could have frightened me when I first awoke that it was such a simple thing that scared me the most.
Silence.
All around me, in my mind, the void where once there had been a constant buzz pressed down on me. Crushing me under all of its weight and implications, of the horrid truth which silence represented. I was alone. For the first time in my life, I was alone. My breathing picked up as I curled into a as tiny a ball as I could, hugging myself as I squeezed my eyes shut and tried desperately with all my might to try and reach someling, anyling!
Silence.
Okay, okay no need to panic. Everyling else is probably still sleeping, I was just the first one awake is all. Forcing my eyes open I had my first look at my surroundings. I was still in my pod from when Queen Chrysalis rushed us to THE QUEEN! My head whipped up as I looked around, my eyes searching wildly for any sign of my Queen. The darkness was pervasive, but to one who had spent their life in darkness it was nothing. My eyes could easily pick out the rows of pods around me, each one containing a changeling. All of this I took in at a glance. However at the moment it wasn’t important and could wait, I needed to get out of my pod and find Queen Chrysalis, make sure she was alright. There had to be some reasonable explanation why I couldn’t hear her or anyling anymore.
First things first, twisting onto my back I raised my hoofs and smashed them against the clear, crystalline covering of my pod. Tiny, spider web cracks spread out from where I struck and continued to grow and expand as I smashed the covering again and again until with a great CRACK! the covering shattered and allowed me to clamber out. Hopping down onto the floor, I was surprised to find that instead of the soft, spongy floor I was expecting my hooves broke through the floor and only a quick application of my wings saved me from a plummet. Hovering above the new hole I looked down, seeing another hallway lined with pods just like the one I was in. Looking around at my own hall I was shocked to see that the walls were dried and broken, crumbling away in some places. What happened here? I asked myself, feeling my fear growing ever more potent as this new fear settled in.
Deciding that it would be safer to remain airborne, I flew down along the hallway, refusing to look into any of the pods for fear of what I might find. The many twists and turns of the winding corridors of the Hive served to settle my nerves a bit, the familiar motions allowing me to focus on flying and navigation rather than anything else. All too soon, I arrived. There before me, were the grand doors that lead to the royal chambers. Queen Chrysalis’s pod. She would know what to do. Slowly descending to the ground I tucked my wings back against my sides as I stared at the door. All I had to do was walk forward, push open the doors and wake her up. Yep, that’s all I had to do. Five minutes passed as I simply stood and stared at her door, willing myself to move forward. But I couldn’t. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t force myself to move those last couple feet and push open that door. I anxiously shifted my weight around on my hooves, chewing on my lip as I tried to convince myself that there was nothing to worry about, that everything was fine. Yet, I couldn’t help but remember those last few frantic minutes from before I went into my pod.
~HURRY MY CHILDREN! INTO YOUR PODS!~ the voice of Queen Chrysalis screamed in my mind, and though she tried to hide it we could all taste the fear in her voice. Something had happened, something bad. The Hive was in a frenzy as Changelings rushed through the halls, trying to get to their pods or getting the young into theirs. ~QUCIKLY! THERE IS NOT MUCH TIME!~ The Queen’s voice cracked through our minds once more, driving us on to even greater speeds. Dodging around a changeling flying in the opposite direction I spotted my pod, diving down I landed in the middle of it. Feeling the soft interior reminded me briefly of my own youth and of time spent in the napping pods and pleasant memories of playing with the other changelings.
~Lay down my child. Sleep and I will wake you once it is safe once more~ Startled out of my memories by the voice, I snapped my head back around and there she was. Queen Chrysalis. Looking as regal as ever, her majestic horn towering above her head and her wings tucked safely against her sides as she looked right at me. AT ME! I was almost shaking with the pure joy of being the center of attention of Queen Chrysalis, even if it was just briefly. She smiled, licking her lips a bit as she stepped up to my pod, gently directing me to lie down which I swiftly complied with. ~What is going on my Queen? ~ I regretted my question instantly as a look of profound sadness appeared on her face and the taste of dandelions flooded my mouth.
~The ponies and zebras have been extremely foolish. We must bid our time and wait until the time is right to once more show ourselves in the world. Now, enough questions. It is time to sleep~ She said as she sealed up my pod. Leaning down and gently kissing the cover she gave me one last smile and then she was gone. Smelling the gases that would help me sleep begin pumping into the pod my last thoughts were of how we would emerge and assert ourselves as the rightful rulers of the planet once the ponies and zebras were finished with each other.
Blinking and shaking my head, I found myself once more in the present and still staring at the door. Letting out a growl I glared at the door, suddenly furious at it. This door would not stand in my way! It would not hinder me in my search for my Queen! Letting out a yell I shot towards the door, at the last possible moment I twisted around and kicked both my back legs at the door, intending to smash it open in a brazen display of bravery.
SMASH!
I suddenly found myself unable to move. Jerking around a bit I twisted my head to see what had happened. Both my hind legs were imbedded in the door. A dark flush heated my cheeks as I was glad there was noling around to witness my embarrassment. Opening my wings I began flapping them as I strained against my wooden captor. I could hear the creaks and groans of the door as it struggled to hold on to its prisoner. However, I proved the stronger in the end as with a final SNAP the wood gave way and released me. Shooting forward a bit I quickly stopped my forward momentum and turned back around to face the door which now had two changeling hoof sized holes in it. Flying back I decided to check if it was locked or not. To my great chagrin, it was not. Note to self, always check doors first.
The door opened slowly with much creaking and squeaking as the little used hinges voiced their protests at the sudden movement. The room was in shambles. Part of the ceiling had collapsed and blocked off the entire right side of the room in rubble. Turning my gaze away from there I could see that the other side of the room held a simple chest and a desk with a mirror on it. I paused as I caught sight of my reflection. I had never seen my own reflection before though in truth I had no real need of it. I looked just like any other changeling in the Hive. I had two gossamer wings, blue pupil-less eyes and a pair of rather impressive upper fangs if I did say so myself. Shaking my head at getting distracted I looked away from the mirror and my reflection to continue my search of the room.
Not seeing her pod I was starting to think that I might have entered the wrong room when I noticed a doorway, cleverly hidden to look just like it was part of the wall. Well, I imagine that it was once cleverly hidden as there was some rubble lying in front of a hole in the wall through which I could see another room beyond.
And in that room I could see it. A single pod, pressed up against the far wall. A pod that was double the size of mine and could only contain one being. My Queen. Taking a deep breath to steady my resurging nerves I slowly walked into the room. Each hoofstep seemed to echo in the small chamber. My eyes remained fixed on the pod, never leaving it as I slowly, oh so slowly advanced on it.
Step.
I was almost there.
Step.
Soon I could wake her up and everything would be fixed.
Step.
I was at the edge of the pod; all I had to do was open it.
My wings slowly opened, extending before ever so slowly flapping. Picking up speed bit by bit they were soon a blur as they began buzzing and lifted me off the floor. Hovering just a few inches off the floor I took a steadying breath before flying up to the obscured crystalline covering. Looking at the blackened crystal I extended my foreleg and began clearing away the soot or whatever it was that was blocking my view of my Queen. ~My Queen? It is time to wake up. Your children need you~ I said, rubbing harder against the cover. Whatever this stuff was it was a pain to get off. Finally, after what seemed an eternity it began to rub off and then without warning a large chunk of it just sloughed off and revealed the clear crystalline behind it.
With a wide, triumphant grin I pressed my face up against the crystal.
I screamed and screamed, unable to tear my eyes away from the horror before them. Being so totally focused on my screaming and horror actually saved me from staring into those lifeless sockets until my own life ended. I had stopped flapping my wings.
Smashing into the ground, the impact forced all the air out of my lungs and silenced my screams. Lying on the ground, I could feel myself start to shake uncontrollably. It couldn’t be true! It just couldn’t!
But as many times as I repeated that denial like a mantra, I couldn’t erase what I had seen. Couldn’t forget it, couldn’t explain it away. Letting out a sob I crawled forward and curled up around the bottom of her pod.
Dead.
My Queen was dead.
My Hive was dead.
Everyling was dead except for me.
Slowly, ever so slowly my lips started to tremble and my eyes filled up with tears. I tried not to, I truly did but in the end it was all for naught and I began to cry. I don’t know how long I lay there, curled up around the pod containing my dead Queen and crying, but by the time my tears had exhausted themselves I could taste my own sorrow, so saturated was the room with it. Sniffling and wiping my nose, I clambered shakily to my hooves. I tried not to taste the air: I had never liked sorrow, and tasting my own and knowing the reason for it was more than I could handle at the moment.
Somehow managing to stumble out of the room,I didn’t make it far before I collapsed in the middle of the outer room. I couldn’t go back in there. I couldn’t look at that pod and see her decayed body, just a skeleton staring back at me with sightless eyes. I couldn’t face that again. I had to get out of here, had to find somewhere to go.
I didn’t know where I was going, or what I was going to do once I got there. All I knew was that I had to get out of this tomb as fast as I could. Forcing myself back onto my hooves, chest hurting from the overwhelming heartbreak and my eyes blurred with tears trying to escape. I made my way along the corridors doing a desperate half flying, half stumbling run out of the Hive and into the outside world. When I did finally emerge, I couldn’t help but start screaming again. The world was dead.
What had once been a luscious valley surrounded by mountains, was now nothing more than a burned and charred wasteland. Well, the mountains were still standing, but the valley and its flowing streams and lush grass with tall majestic trees most certainly weren’t. Looking back on it now I’m very lucky that there wasn’t anything around when I first emerged. as raw and unprepared as I was, I would have been no match for even a bloatfly let alone anything that was truly dangerous. So it was that my first experience with the Equestrian Wasteland was a terrifying one, but not a deadly one. I could see for miles, and all I could see was the desiccated husk of a once vibrant valley. I looked up at the sky, only to be met with an endless expanse of grey clouds. What had happened while I slept? It seemed that I had survived the death of my race but I might soon be joining them.
As if to give proof to my worries my stomach chose that moment to remind me that I hadn’t eaten in...well…however long it had been since I had last eaten. Now, I’ve heard some of the rumors about my kind and our feeding habits. How we can only eat love and have to take the place of a pony to feed off the love directed at them, feasting until we have left nothing of the pony but a withered up husk.
That is completely false.
Ponies can be so superstitious of things they don’t understand; they hear a few orders and make up the most outlandish tales to assuage their fear. Though strangely enough they make up stories that make us even fiercer than we already are, and we’re pretty fierce to begin with.
But there is some truth to the story. Love provides the most nutrition and is by far and away the best tasting. If we do manage to take the place of the pony it’s being directed at then we can in fact feast until there is nothing but a withered husk remaining, but it is rare to do that. After all, it takes a lot of planning and watching to seamlessly take the place of someling, and why would you waste all that time and effort by killing off your meal?
Not only can we eat love, we can also eat sorrow, happiness, elation, joy, anger, grief, et cetera. Any and all emotions across the spectrum are simply a meal for me. I do not have to take the place of a pony to eat them, I can even eat the emotions of other changelings, though doing so is frowned upon unless in the most dire of circumstances.
Believe it or not, but I can also eat berries (I happen to love strawberries), fruit, nuts and even meat. These fangs aren’t just for show. It was a source of amusement for the Hive, how ponies believed that we could only eat one type of thing and only if we took the place of another. If we could only do that, we would have died out long ago from starvation.
Silly ponies.
I was drawn out of my musings by my stomach rumbling again and reminding me that it knew perfectly well what type of foods it could handle and didn’t much care for the superstitions of ponies. Licking my lips I looked around, trying to spot somewhere that I could possibly find some type of sustenance. There didn’t seem to be any type of vegetation around, none living at least.
Spreading my wings, I lifted into a hover, flying down the Hive and not thinking about everything I was leaving behind me. After thirty or so minutes I was forced to conclude that there was nothing edible in the area. I would have to travel farther away to find sustenance, which was both good and bad. Good because it took me away from the tomb my Hive had become, and bad because it took me away from my Hive.
I turned to look back at the blasted remains of my home, of the tomb that now housed everyling I had ever known. I don’t know how long I stood there in my silent vigil, memories flashing randomly through my head. My oldest memory, looking up into the smiling visage of my beautiful Queen as she held me in the Maturation Chamber. Another of me learning how to fly and then of my first transformation, it was into a dark blue earth pony with a teal mane and tail. My favorite disguise, as it were. Of finding my first target, of the fear as we slowly ran out of food as the nearby settlements of ponies moved away, of the grand plans for the Invasion and subsequent horror of failing and being cast far away by the overpowered spell, going out into the world and feasting while the ponies and zebras tore themselves apart, those last terrified moments before falling asleep.
I shook my head. I didn’t need to think about what came next as I had just lived it. The Hive held nothing for me anymore; it was dead and, unless I wanted to join my Queen in her eternal slumber, then I was going to have to seek out food, shelter and find out just what had happened while I had slept. Maybe finding out what year it was would be a good idea as well. That was, of course, depending on if I wasn’t the last living thing in Equestria, and oh my, wasn’t that a cheerful thought? Shaking my head to dismiss these unproductive thoughts I looked around, trying to get my bearings and remember where that little pony town was. It took me longer than I like to admit because everything looked the same and I couldn’t navigate by the sun. Nearly an hour later, and with darkness rapidly, falling I finally found a familiar landmark: a cluster of stones atop a peak. From here I knew that the settlement of Saddleton was an hour’s flight due east of here.
Coming to a rest beside the stone I cast one last look back at the Hive. I didn’t plan on ever returning to that tomb. Turning to face the direction I needed to head in, I spread my wings and flew off, not once looking back.
As I flew, I found myself feeling lost. Not in the sense that I didn’t know where I was going, but in the sense that I didn’t know what to do. Always, there had been the constant drone of thousands of Changelings, talking and sharing information, and behind that, like a pleasant song,was the voice of the Queen. Her voice would cut through the drone, sending out her messages and commands. Now? Now there was silence, with only my own thoughts to fill the void in my mind. I did not like this. I did not like this one bit. It made me feel small, lonely and more than just a little afraid.
It’s hard to describe, even now I have trouble explaining the feeling to others. Ponies don’t understand it, ponies can’t understand it. They have no way to conceive of a Hive mind, of the comfort one gets from knowing that there are thousands all around you, speaking in your mind. You can simply ask a question and the Hive responds, you are instantly comforted when sad, cheered when you succeed, vindicated when angry. When I tell this to ponies, they are horrified. They see such things as a massive invasion of privacy. They ask how I could have put up with never having a private moment to myself, of having to constantly be careful of what I thought lest I be accused of treason or some such thing.
At first, I didn’t understand what they were asking. Why would I be bothered about sharing my thoughts? The Hive was my family and we shared everything. Heh, I didn’t even know what treason was at first. such a concept of betraying the Hive and Queen was so foreign to me I laughed. They can’t understand what it means to be so closely connected, nor does it seem like they want to.
Ugh, I hate explaining this. I never feel like I’m doing a good enough job to get across my point. Suffice it to say, it’s something that I struggle with everyday. But enough of this, back to the matter at hoof.
Coming out of my gloomy thoughts I found that I was nearing the town. Slowing my wings, I descended, landing behind a small hill beyond the line of sight of the town. Crawling forward, I inched my way until I could see the town. My night vision is excellent but I didn’t need it to tell me that there were at least a few living something’s in that town. The lit torches were a pretty good indicator that there was some life left in Equestria other than mine.
The town had seen better days; even before whatever industry had brought the ponies here had started to fail. Most of the buildings were just rubble; a few walls,maybe a door if they were lucky. But I could see that a few looked to have all the right components to be called a proper building. The most prominent being a building on the outskirts of the town with a large crossed wrench and screwdriver above a bay door. The writing below the giant tools proclaimed it as Glitter Dawn’s Repair Shop. Beyond that only one other building had a sign which stated that it was The Barman’s Butt.
I wasn’t really sure what was sold at The Barman’s Butt but I was pretty sure I wanted nothing to do with it. Wasn’t really sure what a Barman was either to be honest and now I had no desire to find out. A breeze gently ruffled my mane and brought with it the scents of ponies and “HURK!” I nearly threw up as the amalgamation of emotions hit me. The taste was beyond awful; I had never tasted such a horrifying mix of sorrow, fear, anger, hatred and depression. I’ve never liked the taste of negative emotions. On their own, each one of those was bad enough. Combine them though?Well, do that and it turns them from unpleasant into a stomach clearing miasma. Which my stomach was currently trying to do as I gave another dry heave, twisting away and clamping a hoof to cover my nose and mouth as I fought desperately to keep from throwing up. There wasn’t a single positive emotion in that town!
I was suddenly not so sure there was life in that town; surely no living creature could produce that level of negative emotion without a single positive one. Just as I was turning to flee the wind shifted and brought a new scent and flavor to me. Honey. I paused, someling down there was happy. My curiosity was piqued, intrigued by this mysterious creature who could be happy in such a den of misery. As I knew of no other pony city around here I made the rather easy choice to head down into town and look for the source of the happiness.
First though, I needed to change my appearance. I didn’t know how whatever was down there would react to me, or even if they would know what I was. It was better to not take that chance. Closing my eyes I pictured my chosen form, a dark blue earth pony with a teal mane and tail. A flash of green flame, and in my place was now a pony of average height and build. I gave myself a once over, doing a few stretches and simple maneuvers to get used to my new body. Satisfied that I would be able to pass for a pony I walked out from behind the hill and made my way down towards the town.
I didn’t want to do it, but since the breeze had stopped I had to breathe through my nose to try and catch the scent of honey again. It was actually easier than I had thought it would be; as soon as I neared Glitter Dawn’s Repair Shop I was nearly overwhelmed by the flood of honey that hit me. Opening my mouth, I sucked it in eagerly, nearly moaning when I felt my stomach being filled with the wonderful food! I’m sure I looked very strange and possibly more than a little creepy, standing outside a store with my mouth opening and closing rapidly, a blissful expression on my face but I didn’t care. I had food! Wonderful delicious food!
“What are you doing?” The unwelcome voice caused me to jump in surprise, whipping my head over to see a light orange mare with a green mane sticking her head out of the doorway to the shop, a puzzled expression on her face.
~I uh, I was just wondering what the town is called?~
I gave her my most convincing smile, hoping she would think that I was new in town and just trying to get my bearings. My smile began to falter a bit when instead of answering she simply continued to stand there and stare at me. “What’s your name? You new in town?”
~My name is Andariel and yes, I am new in town. What’s your name?~ I asked her in return, though I was a little confused as to why she had outright ignored me. My confusion grew when a concerned expression appeared on her face and she stepped out of her shop. “Are you alright? Can you not talk?” Now it was my turn to be confused, what was she talking about? I had been answering her and even asking my own questions! ~Of course I can talk! What kind of silly question is that? Can you hear?~
“Its ok sweetie, I imagine its hard enough being your age and not having your Cutie Mark but not being able to talk? You just come on in here and I’ll get you some food. Won’t even charge you any caps. You look like you need it.”
I had no idea what this crazy pony was talking about, Cutie Marks? Not talking? Caps? I shook my head, lifting a hoof up to rub my face. “I won’t take no for an answer. I insist you join me for some dinner.” I jerked my hoof away, realizing that the pony had taken my expression of exasperation as a decline of her offer of food. ~No no, I’d love to join you for dinner.~ I quickly said, moving to stand next to the strange earth pony. “That’s more like it. I’m Glitter Dawn, by the way.” The mare said, turning and leading the way into her shop. I followed her in and she kicked her door shut.
Inside there was row upon row of shelving units, all stuffed full with all kind of mechanical parts. I didn’t know what half of this stuff was!
“The food is right over here, I was going to make some Sugar Apple Bombs. I’m a repair pony, in case you were wondering. If it can be fixed, and even some stuff that can’t be, I’m the mare to fix it for you.” The strange pony rambled as she bustled about making some Sugar Apple Bombs, whatever those were. ~Wait, how can you fix it if it can’t be fixed?~ I asked, following along and sitting down at the table when she waved a hoof at it.
“Notice that you don’t have any gear with you. You get robbed or something?” she asked, continuing along as though I hadn’t spoken. “Dangerous wandering the Wasteland without any sort of gear, good way to get yourself killed. Don’t worry about it though; I’m sure we can work out something that’ll get you outfitted and get me paid. I’m a fair mare, and I hate to see somepony have more misery heaped on them. Take poor Butterdip, that mare hasn’t been able to find her foal and she’s been missing for three days now.” She let out a heavy sigh, shaking her head sadly as she returned to the table with a box and two bowls. Pouring the contents into the bowl I got my first glimpse of Sugar Apple Bombs, small spherical red colored objects filled the two bowls in quick order.
~Thank you.~ I said, not sure what else to say to the mare and pretty sure that she was going to ignore whatever I said anyway. Sure enough, Glitter Dawn simply ignored me and continued on speaking, though this was stopped periodically as she ate her food. “I sold her some healing potions and a couple rounds of shotgun ammunition, at a discount, but she’s had no luck.” I nodded, bending down to eat my food. It was rather bland, tasted kinda like cardboard. Though with all the honey in the air it made it palatable. I made a note to stay away from Sugar Apple Bombs in the future.
The mare continued to ramble on about various subjects while we both ate, ranging from how well her shop was doing to how much she disliked Serving Cup, who turned out was the proprietor of The Barman’s Butt, which was some kind of drinking establishment. Once we were both done, she collected the bowls and returned them to the kitchen, dumping them onto the counter and placing the food back into a cupboard.
“Hey, do you know how to write?” She suddenly asked, turning back around to look at me. ~Yes, I can write but I can also talk. Since you can’t understand me when I talk I don’t know if you’ll be able to understand what I write.~ I stood up from the table, nodding and looking around for something to write with. My host was already two steps ahead of me as she produced a chalk board and piece of chalk for me. Picking it up in my mouth and grimacing at the taste, I wrote out a single word on the board.
Yes
“Excellent! What’s your name?” She asked, the flavor of marshmallows filled the room at her excitement.
Andariel
“Where do you come from Andariel?”
I paused, the chalk hovering over the board as I thought of an answer that would not give me away. Far away
She smiled at me, I wasn’t sure if she believed me or not but she didn’t ask anymore about where I was from. “What happened to your gear? Were you attacked?”
I wasn’t really sure what she meant by gear and I hadn’t been attacked but I couldn’t rightly say that I had woken up in my Hive and everyling was dead.
Yes
“Oh you poor thing, did they rape you?” She asked gently, a concerned look on her face. I scowled as the taste of marshmallows was replaced by lemons, then quickly shook my head.
No
“Well, thank Celestia for that. Are you a trader? A mercenary? What brings you out this far south?” She asked, settling back on her haunches and looking like she was just getting started with the questions.
Wanderer looking for answers
“What sort of answers? Maybe I can provide some of them.” She said, leaning forward a bit and giving me an encouraging smile. I frowned, as I tried to think of a way to word my questions. After a few seconds it came to me and I began writing.
What happened to the world?
Glitter sat there, an expectant look on her face like she expected me to continue with my question. When I didn’t write anything more she spoke up. “What do you mean? Did something new happen out there?” I tilted my head, unsure now of how to proceed. Maybe a lot more time had passed than I had thought.
Why is the world destroyed?
As she read along as I wrote, Glitter’s eyes grew ever larger. She looked at me, completely stunned at my question. “Did you lose your memory or something? Do those bandits hit you in the head? The world was destroyed by balefire one hundred and fifty years ago!” She exclaimed, her look of shock morphing into one of concern as I began to shake. One hundred and fifty years? I had been asleep for one hundred and fifty years? How is that possible?
“Hey, you ok?”
I shouldn’t have been able to sleep for that long! I shouldn’t have been able to do survive for that long without food! Or water! Though now that I knew how long I had been sleeping for the state of the Hive made more sense. With noling to tend it of course it would start to decay after that long.
“You don’t look so good, maybe you should lie down?”
That would also explain why Queen Chrysalis had been so decayed, after that long she would only be a skeleton.
“Oh no! Please don’t cry!” I dimly felt myself being wrapped up in a hug, though I couldn’t break myself out of my thoughts. Everything was crashing down on me again, only this time it was so much worse because there really wasn’t any chance of things getting better. I don’t know why I suddenly realized it right then but I guess that somewhere in the back of my mind I had held out hope that I would be able to find a solution and fix everything. That I would somehow find a way to bring my Queen and Hive back to life. But after the world had been destroyed by balefire, I didn’t know what that was but it sounded really bad, and one hundred and fifty years had passed I was truly on my own. For some reason my mind kept catching on that number, one hundred and fifty, it kept repeating how nothing could surmount that number. I don’t know why, it wasn’t like I would have been able to save them if only one hundred years had passed, or one forty or even a single day, but I wasn’t exactly thinking rationally.
“It’s going to be ok, I know it doesn’t sound like it right now but it will be, you’ll see.” The distant voice of Glitter broke through, and with slow, jerky motions I turned to look at her. She met my gaze and gave me an encouraging smile. I just stared at her, my lips trembling as I tried to process everything.
“You want a shot of whiskey or something?”
I smiled at her, then without warning I threw up and passed out.
I’m not sure how long I was out, but judging from how I was clean and in a bed I had to guess that at least a little bit of time had passed. Maybe another hundred and fifty years! I let out a quiet sob at that thought. How could so much time have passed? What was I supposed to do now? Seriously, what the absolute fuck was I supposed to do now? It’s not like I could magically restore my Hive and Queen back to life. If there was magic out there that could do that I’m sure the world would look a lot better than it does now.
Okay, so maybe I was being a little overdramatic but I think with everything that had happened to me in such a short amount of time I should be allowed a few overly dramatic moments. I buried my face into the pillow, a few tears escaping as a gentle knock came from the door. Lifting my head up slightly I could just barely see Glitter’s head poking around the door. She gave me a smile when she noticed that I was up and walked fully into the room.
“Hey there, feeling any better?”
I almost nodded, but could I honestly say that after everything that had been dumped on me that I was feeling better?
No. No I could not.
Shaking my head I shoved my face back down into the pillow. ~No, I’m not really feeling any better. What am I supposed to do now? Everything’s gone. The world is blown up. What’s the point? ~
Keeping my face firmly buried in the pillow, I could hear the soft clicks of her hooves as she crossed the room before the bed sagged down with the additional weight of the other pony climbing on. I felt her lay down next to me and a hoof gently begin rubbing circles on my back, a kind voice breaking the silence.
“Hey, it’s going to be okay. I know that it probably doesn’t look like it right now, but things can’t be all bad all the time. Well, except for up in the Hoof but we’re nowhere near that dreadful town, so it’ll get better.” I felt something being pushed softly but insistently into my shoulder. It persisted until I raised my head to see what it was. It was my chalkboard, outlined in a gentle blue glow. “So, you just write down anything you need on that there chalkboard and if it’s within reason I’ll give it to you. No charge.”
I was stunned; to say the least. This pony had already done so much for me and now she was offering to just give me whatever I needed? Judging from what she said next my face must have been quite a sight. “Don’t you be giving me those looks! Not all of us merchants in the Wastes are so heartless as to turn away a pony in need. Now, what do you need?”
Well, the list of what I needed was vast indeed. Most of which I’m pretty sure were beyond Glitter’s ability to give me. So I settled on the most valuable thing I could think of.
Information
“Okay, information on what?”
Everything. The world. What I need to avoid. What I need to survive.
As she read, Glitter’s smile grew bigger and bigger with each word. “Well well well, looks like you and I just might be able to help each other out immensely. You see, it just so happens that I’m writing a very special book. One that will answer all of your questions and more.”
Can I read it?!
Here she got a rather sheepish grin on her face; the overwhelming taste of butter filled the room while she rubbed her mane with a hoof.
“Well, you see the thing is I haven’t really written it yet.” At my flat look she was quick to explain further. “I’m just a merchant, and I’m not really suited for going about and researching all the stuff I would need to in order to properly write the book so ponies don’t get killed. But if I were to have a research assistant, one who knew how to handle themselves, well, I’d be willing to pay them and even outfit them for the trials they would face.” She was giving me a wide hopeful grin. I could see where this was going. I turned the chalk board so it was facing me and she couldn’t see what I was writing. After a few seconds, in which I played up the facial expressions pretending to be deeply pondering my response, I turned it to face her. I had no idea at the time that those four simple words would change my life so very very much. Even if I had, I still would have written them down. Probably.
When do I start?
If I was a sentimental Changeling, I would say that the brightness of her smile rivaled the most glorious sunrise. As I am not a sentimental Changeling, all I will say is that the burst of honey was enough to feed the entire Hive.
“That’s wonderful! I can’t tell you how many ponies have laughed right in my face when I ask them to help me. And I mean that literally, just yesterday a stallion was an inch away from my face and laughing at me. Can you believe that? Well, he wasn’t laughing when I charged him double for the goods he wanted.”
At my surprised look she simply laughed. “What? Just because I’m being nice to somepony who needs my help doesn’t mean I’m a pushover. I know how to take care of myself and I don’t let anypony walk over me.”
I had to admit, I was starting to like this pony.
“Now then, enough talking for one night. You need to get some sleep so you’re well rested for some researching in the morning. So you just lay that head of yours back down on the pillow and get some rest.”
I’m not tired. I want to expl-
Even as I was writing, Glitter was shaking her head. I didn’t even finish before she put a hoof on my chalkboard and pressed it back down.“I know that you’d probably rather explore right now, but even though we’re in town it’s still not safe for you to wander around at night alone and unarmed. That’s just asking for trouble you don’t need. Plus, I’m no medical pony but even I can tell that you’ve taken a lot of stress and the best thing for you is to go and get some sleep. Recharge yourself and be ready to face whatever trials come at you tomorrow.”
I wanted to argue, to tell her that I was no weak and helpless target...but I didn’t. I knew that she said made sense; though I had slept for quite a while, my body still needed more rest to fully recover from the stress it had been through.
Still, I didn’t know how I would be able to sleep as I truly was not tired. I nodded and made a motion for her to relinquish my chalk board, not even bothering trying to talk anymore.
Okay. But I’m not tired.
“Hmm, well I suppose I could use some help in closing everything up for the night.” She said, rubbing a hoof on her chin in thought.
I can help with that.
“Alright, we’ll get everything locked up tight and then it’s off to bed for both of us. We’ve got a lot of work to do in the morning. Getting you outfitted and ready to go is going to take some time.”
Climbing out of the bed, I picked up my chalk board in case I needed to talk to her while we were doing whatever locking up for the night entailed. Glitter waited patiently for me to get ready before turning and leading the way back into her store, which turned out to be downstairs. A brief walk down a flight of stairs had us back on the ground floor, and soon we were locking up for the night. It wasn’t all that complicated;I realized that the dark blue unicorn had simply been humoring me when she said she could use some help.
She had me move some stuff from one of the lower shelves to behind the counter and close it while she locked the door and typed a few things into a computer sitting by her cash register. I was tempted to go see what she was doing but before I got the chance she nodded and stepped away from the keyboard. “Ok, that’ll do it. Now, back to bed with you and I’ll see you in the morning.” She said, shooing me away and back up the stairs.
Where will you sleep?
“I’ve got a comfortable bed down here that I use sometimes when I’m feeling too lazy to walk upstairs.” She said, and though I had my doubts her smile was enough to convince me that she was being genuine, so with a Good night I retreated back to the comfy bed. Laying down, my mind felt like it was going a million miles an hour. Thoughts furiously racing through my head lightning quick, one after another. I was sure that sleep was going to elude me this night.
“Good afternoon sleepy head! I figured that it was about time to wake you and get started on the preparations that we need to get you going!” A way to bright Glitter shouted at me.
~Ugh, how can you be this cheerful? It’s way too early for you to be so happy. ~ I grumbled, rolling over and tossing a hoof over my eyes. I had never been much of a morning changeling and I wasn’t going to start being one now.
“Up up up! Come on, I’ve got lunch ready and then we’ll start on getting you outfitted for your journey.” She said, nudging me in the hips and shoulders to try and get me up and moving. Letting out another groan I knew that resistance was futile and so I allowed myself to be nudged up and onto my hooves. “See? Was that so hard? Now then, the bathroom is down the hall and second door on your left and when you’re ready just come on downstairs.”
~Bluh~ was all I said as I slowly made my way to the indicated room, eyes still half lidded and only half listening to what she was saying. I got the pertinent info, bathroom second left, food downstairs. That’s all I really needed to know. So it was that ten minutes later found me sitting back at the table from last night eating a Fancy Lad Buck Cake and drinking a Sparkle Cola.
“Okay, so first things first. What sort of fighter are you? Do you use weapons? Firearms? Melee? Just your hooves?”
I looked up from my meal, staring at her a bit. She sure could talk fast. What kind of weapons did I use? Well, mostly just my own four hooves and my powerful jaws. I lifted up my right hoof and pointed at my left. I didn’t feel like grabbing the chalk in my mouth while I was eating so that option was out. “Unarmed then, I’ve got a few things that I think you could use. What about armor? Heavy? Light? Medium? None?” She asked, making a note in computer as she talked.
Armor? Well, I’d worn what I’d guess was light armor before. Back before the Long Sleep, (Oh, I’ve decided to call what happened to me the Long Sleep so I don’t have to think so hard on what it means.) I’d impersonated a Guard and worn her armor for a good long while. Unfortunately, I knew of no way to tell her this without picking up the chalk and writing. So, it was with a grimace that I picked up the chalk and quickly wrote out Light before spitting the nasty tasting chalk back out.
Another note was added and there were even a few Hmms thrown in as well. Looking at her, I was suddenly curious about something. Picking up my chalk I wiped away my previous answer and quickly wrote out my question.
Glitter? Do you know what a Changeling is?
I had to hit my hoof on the table to catch her attention as she was busy going through a pile of what looked like armor, or what I assumed was armor. It didn’t look anything like the stuff I had worn so many years ago.
“Hmm? A Changeling? Can’t say that I do. Why?” She asked, stopping her search and turning to face me so she could follow the conversation.
Do you know if anyling else knows?
“Anyling?” She asked, quirking an eyebrow at me. I hadn’t even realized that I used it until she’d pointed it out. Giving her a shrug and smile I simply nodded and acted like it wasn’t weird. “Ok then, as far as I know nopony else knows what one is either. Again, why?”
When I first came to this town, I had been worried about being recognized and run out before I even got the chance to eat. Instead, I learned that the world had changed drastically and that noling really even knew about what I was anymore. So what was the point in hiding what I was?
I heard about them and wanted to know what they were.
I decided at the last minute to not reveal what I was. Just cause she had been nice to me so far was no reason to risk her turning against me. She gave me a look that clearly said she didn’t believe me but after a few seconds shrugged and let it go.
“Well, regardless of that little interlude I think it’s time we started getting you ready.”
The next couple of hours passed in a blur of fittings, refitting, and storytelling, both on her part and mine though my stories were very short and made up, and finding weapons for me. Thankfully, the pony form I was using was the same size as my normal body and I would be able to wear all the armor and weapons she found for me without a problem. Before I knew it we were sitting back at the table, eating dinner and she was regaling me with a tale that involved jam, radroaches and an overly inquisitive radscorpion.
“And that’s how you trick a radscorpion into wiping out a hyper intelligent colony of radroaches for you.”
She finished her tale, wiping a hoof across her muzzle and removing the few crumbs that had managed to find a spot on it. I on the other hoof, sat with my food untouched, staring at her with wide eyes and my jaw hanging open just a bit. That had to be one of the cleverest and devious plans that I had ever heard. The ingenuity, the careful planning and manipulation required. I felt my admiration of this pony rising even more.
“You going to finish that?” She asked, pointing a hoof at my untouched Fancy Cake. Slowly shaking my head I pushed it to her, the poor thing never stood a chance. Within seconds it had been gripped in a magical bond and messily devoured. Her table manners left something to be desired, but it was her house and she was allowed to eat however she liked inside of it.
“So, let’s get down to business, specifically the business of writing my book.” I sat up straight; I was rather eager to get started on this project. Not only would it allow me to pay back Glitter’s overwhelming generosity, and kindness but would also get me valuable experience and knowledge about the world. “It’s not going to be easy, the kind of stuff I want to write about is the stuff that’ll save ponies lives. You still up for this?”
Yes.
“Alright, here’s what I need you to do first. There’s a pack of shadow wolves that have been attacking caravans. I need you to bring me back at least four corpses so I can study them and figure out where their weak spots are. I’ll pay you a bonus if you can bring me back their Alpha. With him out of the way they should move on or disperse and make them easy to mop up. Can you do that?”
What’s a shadow wolf?
She looked at me for awhile and I was starting to worry that I had somehow offended her or something. “Well, I suppose if you’re new to the area you wouldn’t know about them.” She said, taking a swig of her own Sparkle Cola and setting it back down. “A shadow wolf is what happens when a timber wolf is exposed to magical radiation and balefire. They’ve got bodies; it’s just that they blend in real well with the shadows. They’ve all got dark; almost see-through coats that allow them to fade into shadows, hence, shadow wolves.”
I stared at her, my eyebrow raised and even though I thought I had a neutral look on my face I was clearly wrong because Glitter was quick to continue. “Look, I know it sounds crazy and all but magic is as magic does okay? It’s no stranger than half the things in this world now.” She said, and from the look she was giving me I decided to take her word for it. “Now then, since we’ve got you all outfitted I think it’s time we talked about a contract.” My ears perked up at this new revelation, this being the first time such a thing was mentioned.
Oh?
“Yes. As much as I like you I’m not just going to let you run off with my equipment and only your word that you’ll do as you say. I’m not that trusting. So what we’re going to do is write up a contract which will spell out everything that I expect you to do in exchange for goods and equipment. It’ll be a fair agreement, I find it’s bad for business if you screw over your business partner.”
So I get food and such for helping you write the book?
“Yes. You help me research and, in exchange, I’ll give you a discount on my wares and throw in a few special items I’ve accumulated over my career that are just sitting around gathering dust. If you break the contract, I’ll hire a bounty hunter to find you and take back my stuff. Oh, and they’ll probably also kill you as well.”
I blinked, a bit nonplussed at the casual mention that she’d have me killed if I broke the contract. I suppose it made sense, what with her outfitting me in exchange for only my promise that I would help her write her book. A little death threat to make sure I didn’t just scarper off was justified.
So it was that the next several hours were taken up by contract negotiations in which there was much verbal maneuvering and furious chalk scribbling but eventually we came to an agreement that would benefit both of us.
“Okay, I do believe that is everything settled than.”
Indeed.
“I’ll just put this in the safe and it’ll be official.”
She got up from the table and took the signed contract back behind the counter. I could hear the turning of a lock before a door opened and shut and she was walking back to rejoin me. Giving her a smile I reached out for my Sparkle Cola, only for the smile to morph into a frown when I noticed it was empty.
“Sorry, that’s the last of’em. I’ll have to go restock in the morning, need to get some other stuff as well.” She said, mostly to herself I’m sure because she didn’t elaborate on anything else that she needed and I didn’t press her on it. “Well, that’s a task for the morning which is going to be a busy one for the both of us. You need to start on the research and I’ve got shopping to do with Rosedust.” She said, standing and clearing away the trash from our meal and tossing it into the garbage can. “Off to bed, let’s go.” Before I knew it I was once more being herded to the bedroom though this time she refrained from nudging me along.
Good night Glitter.
“Good night Andariel.”
As we said our good nights, I closed the door and collapsed back down onto the bed. It was rather comfy, even if it lacked the comforting closeness of my pod. As I lay there, I pondered on my actions during the day. It had turned out rather well, all things considered. I had made a friend, which I was to later learn was rather hard in this world. I’d gotten my first paying work and equipment. All in all not bad for my second day out in the Equestrian Wasteland.
I let out a yawn, letting my tongue play over my dull pony teeth, missing the sharpness of my fangs as I tried to push the thoughts of what I would be doing in the morning away. So it was that my last conscious thought before the blackness claimed me was a happy curious one.
Morning found me once more being woken up by an overly cheerful Glitter who, from the sound of it, was quite eager to have me begin my assigned task of getting her the four shadow wolf corpses. “Up up up! Time to be getting up! No sleeping in today for you Andariel. Got a lot of work that needs doing, those shadow wolves aren’t going to just waltz into my store and kill themselves now are they?” She asked a huge grin on her face. I didn’t bother answering her, instead choosing to roll off the bed and make my way to the bathroom.
I could hear Glitter making her way downstairs while I finished in the bathroom, and soon after joined her at the table. She pushed a bowl of Sugar Apple Bombs over to me and, though I didn’t particularly care for them nor need them for sustenance, I still needed to keep up appearances and look like I was eating real food. I was certainly getting my fill of happiness this morning; Glitter was practically bursting at the seams with it.
“Alright. So, the last I heard, the wolves have claimed the area north east of here as their territory. I would recommend heading in that direction. Try and stay away from anything that casts a long shadow unless you can help it, no sense in courting trouble before you need to. Now then, you also need to watch out for the Black Maulers. They control most of the land north of here and don’t take kindly to strangers trespassing on their territory. I don’t think that you’ll run into them, but just on the off chance you do, it’s best to just run.”
I cocked my head, picking up my chalkboard and scribbling out a question.
Why hasn’t this gang stopped
The shadow wolves?
“Well, probably cause they haven’t bothered them I would guess. Not like they really care what happens to random ponies wandering the Wastes. But, you probably won’t run into them so you shouldn’t worry about them much. Now, you best be going.” She said, finishing up her breakfast and collecting the dishes from the table. Moving them into the kitchen she dumped them into the sink before turning to face me.
“Take care of yourself out there, I would hate to have to find a new assistant so soon after finding you.” She said a smirk on her face as she opened the door and ushered me outside.
I will see you again soon
As I kill those wolves.
“Good luck and be safe.” She said, giving a wave and then shutting the door. I stood there for a few seconds, staring at the door and gathering my courage for the coming assignment. With a deep breath and firm nod I turned away from the building, striding down the middle of the street into town. From what I could see the road looked like it lead to the north east. Only a dozen steps in I regretted my decision to enter the town. It was just as awful as it had been two nights ago when I first arrived. The stench and horrid taste of the air was almost enough to gag me. I passed several ponies that were just lying on the street and I couldn’t even tell if they were alive or dead. Noling else seemed to care about them, or at least not that I could see.
“Hey there cutie, how much for an hour?”
A pony was suddenly draping a foreleg across my neck, pulling me into them. Letting out a startled hiss I snapped my jaws at whoever had their leg around me, forgetting for a second that I wasn’t in my Changeling body and didn’t have fangs. It had the desired effect though, and with a yelp the pony released me and jumped back. I turned to glare at him, seeing a cream colored earth pony with a shockingly yellow mane and verdant green eyes.
“Whoa, easy there Sweet Cheeks. Save that biting for later, wouldn’t want to give the ponies a free show now would you?” He said with a lecherous grin on his smug face as he advanced again. I scowled at him, baring my teeth and pawing the ground with a fore hoof.
~Back off. ~
He chuckled, not seeming to be impressed by me baring my teeth. “This is going to be a lot better for you if you don’t fight me so just be a good filly and come with m-OOF!” He hadn’t been very impressed by me baring my teeth but from the way his head snapped back and launched him into a flip he was impressed by my leg. He landed on the ground flat on his back and didn’t move. I waited a few seconds before examining the Power Hoof that Glitter had given me.
I rather liked it.
Placing my hoof back down on the ground, I looked around to see if anyling was going to come after me for attacking that pony. Noling was even looking my way, they didn’t seem to care. Shaking my head, I tried to breathe as little as possible as I made my way out of town and into the wastes. Things sure had changed if ponies didn’t even care enough about each other to at least ask what had happened when one knocked another out.
Now then, which way to go? I wished that I had some way to determine direction; the sun was hidden behind a vast blanket of clouds. Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen the sun at all since I had woke up. Cursing softly, I looked around for any landmark that might still be left over from the time I remember.
Nothing.
Cursing louder I decided that standing around wasn’t going to help me at all and that I might as well pick a direction and head that way. Turning to my left, I began to trot in that direction. I could just see a line of hills at the edge of the horizon and figured that was as good a destination as any. As I walked I let my mind wander, going back to the before time when everything, while not easy, had been simpler.
THUNK!
I paused, looking around a bit. What was that? I took a step forward. THUNK! Right behind me! I whirled around, teeth bared and hoof cocked back ready to smash whatever was behind me. Nothi-OW!
I jerked in surprise, a sharp pain welling up from my flank as something hard and sharp smashed into it. I looked in the direction I assumed whatever had hit me had come from and saw the most bizarre thing I had ever seen in my life. It looked like someling had taken a parasprite and made it grow to monstrous proportions. My jaw dropped open as I stared, how could something like this exi-OH JEEZE! I dodged out of the way of another whatever those things were, completely grossed out as I saw it come flying out of its butt. Was it throwing its poop at me?!
I had no more time to think about it as it started launching disgusting things at me again. I refused to think about what it might be. Running forward I dodged and weaved, making sure to keep a close eye on its bottom as it pulled it back right before an attack.
Pull back….dodge!
Pull back…..weave!
Pull back…..sli-WHAP!
~STOP IT! ~
Finally closing in on the stupid thing I swung my hoof at it, only to scowl as it ducked under my punch and hit me again. Letting out a growl I launched a jab with my left hoof while holding my right back and ready to strike. It did exactly what I hoped it would, dropping down and to the right to avoid the punch and put itself perfectly in position to get hit with an uppercut from my right power hoofed foreleg.
CRUNCH!
I hit the disgusting creature square in the middle of its body. I hit it so hard it surprised even me as the wings and legs were blasted off of it and the body went sailing a good twenty feet before landing.
Breathing a bit heavily I looked down and saw something sticking out of my armor, whatever it was that it had thrown at me. I knocked it away with a hoof; it didn’t look like crap, thankfully enough. It kinda looked like………GROSS! I frantically wiped my hoof off and smashed the larvae! That thing had been shooting babies at me! What kind of sick place was this?!
I checked myself thoroughly for anymore of the disgusting things on me. After a good ten minutes I determined that there were no more and that I should be safe. Shuddering at the thought of what might have happened if that thing had beaten me I resolved to pay more attention and not get lost in thought anymore.
Going a bit slower and making sure to constantly check my surroundings I resumed my journey to the hills in the distance. It took nearly three hours, three uneventful hours in which no weird disgusting creatures tried to shoot babies at me, to reach the hills. I didn’t know if this was the territory of the shadow wolves or the Black Maulers but I’d explore it a bit and see what I could find.
The hills weren’t much to look at, now that I was close enough to really see them. There was no grass growing on them, no bushes or weeds or trees. Just blasted out holes and a few charred husks of a couple of stumps.
Wandering around on a hill I came across a bag, just lying in the middle of nowhere. Curious, I walked up to it to examine it a bit closer. It wasn’t until I had gotten closer that I noticed there was a skeleton curled up on the other side. Pausing, I looked at the skeleton for a while, wondering who it had been and why they had been out here all alone when the world ended.
~Chrysalis keep you. ~
I murmured a brief prayer for the dead pony. I don’t know if they would have appreciated me doing so but I like to think that they did. Opening the bag I rummaged around in it, finding rusted cans and nothing really of value. Tossing the bag aside I noticed that there was some kind of weird rectangle looking thing by the skeleton’s hoof. Frowning a bit I picked it up, I knew what this was. I had seen them before we had withdrawn to The Hive. It was a pony invention, something they had made to do something. Wracking my brain I tried to recall just what the purpose of the thing had been. After a few seconds I let out an irritated huff. I just couldn’t remember.
Still, it might come to me later so I stuffed the thing into a pouch on my saddlebag and after skirting around the bones I continued on my journey.
I had just crested a hill when I heard a skittering coming from further down the hill. Crouching down behind a tree trunk I waited a few seconds to see if whatever was causing the noise would come near me. The skittering continued but didn’t sound like it was coming any closer. Slowly leaning out of my cover I tried to spot whatever it was that was making the noise. It took me a few seconds before I spotted it. It was MASSIVE! A large grey scorpion was walking back and forth at the bottom of the hill. It had to have been at least fifteen feet long and six feet tall! Why was every bug so big?!
My eyes widened as I got a good look at the pincers and wicked looking tail. Those looked like they could kill me in an instant! Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor I slowly edged my way back behind the hill. Waiting to see if the creature would come after me, I let out a relieved sigh when it didn’t. I had no intention of fighting such a monstrosity and turned to my left to continue that way.
I had soon put plenty of distance between myself and Gigantor the Death Scorpion. How could something that large exist? It just didn’t seem physically possible. And why had it just been walking back and forth? Seemed a little odd but if it had kept it busy and not trying to eat me I was okay with that.
Coming across a secluded little area I found a nice rock to sit down on and have some food. I pulled out one of the Fancy Lad Buck Cakes that Glitter had given me and unwrapped it. Taking a bite I looked around at my surroundings, making sure nothing was sneaking up on me. I took my time with the Buck Cake, it was rather tasty. However, I had soon finished it. Tossing aside the wrapper I pushed myself back onto my hooves. It was then that I noticed that I was still in my pony form. While it had been useful in town I figured that my true form would be better suited to surviving out here. Hopefully other predators would not attack me if they knew I was a threat as well.
Closing my eyes I pictured my real self and in a flash of green fire I was myself once more. Licking my lips, I let my tongue trail along my fangs, snapping them closed with an audible CLACK!
Now this was better! I stretched out a bit, popping my neck and giving myself a good shake. I was now ready to face this world and everything it had to throw at me! I took a step forward and the ground promptly collapsed underneath me. With a startled scream I tried to fly but realized that the saddlebags had my wings pinned to my sides. I plunged into the darkness, having only a few seconds of heart stopping terror before I landed with a ~UGH! ~ I laid there for a few minutes, just shaking and trying to get my heart rate back down into a normal limit.
~So, no more arrogantly thinking that I’m ready for anything. Message received loud and clear world. ~ I groaned, pushing myself back onto my hooves and looking around at where I had landed. I had to admit it was rather unspectacular, just normal looking tunnels that lead off lower into the hill one way and up further the other. Taking a few minutes I adjusted my saddlebags so that it was no longer impeding my ability to fly. Deciding that I might as well explore while I was down here I headed off down the way that lead deeper into the ground, the darkness not a problem at all for me.
The tunnel continued on for maybe a quarter mile, a few twists and turns but nothing really exciting to speak of. Then I noticed a glow that was slowly getting brighter as I walked. I slowed down; crouching as I cautiously peeked around the bend where the light was coming from.
I don’t really know what I had been expecting, but two rows of lights leading towards a massive metal door with the numbers “39” written on it was not it. Not spotting any dangers I carefully made my way forward to examine the door. There was some kind of console next to it, though I couldn’t really make heads or tails of it. The door itself didn’t look like I could budge, it even if I had everyling in the Swarm to help. Giving up that option, I began looking at the console again, maybe I could somehow figure out how to open the door using this?
Sitting down in front of it, I saw that there was no writing on it.
Just a bunch of buttons.
Shrugging, I decided to just start pressing all of them and see what happened. I started with the large green one.
Nothing.
So I moved on to the red one.
Nada.
The yellow one?
Zilch.
Black one.
Negative.
Getting a little frustrated I began pressing the buttons more rapidly. I might as well have tried licking my way through the door for all the good it did me. Having exhausted the supply of buttons before me I regained my hooves and turned around. Giving the console a mighty buck I was all set to go back up the tunnel and leave this place when a loud alarm started ringing and a yellow light started flashing. Startled, I flared my wings up and bared my fangs in an instinctive move to make myself more threatening.
Then, with an almighty SCREECH and a hiss of steam the door moved back and slid away to the left to reveal another room behind it.
To be honest, I was a little bit disappointed with the revealed room. There I was, wings flared out and fangs bared, ready to scare the hide off anything that was waiting for me and instead what do I get? A room with a few pillars, another console and a closed doorway. Though, thankfully the door wasn’t as sturdy looking as the one out here. I stood there for several more seconds before deciding that there wasn’t going to be anything attacking me from that area. Letting my wings fold back up I closed my mouth and walked into 39.
The thing that first struck me as I wandered around the small area was just how clean this place was. I know I had only seen a little bit of this new world but from what I’d seen so far of it clean was a four letter word. Well, I suppose Glitter’s store had been relatively clean. So I guess everywhere except for her shop was a filthy, dirty mess.
Having exhausted my search of the small room I decided to see what lay beyond the closed door. Walking up to it I could see that there was a wheel instead of a doorknob. ~Hmm, so those ponies finally figured out that it’s easier to turn a wheel then a doorknob.~ I shook my head, remembering the times I’d been impersonating an earth pony and had to use my mouth to open doors. It could get...messy.
Reaching up, I hooked a foreleg though one of the spokes in the wheel and gave it a turn. To my surprise, it spun easily and then started to spin on its own. I jerked my hoof back and watched as it picked up speed before stopping abruptly. A single eyebrow rose up but before I could do anything more than that the wheel vanished and the door sunk down into the ground.
~The hay was that? ~
I cautiously put my hoof over the door, half afraid it was going to suddenly shoot back upward and crush me to death. I kept my hoof there for a good minute before I determined that it was safe enough to cross. I lowered my leg and then darted as fast as I could over the doorway.
No sense in taking chances.
Beyond was a rather bland hallway, though written on the walls was the rather happy looking message Welcome to Stable 39!
Scrawled underneath that, however, was the less happy message: Your Grave!
I cocked my head to the side, wondering if the exclamation mark made it happy or just a bit overly dramatic. Hmm, definitely overly dramatic.
Turning around I let out a startled scream, leaping backwards and hitting the Stable wall. There was a pony! Only this pony most certainly shouldn’t be walking around! There was a massive hole in her chest and I could see her insides. The dead pony simply stood there, staring at me before it opened its maw wide, showing me its rotted teeth and tongue. Without warning it lunged at me!
I gave another scream, whipping up my Power Hoof and trying to punch it away from me. However, just before I connected the pony vanished! Breathing heavily, I scanned the area frantically. Where could it have gone?! There was only this hallway and the door I had come from. Speaking of the door, it suddenly sounded like a very good idea to be heading back there and getting the hell out of here!
Just as the thought crossed my mind I heard a tremendous SCREECH! back from where I had come from. ~Shit! ~ Turning back I ran as fast as I could, but it still wasn’t fast enough. I got back there just in time to see the door slide back into place, locking me inside.
~Double shit. ~
I ran up to the console, giving it a buck like I had the one outside.
Nothing.
I kicked it a few more times, just to be sure. Then I started pressing all the buttons again, mixing that up with kicking the console.
A big fat load of nothing.
~Triple shit. ~
Things were suddenly looking a lot less bright for me and a lot more like I was going to be killed by some dead pony. That was even stranger than having some bloated monstrosity of a parasprite shooting babies at me. Taking a deep, bracing breath I turned back to the door. There was nothing for it. I could either stay here and slowly starve to death with no guarantee that the dead pony couldn’t get me in here, or I could take my chances with finding some way to kill the thing again in the Stable.
Oh joy.
When I put it like that, there wasn’t really any choice now was there? So, with a popping of the neck and a growl I bravely made my way back into the hallway. Alright alright, so I maybe sort of kinda crawled on my belly and peeked around the corner to see if it was still out there.
Nothing, the only thing I could see was the now much less friendly signs and the hallway with a set of stairs leading further down and into the Stable. Not even a peep, or for that matter any sound at all. Actually, now that I thought about it the only sounds I had heard so far had been the door opening and closing and my own hoofsteps. It was...rather odd.
But, the lack of sound was the least of my worries. Slowly standing up, I very carefully made my way down the hallway on to the top of the stairs. I checked behind me to make sure the Death Pony hadn’t snuck up on me again. No sign of it. Good. Taking the stairs one at a time it took me nearly five minutes to reach the bottom. There were only fifteen steps.
Still, I would rather spend five minutes cautiously staying alive then a few seconds of carelessness and end up dead. There wasn’t much at the bottom, just another hallway leading further and further into this place. I slunk along near the floor, stopping at every noise, real or imaginary until I reached the doorway. Through it I could see some sort of atrium, with a walkway running along the middle of the room, splitting it into an upper and lower part.
I didn’t see anything suspicious, just another remarkably clean room. Creeping along the top portion, I stuck close to the wall. Passing under several windows, I checked in them but it was too dark to see anything inside. I’d have to find the doors for them if I wanted to know what mysteries they contained.
It was as I was passing beneath a window that it happened again. I looked behind me to make sure I wasn’t being followed, when a flash of movement out of the bottom of my eye caught my attention. Looking down, I watched in horror as a pink fez slowly rose out of the floor. The fez was quickly followed by a horn and a cyan colored mane. Then the head rose up, soot grey in color and with big thick glasses that hid the eyes from me. I watched, unable to move as the apparition, who I could now see was a mare, fully rose out of the floor. We stood there, me staring at her and her staring at me. Well, I think staring at me. With those glasses she could very well have been staring at the ceiling or something behind me or even had her eyes closed. Then, she slowly opened her mouth again.
This time however, I was able to react in time. I swung my power hoof at the side of her head, intending to smash it in between my weapon and the window. That plan went right out the window when my hoof simply passed right through her head and continued on into the window. I did end up smashing the window though, so I guess the plan worked a little. Laughter bubbled up from the mare, or at least I think it did. It seemed to be coming from everywhere. All around me at once.
Then, the mare simply vanished once more. She didn’t drop back into the ground or through a wall it was like someling had thrown a switch. One second she’s there, the next gone. I nervously licked my lips, looking around for her. What was going on here? Who was this mare and why did she seem to like scaring me so much?
I looked into the room whose window I had smashed, it looked to be a classroom of some kind. There were a few desks and a chalkboard on the eastern wall. A teacher’s desk sat in front of and to the left of the chalkboard but other than that I didn’t really see anything worth investigating. Looking back I screamed as the Death Mare leaped at me with her mouth wide open!
Leaping backwards my back legs caught on the window ledge and sent me toppling over and onto the floor which was covered in broken glass. I scrambled backwards, not stopping until my back hit the teacher’s desk. I pressed myself against the cold wood, panting and staring with wide eyes at the window. Expecting at any moment to see that horrible visage again, to finally feel those dull teeth sink into my flesh.
I don’t know how long I sat there, panting and staring but eventually my heart rate slowed and my breathing evened out. I was seriously starting to dislike that pony.
I regained my hooves, moving to place the desk between me and the window. Not that I thought it would really do me much good if she came back, but it was at least something. I started to go through the desk, anything to take my mind off of the creature out there. Rifling through the drawers, I came up with a distinct lack of anything interesting. A clipboard, a pencil and three sheets of paper were all that the desk contained. Deciding to leave the garbage there rather than weigh myself down with unnecessary clutter, I examined the rest of the desks, once again coming up with nothing.
Shaking my head, I had to question what I really thought I would find poking around in an old school room. Walking over to the door, I checked through the window for the Death Mare. I didn’t see her but, as I had already experienced, that didn’t exactly count for much when she could just appear behind me without any warning.
Now, at this point the obvious thing that would happen would be I turned around and sure enough there she was, all set to gobble me up. But, in a stunning stroke of genius I in fact did not turn around and instead bolted out of the door like my tail was on fire! Take that Death Mare!
I found myself in another hallway, with the door I had just run out of and two more along the same wall. So, with no better plan, I decided to search the two rooms and discovered that they were identical to the first one. They even had the same garbage in them. Whoever built this place or lived here sure didn’t have much imagination.
Bolting back out of the room, I ran to the stairs before launching myself into the air and flying down them. No sense in running down stairs and tempting fate. Reaching the bottom I landed and walked into the lower part of the atrium I had just been at the top of. There wasn’t really anything down here, just a table with some bits on it. Finally! Something worth taking in this stupid place.
Sliding the bits into one of my saddlebags I made sure it was securely strapped down, I didn’t want to lose the first valuable thing I’d found in here. Well, hopefully valuable thing I’d found in here. For all I knew they could use something ridiculously stupid for money. Like bottle caps. I snorted at the idea, there’s no way that anyling would be so stupid as to use bottle caps for money.
Anyways, I couldn’t allow myself to be distracted! There was some kind of zombie ghost pony who seemed intent on sneaking up on me and scaring me half to death and/or possibly eating my brains.
Speaking of the Death Mare, I took off running again, heading towards a doorway that I could see on the far end of the south side of the room. My strategy of avoiding her paid off as she didn’t show up to try anything. I found myself in another hallway with no doors and a set of stairs leading further down into the Stable. Since down was as good as any direction, I lifted back up into the air and flew down the stairs.
I stayed in the air, the soft buzzing of my wings breaking up the utter silence of the place which I was finding to be rather disconcerting the longer I spent here. The only other place I had been that had been this absolutely silent was my Hi-not thinking about that! Determinately not thinking about that I turned into the first doorway I came across. Inside was a rather plain looking room which consisted of a bed, a small dresser with a lamp on it and a dresser on the opposite wall.
Rummaging around in the dresser turned up another of those rectangular thingies, whatever they were called. Why can’t I remember what these stupid things are called? Shrugging, I slipped the thingy into the pouch where the other one was and continued on with my search of the room which was as productive as my search of the two class rooms upstairs. Continuing with my strategy of not looking behind me I bolted out of the room and straight into the one across the hall.
It was exactly the same as the other one, even down to what color the blanket on the bed was. It was…….comforting. The similarity, how it was exactly the same from room to room, made me feel at home, almost safe I guess. But I didn’t let that feeling distract me from the very real danger of having a zombie pony bite my face off. I still needed to find some way to kill or even wound it so I turned my focus back to searching the room.
The dresser revealed a set of empty drawers and nothing on top or below it so I walked over to the desk to check it out. Just a single lamp and not a thing of interest. I was about to run back out the door when a slip of paper half hidden underneath the bed caught my eye.
~Hello. What are you doing down there?~
I bent down, picking up the piece of paper in my mouth and putting on the bed so I could see what it was. It looked to be some kind of diary page. Leastways, that’s the only thing I could think of that it might be. It was torn and half the page was missing but the part I could read seemed to be a pony’s thoughts.
-Day 16-
I still can’t believe it. They blew it up. Those damn maniacs! They blew it up! Damn them! Luna damn them all to Tartarus! At least I’m alive. Made it to the Stable in time, though there’s only one other pony here with me. Ricochet. She seems nice, if a little strange. I don’t know if she’s always been like that or if it’s a result of surviving the end of the world. At least we’ve got plenty of food and water, looks like this Stable was designed for a lot more ponies than just the two of us.
Guess the others didn’t make it in time.
Bah, I’m going to go eat something.
Day 35
It’s been awhile since I
I assumed that the rest of the sentence said wrote in here but as that was part of the page which had been ripped off I could only guess at it. Checking under the bed revealed there were no more pages, or the ripped off part. So, with nothing else to explore in this room, I took a deep breath and ran out the door into the adjacent room. Once more I was safe. Searching this room and the rest on this level was actually rather dull, the Death Mare didn’t show up again and I didn’t find anything really of interest until the last room.
It was arranged just like the rest and I wasn’t really paying attention to what I was doing. As I was turning around from searching the dresser my hoof caught on the edge of it and sent me tumbling to the floor.
~Ouch! ~
I looked back to see what I had tripped on, I couldn’t really see any-what is that?
There was some kind of weird orb type thingy stuck in one of the holes in my leg. Where did that come from? Sitting up I examined it closely, twisting my leg this way and that to try and figure out what it was and where it had come from. After several minutes I had determined that it was an orb thingy and had come out of nowhere to lodge itself in my leg.
Reaching out my hoof I tried to pop it back out but the thing was refusing to come out. I tried licking it to try and loosen it up before pushing it out. No result. Well, I guess that’s not strictly true. Now I had a wet orb stuck in my wet leg so I guess I did achieve something. Sighing I stood up, giving my leg one last shake to try and dislodge it. Nothing doing. I headed for the door when it happened. Death Mare dropped down from the ceiling, only this time she was screaming!
It sounded terrible! Like a thousand tortured souls were all crying out at once, all around me. I clapped my hooves to my ears, futilely trying to block out the sounds. Launching myself into the air, I flew as fast as I could above her and then out the door. Darting down the stairs I didn’t stop until I was sure I had lost her. Then I spent ten minutes more waiting to see if she would show up. I was really starting to get sick of her popping out of nowhere like a daisy out of snow.
Once I was sure that she wasn’t going to appear again I took a moment to actually look around and see where I had ended up. There were a lot of machines with consoles and flashing lights, buttons and all manner of things that I’m sure did something but I had no idea what. Though if I was forced to guess, I would say that they were used to help keep this place going but they could have just as easily been for decoration only. Cautiously making my way out of the room I checked to see if DM was wandering around down here.
Nope.
I ventured out, slowly moving and making sure that I made as little noise as possible. The next twenty minutes passed in an uneventful state of hyper alertness, with me finding nothing of interest or anything to help me kill the DM. Just when I was about to give up and take my chances back upstairs I stumbled, and I’m sad to say that I mean that literally, over a desk that had been laying on its side around a corner.
~OOF! ~
I cried out as I landed rather heavily and awkward on the other side, laying there I waited for my heart to slow down to a normal level. Something caught my eye, taped to the underside of the desk was a piece of paper. Twisting around so I could read it, I was surprised by what it had to say.
He’s lost it.
I know he has, he tries to hide it but I can see it in his eyes. The way he stares at me when he thinks I’m not looking, how he’s always mumbling and writing or recording his memories. I have to get out of this place, but I know that if I do I will surely die. But if I stay here I fear that my fate will be even worse than if I died of radiation sickness. All I know is that I have to find some way to protect myself, Stable Tec had to have left some kind of weapons for us to use in case things are still bad when we leave.
I’m going look for an armory tomorrow.
Ricochet
Ricochet. Was that the name of the dead mare? Had she failed to find something to defend herself with? Or had whoever had shared this place with her killed her before she had a chance to? I reached up and gently pried the paper off the desk, rereading it before sighing and slipping it into a pouch on my saddle. I couldn’t do anything about it now, she and whoever killed her were long dead and I had to focus on finding a way to kill her again.
Pushing myself up onto my hooves I took a few seconds to compose myself before continuing on down the hall. Soon I came across a door that had a terminal next to it. Trying the door first to see if it was locked I was not shocked at all to discover that it was. I suppose that would have been too easy.
Deciding to try my luck at the terminal I reared back onto my hind legs and looked at the screen for a few seconds before hitting one of the keys. To my surprise, it actually did something! It took me to a password prompt screen.
Right. I could do this. I was a smart Changeling, surely this would pose no problem for me.
After forty minutes I was forced to conclude that this might actually pose a problem for me. The stupid thing had resisted all my efforts at guessing the password, and the worst part was that whenever I backed out so I didn’t get locked out the stupid thing changed all the words so I couldn’t even narrow it down that way!
It was as I was going through the list for what had to be the thousandth time that I accidentally rolled the selector thingy over a series of meaningless jumble but, instead of lighting up just the one symbol, a whole section of them lit up.
~Eh? ~
I scrolled it back and forth, watching as it lit up again and again. It wasn’t letters so I didn’t think it was the password, but it was highlighting like it was. Curious, and out of maybe a bit more than a little frustration, I clicked on it to see what would happen.
Dud Removed
What.
The.
Fuck?!
No, seriously. What the fuck is that? I could feel my teeth grinding together and I really really wanted to put my Power Hoof through the computer. Is this thing seriously telling me that I had a way to remove fake passwords the whole time?!
~FUCK YOU COMPUTER THINGY! ~
Oh I was so mad! Angrily sending the cursor over every single row, I found all the little cheaty cheat lines and removed all but two of the passwords. It had also replenished my allowance for attempts.
Glaring at the two options left and with four tries I selected VIRTUE and promptly got PASSWORD INCORRECT THREE ATTEMPTS REMAINING.
Well, at least I knew what the password was now; I selected PRIORITY and it was with a mixture of relief and rage I finally saw PASSWORD CORRECT scroll by and then a new screen open up. There was only one option and if I hadn’t been so happy to finally see something else on the screen I probably would have felt cheated by that.
OPEN DOOR
Gleefully selecting that option I stepped back to watch the wheel spin on the door before it split in two and slid up into the ceiling and down into the floor. A single hallway extended for roughly a hundred feet before coming to a set of stairs. Darting across the doorway so it didn’t suddenly close and squish me I made my way down the hallway, wary for the DM to show back up. She hadn’t in the entire time I had been messing with the computer and it was starting to freak me out a bit.
Slowing to a halt at the bottom of the stairs I looked up to see that they dead ended at the ceiling. An eyebrow quirked up at this bizarre design, what kind of builder would put in stairs to nowhere? I walked up them and pushed against the ceiling to no avail, it was solid and there was no way I was going to get it to budge.
Heaving a sigh, I knew that now I really did have no choice but to go back upstairs and take my chances with DM. Dragging my hooves down the stairs I only barely out of the corner of my eye see a light switch on the wall. That was odd. Odd enough that it made me stop and examine it, this was the first one that I’d come across, as far as I could tell everything in this place was automated.
Reaching up a hoof I hesitated for a few seconds before deciding that there was no harm in seeing what it could do, so with a flick up I turned on the light switch. I stood there, looking around to see if the lights had turned off or on or if there was now a deadly neurotoxin being pumped into the entire place and I had just killed myself. Nothing of the sort happened. Instead there was a horrible screeching and grinding noise as the ceiling above the stairs started to slide back, disappearing into another section of the ceiling.
Baring my fangs I didn’t waste any time trying to be sneaky, anything on the other side had heard that thing opening and would no doubt be on its way to discover the source of the noise. Launching myself up into the air I rocketed into the revealed space, hoof cocked and ready to knock somelings teeth out.
Thankfully, I was not met with any hostiles. Just a room that had a row of monitors along both walls, a window in one and a door on the far side. Turning around however was another matter entirely. Slumped over on a desk and next to another computer was the skeleton of a unicorn pony and I could see from where I was that her ribcage was shattered, beyond her was another unicorn skeleton lying on the floor next to the largest computer I had seen.
There was some kind of band around his head and there was a spear on the ground next to him.
Landing in front of the unicorn on the desk, I tried to see if there was anything there that could tell me who it was and what had happened here. There was only a single piece of parchment, with what looked a lot like blood stains on it. Gingerly moving the skeletons foreleg off it I turned it around so I could see what was written.
I’m too late. He’s already found the only real weapon in this cursed place, damn Stable Tec and all who had a hoof in building it. He’s been hunting me for three days now, screaming and raving about how it’s the only way to be sure he’s safe. Tha…………..
I couldn’t read the next couple of lines, the stains making the writing illegible.
I’ve locked myself in the Over Stallions office, though I know it’s only a matter of time before he gets in here or I starve to death. There’s nothing to bar the door with, this desk is bolted to the ground as is everything else. I only hope that the Crusader Mainframe is working properly and records everything so that whoever finds this knows the truth of what happened here. I don…………………Belle were thin……………when th……………ce.
It was getting harder and harder to read, the blood flow from when Ricochet had died had soaked into this part the most.
Whoever finds this, you need to know that this place has all been wired with holographic technology, the very cutting edge of Stable Tech. I found some notes that were meant for the Over Stallion, whoever it was going to be was supposed to use the projectors spread all around the Stable to ……………………….
~To what?! What was the Over Stallion supposed to do?! Damn it why did that part have to be gone? ~
I paused, something niggling at the back of my mind, something important. I looked from the skeleton on the desk, chest caved in, to the skeleton next to the computer. Holographic technology? What does that mean? I read over that part again, the whole place was wired with it, which probably meant that this room was as well. Looking around I spotted several weird orb type things at all four corners of the room.
~Okay, are those the holographic projectors? Or are they just weird pony decorations?~ That was the problem here, while it might be obvious to ponies what was going on to me all this talk about holographic thingamajigers and projectowhatsits was all just meaningless babble. I didn’t know what they did or how they worked or blah blah blah. Point is I now knew there were holographic projectors set up throughout the Stable. I added that to The List Of Useless Knowledge Andariel Has Acquired.
The rest of the writing was gone, lost to the ages and never to be reclaimed. Slipping the parchment into one of my saddlebags I looked up in time to see a strange flickering coming from one of the things in the corner.
~What the? ~
Snapping my wings open I flew up to it, watching as it continually flickered. Sticking my hoof in front of it I was surprised to find that there was an image on it. Leaning in close I realized that I was looking at a vaguely pony shaped picture. I looked at the projector to my right and saw the same light flickering there. As I turned to look at the other two I gasped in surprise, twisting to look at her fully.
Death Mare was standing in the middle of the room, glaring up at me only…only she wasn’t all there. It was like her outline was hazy or indistinct. But the second my hoof stopped blocking the faint pony picture she solidified. Opening her maw she leaped up at me, but this time I didn’t run. I hovered my ground and waited for her to reach me, just before she did she winked out of existence. I turned to look at the object and sure enough, there was no light coming from it now.
~Oh, you have got to be kidding me. ~ I was very upset at myself as I realized that this pony wasn’t actually a vengeful spirit seeking to eat my brains. It was a holographic projection! Smashing my hoof into the projector I smirked, feeling so much better. I quickly flew to the other three, smashing them in turn before alighting on the ground.
~Well, now that I’ve thoroughly made a pupa out of myself, I think it’s time I checked out that other skeleton. ~
Walking over I picked up the spear, examining it for awhile before strapping it across my back. I knew how to use melee weapons but I preferred my own four hooves. Crouching down I examined the skeleton, there didn’t seem to be any sign of broken bones. Just the band thing around its head. Reaching out I nudged it free, picking it up and examining it more closely. It was connected to what I assumed was the Crusader Mainframe but I couldn’t be sure. That’s when the noise started again.
The screaming and wailing was incredible and was once again seeming to come from all around me at once. I clamped my hooves over my ears, trying to spot the source of the noise. As my eyes traveled over the window I had spied earlier what I saw shocked me; there was not one, or two, but at least six Death Mares at the window, all with their mouths open and screaming. I leapt backwards; even though I knew they couldn’t hurt me, it was still a very disconcerting sight!
Chrysalis was smiling on me. For as I leaped backwards the spear I had strapped to my back slammed into the device the pony had been strapped to. Well, I think it was more of a smirk because as the spear sliced into it a horrific jolt rocketed across my body, sending me zooming across the room to smash into the wall next to the window. I fell backwards, twitching a bit when I hit the ground. Gasping and writhing on the ground, it took me a few minutes to realize the noise had stopped. I laid there until my body stopped twitching and I could breathe without any pain.
Pushing myself up into a sitting position I looked back at the Mainframe, I could see a hole where the spear had pierced it. Wires and components were sliced through, a few sparks sputtered here and there. Moving over to the window I saw that all the Death Mares had vanished.
~Huh, well that’s odd. ~
I walked back over to where I had been standing before taking my impromptu flight across the room. I examined the gash I had inadvertently made in the thing, I had no idea what had happened, why it had attacked me. Well, okay I knew why it had attacked me. If someling had jabbed me with a spear I would have struck back as well. But I didn’t know why the screaming and Death Mares had gone.
Deciding that it was best not to question my good fortune I began looking for any kind of useful things to plunder.
I had already checked both skeletons, so there was no point in disturbing them any further. I opened the desk, finding a few old bits of parchment and a bag of bits. Placing the bits into my saddlebags I spotted what looked like a safe beneath the desk. Crouching down I tried to turn the handle, it was of course locked but I had to at least try. Standing up I looked at the computer, the last interesting bit in this whole place. Gently as I could, I shifted the bones so I could get at it. The screen was glowing green and even more surprising was the fact that there was a list of options already displayed on screen.
Email
Crusader Mainframe
Open Safe
I stared at that last option for a few seconds, not quite believing that it was really going to be as easy as selecting that option and the safe would just pop open for me. However, I wouldn’t know until I tried it. Selecting Open Safe I heard a Click! from down below and sure enough, I could see that the safe door was now slightly ajar.
~Well, glad that wasn’t hard to get into or anything. Not like a safe should be a little harder to break into. ~
Crouching back down I lifted the door open to see what was inside. A packet filled with paper, another bag of bits, and some kind of weird cylindrical device. At least, I figured it was cylindrical because it was lying in two halves at the moment and looked like it would be cylindrical when closed.
Lifting it up I examined it closer. A large blank screen sat in the middle of the device and there were three buttons that sat below that, each with a different name. Stats, Items and Data respectively. No idea what they meant, but that could be said of a lot of things in this place. There was a single knob on the lower left side of it, though I had no idea what it was for. There was a radiation counter gauge on the upper left side. That might be handy; I didn’t want to get radiation poisoning. Looking at the two skeletons I noticed neither of them had one of these things on them. Maybe it was just for whoever had been going to be in charge?
But how did it work? That was the question. I began fiddling with the knob, turning it this way and that but nothing happened. I tried tapping a few of the buttons but the result was the same as with the knob. Lifting it up I shook it a few times then tried the knob and buttons again. Nothing.
~Hmm, how are you supposed to get this stupid thing to work? ~ I wondered, turning it over and over and trying to figure it out. As I was turning it the two halves snapped shut. Staring at it for a few seconds an idea began to form in my mind. That looked like it would fit perfectly around my foreleg. Lifting up the leg that didn’t have an orb stuck in it I looked back and forth between the device and my leg. Yeah, that looked like it would fit. Opening the device back up I placed my right foreleg in, resting it against the bottom half.
~Well, here goes nothing. ~
Taking a deep breath and closing my eyes I snapped the device shut. For a few seconds, nothing happened. I had just opened my eyes and let out a sigh of relief when pain suddenly exploded across my right foreleg. Letting out a startled, pained shriek I started trying to rip the thing open but it wouldn’t! It felt like the thing was melting into my flesh! Letting out a sob I smashed the device against the desk, desperately trying to get the cursed thing off and make the horrific pain stop.
Then, as suddenly as it had begun, it stopped. The pain was gone, like it had never been there. Reaching up with my non-Evil-Deviced foreleg, I wiped away a couple of pain induced tears, scowling down at the evil thing. Before I had a chance to do anything else suddenly a synthesized female voice spoke up.
New User Detected
What the?
Non-Pony User Detected, Beginning Search Of Database.
Non-Pony what? What the buck was going on?!
Match Found. Changeling. Classification Non Hostile. Standing Down Termination Protocols.
Termination protocols? That didn’t sound very good, but I did like the standing down part.
Welcome New User. Please Enter Your Name.
I blinked a bit in surprise; this thing was asking me for my name?
~ Andariel. ~
User Name Changed To Andariel. Initializing Heads Up Display.
I gasped as various boxes began to pop up in my vision, on the lower right there was now something labeled AP with a bunch of tick marks under it. On the lower left, there was now a compass. I closed my eyes tight, rubbing at them before opening them again. Still there. I turned my head to the left and watched as the compass tracked my motion, telling me I was now facing to the west.
Heads Up Display Initialized. Running Diagnostic Scans.
I shook my head, trying to figure out what was going on. I had put on this weird device and now it was putting things in my eyesight and talking to me and understanding me when I…it understood me. It had understood me when I said my name!
~You can understand me! ~
Diagnostic Scans Running. Please Remain Still And Silent Until All Scans Are Complete.
It understood me again! I almost let out a cheer and started dancing until I remembered its warning. Standing as still as I could I waited impatiently for it to get done running its scans. After what seemed an eternity (but was probably only five minutes) it was finally finished!
Diagnostic Scans Complete. You May Now State Your Query.
~You can understand me! ~
That Is Not A Query. As Has Already Been Established It Is Obvious I Can Understand You. Please State A Query.
Even though it was just a synthetic voice with no inflection I got the distinct impression that whatever this thing was it was not impressed by me so far.
~What are you? How can you understand me? ~
Better. I Am The Pipbuck Model Omega. More To The Point I Am the Magical Intelligence Designed To Run The Omega Pipbuck. You May Refer To Me As Omega. I Can Understand You Because I Am Now A Part Of You.
I stood there for several seconds, trying to process what I had just been told. This…..thing was now a part of me?
I Am Not A Thing. I Am The Magical Intelligence Omega. I Am The Culmination Of Countless Years Of Research And Development. The Very Best Magical Intelligence To Have Ever Been Created.
Okay, so it could also read my mind. That was nice to know.
~How can you read my mind? And what do you mean? A part of me now? ~
When You Put Me On, The Pipbuck Merged With Your Flesh. I Am Now As Much A Part Of You As Our Beating Heart. My Systems Integrated With Yours, Magic Fusing Us Together To Allow For The Best Performance From The Both Of Us. I Will Be With You Until The Day You Die.
I had to admit, that was a bit of a disconcerting thought. I would have this thi-Omega with me until I died.
Yes.
Well now, hang on a minute. As I thought about it, it became less and less disconcerting and more comforting. It was kind of like having the Hive speaking to me again. I smiled, glad that Omega was going to be sticking around me for awhile.
I Am Glad You Approve Of My Presence. Though It Is Not As If You Could Do Anything About It Anyways.
The snark I could do without however. Still, for the first time since I had left my Hive I was actually feeling like I wasn’t alone. Standing up, I shut the door to the safe and stepped back from the desk. Well, now all I had to do was figure a way out of here.
You Were Seriously Scared Of A Holographic Projection? They Are Incapable Of Harming You.
And Omega could see my memories. Lovely.
~It’s not like I knew what it was; I’ve never seen or even heard of holograms before. ~ I strode up to the door, unlocking it before walking out into the small hallway with a set of stairs leading down.
It Is Good You Destroyed The Mainframe, Though I Doubt You Did That On Purpose. It Was What Was Controlling The Projectors.
I frowned as I made my way down the stairs, there was that snark again.
~You know, if you’re going to be a part of me you might want to try being a little more helpful and a little less snarky. ~
I Am Merely Stating A Fact.
I snorted, sure she was. As we walked I started to consider something that seemed a bit off to me.
~Omega? You don't seem like any other Magical Intelligence. ~
I See. And Just How Many Other Magical Intelligence's Do You Know?
I paused, trying to think of any but of course I couldn't come up with a single one.
~None.~
That Is What I Thought. I Am Not A Mindless Computer Program.
~I know you're not, sorry. ~
Omega didn't say anything, which I took as probably a bad sign. Coming back into the atrium I looked for the stairwell that would lead me back to the door.
It Is To Our Left.
Turning to my left there was indeed a set of stairs that led up; trotting over to them I started climbing.
~Thanks, sorry about earlier. So, any idea on how we get out of here? ~
It Is Of No Consequence. And Yes I Do Have An Idea.
I waited a few seconds but when she didn’t elaborate I spoke up. ~Care to share? Hey, how come I can’t read your thoughts? I thought we were merged. ~
To Allow You To Still Sleep And Function Normally It Was Decided That Who Ever Wore The Omega Pipbuck Would Not Be Allowed To Hear My Thoughts. It Was Shown That Such Constant Stream Of Thought Led To Insanity In All Test Subjects. Organics Must Sleep. I Do Not Require Such Things. So To Prevent Such Accidents From Occurring You Are Blocked From My Thoughts. We Are Here.
With a start, I saw that she was correct. I hadn’t even realized that I was still moving until I was staring at the door and the control console.
Bucking Things Is Not An Effective Means Of Operating Electronics.
~It worked on the console outside. ~
No It Did Not. The Crusader Mainframe Opened The Door For You. It Is Also What Kept It From Opening When You Applied Your Sophisticated Method Of Working The Console.
~You don’t know that for sure. Well, what’s your sophisticated method of working the console? ~
This.
I felt my foreleg lift up on its own, freaking out a bit before Omega started talking.
I Told You. We Are One. I Can Control Our Body Though I Will Only Do So In The Direst Of Circumstances Or To Show How One Uses Sophistication To Achieve Our Goals.
Well, it wasn’t that different from when the Queen would peek in and take control when she needed to. I guess it was okay.
She pressed the yellow button, twisted a knob, then the blue, green and finally the yellow one again.
“We are Omega.” She spoke, using my voice though it had that same synthetic tone to it. Wait a minute. How had she done that?
A heavy sigh, my foreleg coming up to press against my face as Omega facehoofed me.
You Forgot How To Speak Like A Pony. You Actually Forgot How To Speak Like A Pony.
~W-well, in my defense I was asleep for a very long time! ~
You Forgot How To Speak Like A Pony.
“S-shut up!” I said out loud, proving that I wasn’t dense and could speak like a pony! Thankfully, I was saved from any further embarrassment by the screeching of the door opening. Hurrying through it I had no desire to linger in this place any longer than I had to. However, Omega stopped me at the other console, she repeated what she had done on the inside console only in reverse order.
“We walk the path.”
She said, the door sliding shut with a resounding screech of metal on metal.
“Why did you close it?”
So We Can Return Whenever We Wish Without Fear That It Has Been Compromised. It Is Always Smart To Ensure One Has A Safe Haven To Bolt To.
Well, I couldn’t really argue with that logic. Turning to look up the ramp I had used to come down here I nodded. It was time for me to continue with my original task of finding the shadow wolves. Trotting forward I started the trek back to the surface.
Footnote~ Level Up!
Perk Gained!: Not So Lonely Road: You have gained the Omega Pipbuck and the MI that goes with it. Omega is always with you now and can never be removed.
Perk Gained!: TechnoSavvy- With the help of Omega you are now much more likely to recognize technology and understand how it works.
