Fallout Equestria: Changeling in the Waste
Prologue: The End
I don’t know if anyone is ever going to read this, but I’m leaving these recordings in the hope that I’ll be remembered, that my hive will be remembered, long after myself and the ponies I’ve come to call friends have passed from this world. I know not what is to become of this world, but save total destruction, the memories of the past must not fade, for if we do not learn from the mistakes of those before us, our own mistakes will only continue to darken an already bleak world.
My name is Tek. And I’m a changeling. But before we get off on the wrong hoof, you need to know that not all changelings are the same, and that we are not mindless extensions of our queen.
We live in hives, yes, we possess a telepathic link, and our Queens rule absolutely, and even the fact that the queen is the biological mother of a hive is true. But underneath this is a caste system, to which all changelings are bound by birth.
Drones, which most ponies are acquainted with, are the largest caste, possess the least individuality, both mental and physical, and can be used to supplement whichever castes the queen chooses.
Physik changelings have heavier chitin than other castes, thick wing cases like those of a beetle, and long, thick horns. They serve as heavy infantry, diggers, workers, and miners, depending on the situation. They are the least intelligent non-drone caste.
Myren changelings have small horns, slightly longer legs, and their ears extend into long, prehensile antennae. These structures serve a variety of purposes, such as extending their telepathic range, feeling minute changes in their surroundings, examining and handling objects, and as restraints in combat. Myren typically perform jobs such as spy, scientist, assassin, and doctor. They range in intelligence a much as ponies.
Finally, Teilas changelings are the scouts, rangers and messengers of the hive. They possess a double set of wings, much like a dragonfly, can survive extended periods (up to about 5 weeks) on pony food, unsupplemented by love, and are of above average intelligence. I am of this variety.
Magical ability varies from individual to individual, but is less common in Physik and drones. However, all changelings can disguise their form (as long as the disguise is of similar size to their real form), use basic telekinesis, and generate resin by solidifying emotion. Queens are unique in that only a handful inhabits each hive, at most. They are as strong as Alicorns magically, are much larger than their subjects, and act as a battery, capable of storing vast amounts of love at a time.
My hive, known as Progress, rested on the border of Equestria proper and the Crystal Empire. We lived in peace with ponies, unlike Chrysalis and her hive of brutes.
At the time of the war, we were maintaining an uneasy peace with Equestria. Changeling lived side by side with ponies, even if the latter hardly knew we were there. We fed, we loved, and we lived out our lives, content. That is until the war. While the tenuous truce between our nations did not promise military aid, our soldiers and spies happily answered the requests of the Ministry of Awesome to help in the conflict and for a time the odds seemed in our favor.
All that came crashing down when the megaspells hit. Upon receiving news of the impending doom, Queen Synthesis enacted a desperate plan. She gathered groups from each caste, and placed groups containing some of each in mini-hives over a several-mile radius. Since most of the bombs were of the balefire variety, and changelings are immune to balefire radiation (and actual balefire, though not at that level) the mini-hives were dug only meters into the ground, and sealed with resin. There, Synthesis left each group a handful of magical energy weapons, a supply of food, and a water talisman, then sealed them in stasis cocoons, to be woken when it was safe. She never returned, taken by an unknown means from this life.
I was one of these changelings. I obeyed as I was told to let myself be sealed in resin and suspended in stasis fluid, sleeping dreamlessly for release. And when 174 years later, I was awakened, nothing could have prepared me for the world waiting for me.
