Fallout: Equestria - Crystal Lane

I am a Changeling. That is THE most important thing to know about me before I tell you my story, my life story. Now before I tell you it though, there are some other things I need to tell you, because they are also important, but you can skip if you wish to just get to the story.

First… or second or whatever, I want you to know where I am and the place I grew up in. Crystal Lane, formerly known as the Crystal Empire, home to the very thing that allows Changelings to live here without any need for the old ways. Of course, every Changeling here is still trained in the old ways, more on that later. Back to Crystal Lane, this place had been saved from the spellfire and radiation due to the combined effort of the Goddess of Love and her Consort, as well as the Crystal Heart and its connection with everypony living here. When the megaspells hit, the Goddess and her Consort combined their magical abilities with the strength of the Crystal Heart and the Crystal Ponies to keep them away from the Crystal Empire and save the ponies and Changelings within from the fires. After the volley of megaspells between Equestria and the Zebras, the Goddess and her Consort both began work on severing connections between them and the Wasteland to the south and the Goddess still believes that one day we will sweep down from the North to save our sisters and brothers in the South.

Next, I want to tell you about The Goddess and her Consort. The Goddess, once known as the Princess of Love Mi Amor Cadenza, and her Consort were given, by the Divine Diarchs of Equestria, the job of administering the Crystal Empire and its Crystal Heart after the evil devil Sombra was forced out by a baby dragon and the Divines of the Elements of Harmony. The Goddess and her Consort had kept the Crystal Empire out of the final Great War that occurred between the Zebras and Equestria, protecting their subjects from the horrors of Mariposa, Cloudsdale, and the rest of the final volley. After protecting their subjects from the War, the Goddess and her Consort rested for a month, forming a temporary council between the Crystal Ponies and Changelings to rule in their stead. After waking, they took the reins back and ruled for many years, preparing to one day retake Equestria from the ravages of war, before the Consort’s mortal body began to fail. When he did finally pass to the realm of the dead, the Goddess grieved, as did the Empire. The Goddess has ruled alone since then, still grieving and still hoping to retake Equestria, she renamed the Empire in the months after her Consort’s death, proclaiming that “we are not an Empire, but only a lane on which Ponykind moves forward on the road of progress.”

Now, I will tell you about the Crystal Heart, or the Holy Object as the Holy Caretakers and the most pious of us call it, and the religion of my home. The Crystal Heart is the reason why any bit of megaspell radiation hanging in the air around Crystal Lane hasn’t had any effect on anything around here. It protects us all by protecting our bodies from the effects of radiation and keeping us pure as if none were thrown at all. Anypony born with a connection to the Crystal Heart is born without the fear of radiation poisoning due to it making them incredibly rad resistant, although being too far from the Crystal Heart could reduce it’s effects. The rest of our religion is based on the belief that the Divine Diarchs of Equestria had failed their mission when the megaspells hit their realm and as such the Goddess, herself, is the successor to the Holy Throne of Canterlot. The Divines of the Elements of Harmony were mortal pony vessels upon which the Spirit of Harmony flowed into, to show us the way of Harmony.

Finally, I’m going to tell you about why Changelings have been living here, even before the War. Some time prior to the War, a Changeling hive lead by their Queen, one Queen Pupae, walked into the Crystal Empire, white flags waving. After some major talks between the Goddess, her Consort, and Queen Pupae, the Changelings were allowed to live and feed off the excess love energies from the Crystal Heart. Crazy to think that we are able to feed off that thing’s excess without any consequences and with the permission of the Crystal Ponies, but that’s how it is. Since then, we Changelings have served in every bit of Crystal Pony society, there are even Changelings in the Crystal Guard, the group of ponies sworn to protect the Goddess. Due to our new connection to the Crystal Heart we have no need to feed off of ponies, and therefore our relations with the Crystal Ponies are better than they probably could be anywhere else, we don’t even need to don disguises like our ancestors. Queen Crystalline, the current Queen, keeps us trained in the old ways however, just in case our new way of living was interrupted.

How do I know all of these things, you may be wondering, right? These are the central tenements of our faith, as Caretaker Zenith tells us in the Chamber of Love, in the sight of the Holy Object. Every week we pray for salvation upon our souls in the Chamber of Love, so that the Goddess may hear us and deliver us when we finally do bite the dust. Caretaker Zenith is the Head Caretaker of the Holy Object, and so it is her job to protect and take care of the Crystal Heart, as well as leading us in prayer. She’s the first Changeling Head Caretaker in the history of Crystal Lane, and is the first Head Caretaker to not be an Apostle of Spike, the order of our religion that believes that the baby dragon Spike is also a vessel of the Spirit of Harmony, an order followed by the majority of Crystal Ponies and a minority of Changelings.

You might be wondering about what my name is, right? Well it’s Luminous Gem, or Xithrix if you prefer the traditional Changeling name, it’s nice to meet you. I guess I’ve told you enough that you should know what’s going on, I’m sure you’ve read other materials concerning the Wasteland by this point and so you should know the basics about the Ministries, the War, and all that nice stuff, right? Good, now let’s get on with it…