Fallout: Equestria - Change of Heart

by The Tainted One

Rating: teen
Tags: Romance, Original Character, Queen Chrysalis, Random, Adventure, Crossover, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark
Length: 26805

Vice Versa, a Changeling wakes up after hearing an explosion. Can she remain incognito?

Vice Versa, a changeling with empathy sickness and shunned by her race, must make due in the wasteland as one of the last of her kind. Most ponies still harbor negative feelings towards changelings due to old mares tales, but one mare becomes fast friend's with our heroine. How will other ponies react towards her? Will she ever find any other changelings?
Credit goes to dusty soul on the MLP forums for the awesome cover photo.

Published 2012-07-25 13:54:03 UTC
Last updated 2012-09-26 14:08:17 UTC

Wake Up, Sleepyhead!

Chapter One: Wake Up, Sleepyhead!

*BOOOOOOOOOOM*

My eyes jerked open at the sound of the massive explosion. Looking around, I realized I was trapped in a cocoon-type thing. I bucked and kicked until the cocoon split open with a wet tear. Naturally, gravity decided to take hold at this moment and I fell out of the cocoon with a splash. I stood up, shook myself off, and fluttered my wings. Wait, I have wings? Looking back, I saw a pair of holey, insectoid wings. Then it all came flooding back. I'm a Changeling. Chrysalis put us all into stasis as the bombs were falling. But wait, if I'm waking up, that must mean that all of my brothers and sisters are too.

"Hello? Anyone?" I called out with no response. Sighing, I walked away from the stasis chamber down the hallway. I found a hooflocker and tried to open it, to no avail. Trotting to the next one, I missed the small hole in the floor and almost fell through. I fluttered my wings and flew back into the storage area. I finally got to the second hooflocker and found that it was open. Peering inside, I found a set of leather armor. It was just my size. Then again, all female changelings are the same size except for the Queen. Leaving the rest of the lockers, I heard a groan and skittering from the next room.

"Brother!? Sister!?" I yelled frantically. Sprinting into the room, I saw the source of the skittering. A giant cockroach was crawling towards an Earth Pony mare. I recoiled in horror from the roach, until I noticed the mare was still breathing. Hoping I could save her, I leapt foward and smashed the suprisingly fragile bug with one of my hooves. The mare coughed and turned over. "Hello? Is there anything I can do to help you?" I asked.

"Med-X... left pocket of... my *cough* saddlebag... inject it in... my back leg," the mare rasped. I didn't know what 'Med-X' was, but sure enough there was only one needle in her left pocket. I pulled it out and jammed it into her hindleg. After a couple seconds she shuddered and got to her hooves. She opened another pocket on her saddlebags and pulled out a glass bottle with a bright purple liquid in it. She pulled the top off with her teeth and downed the bottle with two gulps. "Ahh, much better. Thanks... AAAAAAAAAA!" she retreated into a corner after she saw me. "What are you!?"

"A changeling," I replied flatly. "The one who injected you with the Med-X?" She raised an eyebrow at me and tossed the empty bottle away.

"Huh, that's a new one. I thought they were all extinct." She responded. My eyes grew wide with fear.

"Extinct!?" I cried. I drooped my head, holding back a sob. How could my kind be extinct? We're one of the most resilient races on Equis. I laid down and bawled into my hooves. I was alone when I first woke up and now I know why. I felt a hoof on the back of my head.

"Hey, it's alright. I'm sure you're not the only one left. There's bound to be more out there somewhere." She cooed while rubbing the back of my head. I gave her my best Changeling smile and wiped my eyes. I finally got a good look at the mare. She had bright green eyes, a wicked scar above her right eye, and a shortly cropped purple mane. Her fur was a dull white that was pockmarked with bloodstains, dirt, and grime.

"So, I never got your name." I spoke while sniffling. "Mine's Vice Versa."

"Rose," she offered a hoof. I bumped it. "Don't ask, please." She chuckled.

"How'd you get that scar?" I inquired. She rubbed the back of her hoof against the scar. She took a deep breath then sighed.

"It's a long story, you got time for it?" she asked. I nodded. "Alright, It was about four years ago, I was hunting up by Zebra lands, when outta no where this invisible lizard thing attacks me. I backed away just in time and narrowly avoided losing my head," she gestured to the scar. "Bastard cut me up good. Nearly got me too, but then some zebra shows up and kicks the crap outta the thing with some fancy kung-fu stuff. He gave me some healing bandages and just left. Never said a word to me." She sighed and rubbed her scar again.

"That's a pretty cool story," I replied. She smiled at me.

"So, why didn't you attack me? I always figured that Changelings hated ponies." She asked. I winced a little and sighed.

"According to my superiors, I have something called 'empathy sickness'. Changelings aren't supposed to feel emotions, seeing as we feed on them. I was in and out of prison until the day the bombs fell." I adjusted my armor. She gasped. Being very uncomfortable discussing this, I changed topics quickly. "So, what was that giant roach thing?" I asked.

"You've never seen a Radroach before?" She asked flatly. I shook my head.

"Remember, I've been in stasis for 200 years." I responded.

"Right, I got just the thing for ya." She began digging through her saddlebags until she spit a book out in front of me.

"The Wasteland Survival Guide by Ditzy Doo." I announced "First copy free for every family," I added, after reading the bottom. "What's a wasteland?" She facehoofed.

* ** ** ** *

After about three hours, I finally finished the book and slammed it shut. Rose had apparently been nodding off because she jumped a foot in the air.

"All done! It seems I've missed a lot in the last 200 years," I said. She just gaped at me. "What? A Changeling in stasis can last as long as a millenium. The last thing I remember was being put in my chamber when the bombs were going off."

"Wow, that's crazy. Why'd you wake up?" She asked.

"I dunno, I heard a huge explosion and my pod deactivated." I replied.

"Heh, that was my fault, she said sheepishly. "I was trying to blast my way through a cave wall and I must have hit a gas line or something."

"What were you trying to get into?" I inquired.

"Just a supply cache on the surface. I think I might have crossed a wire or something because it blew up and I ended up down here. Demolitions was never my strong suit." She began digging through her saddlebags again after putting The Wasteland Survival Guide back and pulled out a bottle. "Sparkle Cola?" she offered. I took it in my magic and looked at it a bit hesistantly. "Something wrong?" she asked as she pulled one out for herself.

"I've never had this before," I responded a bit sheepishly. She gasped.

"You don't know what you're missing," she said in a singsong voice as she twisted the cap off of her Cola. I opened mine and took a test sip. I was pretty good, a bit carroty for my tastes, but then again, love is the only thing I've ever had.

"Not bad," I said, taking another sip. She giggled. "So, where to now?" Her eyes widened.

"Oh, horseapples. I gotta get back home!" she exclaimed.

"Why? What's wrong?" I asked, a bit worried for my safety.

"I was supposed to be home hours ago! Oh, I'm so dead." She whined

"You're dead?" I got into a combative stance. "Who's going to kill you?" I looked around the room. She facehoofed again.

"It's a metaphor, meaning I'm in a lot of trouble when I get home." she spoke matter-of-factly. I laid back down. She giggled again. "If we're gonna go back, we- I mean you'll need a disguise and a backstory." I thought for a moment.
Pegasus, mare. My horn lit up and surrounded me in a green light. Blue coat, dark blue mane, pink eyes. The glow began to subside and features took shape. Slowly, my body changed into that of the pony I was describing. I opened my eyes and found Rose gaping at me. I giggled at her. "Careful, a radroach might fly in." She laughed.

"You don't have a Cutie Mark," she said while pointing at my flank.

"I haven't thought of one yet, duh," I replied. I thought about my Cutie Mark. What do I want it to be? I got it! I focused my magic and my flanks were suddenly decorated with a fancy camera.

"Cameras? That's a weird cutie mark for the wasteland," Rose said.

"It fits my pegasus name doesn't it?" I asked. "Flash," I announced while gesturing to something in the distance. She tried to see what I was pointed at until I pushed her over. "We should get going."

"Right, of course," she said while securing her saddlebags. We exited the room and started looking for a way out.

* ** ** ** *

After about an hour of fruitless exploring, we came to a huge room that went up several stories. Caves were all throughout the room, and went off in practically every direction. A massive throne sat in the center that was richly decorated with diamond gems. I realized that I recognized this room. I fell to my haunches.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked.

"This is the Queen's Chamber. It's where she went over the plan for the Invasion of Canterlot. It's also where she ordered Mass Recall." I whispered.

"Mass Recall?" she inquired. I rubbed my hoof on the throne.

"When the bombs started falling, our agents near Cloudsdayle sent word to Queen Chrysalis and she relayed the order for Mass Recall to all Changelings able to get back. Once we got here, we were put into stasis. That's pretty much all I remember. Of course, I hardly left the Hive." I got back up and went around to the back of the throne. "Ah ha, I always knew she kept it here." I grabbed the Starblaster with my mouth and showed it off to Rose. She gasped when she saw it.

"Chrysalis had a Starblaster!?" She yelled. "Those things are crazy powerful."

"I saw it once when Celestia counterattacked several months after the invasion. The Princess was almost killed by it. She ordered a full retreat after that. We lived in relative peace until Judgement Day." I tucked the Starblaster and several boxes of ammo into a pocket on my armor. "I think I know the way out," I announced to Rose. We walked through a rather large hallway until we came to a large set of double doors. "This is it." I spoke while pushing on the door. "Gimme a hand here, will you?" I grunted to Rose.

"Uhh, sure," she replied and took up a spot on the other door. After a couple minutes of pushing the doors finally separated and we were greeted by the gloomy atmosphere of the border between Equestria and the Badlands. "Follow me. It should be about an hour's trot." Rose called out to me.

* ** ** ** *

The trip back to Rose's village was mostly uneventful, save for one encounter with a Radhog. She skinned the beast and put the meat into several plastic bags. I licked my lips, remembering the delicious taste of bacon. "Not much further now, a couple minutes at most." Rose nickered.
We came to a gate that was about four ponylengths tall. It was mostly made of old scrap, the same as the rest of the wall. The guard, taking notice of us, piped up and yelled down to us.

"Halt! What is your business with Acropolis?"

"It's me, Hardaim," Rose replied in a bored tone.

"Rose? Shit girl, your folks have been out of their minds with worry! You better get your keister inside. Wait, who's your friend?" Hardaim questioned.

"My name's Flash. I helped Rose out of a jam," I called back.

"Oh, well I suppose any friend of Rose's is a friend of mine. Go on in." He pulled a lever on the other side and the gate rolled apart with a slight squeal. We trotted in and I trailed her to a house on the other side of the compound. Her house was magnificent, for a 200 year-old wreck. All of the rubble was cleared away and the house was painted a bright blue. Rose cleared her throat and I followed her inside.
She cautiously opened the door and was immediately tackled by an older unicorn mare with a red coat and a magenta mane and pegasus stallion with a bright green mane and coat. The unicorn's cutie mark was a pair of scizzors cutting blue fabric and the pegasus's cutie mark was a blackened cloud and lightning bolt.

"Oh honey! We were so worried! What happened?" the older mare whinnied between kisses.

"I was wiring up some explosives when they went off. I was almost eaten by a Radroach," she admitted. "But Flash here saved me!" She beamed while gesturing to me. I was about to say that it wasn't any trouble, (it really wasn't) when Rose's mom tackle-hugged me.

"Thank you thank you thank you thank you so much!" For such a skinny mare, she had an iron-grip hug.

"Can't... breathe..." I rasped.

"Oops, sorry dearie. I"m just glad that my baby is alright." her mom let go and rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. Rose just rolled her eyes. I gasped for breath.

"So, I never got your names." I said while rubbing my wounded ribs.

"I'm Rhubarb, and this is my husband Striker," the older mare said kindly.

"Charmed," Striker said in a surprisingly deep voice. He held out a hoof and I bumped it. He noticed my cutie mark. "That's a strange cutie mark, you a photographer?" He asked.

"I am- er, was. My village was attacked by a pair of Hellhounds. Only myself and my sister survived." I said while trying to cry.

"Oh you poor dear," Rhubarb cooed while rubbing the back of my head.

"Well, it's late. We all should be getting to bed," Rose voiced while supressing a yawn. Whew, saved by the mare.

"Alright, g'night girls!" Rhubarb called to us as we walked upstairs. We arrived in Rose's room and she shook off her saddlebags. She took out the Radhog meat and put it into a refrigerator.

"Uh. I can't maintain my disguise while sleeping. Any place out of the way I can crash?" I asked. She pointed up. I looked up and saw that the roof was covered with rafters crossing the length of the room. I took off my armor and put it down in a corner. "Good night," I called down to her while flying up to the rafters.

"Good night," she replied while covering up. I found a nice spot in the corner of the room. I stretched and shed my guise. Laying down, I was asleep in moments.
(A/N)
Level Progress: 50%
Changeling: You have the ability to select from a set of Sub-Perks based on your current cutie mark.
Current Sub-Perk: Papparazi: You know just how to get all of those incriminating photos for your magazine, as well as talking your way out of sticky situations when caught. +10 to Sneak and Speech

Staring Down the Barrel

Chapter 2: Staring Down the Barrel

~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~

Looking around, I saw beautiful buildings and screaming ponies. I was in Canterlot. With a sigh, I walked forward. A loud wail pierced my ears and I turned to face a foal, not more than five. The foal saw me and began crying louder. With a loud buzz, my superior landed next to me. His name was Lieutenant Switcheroo. "Vice, what are you waiting for? Disable the foal so we can capture it!" he yelled at me. I took a step back, horrified at what he was asking me to do. "Oh for bucks sake." He turned to face the foal, a malicious grin on his face. His horn lit up and a burst of energy began to build on it. I looked at the foal and she was curled up into a ball. Knowing that I would be severely reprimanded, I tackled Switcheroo and the burst of energy went wide and impacted into the side of another changeling flying after a Pegasus.

"Run!" I yelled at the foal. The foal didn't need to be told twice. She ran into an alley and around a corner

"What has gotten into you, Vice!? You'll be imprisoned for this!" He shot a smaller burst of energy at me and it impacted into my chest. The spell taking effect, I began to have trouble breathing and collapsed. I heard the Lieutenant yell to another soldier. Something about 'treason' and 'empathy sickness'. The dream faded out as I came to.

~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~

I awoke to the sound of arguing. Apparently, sometime during the night, I fell from the rafters. I opened my eyes slowly and found myself staring face to face with the barrel of a gun. Panicking, I recoiled and hid behind a desk.

"Do you know what that 'thing' is?" I heard Rhubarb's voice yell frantically. She glared at me and cocked the revolver's hammer back with her magic.

"YES! She's a friend. I found- er, she found me when I was half dead and saved me. If she wanted to harm me she could have done so long ago. She means well." Rose screamed back, stepping between myself and her mother. I saw Rhubarb relax slightly and uncock the revolver. She reholstered it then said:

"Alright, I'll trust it." I cringed at 'it'. " For now. Come down for breakfast when you're ready. Leave it up here though." she said while gesturing to me. I let out a sigh and stood up. I flew over and started kissing Rhubarb's hooves.

"Please don't tell anypony! I'll be nice." I said between kisses. She nudged my head away and smirked at me.

"Fine, but I've got my eye on you," she emphasized by squinting one of her eyes at me. She turned to walk back downstairs and I breathed a sigh of relief. Re-establishing my disguise, I put my armor back on and checked to make sure the Starblaster was un-loaded. No need to burn bridges by having a loaded gun. I turned to face Rose and I noticed that her eyes were red. She wiped a tear away and smiled gently at me.

"Thanks for defending me," I said while hugging her.

"No problem. I'm not as biased as my mother is. I don't judge on appearances." She trotted over and took the radhog meat out of the fridge. "I better go give her this so we can have a decent breakfast. Nothing against 200-year old corn, but, I mean come on. It's bacon! There's some food in my fridge if you want it." She grinned and walked downstairs. I opened the fridge and saw something called Fancy Buck Cakes, a couple Sparkle Colas, and a couple pieces of jerky. I chuckled, wondering how Rose was in such good of shape and grabbed the jerky and a cola.

* ** ** ** *

After about an hour I was drifting off to sleep again when Rose's door opened and she walked in.

"Eat well?" she asked.

"It was pretty good, especially that jerky." I replied. She smiled.

"It seems I'm not the only one that likes Hellhound jerky." she smirked. I gasped.

"That was hellhound meat? By the Queen, it was good! We gotta get some more." I responded.

"Good luck with that," she laughed. "So, how are you feeling?" She asked me.

"I'm okay. I doubt I can stay here much longer though. It's only a matter of time before one of your parents spills the beans or someone else sees me without my disguise." Rose gasped at me. I gave her what I hoped was a stern look and she sighed.

"I suppose we should get you armed." She walked over to her closet and flipped the switch next to it. Suddenly, a whole section of wall opened up, revealing an armory. I fell to my haunches and gaped at the sudden reveal of enough guns and ammo to supply a small army. "I may not be good with explosives, but I'm damn good with guns." She smirked. She tossed me a sweet looking jet-black rifle. "That's something I custom built from a zebra carbine and an Anti-Machine rifle. It fires three-round bursts." I set the gun down and tried to focus my magic on it. It took me about a minute to realize that Rose was sitting there giggling at me. I hated not being able to use my magic. 'There's really only one solution for this.' I thought. I focused and a horn sprouted from my head. Rose fell over backwards, apparently startled by my sudden use of magic. I lifted the gun with my telekinesis and held it up to inspect it.

"What, so now you're an Alicorn?" she inquired. "What kind of Alicorn has a camera for a cutie mark?"

"I suppose I should change it," I focused my magic and my cutie mark warped from a camera to a pair of clouds with a beam of light going between them. "Lets just say that I really know my way around a light spell," I grinned. She rolled her eyes and resumed digging through the secret compartment. I spied a round shape on the floor and squealed when I realized it was a Pipbuck. I always saw them on ponies and have dreamed of having one.

"Would you mind if I have that Pipbuck?" I asked Rose with puppy-eyes. She let out a small laugh and grabbed it with her mouth.

"Ere ew go," she said with her mouth full and tossed it onto the floor in front of me with a little more saliva than I was comfortable with. I grabbed a nearby towel and wiped the Pipbuck off. Rose just grinned sheepishly. I put it on with a small stab of pain and an alert flashed across the screen.

[WARNING] Changeling Detected!
Contacting local authorities... ERROR!
Contacting Manehattan Stable-Tec HQ... ERROR!
Contacting Canterlot Stable-Tec Branch... ERROR
Unable to contact authorities! Discharging Pipbuck from entity!

With a puff of smoke, the Pipbuck popped off of my leg and landed near Rose. She prodded the still smoking Pipbuck with a hoof.

"Well, that was weird." She said as she poked it again.

"I don't suppose that you know anyone that can keep a secret and is good with arcano-tech?" I asked as I rubbed my stinging hoof.

* ** ** ** *

"Since the general store doesn't open for a couple days, I might as well take you on a hunting trip. Use the carbine. The starblaster just melts the things it shoots, and we need the meat." Rose said while kicking a rock. I floated the carbine out of my borrowed saddlebags. I sighted a nearby rock and squeezed the trigger. All three bullets hit the rock in a perfect vertical line.

"What exactly are we looking for?" I asked, loading three fresh bullets into the clip and then re-inserting it into the carbine.

"Anything edible," she replied ducking under a branch. I was about to retort, when I heard a branch snapping from a ways away. Rose motioned for me to go left. I ducked around a couple more trees. 'By the Queen, how I hate forests' I thought. I heard a low pitched growling noise and stopped to look around. There was another growl followed by a slightly higher pitched growl. I saw what looked like a clearing about fifty feet away. Tiptoeing, I approached the clearing to see a sight that made my jaw go slack.

A Manticore, clearly an adult from the size of it, was engaged with a small pack of Timberwolves. I heard the mic in my ear crackle to like and Rose whispered:

"See anything?" I was figuring out how to reply when the mic crackled again, "press the button on the earpiece." I was pressed the button, but the words caught in my throat when I noticed that one of the Timberwolves was looking my way. In a panic, I cast a spell and turned invisible. The Manticore lashed out at the distracted Timberwolf, taking it's head off. I put my rifle away and pulled out my Starblaster. I snuck away, and once I was a good ways away from the battle, I cast a flare spell.

"Was that you?" Rose whispered into my ear. I hit the button and replied with:

"Yeah, one of my many talents." I released the button and dispelled my invisibility spell. I heard an 'eep' and the sound of branches snapping and I turned to face a shocked Rose. I recast it and her mouth gaped even wider.

"That another one of your talents?" she chuckled. I silently flew behind her and tapped her on the back of the head. She screamed and fell forward. "Don't do that!" she yelled at a volume I wasn't comfortable with. I shoved a hoof in her mouth.

"Don't yell, I saw a Manticore a ways back," I whispered. She gasped and I nodded towards Acropolis. "Let's get going." Giving the area with the Manticore a wide berth, we trotted out of the forest. "Glad to be out of that creepy place," I said while stretching. No sooner than that moment, three Timberwolves ran out of the forest towards us. After we ducked down, the Timberwolves leapt over our heads and kept going.

"Run?" Rose asked me with a horrified look on her face.

"Run! This way!" I ran in a different direction than the timberwolves. we got about 200 feet when the slightly bloodied Manticore breached the edge of the forest. It looked around and then sniffed the air. Then it look directly at us. My eyes widened, but it took off in the same direction as the timberwolves. Breathing a massive sigh of relief, Rose went to wipe her forehead, only to realize she couldn't see her arm. I inadvertently cast my invisibility spell over both of us.

"That's... really handy. Rose said while dusting herself off. "So, what other spells can you do?"

"I can shoot a laser from my horn if I focus hard enough and I have a solar flare spell." I replied.

"Can you use the laser to cook radhog?" she asked, grinning.

"Only if you like it blackened," I shot back.

"Well, we should get back before one of those Timberwolves decides to attack us." Rose said. I picked her up and took to the air. She screamed for the first five seconds, but then realizing what I was doing, quieted down and held on.

* ** ** ** *

The whole flight took about an hour. It was a little past dark when got back. We were greeted by Rhubarb with a stern look on her face.

"Why did you fly back? If you hurt Rose..." but Rose interrupted her.

"Mom," she snapped, "I'm fine. Flash flew back because we had a run in with a Manticore." Rhubarb's eyes widened. "And before you ask, no it didn't see us." Rhubarb breathed a sigh of relief. "Plus, I'm sure that Flash's Starblaster could have made short work of it anyhow."

"Well, as long as Rose is alright, did you get anything?" Rhubarb asked me.

"No, we came back after we saw the Manticore." I replied. Rhubarb scoffed and turned to go back inside. Wordlessly, we followed her and went back up to Rose's room. I dumped my saddlebags onto the floor and set it on the bed.

"So, know anything I can do to get Rhubarb to like me?" I asked to Rose as she took a sip from her last Sparkle Cola.

"She loves gems, but they're so damn rare and usually only dragons have them nowadays." Rose took another sip. "I'd imagine that if you brought her a saddlebag full of gems, she'd warm right up to ya."

"So, basically bribe her to like me?" I asked and Rose nodded. Sighing, I began to dig through the pile of assorted odds and ends that I found while pillaging an abandoned house. Five caps, I set them in a small pile that Rose had started. A coffee mug, I tossed it on the bed. A can of Cram, I tossed it with the coffee mug. A small, black box. Where did I get this?

"You ever seen anything like this?" I asked Rose while holding the box up to her.

"Nope, open it." she replied. I gave the box a once-over and upon finding the latch, flipped it. The box opened and a single Star Ruby with a small note fell out of it. I read the note out loud.

"Dear Spike,
This Star Ruby is to pay you back for the one I got all those years ago from you. I really hope you enjoy it; you deserve it. Especially after all that mess with Goldenblood and Twilight.

Kisses,

Rarity."

"Rarity? As in the Ministry Mare Rarity?" Rose gaped. "Wow, whoever Spike was, he must have been once lucky buck."

"Well, I guess we have a bribe for your mother now," I grinned and put the Star Ruby back in the box. "It's late, we should probably get to bed." I said while suppressing a yawn. "Goodnight, Rose." I called back as I flew up to the rafters.

"Goodnight, Vice." she replied as she cleared off her bed. I was asleep in minutes.

~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~

"She did what!?" I heard the resonating voice of Queen Chrysalis bounce through the chamber. I remembered this place. This was my trial about a week after the failed invasion. I gazed into the eyes of the incredibly enraged Queen. She looked ready to strike me down herself.

"Yes, my Queen. Shards was killed by the reflected spell. She has empathy sickness, your highness." Switcheroo replied in a low voice.

"Take her to the rehabilitation center. We shall get rid of it one way or another." Queen Chrysalis replied, a grin forming on her face, I was dragged to a spiral pathway that led further into the mountain. I was strapped down to a table where three other changelings were surrounding me. I heard muffled voices all around me, followed by all three changelings casting a spell on me. It was a dull pain at first. Then it started to build up to a throbbing ache, followed by a searing pain. I screamed and screamed, but I had no voice. Then it slowly started to subside.

"Again," I heard Switcheroo's voice from somewhere nearby. Then the pain flared up again. This repeated for about an hour until the three torturers left and Switcheroo was the only one remaining in the room with me. "This happens every day until the empathy sickness goes away. It's up to you when it stops." he said coldly then walked outside and motioned for a pair of guards to throw me in a cell. I heard a distant voice calling to me.

"Wake up! Wake up! You've gotta wake up!" It sounded like Rose's voice. Slowly, I came out of the hellish dream.

~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~

"Come on! Snap out of it!" Rose screamed into my face. I opened my eyes and saw that her's were incredibly bloodshot. I saw another pair of eyes behind her. Rhubarb was watching me with a worried expression. She was worried about me? "You're awake!" Rose hugged me tightly. "You've been screaming and muttering stuff in your sleep for the past hour. I was so worried. What were you dreaming about?" Rose asked, wiping tears from her eyes.

"It was after the Invasion of Canterlot. Chrysalis sentenced me to forced rehabilitation for empathy sickness. Which pans out to having a torture spell cast on you for an hour a day, every day, until you're either rehabilitated, or you die." I said, rubbing my throat. Apparently, screaming for an hour straight really does a number on your vocal cords. Rose's and Rhubarb's eyes widened.

"You poor soul," Rhubarb said while wrapping me in a hug. Wait, she was actually worried about me? I returned the hug with a bit of reluctance. "I'm so sorry about that mess yesterday, you kind of surprised me." she said. I waved a hoof, at which point I realized I still had my disguise on. Did I go to sleep with it on?

"It's no problem, most ponies don't like changelings anyhow." She hugged me again. "I probably should have told you right off, since I'm staying for a little while." She released me. I got to my hooves and stretched. It was at this point, that I realized I was in Rose's bed. "Did I fall again?" I asked. Rose nodded.

"Yep, landed right next to me. Knocked me clear off the bed." I rubbed my head sheepishly. "My mom heard you screaming and came up here. She brought you some water." Rhubarb floated a canteen towards me. I drank greedily, then wiped my mouth. Rose giggled.

"Thanks, what time is it?" I asked.

"Almost morning, I'm surprised that none of the neighbors came over to see what the fuss was about." Rhubarb replied. "I best be gettin' back downstairs to make breakfast. We got a long day ahead of us." she turned and walked out of Rose's room. She called back, "You're welcome to join us, Flash." "Thanks, ma'am." I replied. Wait, long day?

"Uhh Rose?" I asked. "What did your mom mean by long day?"

"Oh shoot, I didn't tell you?" I shook my head. "Horseapples," Rose muttered. "Well, tomorrow- er today, is my birthday!" She grinned. "I'm twenty-one!"

"Happy birthday," I hugged her. "Plan on getting good and drunk, eh?" I nudged her chest with a hoof. She chuckled and nodded.

"I'm hoping you will too, seeing as you're well over the legal limit," she smirked. I laughed.

"Maybe." I responded. "I don't remember, did I go to sleep with my disguise on?" I asked.

"I think so, I thought you said you couldn't maintain it while asleep?" Rose yawned.

"I thought I couldn't. I guess I was wrong," I replied. Shrugging, I got up and shook myself off. "We should get down for breakfast." We trotted downstairs where the smell hit us like a ton of bricks. Bacon, pancakes, eggs, and toast. Rose's and my mouths were both watering by the time we entered the kitchen. I was surprised to see that Rose's dad was making breakfast. "Morning, sir." I said to him while yawning.

"Wait, I thought you were a Pegasus. When did you get a horn?" He questioned. I looked at Rose who looked at Rhubarb entering from some back room levitating a couple gifts.

"Hold that thought," Rose told him. "Mom, Flash, join me in the living room please?" Rhubarb and I followed her into an empty room. The paint was peeling off of the wall in places, revealing a duck pattern wallpaper. "You didn't tell him!?" Rose whispered to Rhubarb who suddenly had a panicked look on her face. "Why didn't you tell him?"

"Oops," Rhubarb whispered back. Then a loud voice came from the doorway.

"Tell me what?" Striker said in a serious tone. "Tell me, what?" He repeated. Sighing, I walked over to him.

"No sense in dragging this out," I said glumly. I focused my magic and shed my disguise.

"Oh, that." he said weakly.

"Dad, don't freak out." Rose said with a touch of worry. "She doesn't want to harm any of us. She's... different, from other changelings."

"Don't freak out?" he said, his voice rising. "Don't freak out!? You're friends with a changeling and you're telling me not to freak out!?" he was yelling at this point and Rhubarb was looking pale.

"Honey, please. She saved our daughter. Twice, I might add." Rhubarb's voice was barely above a whisper.

"How can you be sure? Maybe it has our daughter under some kind of mind control spell?" he shot back. "Wait, where did it go?" he looked around and ran outside. 'Oh, horseapples. I am so dead.' I thought. Hey, I finally get that expression now. Except in my case I probably am as good as dead.

"Vice, you can come out now." Rose's voice echoed through the house. I released my invisibility spell and heard an 'eep' followed by a thump from behind me. I turned to face a stunned Rhubarb laying on her back. 'Like mother, like daughter.' I chuckled inwardly.

"Crap," Rhubarb ran out the front door. "Striker! Get back here!" she yelled. I saw a group of ponies walking toward this house and started panicking. I put my disguise back on and trotted out the front door with Rose in tow.

"Get away from it, Rose." I heard Striker yell from the front of the mob. She looked at me with a horrified expression.

"Sorry about this everypony," I said while activating my magic. A small light went from the tip of my horn into the air about ten feet. The light suddenly grew incredibly bright and washed over everyone. I had my eyes closed so I was unaffected. I opened my eyes and turned to look at the temporarily blinded crowd. They were on the ground writhing clutching their wounded eyes. I saw Rose lying on the ground next to me. She too, had her eyes covered. I leaned down close to her. "Sorry Rose," I touched a hoof to her neck and then flew off, away from the town.
(A/N)
Level Up! Level 2:
New Perks: Quick Change: You assume and shed disguises 20% faster. (I'm sorry, I had to do it.)
Alicorn Presence: You have the presence of a goddess. When nearby, good-aligned characters will gain a 10% damage boost, while evil-aligned characters will suffer a 10% damage penalty.
Current Sub-Perk: Power of the Sun: When in direct sunlight, you gain +2 to your Strength, Endurance, and Perception. When in clouded sunlight, these benefits are cut in half.

World Beyond

Chapter 3: World Beyond

I flew hard and fast. Away from trouble. Over a forest, over a small town, over rivers, until my wings could carry me no more. Panting, I set down on a somewhat tall structure. I was thirsty and hungry. However, I had neither food nor water. The only provisions I had are my armor, an empty saddlebag, my Starblaster, which I dubbed Venom, Rose’s custom carbine, which I named ‘Thorn’. Why did I decide to name my weapons now? I had to do something, anything to take my mind off of what just happened. I was mad at Rhubarb for not telling Striker (I thought couples shared everything), I was mad at Striker for being a judgmental bigot, and I was worried for what the town would do to Rose for harboring a changeling. Coming out of my stupor, I glanced at my surroundings. I had landed on the only structure in about a mile. Walking to the edge of the roof, I glanced down to see what the name of the building was.

‘Ironshod Firearms’
‘How ‘bout them apples?’

Whatever the motto was supposed to mean, I didn’t get it. Flapping my wings, I flew through one of the many broken windows. I landed on one of the gargantuan ammo presses. I wondered if I could get some ammo for Thorn while I was here. Come to think of it, I never checked what type of bullet Thorn uses. I ejected the chambered round and caught it in my magic. Holding it up to my face, I read ‘.44 magnum’. I let out a low whistle. Thorn packs a punch. There were about ten different ammo presses around me. The one I was standing on was 10mm. I went from one press to the next. 9mm, 22mm, .50 cal, .357, .44. Ah ha! I found it. Pulling the release lever, the press opened. I peered inside only to discover it empty. Huffing, I walked along the conveyor belt to see if there were any boxes of ammo left. I got about halfway down when I tripped on a piece of wood that was jutting out from underneath the conveyor belt. I grabbed it with my telekinesis only to discover that it was covering what looked like a black box. Giggling, I hefted the fairly heavy box out from beneath the conveyor belt and set it on a nearby table. I flipped the locks holding it closed, and it opened with a slightly dusty hiss. Whoever had these saved was long dead. What I saw in there made me fall to my haunches. There were .44 rounds of all types. Explosive, incendiary, even some weird looking purple rounds. I filled an empty clip up with explosive rounds and put it in my gun. I dumped the rest of the ammo into my saddlebag and flew upstairs hoping to find some food. I saw an opened safe and a busted terminal. Sighing, I walked to an open door, only to fall out of the building. The catwalk was missing! With a few flaps I righted myself and landed with a hard ‘thump’. With a sigh, I walked away from the rotting building and towards what I hoped was an inhabitable town.

* ** ** ** *

I was right about inhabited, just wrong in hoping that the inhabitants were friendly. Another shot peppered the door I was using as cover. I blind fired Thorn and heard a trio of loud ‘booms’ followed by screaming and cracking wood. I peered out of cover and realized I had collapsed one of the buildings on a group of three raiders. A loud bang pierced the air and the last little bit of my cover faded away. Instinctually, I threw up my invisibility spell and flew across the street to another, slightly more intact building. Looking through my scope, I looked at each of the raiders that were trying to kill me. Only about five raiders remained on the outside. I fired a three-round burst at a pair of raiders sneaking up on my former cover and was amazed that not only did my bullets kill them, but took a large chunk out of the building next to them. I smiled to myself, wondering if Rose would be proud of me.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are!” I heard one of the raiders yell sadistically. I took to the air and landed gently behind him. Still invisible, I snuck up to him and whispered in his ear “boo”. I figured he would get scared and accidentally drop his gun, but instead he bucked me in the chest. I flew backwards a few feet and slid on the ground. My first thought was ‘oooooooooowwwwwww’. My second thought was ‘oh, crap. Time to improvise.’ I focused my magic and a small ball of light began to build-up on the tip of my horn. I had only seen this done once, by a princess no less, and had no clue how it would turn out. The light grew brighter and I was grunting with the effort. Then a second later, a small beam of light shot from my horn and hit the raider right on the nose. The raider screamed in pain and then collapsed. I bent over to look at my handiwork and gasped when I realized I burned a hole clean through his head. ‘Well, that was pretty cool.’ I though to myself. Then a pain in my shoulder brought me out of my daze. Two more raiders had taken up positions on opposite sides of the street and were slowly advancing, I guess out of fear that they would have a new hole burned in their head too. I raised Thorn and sighted the raider to my left. She ducked behind her cover, but the wood planks proved useless to my grenade rounds and she was torn to bloody ribbons. The second raider dropped his gun and turned tail to run. With a sigh of relief, I pulled out a small roll of healing bandages and wrapped it around my wound.

I walked through the now-abandoned town and to my great frustration, found no supplies whatsoever. I was about to leave, when the sound of gunfire drew my attention. I wasn’t being shot at; that was a good thing. I cloaked myself and started sneaking towards the sounds of battle. Upon hearing a roar that sounded too familiar, I started running. I came upon the battle and chuckled. A Manticore was attacking a group of slavers. With a small giggle, I loaded three of the purple rounds into my clip and reloaded Thorn. I sighted the Manticore and pulled the trigger. Bang, a laser shot out of the barrel of my gun and hit the Manticore in its hind leg. Bang, a second one hit it in its back. Bang, a third one hit it in its head and the Manticore glowed a bright purple before… melting? What kind of bullets melt things? I looked at the slavers and realized that they were scared shitless. With a grin, I uncloaked myself and walked heroically over to the slavers.

“Drop your weapons,” almost immediately, five guns and a fire axe hit the ground. “Now, unlock the slaves.” I heard the slavers whispering to themselves, then one mare started going for her gun. I fired Thorn and blew her to bloody chunks. “Any other would-be heroes?” I asked the slavers. A buck went over to the chunks of the mare and retrieved a bloodied set of keys, then proceeded to unlock the cages one by one. Remembering a tip from the Survival Guide, I shouted to the slavers, “now turn off their collars and start walking.” A unicorn buck floated out a small box and pressed a button. Then, half a dozen collars tumbled to the ground. “You better run!” I yelled while firing off a burst from Thorn. The slavers took off running and with a smirk, I looked over the slaves. 4 bucks, a mare and a little filly. The filly was dragging one of the slavers pistols over to me with her magic. I smiled kindly to her and ruffled her mane.

A scraggly looking earth pony buck with a brown coat and a grey mane walked over to me and gave me a huge hug.

“Thank you so much miss… uhh…” he said with a slight rasp.

“Just call me Vice,” I finished for him.

“Dewey,” he offered a hoof. I bumped it and then flicked the safety on Thorn. “That’s a mighty impressive weapon you got there, what is it?”

“It was a gift from a friend.” I replied, then sighed sadly because I realized I would probably never see her again.

“I see,” he nickered. “Well, Thanks again, those bastards were taking us into the Everfree.” I smiled at him and gave him a one-hoofed hug.

“Just doing my job, those were my only three,” what would I call those bullets? Laser rounds? That sounds good. “laser rounds in my clip. The rest are explosive.” I grinned deviously at him. The buck chuckled. “I wish I had some food to give you, but I ran out yesterday,” technically not a lie. “Is there a town nearby I could resupply at?”

“New Appleloosa is about a twenty-minute trot from here; that’s where we’re headed. You’re welcome to join us.” Dewey replied. “I’ve been wonderin’, you don’t strike me as one o’ them Unity Alicorns. Where ya from?”

“Unity Alicorns?” I asked. “What’s a Unity?” Rose’s copy didn’t mention anything about a Unity. Dewey chuckled.

“Just a bunch o’ hooey.” he replied. “Come on, we better get goin’ if we’re gonna make it by dark.” The seven of us began to walk and, with a smile on my face, I knew that Rose would be proud of me.

* ** ** ** *

About half an hour later, myself and six exhausted former slaves arrived at a gated community. A surprised guard motioned for us to come in and follow him to a tavern. Apparently, meals are on the house for heroes, and I gobbled up a side of 200 year-old carrots and some cooked radgator meat. It was somewhat filling, but I was more focused on getting the slaves fed. I gave half of my radgator to the filly that I rescued and smiled as she greedily ate it.

“Thank you miss princess,” the filly said while hugging my leg. Princess? Shrugging, I tousled the filly’s mane and nudged her to go back to her mom.

“It seems that the Stable Dweller isn’t the only hero rescuing slaves in these parts,” a voice came from behind me. I turned to face a slightly older stallion. “Name’s Railright, and Ah’m mayor of this here town.” He offered me a hoof.

“Vice,” I said while bumping his hoof. “Just doing what any good pony should do.”

“You’re just like her, ya know? She said the same thing to me.” Railright replied. “So, what’s your story?” he asked.

“Not much to tell, I was in the badlands for most of my life and, tired of being out there with nothing to do, I came to Equestria.” I wasn’t lying. He smiled.

“So, ah suppose you’re not one o’ them Unity Alicorns then?” Railright inquired.

“Nope, just your typical, run of the mill Alicorn.” I chuckled at my own joke. He laughed and sighed.

“Well, you’re welcome to stay for a couple days. ah’ll go talk to the barkeep about getting’ you a room.” he walked over and began chatting up the barpony. I took another drink of my Sparkle Cola and set it back down on the bar. Railright walked back over to me and handed me a key. “Upstairs, to the left, third door down.”

“Thanks Railright,” I replied while hugging him. I finished off my cola and floated out my cap bag when the barkeep waved his hoof.

“No charge tonight, it’s on the house.” he said. Smiling, I put my caps back in my saddlebag and went upstairs. I found my room and unlocked it with the key. After walking in, I relocked the door, set my saddlebags on the table and stripped off my armor. I changed the bandages and tossed the bloodied bandages in the trash bin. With a sigh, I shed my disguise and covered up on the surprisingly comfy bed. I thought about what I should do tomorrow. Should I go back to Acropolis and try to contact Rose? I would do that eventually, but for now, I needed sleep.

~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~

The Queen’s voice whispered in my head, “Return to the Hive! Judgement Day is here! Those Zebra cowards have finally done it!” Ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrap. I remember this day. Looking around, I realized I was in my cell at the Hive. The guard was looking at me with what could only be described as malice. I hung my head, realizing I would probably die in this tiny cell. Then a sight that shocked me to my very core walked from further down the hallway. Queen Chrysalis. I instinctively bowed, as did the guard.

“Rise, my subjects.” her voice was so soothing in my ears. “Guard, unlock this traitor. I’m taking her with me to put her in stasis like the rest of us.” My jaw dropped. I was actually going into stasis? I bowed again and Chrysalis chuckled softly. Oh how I love that sound. She led me to my oh, so familiar stasis chamber. I got inside and Chrysalis pressed a button. “Sleep tight, I have special plans for you.” she laughed. Wait, special plans?

“What do you mean, special plans?” I asked her.

“Don’t worry, that’s something you’ll find out later.” she giggled maniacally. My heart sank. I heard a knocking noise and my dream faded away.

~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~

Knock, knock, knock, knock. Quickly putting on my disguise, I shouted groggily, “I’m up, I’m up. What do you want?”

“Oh, Railright told me to wake you up. It’s almost midday.” a mare’s voice came from the other side of the door. Crap, I overslept.

“Alright, thanks.” I called back. Putting on my armor and saddlebags, I unlocked the door and walked downstairs.

“You sure can sleep, ya know?” I heard Railright call to me when I entered the bar. Chuckling sheepishly, I ordered a Sparkle Cola and a can of yams. I hungrily ate the yams and drank the cola in huge gulps. Railright’s voice pulled me out of the sugar induced stupor. “So, where ya off to now?”

“I dunno, I’m gonna check on my friend first and foremost.” I replied.

“Ah can understand that. When ya planning on goin?” Railright inquired.

“Probably after I resupply, where’s the general store?” I asked while finishing off my cola.

“That’d be ‘Absolutely Everything’. Ditzy has the best store this side of Friendship City.” Railright replied while taking a shot of whiskey. Shrugging, I thanked him and walked out of the bar. I saw the sign for the store: ‘Absolutely Everything!’ ‘We deliver!’ A thought struck me. Was this the same Ditzy Doo that wrote the Wasteland Survival Guide? I walked in the door and heard the tinkle of the bell. A ghoul Pegasus (mare?) walked up to me and smiled brightly.

“Hello, I’d like to buy some food and water. Maybe some healing supplies too.” She motioned for me to follow her and she pointed to the various racks of items around. I saw a few healing potions and a couple bright pink ones. “What are these?” I asked holding up the pink vial in my magic. She started writing on a board around her neck and then held it up for me to read. ‘Restoration potion. Heals lots.’ Shrugging, I grabbed two of them and five healing potions and put it in a basket I picked up bu the front door. I loaded 2 rolls of enchanted bandages and three of the regular kind along with a couple gallons of water and ten cans of Cram. I walked over to her counter and she looked over the items. She wrote down something on her chalkboard and held it up to me. ‘450 caps’ it read. I dug through my saddlebags and found a my bag of caps. I counted out 376 caps.

“One moment, I have some stuff you might want.” I said while resuming digging through my saddlebags. I held out ten of my laser bullets and asked, “how much are these worth?” She wrote ‘never seen them before, what do they do?’. I replied, “come outside, I’ll show you.” I took an empty clip from my saddlebags and loaded one laser bullet in it. I sighted a nearby radroach and pointed to it. She looked and gaped when Thorn shot a laser at the roach, melting it. I smiled to her and she wrote down, ‘I’ll give you 40 caps per bullet.’ We walked back inside and I counted out 50 caps and then gave them to Ditzy along with ten bullets. She smiled and motioned to her chalkboard. ‘Where did you get them?’ it read.

“I got them from the Ironshod Firearms down the way.” I replied. She smiled and gave me a (surprisingly) squishy hug, then waved to me ask I walked out the front door.

“Find everything ya need?” Railright’s voice came from behind me, spooking me a little bit.

“How are you so quiet?” I asked him. He chuckled and shrugged. “But, yeah. I’m ready to head out.”

“It’s been a pleasure, miss Vice.” he offered his hoof to me once more. I bumped it. “Take care now, ya hear?”

“You too, Railright.” I said while stretching my wings. I took to the air and looked down one last time before flying in what I hoped was the right direction.

* ** ** ** *

I flew over the Everfree Forest with a sigh. I remembered flying over a forest in my hastily thought out retreat from Acropolis. I saw a small town off in the distance and I activated my cloaking. I landed on a nearby hill and trained my scope on the town.

It was indeed Acropolis, but there were only a few ponies outside. I saw Rose’s house and, making sure the coast was clear, flew silently over to the him overlooking the back of the house. I crept down the hill silently and once I was close enough, I looked through the window into Rose’s room. She was sitting on her bed, tears in her eyes. I noticed on her desk that the mic we had used to communicate in the forest was sitting there. I checked my ear and sure enough, I had forgotten to take my mic out. I hoofed the button and whispered into it.

“Rose, Rose, can you hear me?” She jumped up and ran over to the mic. She put it on and whispered into it.

“Oh Celestia, Vice, I can’t believe it. Where are you?” she was crying and looking around.

“Meet me outside the town. I’ll send a flare up in five minutes.” I whispered back.

“Alright, I’ll meet you. I’ll tell my parents I’m going out hunting or something.” She replied. Releasing the button, I flew away, smiling.

* ** ** ** *

*fwooosh!* The flare trailed into the clouded sky. I heard my mic crackle to life.

“Alright, I’m on my way.” Rose said into the mic.

I kept my cloaking on for a few minutes until Rose trotted into view. I deactivated it, and to my surprise, Rose wasn’t startled by it. She smiled widely and tackle-hugged me.

“I missed you so much!” she said through tears.

“I missed you too.” I replied. Tears of my own forming in the corners of my eyes.

“You were on the radio,” she said while wiping her eyes. I was? What for?

“I was?” I replied, utterly confused. She nodded.

“Yeah, apparently you rescued some slaves,” she said, wiping her eyes again. “Did you really?” I nodded. She smiled even wider and hugged me again. “Just think, a week ago, you didn’t even know what a Radroach was.” We both chuckled. “Where did you go?” she asked.

“I flew over the Everfree and eventually landed on an Ironshod Firearms. I picked up some of these bad boys for Thorn.” I said while holding up a laser round. She looked at the bullet and laughed.

“You named the carbine Thorn?” she asked. I nodded.

“It was an homage to my first friend in the wasteland.” I said, smiling at her.

“Don’t be so sappy,” she chuckled. “So, wanna go on another hunting trip?” she inquired.

“Aww, yeah. Now I can finally show you that laser spell.” I said, grinning.

* ** ** ** *

I focused my magic, my laser spell charging on the tip of my horn, It fired, vaporizing the ninth Radroach in a row.

“That’s so cool,” Rose gushed.

“Yeah, yeah, wanna see my laser bullets now?” I asked, panting slightly. That spell really takes a lot out of me. She nodded vigorously. I loaded up a trio of laser bullets into a clip and slotted it into Thorn. I put it back into my saddlebag and grabbed Rose and took off into the air. She screamed, naturally. I looked around for something big to kill.

Upon sighting a giant Radscorpion, I cloaked us both and landed silently. I uncloaked myself and yelled to the giant bug, “Hey ugly!” That got it’s attention. It turned toward me and began skittering. I sighted it and fired. The first laser hit it in it’s claw, the second in it’s head, and the third hit its tail, melting the scorpion into a bright purple puddle. Rose was still invisible, so I couldn’t see her face. That is until I uncloaked her and saw that she was lying down, jaw open more than I thought possible.

“Dear Goddesses, that’s some serious firepower.” she said, barely above a whisper. I unloaded the laser bullets and put in regular magnum ones.

“Want something to eat?” I asked her. She nodded. I took a can of Cram out of my bags and handed it to her with my magic. She took it in her hooves and opened it. I opened mine and greedily ate it. I really love Cram! I don’t know why, or even what it is, but Chrysalis damn me, it was good! After finishing a second can, I crushed the cans and tossed them back into my bags.

“So, tell me the whole story. What happened when you rescued those slaves?” she asked me, stomping on her can of Cram and handing the scrap metal back to me. And so I did.

* ** ** ** *

The whole story took about an hour. I started from when I found the box of ammo and ended when I left New Appleloosa.

“That’s quite the tale. Especially the Manticore.” she said, yawning.

“You should get back home.” I told her, while stretching. I scooped her up and lazily flew to an area just outside of her town. “Bye, Rose,” I said while hugging her. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”

‘Bye, Vice.” she smiled at me and trotted home. I cloaked myself and followed her to the gate. She was let in and, satisfied that I had seen her safely home, flew up to the hill overlooking her house. I unraveled a bedroll I got from a warehouse in Ponyville. “Good night, Rose.“ I whispered under my breath. I covered up and drifted off to sleep.

* ** ** ** *

I opened my eyes and noticed it was morning. With a huge yawn, I uncovered myself and packed up my bedroll. After stretching, I grabbed a can of yams and a Sparkle Cola out of my saddlebags and quickly ate and drank my breakfast. I checked to make sure Thorn and Venom were both loaded and then cloaked myself and flew over to Rose’s window. She wasn’t there. Sighing, I flew back over the wall and over the hill. I’ll leave her a note! I pulled out a can of Cram and peeled the wrapper off. What to write it in? I dug around my saddlebags and handily found a pencil I picked up at some point. I wrote

‘Dear Rose,

Meet me at New Appleloosa tonight.

-V.V.’

I cloaked myself and floated the note out and set it on the ground near the gate. Then I bucked the metal wall, creating a loud clang that one of the guards noticed. I flew away and heard his gun go off. I didn’t get hit, so his shot must have gone wide. I took my time flying back to New Appleloosa.

Level Up! Level 3!

New Perk(s)!: Cloaking Field (Rank Two): You have had a lot of practice in casting your invisibility spell. You can make others invisible and it now lasts twice as long!
Fury of the Sun Goddess (Rank One): Just like Celestia herself, you can focus a beam of pure sunlight from your horn. It also comes in handy when you need something cooked!
Sustained Guise: You can now maintain your disguise while asleep or unconscious.

Current Sub-Perk: Power of the Sun: When in direct sunlight, you gain a +2 bonus to your Strength, Endurance, and Perception. When in clouded sunlight, these benefits are cut in half.

(A/N)
Whoo! I cranked out another chapter in a day. I hope it’s up to snuff for you guys. And before you ask, yes I did loosely base Thorn off of the Battle Rifle from the Halo games.

Reunion

Chapter Four: Reunion

Three whole days. I’ve been in New Appleloosa for three whole days with no sign of Rose. I’ve done several jobs for Ditzy and Railright, even helped defend against a raider attack. At which point Railright saw my laser rounds for the first time. He thought that they were pretty awesome, but hated the mess they made. In the end, he just ended up covering the puddles with layers of dirt. I spent my nights at the bar talking with locals or playing pool. On the fourth night however, I was bored out of my gourd and decided to see what all the fuss with liquor was about. I was sitting at the bar when Railright came up and sat down next to me.

“Still no sign of your friend?” He asked gently.

“Nope, I hope she got the note,” sighing, I took another shot of something called Stalliongrad Vodka. It went down pretty roughly, but I soon found myself with a pleasant warmth in my belly. I tapped the counter, signaling for another glass.

“Ya better slow down, that’s your twelfth shot in the last ten minutes.” Railright informed me.

“Alright, two more then I’m done.” I replied, tapping the counter again. Two shots later, I began to feel slightly tipsy. ‘So, this is what it’s like to be drunk’ I thought. “So, what do ponies do when they’re drunk?” I asked, one hoof on the counter to steady myself.

“Some ponies get laid, some play pool, If ah was you, however, ah’d go to sleep. Vodka is nasty business.” He said, taking a shot of whiskey for himself.

“Alright, g’night Railright. I’ll see ya in the morning.” I walked to the staircase, stumbling a bit. I could have sworn that I heard Railright mutter something that sounded like ‘Ah don’t envy that mare in the mornin'.’ Shrugging, I walked down to my room and after a few seconds of fumbling with the keys, unlocked the door to my room. I stumbled inside and tossed my saddlebags onto the chair, shed my armor and my guise, and took out Thorn and began cleaning her: A routine that I was used to. It turns out, that cleaning a gun while drunk isn’t a good idea, because it discharged into the ceiling. Thankfully, I had gone on a hunting trip earlier that day and had regular rounds loaded. I shuddered at the thought of having incendiary or explosive rounds loaded instead. A knock on my door brought me out of my thoughts.

“What was that?” came a stallions voice. Quickly reassuming my disguise, I called back:

“I was cleaning my gun when it accidentally went off.” I set Thorn down, deciding that it probably wasn’t smart to clean a gun while wasted.

“Oh, be more careful. You should sleep off the booze instead of handling firearms.” he replied sternly.

“Yeah yeah, you sound like my mother.” I shot back.

“Ah’m gonna chalk that one up to the liquor. Now go to sleep, ya hear?” he said through the door.

“I’m goin’ I’m goin,” I called back. I heard the stallion walk away and, sighing, I laid down in bed. After a few minutes of tossing and turning, I finally drifted off to dreamland.

* ** ** ** *

BANG BANG BANG BANG. Someone was knocking on my door, loudly. I clutched my aching head and slowly got out of bed. Instead, my legs decided to not work and I hit my head on the table.

“Oooooowwwwwwww,” I groaned, clutching my wounded. I covered my mouth, realizing that my guise had fallen away sometime during the night. “Ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrap.” I whispered to myself.

“Don’t worry, Vice. Ah know you’re a changeling,” Railright’s voice whispered from the other side of the door. I froze. He knew? How did he know? Oh crap, he’s probably got a mob waiting downstairs to gut me. He opened the door, walked in, and quickly shut it behind him. I flinched away from him when he started towards me. “It’s okay, I’m not gonna hurt you.” He said softly.

“Really?“ I asked skeptically. He nodded and smiled at me. I breathed a sigh of relief and reassumed my disguise.

“Ah poked in on you after hearing you fall off of your bed about an hour after you came up here. Ah figured that you wouldn’t do all the stuff you’ve done for us if you meant us harm, so Ah’m keeping’ your secret.” He smiled at me. I smiled back and got up to put my armor on.

“So, what happens now?” I asked him, securing Thorn at my side.

“The townsfolk will worry to no end if word of a changeling gets out.” he replied. Then taking a deep breath. “Ah’m afraid, that after you meet up with your friend, you’ll have to leave New Appleloosa.” I gaped at him. “Ah’m not good at keeping’ secrets, which is why Ah hafta. Ah’m sorry. You’re a good mare, but people overreact and Ah don’t know what they‘d do to ya.” I sighed, hanging my head. Even though it wasn’t my home, New Appleloosa had grown on me. I could never go back home. There was nothing there for me. Rose was my first friend in the wasteland, and I’m probably never going to see her again. I slumped down onto my bed, sobbing quietly. Railright left sometime that morning.

* ** ** ** *

It was about noon when I finally stopped crying. I thought I heard someone come to my door a couple times, but they didn’t knock. I wiped my eyes and got to my hooves. Taking the latch off of my door, I walked downstairs to the bar and ordered some radgator with a side of bacon and canned corn. A voice next to me said something, but I wasn’t paying attention to anything. Then somepony nudged my shoulder. I turned to look, ready to tell them off, but my eyes widened in surprise when I saw who it was. Rose was sitting there, a worried look on her face. I wrapped her in a huge hug.

“When did you get here?” I asked her, tears welling up in my eyes.

“Last night, but Railright told me you were passed out in your room so I bunked with him. I tried to go to your room this morning, but all I heard was you crying. What was wrong?” She was softly crying at this point. I sighed.

“As you know, I got drunk last night,” she nodded. “Anyway, I passed out on my bed and apparently I fell off. Railright came up to check on me, but I didn’t have,” I lowered my voice “my disguise on.” she gasped. “So, Railright found out, and now in order to keep the town from mass hysteria, I have to leave before someone else finds out.” I sighed.

“That’s awful!” Rose said in alarm. “But, I guess it is better than causing a huge ordeal over nothing.” I nodded at her glumly.

“So, wanna leave tomorrow?” I asked Rose as she polished off her lunch. She shrugged. I guess that she was just happy to hang out with me again. “Umm, if you wouldn’t mind me asking, what happened after I left.?”

“Well, my dad sent a hit squad after you, but they stopped when they saw you flew over the Everfree. After that, he actually tried to interrogate me. My own father! Treating me like I was some kind of prisoner.” she sighed. “I refused to talk to him or any of his ‘goons’. The gate guard gave me the note you left for me, but my dad caught me trying to sneak out. He kept me locked in my room until yesterday. Like some kind of bucking prisoner!” she sighed in obvious frustration. I rested a hoof on her shoulder and smiled at her.

“It’s okay, you’re out now. That’s what matters.” she smiled back and got off of the chair. “So, what do we do now?” I asked.

“I don’t know, I bet my parents are just now finding out that I’m gone. Then they’ll question everyone to see who knows where I went. Then they’ll figure out I’ve come h- OH FUCK!” she yelled. “They’re coming here! We have to go now!”

“Who’s coming here?” I heard Railright ask from the doorway. Thankfully, the tavern was empty except for Rose, Railright, the bartender, and myself.

“Remember when I told you I came from the badlands?” he nodded. “Well, while technically true, it’s not the whole story.” And so I told them. Starting at waking up in the stasis chamber, meeting Rose, getting to Acropolis, meeting her parents, the next few days, until I finally came to the part where I was ousted as a changeling to the whole town and was forced to blind them to escape.

“That’s quite the tale, but Ah don’t see how they could have known-” his eyes shifted to Rose. “-oh. That’s how.” Railright rubbed the back of his head and sighed. “Well we can’t fight them. Ah guess y’all are gonna hafta leave earlier than you wanted.”

“We planned on it,” Rose replied. “I just hope they don’t get here before we're ready."

As if on queue, a guard threw open the door and handed Railright a note. She opened it and said: "Oh, horseapples.” He crumpled up the note and threw it. “Well, we got sight of a dust cloud on the horizon, so ya might wanna get goin’ while the gettin’s good.” He sighed. We nodded and walked up the old, rickety staircase to my former room.

“Quite a setup you have here, Vice.” Rose said, looking around my personalized room. Over the last few days, I had all manner of things strewn about my room. Cups, bullet casings, old, half broken down guns. At first glance, you might think my room was a gun shop. We hastily packed everything into Rose’s and my saddlebags, relocked the door, and trotted downstairs.

“Here’s the key,” I said, floating the key to the barkeep. “What do I owe you?” I asked him. He waved a hoof.

“You’ve done plenty around here to more than pay for board and food.” he replied chuckling. “In fact…” he said while bending underneath the counter.

“Call us even, we really have to get going.” I said, turning to walk out the front door of the tavern. There were several ponies standing around, looking at us or other things. The little filly I rescued a week prior galloped up to me and gave me a big (for her size) hug.

“Bye bye miss princess. My mommy and I wish you could stay some more, but she said you have some bussi… buusi… stuff to take care of.” I smiled down at her and tousled her mane.

“Don’t worry, I’ll come back and visit,” I hope. She smiled up at me and gave me another hug. She trotted back over to her mother who grinned at me and walked with her foal back to the common house. “Let’s get going,” I said back to Rose.

* ** ** ** *

We had been walking for about an hour before we came across anything. Four blobs on the horizon, one of them bigger than the others, came steadily towards us until we saw it was a merchant caravan. ‘That’s handy,’ I thought. We approached the caravan which I now saw consisted of a Brahmin, two guards, and the merchant him- er herself. She smiled as we approached her.

“What’ll it be?” she drawled in a similar accent to Railright’s.

“I need .44 magnum rounds, water, and any food you can spare.” I replied. Turning to Rose, I asked her, “Need anything?” She shook her head. I got out my bag of caps. She pulled out an ammo box and set it down in front of me. I opened it and saw a ton of bullets. “Are all of these .44’s?” I asked her.

“Yup, there’s some specialty ammo in there too. Regular rounds are 5 caps per. Incendiary and Explosive are 15 per.” she replied hocking a disgusting loogie away from us. I began digging through the box and to my great surprise, I found some laser rounds in there.

“How much for these?” I asked her, digging out three more rounds.

“60 caps per bullet.” I cringed, she chuckled. “Alright, since Ah like ya so much, how about 50 per bullet.” ‘Better than running out,’ I thought. I pulled out every laser round I could find, which amounted to 15, 20 of the regular ones, and 10 of each incendiary and explosive. “That’ll be 1000 caps.” She said coolly. “Not including the food and water.”

* ** ** ** *

After nearly exhausting my caps on my specialty ammo, of which I now had over 50 bullets, Rose and I decided to find someplace to hold up for the night. We came upon a somewhat intact house. The door had been ripped from the wall some time ago. Rose and I decided to completely ignore the open downstairs area and check upstairs. We found two bedrooms, but only one of them had a bed.

“Take the bed, I still have my bedroll.” I told her while digging out my bedroll. After taking it out and letting it unfurl, she shook her head.

“It’s plenty big enough for the both of us.” she started rolling up my bedroll and set it on a table. I shrugged and after shedding my armor, climbed into bed. ‘I’ll keep my disguise on.’ I thought as Rose climbed into bed. “G’night Vice,” she said, snuggling up to her pillow.

“Good night, Rose.” I replied, letting myself fall away to a hopefully dreamless slumber.

Level Progress: 80%

Current Sub-Perk: Power of the Sun: When in direct sunlight, you get a +2 bonus to your Strength, Endurance, and Perception. When in clouded sunlight, these benefits are cut in half.

Seeing Double

Chapter Five: Seeing Double

A sweet scent enveloped my nose. It smelled like flowers and lavender. I felt a hoof around me and had no doubt about who it was. Rose was snuggled up against me, her head in my chest. Streak marks from tears matted the fur around her eyes. She was crying? Why? Then it hit me. Rose had abandoned the only home she had ever known, for a changeling, no less. I sighed. I couldn’t get up without waking her, and she looked so peaceful. silently snoring away. I just laid there, trying to get back to sleep. My efforts soon proved naught because Rose soon stirred from her slumber. She opened her piercing green eyes and gasped when she realized how close I was to her.

“Oh, crap. I’m so sorry Vi-” I shoved a hoof in her mouth.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said gently. “I know what you’re going through. Remember back in the caves?” I removed my hoof from her mouth and shook off the dampness.

“Oh, Vice. I’ve never been away from home for this long before. I-” she sniffled and let out another sob. “I don’t think I can go back home” She cried into my chest for a good five minutes.

Eventually, she quieted down and only the occasional sniffle or tiny sob would come out. A couple minutes later, she climbed out of bed and wiped her eyes.

“Thanks Vice. I guess I needed that.” she said sheepishly.

“It’s no problem. I know I’ve bawled my eyes out on more than one occasion,” I replied chuckling softly. “We should get going before anypony decides to take up residence in this house.” She nodded and, five minutes later, we were all packed up and ready to leave. It wasn’t until we trotted out the empty doorway and became almost instantly soaked that we noticed it was raining. Hard.

“Well, that changes our plans.” I said with a sigh. We walked back inside and shed our soaking wet saddlebags. “I’ll start a fire.” I called to Rose as she went upstairs. I gathered up a few pieces of old, discarded wood and tossed it in the conveniently located fireplace. I dug around my saddlebags looking for a box of matches, to no avail. I facehoofed when I realized that I am a match, basically. Focusing my magic, I shot my light beam into the fire and the wood went up like, well, dry wood. I heard creaking and turned to face a completely dry Rose. I gave her a blank look and she giggled.

“It’s magic,” she said slyly. I rolled my eyes and decided to ignore it for now. She sat down with a thump next to me and pulled out a can of yams. She opened the can slightly and set it near the fire. “So, think we could talk about what you did before the war? What was Chrysalis like?” she asked. I sighed and set a can of corn next to Rose’s can.

“I was, before I got my ‘empathy sickness’, an infiltrator. I would go into pony towns and search around for the best sources of love. On occasion, I had to,” I gulped. “hurt ponies. Innocents. I hated it, but I couldn’t tell anyone back at the hive that. So I was forced to just go against what I thought was right. It wasn’t until the Invasion of Canterlot that I couldn’t take it anymore. My superior was about to kill a foal.” Rose gasped. “I tackled him and told the foal to flee. Unfortunately, his energy blast that was meant for the foal went wide and killed another changeling. I was arrested for treason and sentenced to rehabilitation. I spent the first fifteen years of the war in prison, undergoing daily ‘rehabilitation’ sessions.” I took a deep breath. “Chrysalis released me for some reason. I was a loner up until a year before the bombs fell. After that point, I was removed from my unit and placed back in prison. And you know the rest.” I sighed, glad that the story was over. I wasn’t expecting the hug I got from Rose. I fell backwards with an ‘oomph’. Rose giggled and released me from her embrace.

“Sorry,” she awkwardly helped me back to my hooves. I grabbed my can of corn from next to the fire and pulled a spoon out of my slightly damp saddlebags. Rose dusted herself off and started gobbling up her yams.

“It’s fine,” I took another spoonful of corn in my mouth. “I’m trying to forget about it. Anyway, Chrysalis is…” I thought for a moment. “She’s kind and compassionate sometimes, but other times she’s ruthless and cold. I’m a prime example of both.” I finished my can of corn and threw it out the back door. “She was kind enough to put me in stasis to save me from dying, but she was ruthless enough to let me get tortured on a daily basis for fifteen years.” Rose gave me a flat look. “She’s a bitch is basically what I’m trying to say.” Rose giggled. “I think the rain has stopped.” I looked outside and the rain had indeed stopped. ‘Let’s get going,” I said, putting on my saddlebags. Deciding to finally give Venom a much needed warm up, I pulled her out and loaded one of the weird looking power cells.

“Where did ya wanna go?” Rose asked me suddenly, forcing me to come to a stop.

“I was hoping we were going towards Dodge City. Are we going the right way?” I replied. She shrugged and started digging through her saddlebags. To my great surprise, she pulled out a Pipbuck, Noticing the scorch marks on the side of it, it was indeed the one I had tried on.

“Ere, thak ths,” she said, her mouth full of Pipbuck. I grabbed the slightly wet Pipbuck and turned it on.

Hello! Welcome to the loading screen of your brand new Pipbuck Delta Model!

If this is your first time using the Delta Model, please run the tutorial.

You can begin the tutorial by putting on the Pipbuck and selecting the ‘Run Tutorial’ option!

I put the Pipbuck on with a slight pinch, and it chimed.

Changeling ally detected, running custom tutorial.

“You got it working?” she nodded in response. I grinned at her and looked back at the Pipbuck’s screen.

This Delta Model Pipbuck is designed to be the replacement for the Pipbuck-3000 model currently in mass production. Changelings cannot use the 3000 model because it lacks the software upgrade in this model.

Would you like to run the custom tutorial? (Y/N)

I pressed the ‘Y’ button with my magic.

Welcome to the Delta Pipbuck tutorial! Bringing the Eyes Forward Sparkle online now!

A sudden burst of letters and numbers filled my vision. I moved my eyes, looking at all the areas that displayed my heart rate, my health, and even a compass. The Pipbuck chimed again.

E.F.S spell online and running at 100%! Your Eyes Forward Sparkle displays all vital information, even including a FoF indicator on your compass! This signals a neutral entity.

A yellow bar flashed in the center of my compass, stayed for a few seconds, then disappeared.

This indicator means that the entity is a foe.

A red bar flashed where the yellow one was earlier, then disappeared just the same.

And lastly, this indicates a friendly entity

.

A blue bar flashed in the middle of my compass, but stayed. I looked up and Rose was standing in front of me, keeping an eye out for trouble. The Pipbuck chimed, bringing my attention back to it.

E.F.S tutorial complete. Would you like to run the Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell tutorial? (Y/N)

I nosed the ‘N’ button and lowered my Pipbuck. Rose noticed that I did so and looked at me. I hugged her tightly.

“Thanks so much for getting this running.” I said, slightly muffled by her mane. She coughed and I sheepishly let her go. “Sorry,” I said while silently berating myself.

“I had to do something while I was locked up.” she replied. “So, where’s Dodge City?”

“Lemme check,” I said, raising my Pipbuck once more. I saw that there was a little model of a changeling with arrows displaying health and limb integrity. Smiling, I turned the dial and eventually located the map. I saw that we weren’t that far from a place called ‘Sewer Entrance’. I remembered something in the survival guide about sewers. They were infested with feral ghouls. I shuddered at the thought and moved the map until I found Dodge City. It was easily a couple days trot from where we were. Plus it helps when you go the right direction instead of back towards Ponyville. Sighing, I turned around and started walking. “It’s back this way, we’ve been going the wrong way.”

“Alrighty, how far away is it?” Rose asked, trotting up to me.

“About a couple days trot. At least.” I replied. We started walking over broken rocks and cracked roads. It was gonna be a long trip.

* ** ** ** *

After a couple hours of walking , we decided to take a quick break at a campsite. I pulled out one of my recently refilled gallons of water, along with two cups. Taking the cap off of one of the gallons, I filled them both and gave one to Rose. I heard whispering and turned to Rose.

“Did you say something?“ I asked, refilling my water.

“Nope, must have been the wind.“ she replied.

“I’ve read horror stories; it’s never the wind.” I chuckled nervously. We both finished our water and, after another cup, decided to continue walking. I heard the whispers again, but it must have been my imagination, because Rose was giving me a weird look.

“Something wrong?” She asked me.

“I think I hear the whispering again. Do you hear anything?” I asked her. She shook her head and I began to worry even more. Then a booming voice in my head squelched all of my thoughts.

“So this is the other Alicorn,” the voice yelled in my head. Rose must have heard it too, because she began to look around. “She is but a foal. We have been watching you.” the voice boomed again.

“Who are you?” I asked through the slight throbbing in my head. “And quit yelling, it hurts my head.” As if I asked them to, they appeared in front of me out of thin air. Three of them. Alicorns. Rose and I gaped at them.

“We are the Goddess,” the voice spoke in my head again, at a slightly softer volume. “Wait, something about this one isn’t right.” the voice said again. “She’s…. a changeling!” the voice practically screamed in my head. I just gaped at them. How did they know? What are they? “What will we do?” the voice asked itself. “These things are an abomination.” the voice replied. At this point I realized the three Alicorns were talking to each other. In my head. I shuddered. Then they said something that made my skin crawl. “It must be destroyed.”

“Well, so much for diplomacy,” Rose said as she tongued the trigger to her pistol. The bullet caught the middle Alicorn in the leg, but it just ignored the slight flesh wound. I had to think fast or we would most certainly be killed.

“Rose, close your eyes!” I yelled, charging my horn. She did so and apparently the Alicorns knew what I was about to do and did the same thing. I smirked as I realized they had fallen for my ploy. I overcharged my laser and fired it at the Alicorns. They didn’t even seem to notice as they were cut in half by the super powered beam. Their torsos were vaporized and the beam reflected off of a shield that the third one hastily brought up. I collapsed from the strain brought on by supercharging my beam. Gasping for breath, I looked at the third Alicorn who seemed hesitant to make a move after her two comrades were cut down so easily.

“This is an unexpected development. The Goddess will be most displeased.” the third Alicorn spoke into my head, then took to the air. It was fleeing. I laughed with triumph.

“Think they’ll be feeling that in the morning?” I asked Rose with haggard breathing.

“That was awesome!” Rose beamed. I smiled and, having finally caught my breath, we got up and walked away from the still smoking corpses of the two Alicorns.

* ** ** ** *

“So, those were Unity Alicorns, I’m guessing?” I asked about ten minutes later, once we were a safe distance away from the corpses.

“Yup, the Stable Dweller is at odds with ‘the Goddess’ and her Alicorn army.” she replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm at the words ‘the Goddess’.

“Who’s the Stable Dweller?” I questioned. She just shrugged.

“Some crazy mare determined to get herself killed. She is trying to take on Red Eye and his slaver operation. Two armies are after this mare. If she doesn’t get herself killed, well, slap a penis on me and call me Ted.” she nickered. I chuckled at her joke.

“Hold up a sec, I’m gonna check to see how much further we need to go.” We stopped and I held up my Pipbuck. I looked at the map and saw that we were just about halfway to Dodge City from where we initially started. I saw an option that said ‘Radio’ and turned the dial over to it. There was only one active signal on the list. “DJ Pon-3,” said out loud without realizing it. I clicked it and some beautiful music started playing. “I recognize this. This is pre-war music. Sweetie Belle if my memory serves me correctly.”

“I don’t really care for that old stuff Pon-3 plays. How close are we?” she asked. I chuckled sheepishly.

“We’re about halfway there.” I replied, keeping the radio on. I stuck my tongue out at Rose and we continued on our way.

* ** ** ** *

“Goooood evening, children! It’s DJ Pon-3 here bringing you the news! That crazy ass mare, aka the Stable Dweller, is at the Canterlot Ruins of all places.” I perked up at mention of this would be heroine. “What’s she doin’ there? Hell if I know. Now listen to me children, Canterlot is not a place you wanna be exploring. That place makes Hoofington look like a walk in the park. If the Pink Cloud doesn’t get ya, the Canterlot ferals will.” I shuddered at the mention of Canterlot ghouls. “ In other news, Red Eye’s embargo of Tenpony Tower is still in effect, even though half of his troops left the other day to Goddesses knows where. If anypony sees anything, remember, let ol’ DJ Pon-3 know, so I can tell the rest of Equestria. I leave you, children, with some Sapphire Shores singing about better times.”

“So, that was the DJ?” I asked Rose as she prodded our fire with a stick. She nodded and tossed the stick in the fire.

“He’s the one who announced that you freed a group of slaves.” Rose replied, laying out my bedroll. “I’ll take first watch.” She said as she patted the bedroll. Shrugging, I laid down and only just then realized how tired I really was. I was out like a light in about thirty seconds.

* ** ** ** *

I awoke sometime in the mid-morning. Rose had fallen asleep and forgotten to wake me up for my shift. Luckily, nothing attacked or captured us. The fire was cinders and I was lying on top of a log instead of the bedroll. I groaned. Sleeping on solid wood was not comfortable. I also realized that I was in my true form. I looked around and, after confirming that Rose and I were alone, breathed a sigh of relief. Rolling off of the log with an ‘oomph,’ I woke Rose up and she grabbed a cola out of her saddlebags.

“Why don’t you have your disguise on? She asked, a touch of worry in her voice.

“I dunno, I just didn’t feel like putting it back on after I woke up.” I replied, shrugging. Focusing my magic, I tried to get my disguise to manifest itself, but it only got about halfway before I was exhausted. “That wasn’t supposed to happen…” I whispered.

“What’s wrong?” Rose inquired.

“I don’t have the enough energy to maintain my disguise.” I took a deep breath. “I… have to… feed.” Rose’s eyes widened.

A voice whispered in my head. “And thus, the immortal flaw of the changelings reveals itself at last.” I looked around, searching for the source of the voice. Shrugging, I reassured Rose.

“Not on you, of course. Unless, you want to.” I cringed. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have suggested such a terrible thing. We need to find an animal den or something.” Rose put a hoof on my shoulder.

“You can… feed on me.” She said a bit reluctantly. She stretched her neck out towards me. “It’s like vamponies, right?” she chuckled weakly.

“Rose, I can’t do that to you.” I whimpered.

“Well, I can’t go trotting into Dodge City with a changeling in tow, now can I?” she sighed. “Go on… do it.” She said while cringing. I trotted over to her and placed a hoof on her shoulder. After a few moments, I bit down into her neck. She gasped and fell to her haunches, her face contorted in pain. I felt her positive emotions slowly drain into me. Her love for her real parents, her love for her adoptive parents, her affection towards me. Her love of life. It was amazing. I haven’t fed in so long, I forgot how good the emotions felt. A whimper brought me out of my blissful trance. I released my grip on Rose and backed away. She smiled weakly at me. Even through her white fur, I could tell that she was considerably paler than before. I pulled out a roll of enchanted bandages and wrapped them around Rose’s neck. A chime from my Pipbuck brought my attention to it. A bar next to the changeling on the display was now full. ‘That’s handy.’ I thought.

“Feel better?” Rose asked feebly. I nodded and gave her a hug. She winced slightly from her fresh wound.

“I feel great.” I said triumphantly. “I don’t think I’ll have to feed again for a while.” Switching to the map, I saw that we were only about half a days trot from Dodge City. “Let’s get going, we should get there in the mid afternoon.” I motioned for Rose to follow me. We trotted along the broken road, towards our destination.

* ** ** ** *

After around an hour of walking, I saw half a dozen red bars on my E.F.S. They seemed to be in a building called Pony Joe’s. I signaled for Rose to stop and pointed at the building. “Hostiles, six of them.” Approaching from the alleyway, we smelled them before we saw them. It smelled like death. I gagged and Rose nearly lost her lunch, turning a horrid shade of green. We peeked inside the building and saw the raiders sitting around a table, cutting up a pony. I shied away from the window and had to swallow some of my breakfast that decided to pay me another visit. I looked back at Rose and saw that she was… standing on her hind hooves, holding a rifle in her fetlocks. I gaped at her and she just shrugged.

“I’ll tell ya later.” She said, walking towards the window. Peeking in, she gagged at the sight of the bloody mess. She slung her rifle and pulled a grenade out of her bags. With a tiny ‘tink’, she pulled the pin and tossed the grenade into the raiders nest. I heard panicked yelling followed by a loud ‘fwump’, and five of the six lights on my E.F.S. went out. I trotted over to the window and saw that a mare was crawling away from the table, missing her hind legs. I pulled up Thorn and sighted her head. Squeezing the trigger, her light on my E.F.S. went out too.

“You’re wasting ammo.” Rose said from behind me, spooking me slightly. “Hit the little switch on the opposite side of the safety.” I turned the gun over and sure enough, there was a tiny dial about half an inch above the trigger. There were three options set around the dial. ‘Burst-Fire’ was the first one., ‘Single Shot’ was the second one, and ‘Fully Automatic’ was the last option. I rotated the dial to single shot and slung my gun. “Ready to get going?” Rose asked me, a slight grin on her face.

* ** ** ** *

About halfway between Pony Joe’s and Dodge City, the sun was dipping below the clouds.

“Well, shit. We should make camp.” Rose said, suppressing a yawn. “That building, lets bunk there.” She called out, pointing at a fairly tall building. Walking in the front entrance, I saw a sign that said ‘M.W.T. Subsidiary and Storage Bunker’. With a shrug, I trotted after Rose up to the second floor. She had her bedroll all set up and was giving me a pleading look.

“Alright, I’ll take first watch.” I sighed. “It’s the least I can do after… ya know…” I pointed at her neck, but she didn’t even notice. She was snoring loudly into her pillow. I laughed quietly and took up a position in the window. I brought Thorn’s scope to my eye and looked out over the wastes. There was smoke coming from numerous places. A slight flickering drew my eye. I sighted it and saw there was a pair of bucks and a mare sitting around a fire, talking and laughing. I moved the scope to another source of movement. A group of five ponies were sneaking towards the trio I mentioned earlier. I know who either group was, but something inside me wouldn’t let three possibly innocent ponies get killed. I pulled out the silencer that Rose gave me for Thorn and screwed it on the barrel. Bringing the scope up once more, I began the dirty deed of taking lives.

‘PFFFT’, a pony goes down from a headshot. ‘PFFFT’, another one down. Their allies are panicking, looking around for the sniper. One of their guns goes off wildly, alerting the ponies at the fire. ‘PFFFT’ A third goes down from a shot to the gut. The ponies from the fire have found their would-be assassins and the reports from their guns echo everywhere. I look at Rose, who is still sleeping soundly. I checked my Pipbuck’s chronometer. Only half an hour had passed between the start and conclusion of the battle. With a heavy sigh, I pulled out the copy of the Survival Guide and flipped to the chapter on ‘Setting Traps’. I flipped through the pages until I found the one I was looking for. ‘How to rig a Combat Shotgun.’

* ** ** ** *

Half an hour (and one misfire) later, I finally had the shotgun rigged to keep any intruders out of our room. Crunching broken glass underhoof, I trotted back over to my bedroll and laid down. Despite hating watch and wanting to go to sleep, I couldn’t bring myself to actually drift off. With a frustrated sigh, I turned over and closed my eyes. I counted backwards from 100 and drifted off sometime in the mid-fifties.

~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~

"Wake up, my child. You have a big day ahead of you.” I slowly opened my eyes and found Chrysalis staring back at me with either a loving or malicious grin. My guess is the latter. I got to my hooves and bowed low to the ground.

“Rise. Follow me.” She trotted out of the room and I followed at a brisk pace. Chrysalis led me to the antechamber where her throne sat. Something I didn’t expect to see, was Princess Luna.

“This is the one you spoke of, Chrissy?” Luna said in a surprisingly friendly tone.

“Yes, this is the one with empathy sickness,” Chrysalis replied through gritted teeth. “And what did I say about calling me Chrissy?” Luna giggled softly.

“You know I only do it to mess with you.” Luna smiled at the Queen and then turned to me. “Come over here little one. I won’t bite. Unlike someone.” she said, nodding her head towards the Queen. I looked at Chrysalis pleadingly and she just rolled her eyes. She shoved me over to Luna with a hoof. I turned to face the Queen once more and bowed.

“What would you have me do, my Queen?” I inquired.

“Why, whatever Luna wants to do with you.” Chrysalis chuckled mischievously as the dream faded away.

~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~

*BANG*

My body jolted awake and I turned to grab Thorn. I aimed toward the doorway, when I saw Rose fiddling with the rigged shotgun. I sighed, setting Thorn down and getting to my hooves. Trotting over to the rigged gun, I pulled a wire near the base of the contraption. It all fell apart and the shotgun tumbled on the ground a few feet. I picked up the shotgun and tucked it into my saddlebags.

“So, about that whole freaky standing on two legs thing?” I asked Rose hopefully.

“Well,” she sighed. “I’m a Zony.” She looked up at me and caught my blank look. “My mother was a Zebra and my father was a Unicorn.”

“Well if you’re half Zebra, shouldn’t you have stripes?” I inquired.

“My father, my real father, used magic to cover up my stripes permanently.” Rose replied, cradling the pistol she used earlier. “This was his gun,” she said dejectedly.

“What happened? Where is he now?” I queried. She let out a heavy sigh.

“I was always an outcast at my village. The first… hybrid. My mother taught me the Wasteland basics. How to shoot a gun, how to pick a lock, and so on.” I nodded. “She had started my Fallen Caesar training a week before it happened. Raiders attacked our village. They took the women, killed the men, and…” her voice was breaking and tears were rolling down her face. “…left to foals to die.” She was sobbing loudly at this point. I grabbed her in a hug and petted her mane.

“You don’t have to continue if you want.” I said softly.

“No, no. I owe you the whole story.” She wiped her eyes and sniffled. “What few of us were left went to find the nearest village. We were attacked by Shifters. We got two of them before all my friends were killed. I thought I was done for, but some Zebra came and killed the three Shifters still left alive. He brought me to Acropolis and left me with Rhubarb and Striker. I’ve lived with them for the last ten years.” She wiped her eyes again. “Wow, you’re the first pony I’ve told that to in I don’t know how long.” She let out a weak chuckle.

“Hate to be a buzz kill, but we really should get going if we wanna make it to Dodge City by dusk.” I whispered. She smiled kindly and got to her hooves. We walked out of the M.W.T. building and trotted down the road.

* ** ** ** *

We arrived at Dodge City’s main gate at around five o‘clock. The guard let us in after a small ‘bribe’ of 50 caps. I turned around to face the guard.

“Where can we find housing?”

“Down the road, towards the train station. Big building on the left. Can’t miss it.” He rasped, then took out a cigarette and lit it with a lighter.

“Thank you,” I called back to him. Trotting alongside Rose, we found the building the guard was talking about. It was a two-story pre-war hotel called ‘The Old Barn’. The word ’old’ was written in what I hope was red paint. Rose and I walked inside the screen-less screen door and up to the front desk.

“Got any rooms with two beds?” I inquired to the buck behind the desk.

“Ayep, just one. 150 caps a night.” He replied, chewing on the wheat stalk in his mouth. I pulled out my cap bag and counted out 150 of the annoying little bastards. As soon as I set them on the counter, he lifted them in his magic and set them in a bin behind the counter. Judging from the amount of clanking I heard, he had a healthy supply of caps already. “Pleasure doin’ business with ya, ma’am.” He pulled a key off of the rack and set it on the desk. “Room Fifteen. Second floor, fourth door on the right.” I grabbed the key in my magic and, Rose at my side, trotted up the stairs to our room.

“Eleven, thirteen, ah ha! Here it is.” I said while putting the key in the door and unlocking it. We trotted inside and saw the two beds along with a nightstand in the middle of them. A small lamp was on top of the nightstand along with an overly full ashtray and a copy of ‘Wingboners’.

“So, you want that porn mag?” I asked her jokingly.

“Naaaa, you can have it,” she said, laying down on her bed and shedding her saddlebags. I left the magazine alone and took off my armor and bags, then set them down beside my bed. I laid down and stretched while letting out a huge yawn.

“Oh man, It feels like we’ve been walking for days.” I heard one of my wings crack and sighed in relief.

“We have been walking for days.” Rose interjected. My other wing cracked and I relaxed on the bed. “That’s really gross, you know.” I chuckled.

“It feel soooooo good though.” I laid on my back and let out a huge yawn. “Wanna go hit the bar?”

“Ehh, why not?” She said, hopping off of her bed. We trotted out the door. Rose continued down the hall and descended the stairs. I locked the door to our room and hastily followed Rose downstairs.

“Where’s the bar?” I asked the stallion behind the counter. He had a hoofful of caps and was organizing them into bags.

“The shack next to the train station.” He replied, putting a bunch of caps into a bag labeled ‘500 bits’. We walked out the screen door and into the street. Several ponies ran by us towards the front gate. Rose and I continued to the bar. I looked up at the sign and read ‘Fill ‘Em Up’. Sighing, I walked into the half empty bar.

“Good afternoon ladies, may I interest you in the ‘Fill ‘Em Up Special‘?” A very enthusiastic buck called out to us as soon as we walked in. “It’s two parts vodka, one part Wild P, one part Sparkle Cola RAD, and one part of my secret ingredient.”

“Why not? I’m goin’ for broke tonight anyway.” I huffed as the buck started mixing drinks.

“And for the missus?” he said, turning to Rose.

“Wild P,” Rose said, resting her head on a hoof.

“Comin’ right up!” The buck slid my drink to me. It glowed faintly, but I shrugged and downed the drink. It went down smoothly, with a slight hint of radishes. I tapped the bar, signaling for another.

“So, what is there to do around here?” I asked the buck as he prepared my second drink. “And what’s your name?”

“Name’s Tankard, and unless you like dirt, there ain’t much to do around here.” He told us. With a slight fizzing, he slid the second special over to me. I savored this one. It was pretty good, if not slightly irradiating. Then again, what doesn’t irradiate me nowadays? I set the half empty cup down and turned to look out at the bar crowd. Several ponies have come in since we arrived, and were playing darts or pool. I polished off my drink and rested my head on the bar. The unbelievably comfortable bar.

“Maybe I’ll just rest my eyes for a bit…” I said, drifting off. I didn’t even notice the bright green flash as I passed into unconsciousness

Level Up! Level Three!

Perk(s) added:

The Need to Feed: You must maintain your energy levels at all times, otherwise you will be unable to conjure your disguise. +1 to all Special stats when energy is at or above 90%. -3 to all Special stats when energy is at or near empty (10% or less). You can only conjure your disguise when your energy levels are at or above 25%.

Fury of the Sun Goddess (Rank 2): Your beam has grown even more powerful. You can now hit multiple targets with it and temporarily overcharge your beam at the cost of 10% of your energy for every second your fire it.

Bangarang: Your constant use of Thorn has increased your skill with Small Guns by 15.

(A/N) Sorry this took so long everyone. I’ve been working as hard as I can around the funeral and all. Hope you enjoy it!

The Other Side of the Coin

Chapter Six: The Other Side of the Coin

~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~

“No no no! Try it again!” Luna yelled at me. We had been practicing for what seemed like hours. I was supposed to learn how to cast the shield spell that Celestia and Luna know. It hasn’t been going well.

“I can’t do it!” I cried. “It’s too hard.” Gasping for breath, I got to my hooves. Luna let out a sigh of frustration.

“We’ll try again tomorrow. Perhaps you should study up on it before you sleep. Or whatever it is you Changelings do.” She trotted out the door of the training hall and, with a loud bang, slammed it shut. I let out a sigh and walked over to my bed. Activating my light spell, I grabbed a book and opened it. Luna said that I also had to master the light beam spell that Celestia uses. I don’t know how I’ll ever manage that though, it’s hard enough for me to do a shield spell. I propped the book up against another small stack. Getting to my hooves, I focused my changing magic. Green fire ran across my body. White fur began to appear. My hooves turned solid and little slippers formed on the ends of them. My legs grew longer. My insectoid wings turned feathery. My black horn turned white and doubled in length. I grew a rainbow mane that seemed to blow in some nonexistent wind. I looked myself over. I was a perfect copy of the Sun Princess.

“Not bad,” a very regal voice spoke from behind me. I turned to face none other than Celestia herself. With a bright green flash, I shed my disguise and fell into a bow. “You needn’t bow to me, little one. I am not your queen.” She stopped a few feet in front of my bed. “Luna tells me you’ve been having some trouble materializing a shield?” I nodded and laid down in my bed. “Well, It seems you are a lucky… mare?” I nodded again. “Luna is busy, what with the war and all, and she asked me to be your tutor. Are you ready?”

“Yes, I am.” I got to my hooves. “Your highness” I added hastily. She chuckled and motioned for me to follow her. We trotted down a hallway for a couple minutes until we came to a very large room. Support pillars ran along both sides, leaving room for a wide, red carpet in the center that lead to a multicolor door that was embellished with gold.. A ruby, a sapphire, and an emerald were in the wall on both sides of the door

“This is Canterlot Tower. Where the Elements of Harmony are kept safely locked away by a spell only I can break.” Celestia spoke while looking at the door on the far side of the room. “That is where they are stored.” My eyes widened in awe. The very same Elements that defeated Discord and Nightmare moon sat before me. “Although, I doubt that the current bearers will ever be able to use them again. This war has gotten the best of everypony. I fear that we will have to find new bearers to win this war.” Celestia let out a dejected sigh. “I never wanted this war in the first place.” She slid a hoof across the door that kept the Elements safe. “Which is why we’re training you to pretend to be me and go onto the battlefield. Hopefully, seeing me- err, I mean you disguised as me out on the warfront, the zebras will consider opening up peaceful negotiations. Return to your bed. We shall begin tomorrow.” Celestia teleported away with a bright white flash, leaving me alone with the Elements.

“Well, this is gonna suck.” I mused to myself. Turning around, I left Canterlot Tower and went back to the library to get some rest.

~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~

The sound of my heart thumping in my chest made me clutch my head in agony. “Oooowwwwwww, never… again…” I rolled over and hit my head against the wall. Pain shot through my already throbbing head. “Rose… if you’re there… please kill me…” I groaned and shoved my head underneath the pillow. Wait, pillow? I removed my head from beneath the pillow and looked around the room. We were back in the hotel room Rose and I had rented. Rose’s bed was empty. I huffed and laid back down on the pillow. I cringed in pain when my head connected with something solid. Tossing the pillow in frustration, I saw a bottle of Sparkle Cola - RAD lying down in all its glowie goodness. I popped the top off and gulped it down. The lukewarm liquid cooled my slightly raw throat. My Pipbuck clickity-clicked, indicating I was absorbing radiation. I didn’t care, but I looked at it anyway. The little bar indicating my energy levels was slightly under half empty. My eyes widened in horror, remembering Rose’s pale, bleeding neck from two days ago. I shuddered in terror.

“What the hay happened last night?” I whispered under my breath. I heard the door behind me creak open. I craned my head, slightly flinching from the pain in my brain, and saw Rose standing outside in the hallway. “What the hay happened last night?” I repeated, for Rose’s ears this time.

“Well, when you passed out the first time, you revealed your true self. Nopony seemed to pay any mind to it, so I just went along with it. After a few minutes, Tankard came back over to us and I guess he didn‘t see you asleep on the stool next to me. He asked me where you went and I pointed to you in your true form. He raised an eyebrow, but didn’t seem too upset by a changeling. After that, I asked why he wasn’t bothered by a changeling. He said and I quote ‘Shit girl, have you even seen a Hellhound? A changeling is the least of our worries. Plus, if your friend wanted to hurt us, I’m sure she would have already done it by now.’” She walked inside and closed the door. “You woke up about an hour later and ordered another drink. A couple ponies wanted to play some pool and, after a couple of games, they claimed that you were using the holes in your hooves to cheat.“ I grinned, wondering how else I could use the holes in my hooves. “After that, we left the bar and came back here. When we got back, you climbed into bed with me.”

“I did?” I asked, blushing slightly. She nodded.

“Yeah, you also… kissed me.” She looked at the ground, blushing furiously. If changelings could blush, I swear my whole body would have turned red.

“I did?” my voice barely above a whisper. She nodded, her face still flushed. “I’m sorry, It’ll never happen again. I was drunk. I‘m so so so so so sorry.” My head was still hung low. I felt a hoof on my chin. My head moved to look Rose in the eyes.

“It’s alright, I know you were.” She set her hoof back on the ground. “No harm done.” Rose smiled gently at me. With a heavy sigh, I sat down on my bed. Rose grabbed her saddlebags and slung them across her back. “What do we do now?”

“I don’t know. The only thing anyone does when they see me in my true form is try to kill me, so you’ll forgive me if I’m not prancing about town.” I said sarcastically. “I vote we lay low for a few days.”

“Yeah, sounds like a plan.” Rose replied. I was about to say something when a loud, low growling noise interrupted me.

“What was that?” I asked, head darting around the room. “That sounded fierce.” I caught Rose’s face blushing slightly. “Was that you?”

“I… I haven’t eaten since yesterday. That was my stomach.” Rose replied sheepishly. I collapsed onto my bed with a loud sigh. Rose’s face flushed a deeper shade of red.

“Let’s go get something to eat.” I said while hopping off of the bed. With a bright green flash, I donned my disguise once more and scooped my weapons and gear up.

“I’m so hungry I could eat a dragon.” Rose sighed and trotted out the door to our room. ‘This is gonna be a loooooong day,’ I thought.

* ** ** ** *

My eyes were nearly scrunched shut to keep that bastard of a sun’s rays out of my eyes. I trotted out the front door of the inn a second time. The first time I was blinded by the low-hanging, morning sun. “Never… again…” I muttered to myself. Rose pulled the door closed behind me with a loud ‘wham’. I flinched in pain and Rose hastily apologized.

“Oh gosh, I’m sorry. I forgot about your hangover.” Rose said sheepishly. She gave me a one-hoofed hug.

“No problem, just try to keep the noise to a minimum. Got any sunglasses?” I replied, clutching my head in pain. “Maybe some Med-X too?”

“Fresh out of Med-X, but I do have these.” She spoke while holding a pair of aviator sunglasses by the arm. I grabbed them with my magic and floated them onto my head. The sun dulled by a lot and it no longer hurt to have my eyes open. I flashed a grin at Rose.

“Come on, I think the bar serves food.” I said softly, trying to avoid aggravating my hangover.

“Lets go.” Rose said a little too loudly, causing me to cringe.

“Ugh, by the Queen, I hate these hangovers.” I groaned. Rose and I trotted towards the bar, and I found myself with a sudden hate of alcohol.

A couple minutes later we found ourselves at the door to Fill ‘Em Up. I opened the door with an agonizing ‘click’, and we walked inside. Once we were inside, I eased the door shut. ‘CLICK’ I collapsed, clutching my head.

“Never… again… never… ever… again…” I whispered. A small unicorn colt trotted up to me and looked at me with bright, lavender eyes. He took a deep breath and I covered my ears in preparation for what would happen next.

“ARE YOU OKAY MISS?” The colt screamed at me. Even though I had my ears covered, It still felt like daggers were being shoved into my brain. I yelled, my head consumed by agony.

“Oooooowwwww! Kid, what are you thinking!?” I screamed at the colt. I tried to stand back up, but collapsed before I got to my hooves. "Anyone got a Med-X?” I writhed in anguish until Rose trotted up to me with a needle in her mouth.

“Here, this’ll help.” Rose said as she dropped the needle next to me. I grabbed it up in my magic and stabbed it into my foreleg. After a few seconds, the searing pain in my head faded to a dull throbbing. I looked up and caught the colt shining a flashlight into my eyes.

“Gaaaaaah, what the fuck is wrong with you, kid!?” I screamed at him. He just snickered and retreated behind the bar. Writing on the floor, I wailed in pain. “This is worse than the torture spell!” Green flames appeared all over my body. Parts of my disguise fell away, exposing bits of black carapace. Over my agonized screaming, I heard a few gasps of surprise and a couple of screams. After a couple minutes, the pain died down to a manageable level. I still had about half of my disguise on, green flames streaking across my body. Gasping for breath, I shakily got to my hooves.

“That… wasn’t… funny…” my voice sounded deadly serious because most of my head and neck were uncovered. The colt poked his head up from behind the bar, eyes widened in terror. I tried to don my disguise once more, but it wouldn’t go and eventually died out completely. I brought my Pipbuck to my face. The energy meter read ‘20%’.

“That’s not good.,” I said weakly, collapsing to my haunches.

“What’s not good?” Rose whispered in my ear. I raised my Pipbuck for Rose to see. She gasped and took a few steps back.

“What do we do?” I asked Rose, my carapace paling to a dark shade of grey. “I can’t… you know… on you again so soon.” I stomped a hoof and immediately regretted it. Pain shot through my head and I cried out in agony once more. Rose pulled me into a hug. I looked up at the other bar patrons. Some faces were stricken with worry, others with fear. Fear for their lives or mine, I didn’t know. ‘I have to get out of here. I have to leave.’ My thoughts rang out like a bell of truth. I shakily picked up the sunglasses in my magic and set them atop my snout. Throwing the door open, I ran out and down the street as fast as my legs could carry me, which was at best a brisk trot. Rose came sprinting up to me just as I passed through the front gate. Several ponies were walking past us, giving me confused and fearful looks. I flinched away from them, tears welling up in my eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Rose asked, stepping in front of me.

“I can’t do this anymore!” I sobbed and beat a hoof on the ground. “Just when everything is going smoothly, something happens to fuck it up.” A noticeable crack was forming in the asphalt where my hoof was striking it. I screamed in frustration and then continued crying.

“I need to be alone for a while. Go back to the bar and grab something to eat. I’ll be back in a couple hours or so.” I said while trotting away from Rose. She was giving me a pleading look, but I turned away and continued walking.

* ** ** ** *

‘PFFFT’ The bullet caught the raider in the horn, destroying the appendage and sending her sprawling to the ground. I slowly walked over to the frightened mare and grinned maliciously. The raider wailed in pain as I sank my fangs into her neck. She kicked her hooves furiously as I drained her of her emotions. The negative feelings that raiders harbor, while not as effective as love or happiness, get the job done in larger quantities. I released my maw from the mare’s neck and checked my Pipbuck. The bat was a little under half full.

“Ugh, it’s still not enough!” I screamed , smashing the dead mare’s skull with my hoof. The skull cracked and brain matter oozed out onto the ground. I gazed around the small collection of rusty huts that these raiders called home. Having previously ‘subdued’ and drained ten raiders prior to the mare with the caved in skull, the raiders didn’t seem eager to engage the incredibly hungry and pissed off changeling. I trotted toward a collection of huts I haven’t explored yet, but stopped when I heard some strange music. It sounded like trumpets and drums. I loud, static-filled pop sounded out and the music cut off. A small, metal orb with stubby wings floated into view from behind one of the huts. I aimed Thorn at it and fired a shot. The orb dived and avoided the shot. I was lining up another shot, when the orb spoke.

“Whoa, whoa! Hold your fire.” a deep, mechanical voice came from the floating orb. I froze. “That’s better. Now, you mind telling me what you’re doing to these raiders?”

“I’m feeding on them. Ya know, like draining their emotions?” I said to the orb, slightly doubting that I was having a conversation with a hunk of metal.

“And why are you doing this?” He asked me irately. I sighed with resignation.

“Do you know what a changeling is?” I asked the metal orb.

“All too well.” the orb replied.

“Well, then you probably know what we have to do to survive.” The orb bobbed up and down in what I assumed was a nod. I was about to continue, when a gunshot rang out followed by a loud metallic ping. The floating orb thingy was laying on the ground with a smoking hole in it. I grasped Thorn in my telekinesis and turned to face a red unicorn buck holding a gun, presumably lining up another shot. I raised my gun and fired two shots. One hit the door where his head was, the second went into the wall and I was rewarded with a cry of pain. I fluttered my wings over to the door where the buck fell. I stopped when I heard what sounded like a small child crying. Just inside the door, a colt was crying on the buck I had shot. I felt a pang of guilt and pulled out a healing potion. The colt backed away, terror in his eyes. I fed the potion to the wounded buck. He coughed some of it out, but drank most of the potion. His wound closed and he shakily got to his hooves.

“Why’d you save me? Better yet, why’d you shoot me?” He asked, chuckling slightly.

“You shot me first, and we are in raider territory. And I couldn’t stand to make someone an orphan.” I said, hanging my head. “What are your names?”

“My name is Hardware, and my son’s name is Caramel Corn.” He said gesturing to himself and his Earth Pony colt respectively. I magicked up my disguise.

“Vice Versa. Just call me Vice for short.”

“What were you doing to those raiders?” Hardware asked. I flinched away from him and sighed.

“I was feeding on them, draining their emotions.” I said, my head hung low.

“That’s horrible!” Hardware said with disgust.

“You think I don’t fucking know that!?” I screamed back at him. “I have to! It’s them or me!” Hardware and Caramel were backing away in fear. I groaned and buried my hear in my fetlocks. “Sorry, I’ve just been under a lot of stress lately. What, with being kicked out of two, possibly three towns and costing the only friend I have in the wasteland the only home she has.” Not to mention feeding off of her. I cried into my hooves. Hardware tried to hug me, but I waved him off. “Get out of here, both of you. Before I accidentally hurt you.”

“But you need help,” he said. “If I can-”

“I said go!” I yelled, stomping a hoof into the wood floor, cracking a floorboard in the process. The two of them fled out the door and out of sight. I wiped my eyes and stomped out the door. A gunshot rang out and the bullet clipped a few hairs from my mane. I turned to face a unicorn mare fiddling with a pistol that looked like it was made of rust. I raised Thorn and put a round through the rusty pistol. It exploded, peppering the mare’s face and eyes with shards of metal. I trotted over to the writhing pony. I shed my disguise and buried my fangs into the mare’s neck. She wailed in agony and tried to break free from my clutches. She sobbed softly as the last of her life force left her. The once golden mare was now a dull yellow. She twitched once, then laid still. I walked away from her body and back along the road that lead to Dodge.

* ** ** ** *

About an hour later, I finally reached the front gate to Dodge city. It was nearly dusk and Celestia’s sun was dipping below the clouds. I passed through the front gate and found my way to the bar. I got some weird looks from a few ponies along the way, but was otherwise left alone. No sooner than I got five feet into the bar was I tackled by a purple and white blur.

“Oh, Celestia! Where have you been!? You’ve been gone all day!” Rose whined, giving me a bone-crushing hug. She reeked of alcohol and seemed to have trouble standing.

“Have you been drinking?” I asked redundantly. She nodded and almost fell sideways. I caught her before she hit the bar. “How much have you been drinking?” I scolded. She shrugged. I was about to say something, but the barmare beat me to it.

“I cut her off half an hour ago. She drank every drop of my Wild P and my vodka. She’s way too young to be drinking that much.” the barmare said then resumed serving drinks.

“Why did you drink that much? It could have killed you!” I reprimanded. She shrugged.

“What? Can’t a girl get wasted once in a while for no reason?” Rose slurred and took a swig of a Sparkle Cola. With a sigh, I grabbed Rose in my magic and carried her out the door. We got about halfway across the street before she piped up.

“Where did you go? What the hay have you been doing all day!?” Rose bawled. I was taken aback by her sudden outburst.

“None of your concern, we need to get you into bed.” I retorted. She huffed and crossed her forelegs.

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me where you went and what you did!” Rose shouted. She grabbed my right foreleg and looked at my Pipbuck. “You fed! On what?” She looked at me menacingly.

“Raiders.” I said exasperatedly. Her expression lightened considerably.

“How many?” she inquired.

“A dozen. They aren’t very appetizing.” I mused. “We should get you to bed. Come on.” Rose nodded sleepily and followed me into the hotel. She collapsed into a slumber halfway through the door. I picked her up in my magic and started up the stairs.

“Take it easy on your marefriend, she’s had a little too much.” the buck that was on duty said to us. I disregarded him. There were more pressing concerns at hand. Upon reaching the top of the stairs, I set Rose onto my back. I unlocked the door and set Rose gently onto her bed. Tossing my armor, guns, and saddlebags onto the floor, I shed my disguise and collapsed onto the bed, wondering what tomorrow would bring.

Level up! Level Four!

The Need to Feed (Rank 2): Feeding on certain individuals affects your attitude. Feeding on an evil aligned character gives you a temporary +1 to Endurance and -1 to Charisma in addition to making you more irritable and easier to anger. Doing so on a good aligned character gives you a temporary +2 to Charisma in addition to making you more likely to let people off easily. You are also less prone to violence.

Giving and Taking (Rank 1): In cases of extreme pain, your energy level depletes at five times its normal rate. However, whenever you sleep, you gain energy at a rate of one percent per 30 minutes of sleep.

Current Sub-Perk: Power of the Sun: When in direct sunlight, you gain +2 to your Strength, Endurance, and Perception. When in clouded sunlight, these benefits are cut in half.

Sticky Situation

Chapter Seven: Sticky Situation

A loud ringing noise drew me out of my slumber. I opened my eyes, feeling refreshed for once instead of hung-over or tired. My eyes darted about the room, looking for the source of the incessant ring. It was coming to my right. I looked that way and saw my Pipbuck flashing. I had somehow set the alarm for seven in the morning. I pressed the stop button and finally, silence filled my ears once more. I looked over at Rose’s bed and saw a pair of white hooves sticking out from underneath the sheets. I got out of my bed, stretched my legs, and donned my disguise. Putting my armor on was something I’d gotten used to and had it on in a matter of moments. I strapped my saddlebags on and trotted downstairs and toward the front door of the hotel. Using my telekinesis, I opened my saddlebags and pulled out a can of Cram. I tore the top off and wolfed down the delicious meat and tossed the can on the ground. I was about to stomp on it, when my hoof was stopped by a dull, orange magic.

“Are you trying to get us killed?” a unicorn buck near the door whispered loudly. He released my hoof and I gently set it back on the ground. “There are raiders out there! A couple of them have ranger armor.” ‘Raiders? Oh crap, I wonder if they’re here for me.’ I thought. I hadn’t even noticed the red bars on my E.F.S. I cast my invisibility spell over the both of us and peeked out the window.

Several raiders were trotting about, kicking doors open. A pair of larger ones, clad in red metal armor, walked along the center of the road. ‘Ranger armor, huh? I know just what I can do to fix this little problem.‘ I pulled a spare clip from my bags and began loading it with shock rounds. The one on the left and smaller of the two had what looked like a missile launcher on his right side and an Anti-Machine rifle on his left. The larger of the two had a pair of miniguns on his battle saddle and had spikes running up both sides of his tail with a ball of barbed wire on the end. I slid the shock round clip into Thorn and it hit home with a satisfying click. The smaller one leaned in to whisper something to his comrade. A few seconds later, the big metal raider began to speak.

“Attention,” the miniguns buck yelled. “An Alicorn recently attacked one of our outposts. Our scouts tracked her to here. Now, you have two options. You can either; give the bitch up now, and possibly keep your town intact; or not give her up, and I level the place.” He revved up his dual miniguns for effect. “You have one minute.” I bolted up the stairs and leapt out an open window at the end of the hallway. Flaring my wings, I flew to the roof of the hotel and landed as silently as a cat. I crept forward towards the end of the building and peeked down. The smaller raiders were gathered in a haphazard circle around the two metal-clad raiders. The weird thing was, that the raider with the A.M. Rifle, was marked as a friendly. “Thirty seconds!” Minigun yelled. I dispelled my invisibility and took a deep breath.

“Hey ugly!” I yelled down to the raiders. The two in powered armor looked up at me while the rest of them continued to stand about idly.

“Well, well. It looks like the boss was right. There really is an Alicorn around here.” Minigun chuckled. “Alright bitch, it’s time to die.”

“Wait,” the other ranger/raider called out. His voice sounded artificially deep. “We can’t kill her, the boss wants her alive.”

“To hell with the boss, Tex. I lost a good fuck-toy when this bitch attacked my home.” Minigun shot back. “I’m pasting her now.” He opened fire. I leapt backwards as 5 mm rounds impacted against the bricks I just vacated. I darted to the side of the hotel and jumped down to the ground, slowing as I unfurled my wings. I charged my solar flare spell and ran out into the road.

“Hey dumbasses!” I yelled to the raiders. Every one of them looked towards me as I cast my solar flare spell. Several cries of distress and pain were heard as my spell subsided. Everyone except the raider named ‘Tex’ was on the ground. I left Tex alone, because strangely enough, he was still marked as a friendly.

“Aaaaaah! The bitch overloaded my suits optical sensors!” Minigun cried from the ground. I refocused my magic into my beam spell and fired it at the downed, armor-clad raider. The energy beam slammed into Miniguns’ armor and began to heat it. Cries of pain came from within the armor, slightly muffled by the loud whining of my energy beam. The steel buckled under the beam’s power and began to hit the raider directly. Minigun screamed with renewed vigor. His armor was a glowing cherry red from the beam’s heat. Exhausted, I released my spell and collapsed to my knees. The raider’s screams had ceased as he was reduced to a smoldering pile of metal and meat. Every raider except Tex fled in terror. I thought I heard Tex mumble something under his breath, but I was just focusing on breathing at the moment. After about thirty seconds, I finally caught my breath and got back to my hooves. I levitated out Venom and aimed it at the one remaining raider.

“Why are you marked as a friendly on my E.F.S.?” I asked Tex.

“You have an E.F.S.?” Tex asked, dumbfounded. Then his eyes (where they would be) drifted down to my right foreleg. “Ahh, you have a Pipbuck. I’m not surprised, you always loved those things.”

“Uhh, I’ve never seen you before in my life.” I shot back at him.

“Hold on.” He interrupted me. Then, with a loud hiss and some steam, Tex’s armor opened up like a flower. What I didn’t expect was a blue coated, black maned, earth pony mare to step out of the armor. She trotted over to me with a smile. It wasn’t an evil smile or a malicious smile. It was a happy smile. Almost, jubilant. Then I saw it, a tiny flicker of green in her golden eyes.

“Hello Vice, It’s been too long.” Tex said, still smiling ecstatically at me. At my dumbfounded look, she said, “Look deep into my eyes.” I focused on her (beautiful) eyes and gasped as another glimmer of green passed by. I knew this pony.

“Morph?” I asked weakly. She nodded and grabbed me up in a hug.

“I almost can’t believe it’s really you,” Morph whispered into my ear.

“By the Queen, I thought you were gone for good!” I cried into her mane. The residents of Dodge just looked at our sudden display with flabbergasted faces. A loud bang sounded from my left and I turned my head to face a very sleepy Rose.

“What’s going on?” Rose muttered sleepily from the doorway. She finally noticed Morph and I locked in an embrace. “Who’s this?” She shot a suspicious glare at Morph.

“Uh, Morph. This is my friend Rose.” I said; gesturing to Rose, who was still staring daggers at the mare wrapped in my arms. “Rose, this is Morph. She’s a changeling like me... and my marefriend from before the apocalypse.” A unified ‘what’ came from everyone within earshot. Rose stared at me with a shocked look. Morph draped a foreleg across my shoulders and nuzzled me.

“I’ve missed you so much,” Morph whispered into my ear. I giggled and kissed Morph on her cheek. A cough from Rose reminded us that she was still here.

“If you two are done, wanna tell me what that is?” She said while pointing a hoof towards the smoldering remains of Minigun.

“Oh, that? Well, that’s a bit of a story.” Morph replied sheepishly. “Let’s talk somewhere.” Morph planted a long kiss on my mouth and then trotted off, leaving me lying on the ground, as red as lava.

* ** ** ** *

A few hours later, Morph finally reached the end of her long story.

“After I heard about you wiping out those raiders, I ‘acquired’ a set of power armor and knew that the raiders would eventually lead me to you.” Morph said while popping another snack cake into her mouth.

“So, Pon-3 made a broadcast about my little feeding frenzy?” I asked sheepishly. Morph nodded and wrapped me in a hug.

“It’s fine. You were stressed out and hung-over. I’m not mad” Morph said while smiling at me. “But you shouldn’t drink ever again. Alcohol has some nasty effects on changeling physiology.” I chuckled lightly.

“I’ve felt some of those effects firsthoof.” I mused. Rose cleared her throat and Morph and I looked at her.

“Would it be alright if I asked you kind of a personal question, Morph?” Rose asked a bit hesitantly.

“Sure, what is it?” Morph replied cheerfully.

“Uhh, back during the war… were you ‘rehabilitated’ like Vice was?” Rose inquired, cringing at the word rehabilitated.

“It‘s alright, Rose.” Morph said reassuringly. Rose relaxed slightly and waited for Morph to continue. “I wasn’t. I was able to hide it better than Vice was. Not to say she didn’t do a good job of hiding it, she was just thrust into a bad situation. I visited her everyday, much to the displeasure of the guards. But, with the war, I guess they decided to look the other way.” Morph said, with her head slightly bowed. “I tried to visit her on the last day, but by the time I got there she was already gone.” Morph had a couple tears running down her face by now. I reached up with a hoof to wipe them away.

“I missed you too,” I said, draping my foreleg across her shoulders.

“How long have you been out in the wasteland for?” Rose asked a little more confidently.

“Uhh, let’s see. That whole ordeal with the Rangers was seven years ago…” Morph trailed off while tapping a hoof on her chin. “Uhhh, about twenty-five years, give or take a few.”

“What!?” Rose and I said in unison.

“Heh, yep. I’m a seasoned vet of the wastes.” Morph stated enthusiastically. I was so proud of my marefriend. I gave Morph a long, unexpected smooch on the lips.

“I’m glad to see that time hasn’t dulled your affection towards me.” Morph whispered. “It’s really strong. I can feel it.”

“You can… feel my love for you?” I asked, dumbstruck.

“Yeah, it’s really easy to feel a pony’s emotions. Most ponies are an open book. It’s gotten me out of a lot of sticky situations.” Morph said, giggling at mine and Rose’s surprised looks.

“Can you… teach me how to do it?” I asked.

“Yes, I can. Let’s use Rose as an example.” Rose looked at Morph with raised eyebrows. “Focus on something you hold very dear to your heart.” Morph said quietly.

“What do I pick?” Rose asked as she closed her eyes.

“Just focus on something you have really strong feelings towards.” Morph replied gently. “Alright, Vice. Focus your complete attention on what Rose is feeling. It’s sort of like feeding, but without the direct contact.” Morph declared. I focused on the purple and white mare. Trying to read emotions isn’t easy, but after a couple minutes, I began to feel something.

“I… I think I feel it.” I said, not taking my attention off of Rose. “It feels like a mixture of love and sadness.” I blinked for the first time in a while. “You were thinking about your birth parents, weren’t you?” Rose opened her eyes and a single tear traveled down her face.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Yeah I was.” Rose replied half-heartedly. I trotted over to her and gave her a big hug.

“It’s alright, you have us now.” I whispered gently. Rose nodded but didn’t stop crying.

“So, it’s pretty cool, eh Vice?” Morph inquired. I giggled and grabbed Morph in a hug.

“It’s really cool.” I said, kissing Morph on the nose. A loud cough from behind Rose drew our attention.

“If you two lovebirds are done, I’m closing up shop early.” Tankard called to us from the bar. He gestured up to the clock which showed that it was well past eight P.M. “Gotta repair the damage done by those raiders.”

“Yeah, yeah. We’re going.” I called out to him, releasing Morph from my hooves. We walked out the door and got halfway across the street before Morph motioned for us to stop.

“Hang on; I got to get my armor.” She said while running off, leaving Rose and myself in the dust.

After about fifteen seconds of awkwardness so thick you could cut it with a spoon, Rose asked “Soooo, marefriend?”

“Yeah,” I sighed dreamily. “When I woke up and it was 200 years later, I thought I‘d never see her again.” I sighed again at the pleasant thoughts drifting through my head. Then, I felt something coming from Rose. Is that jealousy? What could Rose be jealous of? Is she jealous of Morph? I was about to ask her, when Morph came thundering up in her armor.

“Okay, let’s go,” she said, her voice altered by the armor to sound much deeper than it actually was.

“Uhh, voice mod?” I asked Morph sheepishly.

“Huh? Oh, right, sorry.” Morph replied in her altered voice. A soft click came from within the armor. “Better?” She asked, her voice sound almost normal, if only altered slightly by the armor‘s speakers.

“Much,” I responded. “Let’s go.” The three of us continued down the street for about half a minute until we got to the hotel. We walked inside the kicked in door. The wood in the reception area creaked slightly under Morph’s weight, but held.

“Is there any place I can keep my armor?” Morph asked the surprised looking mare.

“In the back is fine. There’s a 50 cap fee though.” she replied. Morph trotted off towards the back room, wood creaking with every step. After some metallic whirring, a loud hiss, and a thump, Morph trotted out of the back room with saddlebags on her back.

“Alright, I also want your fanciest room.” Morph told the maître d'.
.

“Honeymoon suite. 500 caps a night,” she responded. Morph tossed a bag marked ‘500 bits’ onto the desk, much to the delight of the maître d'. She fetched a key off of the wall and tossed it to Morph. “Upstairs, last door on the left.”

“Thanks,” Morph replied, then sauntered over to me. “The things I’m going to do to you tonight,” she whispered into my ear, causing me to turn beet red. Rose huffed and trotted upstairs. Morph and I continued up after her, but continued past my old room and towards the end of the hallway, and the beginning of a long, fun night.

* ** ** ** *

The sun shone through the slightly murky windows onto the bed. I opened my eyes and found myself face to face with Morph’s sleeping form. Her eyes fluttered open and she grinned when she saw me.

“Morning, beautiful,” I whispered, planting a kiss on her nose.

“Morning to you too,” Morph replied, giggling. “Last night was the most fun I’ve had in years.” I smiled and cuddled closer to her.

“So much fun,” I whispered. We could have just lain in bed, but nature is a cruel, cruel, bitch. My stomach rumbled loudly, eliciting a chuckle from Morph.

“I am pretty hungry too.” she admitted. She got out of bed and began to dig through her bags. I noticed her cutie mark was a pair of crossed rifles.

“That’s a neat cutie mark.” I said. She pulled her head out of her bags and grinned at me.

“Staring at my flank, were we?” She said deviously.

“Maaaaaybe,” I whispered suggestively. She hoofed me a couple healing potions.

“Drink those. They restore our energy the same way feeding does.” I gave her a blank look, to which she added, “They really do. We’re gonna need ‘em. Especially after last night.” Shrugging, I popped the top off of one and downed it in two gulps. I checked my Pipbuck and sure enough, the energy bar started to fill up. It stopped at about sixty percent, which was good enough for a while.

“I’ll be damned…” I said, tossing the potion into a wicker basket. My stomach reminded me of its existence and lack of food by rumbling loudly. “Well, time to go get some food. I’m gonna check on Rose. She seemed pretty out of it yesterday.”

“Love ya hun.” Morph called to me as I put on my saddlebags.

“Love you too.” I said, trotting out the door. I slowly made my way down the hallway to room fifteen. I knocked on the door softly. “Rose, you in there?” I said into the door quietly. No answer. I knocked again. No answer. I started to walk away, when the door swung open and Rose poked her head out.

“Oh, hey. What’s up?” Rose said casually.

“I was just checking up on you. You seemed pretty upset yesterday.” I replied.

“Upset? How?” Rose asked.

“Well, you were staring daggers at Morph practically all day. Plus, I was sensing some jealousy.” I stated. Rose remained calm, but her emotions gave her away. She was worried.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Speaking of which, isn’t it kind of suspicious that your old marefriend shows up out of nowhere?” Rose shot back.

“She explained herself, and I believe her. I’ve known her for practically my whole life.” I said, trying to keep my cool. Rose remained stoic for a couple seconds before relaxing slightly.

“Alright, I’ll trust her.” She turned to walk back into her room. “For now.” She added as she shut the door. I huffed and continued downstairs. The only thing on my mind at this point was finding something to eat. I sprinted across the street to Fill ‘Em Up. I eased open the door and trotted inside. Tankard waved to me and I went over to the bar. Activating my magic, I opened my bags and pulled out my cap bag.

“Here, give me everything that this will buy.” I said while setting my caps on the bar. He grinned, but said nothing as he set his entire stock of foodstuffs on the bar. I grabbed a box of Fancy Buck Cakes and tore it open. After a few minutes, I reduced his stock by about half.

“Dear Celestia, girl. How much can you eat?” Tankard said finally. “Then again, with the ruckus you and your marefriend made last night, I’m not surprised.” I froze.

“R-r-ruckus?” I asked sheepishly while doing my best to cover up my fierce blush.

“Kept half the town awake.” He chuckled. I proceeded to set my head on the bar and accidentally cast my invisibility spell. “I’d do the same thing if I was in your shoes.” Tankard mused.

“I… gotta… I gotta go.” I called back to Tankard while still invisible. I made a beeline straight to the window where our room was and opened it. Darting inside, I released my invisibility and took deep breaths.

“What’s wrong?” Morph asked from next to the bed.

“People… loud… heard us…” I said between breaths.

“Calm down, hun. What happened?” Morph said, climbing onto the bed next to me. After a couple minutes of deep breathing I was finally calm enough to speak.

“People heard us last night.” I said, unable to hide the worry.

“You don’t mean…” Morph said, her face turning a slight shade of red.

“Yeah, that.” I answered for her. Her face promptly turned a deep crimson and she buried her face in her hooves.

“Oh, horseapples.” She said, her voice slightly muffled by the soft sheets and blankets.

“I vote we skip town to avoid the embarrassment.” I whispered. She looked up at me with her beautiful golden eyes.

“I second that.” Morph replied. “We should go get Rose and get out of here.”

“Yeah, I can cloak us and we can sneak out.” I added. Morph hastily threw on some scout armor. “Let’s go.” The two of us tiphooved out the door and down the hallway. We stopped at room 15 and knocked quietly. A loud groan and a few thundering hoofsteps later, the door swung open, revealing a slightly angry Rose.

“What do you want?” Rose asked sharply.

“We’re leaving. Now. Come on.” I whispered.

“Why are you whispering?” Rose said in a normal tone of voice.

“People heard Morph and I… you know… last night.” I whispered sheepishly. Rose grinned.

“How many people?” Rose asked deviously.

“Enough,” I answered. Rose giggled and went back inside her room.

“Come in, I just have to gather a few things.” Rose called out to us. She deftly began to pack up her guns, cleaning equipment, and food in her bag. After about a minute of packing, she slung her saddlebags across her back and trotted towards the door and us.

“Let’s go.” I said throwing my invisibility spell over the three of us. We crept downstairs but Morph motioned for us to stop before we got out the door.

“I wanna check my armor, hang on a sec.” Morph said, sneaking off towards the back room. A few seconds later, she came back with the A.M. rifle strapped to her back. “I never did like that armor. Too bulky. I got all of the supplies off of it.”

“Okay, let’s go.” I told my friends as we crept out the front door. I looked around and found the clearest way to the gate. “This way, I think we can get out through here.” I whispered back to the two mares behind me. We bolted towards the rear gate and stopped about twenty feet short of the gate, the closed gate.

“Aww, horseapples,” Rose and Morph said simultaneously. I thought for a moment, and a little light bulb went off in my head.

“Quick, get into that alley.” I whispered loudly. The three of us ran between the buildings and stopped about halfway to the wall.

“Okay, now what?” Morph said quietly.

“Close your eyes.” I said while charging up a solar flare spell. I sent the ball of light skyward and once I was sure I had the attention of the town, supercharged the light ball.

“Go go go!” I said loudly. We all ran for the gate, past the temporarily blinded guards. I threw open the gate with my telekinesis and the three of us bolted out and down the road.

* ** ** ** *

We ran for a solid five minutes before my Pipbuck flashed a warning about dehydration.

“Alright, I think we’re good.” I said while trying to catch my breath. “Drink some water,” I added. Grasping my canteen, I yanked the top off and gulped down a most of the water inside. My other two friends did the same. “Five minute break?” I asked, a little less exhausted. Both Rose and Morph nodded, out of breath as well. Morph began to open and consume a healing potion. I did the same and caught a weird look from Rose.

“I know running is hard, but jeez.” she chuckled. I polished off my potion and tossed the bottle away.

“It basically gets rid of the need to feed,” I told her, “Another little trick from the best marefriend ever.” I said, grinning at Morph.

“Aww, shucks.” Morph said, blushing slightly and laying down on her back. “Boy, this sure is some comfy dirt.”

“I take it you two had fun last night?” Rose asked, laughing loudly.

“Yeah, you should have joined us,” Morph replied slyly. Rose started to choke on the water she was drinking. “Kidding,” Morph said, grinning.

“We need to get going,” I interrupted the both of them before it got any worse. With a reluctant groan, the three of us got to our hooves and continued walking.

“Where are we going exactly?” Rose asked me without breaking stride.

“Manehattan. Or better yet, Friendship City.” I told the two of them.

“That’s so far away,” Morph said.

“I hope they have good food,” I added under my breath.

Level Up! Level Five!

Energetic Healing (Rank 1): Healing potions restore your energy by 10% plus your Endurance times two, in addition to being 20% more effective in healing wounds. However, you don’t receive any bonuses that you would normally get while feeding.

Emotion Sense (Rank 1): Your Perception is raised to ten and you are able to discern the alignment of a character just by looking at them.

Fury of the Sun Goddess (Rank 3): Your beam is now 20% more powerful in addition to costing 20% less energy. It can also melt through Stubbornite in ten seconds flat.

Vice Versa’s S.P.E.C.I.A.L.:

Strength: 6
Perception: 10
Endurance: 8
Charisma: 5
Intelligence: 4
Agility: 8
Luck: 3

I figured I’d start doing Vice’s S.P.E.C.I.A.L. since so many other sidefics are doing it for their main character. Thank my wonderful editor BLadedRose for assisting me with smoothing out this chapter.

Editor's Note

I'm probably not going to be writing for a while; I haven't really been in the mood for it. I'll probably pick back up again sometime in early November. I know some of you are disappointed, but think of it this way: it'll give me a chance to brainstorm ideas and whatnot.