Fallout Equestria: The Ashlands Timeline

Date: Tuesday 11/15/2287
POV: Tranquil Melody
Stable 41

Tranquil groaned as she sprawled on the altar in front of Stable 41. She had a splitting headache before and Crimson bashing her head on the altar during their affection didn't help. Her whole body ached.

Crimson was in the process of telling a story, and Tranquil realized she should probably be listening rather than bemoaning her own fortune. So she turned her attention back to it.

“And so he's staring at me like I'm crazy,” Crimson laughed, laying on the altar next to Tranquil. “And I'm like 'Well your brother died a virgin, but at least he won't be buried one!'. He was… not pleased… he took a swing at my head with the machete.”

Okay, maybe it was a good thing she hadn't been paying attention. Mercury sat wide-eyed near the edge of the paved area around the altar, cradling their new little colt friend, while Olivia sat next to the altar, less to listen to Crimson and more to comfort poor Tranquil at having to. It was nice of her to swallow her disgust enough to do so.

“I'm bored now,” sighed Crimson after finishing the story. “Let's buck. I think I got one more dick spell in me.”

“Can you please not do that again?” asked Olivia. “There is a little one present, and besides you look exhausted after the one.”

“That pint-sized fang-face doesn't know what's going on,” Crimson rolled her eyes. “Hey you think they'll make Not-Midnight eat the colt to prove who she is? That'd be amazing.”

“You are an inappropriate little...” Olivia started, then paused as she sniffed the air.

“Little what?” Crimson said. “Psycho? Wife abuser? Sexy beast?”

“We need to get into the stable and close the door right now,” said Olivia. “I smell-”

“Surprise!” a deep grating voice rang the air and a hideous black and red creature appeared next to Olivia. An instant later, a large object clubbed Olivia over the head, sending her flying off the platform, head over heels several times before she collided with a dead tree. Her belt pack hit the ground between them and her.

Tranquil's eyes locked on the creature and immediately knew what it was. She flailed as she tumbled off the altar, forgetting her aches and galloping as fast as she could towards the stable door. She couldn't go back to Trinity!

It was no use. She felt a hulking frame snatch her and all she could do was writhe and squeal as the creature flipped her over their back. For a moment her panic made her blind and deaf to all else, at least until she felt an impact in the back of her head. There was a stab of pain and then nothing.

When she awoke, she had been bound and draped over the back of one of the super-mutants. She shook her head, trying to clear the cloud in her mind before looking around. There were three mutants, though none of them seemed to be the one that had initially ambushed them. Each of them had one of her friends on their back: Olivia, Mercury, and Crimson. The two unicorns had horn restraints on. One of the mutants must have had the colt too, because Tranquil heard his wailing without seeing him.

“Tranquil?” Crimson asked, atop the back of the one in front of Tranquil. The concern in her eyes turned to relief as Tranquil awoke, then returned to her regularly scheduled smirk. “You know you never squealed like that for me. Seriously. When she grabbed you, you shrieked like a filly guide losing anal virginity to an ice spider.”

“That funny joke!” laughed the mutant carrying Olivia.

“Pony!” growled the mutant carrying Crimson, less amused. “Stop making jokes before I nail your muzzle shut. With my dick!”

“I thought the FEV process removed gender?” Olivia said from the back of her own mutant steed.

“It do,” confirmed the mutant. “I made new one from broken stove pipe!”

“Please no more jokes, Crimson,” Tranquil said as tears welled up. “They really will, believe me.”

“Believe what?” Crimson arched an eyebrow. “Have you met these things before?”

“I'm sorry, Crimson,” sniffled Tranquil, shaking her head as Crimson peered at her.

“Or feed us to tatzlponies,” said Olivia grimly. “If only I hadn't dropped my grimoire.”

“Tatzlponies?” Mercury sniffled from her place at the back. “I heard the radio show mention those...”

“Horrifying psionic beasts,” said Olivia. “I... don't really want to talk about them.”

“Psionic?” Mercury sniffled from her place at the back. She asked her own mutant. “Where are we going?”

“To see our Best Friend, Cozy Glow!” said the mutant carrying Mercury. “Pony and puppy spies will be used for forced friendship purposes.”

“Is that a nice way of saying gang-rape with stove pipes?” asked Crimson, then added when the mutant she was on glared. “Honest question! Not a joke!”

Even then it looked like it was hard for Crimson to keep from laughing. However, Tranquil knew her enough now to know the amusement wasn't sincere. She was laughing at the darkness as a defensive mechanism.

Tranquil sighed. Crimson wasn't a nice pony by any stretch, but she didn't want her to go through what they were likely to go through at Cozy’s camp. They wouldn't want to keep them alive long enough to get them back to Stable 2 to attempt processing, so they'd probably be a meal or worse.

Maybe that was a blessing, though. Who even knew what would happen if they successfully processed Tranquil? She assumed that Trinity forbade it for a reason.

She wanted to flee. Reverting to her true form would be excruciating in her current condition, but she might convince them she was a changeling on a secret mission and they’d let her go. Of course that wouldn't help her pony friends, and defending them would do no good. It would only risk the mutants wising up enough to storm the nearby stable, whether Tranquil was a part of it or not.

No, she had to stay for now. She had to look for an opportunity to escape with her friends, or she'd never live with herself. And honestly, she was still concerned about Crimson. She really had grown to love her, and based on the memories that the real Tranquil had shared with her, Crimson was changing for the better. Tranquil still didn’t want her to know that her real wife was dead, it would hurt her more than she’d admit, and possibly push her back into her old ways.

The camp itself was so poorly lit that they could barely tell when they entered it, as expected since the super-mutants had decent night vision. The camp was mostly tents, surrounded by patrols of the larger mutants, as well as some huge wagon-mounted cannons that looked like they'd take at least two of the mutants to pull.

But did they have to make the cannons bright pink and cover them in a flower and balloon pattern?

A lot of things had a cute design. It was a harsh contrast that Tranquil had seen plenty before in mutant settlements, if you could call them that. Gore and half eaten ponies hanging like meat in a freezer held up by candy-striped poles right next to a tent with a smiley face pattern all over it. There were many horrible things in Equestria, but there was something particularly humiliating about being killed by something that made as little sense as this.

“Think killing joke still around forest?” the one carrying Tranquil asked the others as they moved.

“Hope so,” said the one carrying Crimson laughed. “Remember last time when killing joke turned Fluffy Heart into bunny? Then Apple Cake eated him! Then giant Everfree dragon eated her!”

“Was hilarious!” Tranquil's mutant laughed in return, then wiped a tear from her eye. “They really taught me the magic of laughter that day.”

“Classy!” commented Crimson.

“Killing joke,” blinked Mercury as if coming to a realization. “And you said they were psionic...”

Mercury moved slowly, trying to tug something out of her saddlebags with her bound hooves. Tranquil didn't know what Mercury was doing, but took that as a cue to distract the other mutants.

“So why is the killing joke around Everfree?” asked Tranquil, even if she already knew. “I thought the Trinity created them?”

“Trinity tell Cozy good plan,” the one carrying Tranquil rolled her eyes as the others chuckled. “Send killing joke in to kill fangfaces and twilicorns. Sounds good, except Everfree is only place that plant grows to repel them. In end, they formed ring around forest instead of attacking. Cozy explained it was all Berry Blue’s fault. Makes sense since she dumb dumb and Trinity not.

While Statera liked to think they were keeping the balance, the fact was that Trinity had made some pretty awful decisions and at inopportune times as well. It was her signature style to then blame them on a random soldier, which it seems the mutants believed easily.

“What happened to Berry Blue?” Tranquil asked, pretending to be interested to keep them distracted.

“Best Friend Cozy demoted her,” said Tranquil's mutant. “By casting illusion spell to make her look like pony, then having Berry's own Tatzlpony lay eggs in her! Her last words before she exploded into yummy mess was 'No Floofy, how could you?!'”

The other mutants laughed heartily at this as if it was the funniest thing ever. It seemed most of their hilarious stories involved how their ‘friends’ died horrible deaths. And of course, Crimson laughed too; she'd probably get along with these things if they weren't going to kill her.

“For what it's worth,” Crimson commented. “I'm looking forward to meeting Best Friend Cozy in person.”

“She always love to ‘meat’ new friends,” said Tranquil's mutant. “And her tent is right here!”

They arrived at a particularly large tent with a heart design all over it. Behind a flimsy flap of cloth, they could hear Cozy speaking loudly. As the flap was opened, they saw her there in front of radio equipment, speaking into a microphone.

Cozy was perhaps a few inches shorter than the largest mutant they'd seen, but had the same horrible red and black color scheme as most of the others, at least on her body. She wore a frilly blond wig braided into curls like a filly might wear, as well as a pair of fashionable pink glasses. The glasses couldn't have served any purpose since both lenses were shattered.

Disturbingly, the mutant had filly proportions despite her size, as if she’d been ‘converted’ as a foal and never grown up since then. Of course, as the general, she was probably one of if not the first nightkin produced.

For some reason, she was holding an old pony skull in one hand. She put it up to the microphone, moving the jaw as if it were talking.

“Welcome back, Gollytopia!” Cozy said, pressing a button on the console to make her voice sound like her assistant’s. Tranquil always suspected as much. “It's time!”

“Time for what, Shimmy?” Cozy asked in her normal voice.

“True Eye Seeing Time!” ‘Shimmy’ answered. “I see that you're already wearing your true eyes, Best Friend Cozy Glow, along with your head of true hair! What do you see?”

Cozy concentrated for a moment, looking at the tent wall in front of her intensely.

“Uh, I see Bulk,” Cozy said after much contemplation.

“First-Generation Bulk from down on the mountain!?” asked Shimmy as if this were profound information. “Oh, and what is he up to?”

“Standing outside his shack down there,” said Cozy.

“In the same spot as before, or has he moved?” Shimmy asked.

“A little!” Cozy nodded.

Tranquil wondered why the mutants that carried her and her friends hadn't gotten Cozy’s attention yet. Then she realized they were in awe of Cozy’s two-mutant show, not wanting to disturb it.

“Wow!” Shimmy said. “It must be so exciting to see and know all! What a powerful reminder of your ULTIMATE AUTHORITY and POWER for our listeners!”

“Golly! I see Moe!” announced Cozy.

“Moe the tatzlpony?!” Shimmy feigned excitement. “Favorite tatzlpony Moe? What's he up to?”

“Licking the gate,” said Cozy. “Wants out of the pen.”

“Now,” Shimmy took a serious tone. “I'm almost afraid to ask, but do you see any... you know... threats out there?”

It was weird to see her talk back and forth to herself. She'd even look one direction and then the other when taking the different personas, but it still seemed more like she was acting than actually having different identities.

“Threats all around us!” Cozy confirmed. “Converging, like a noose! Tightening! Power armored sea ponies astride anger bunnies!”

Suddenly the mutants that held them took on a different stance. Were they... shivering in fear? They always acted like this when they heard talk of anger bunnies. What the buck were those things? Were they a real thing or some boogeymare Cozy made up?

“Not the dreaded anger bunnies trained to hunt mutants!” gasped Shimmy. “Would it be going too far to say that your gift of true eyesight is the only thing saving our community from annihilation? Because I think it's so important that everyone, even the dumbs-dumbs know, how impossible it is to SNEAK UP ON US! More after this!”

Cozy flicked a switch to put on another inappropriately jazzy song, then turned in her giant swivel chair looking proud of herself. She then froze as she realized others had snuck up on her as she did her show. Lucky for her, the other mutants seemed too dumb to notice the irony.

“What are ponies doing here?” Cozy demanded, then said more quietly. “What did they see?”

“Nothing, we promise!” claimed Tranquil's mutant. “Besides, they're ponies. They too dumb to know what they see-ed.”

To sate Cozy, the mutant fumbled in one of the large pockets of his saddlebag. His giant hoof-claw pulled out the whimpering colt they'd snatched along with the others.

“Oh thank goodness!” Cozy’s mood immediately changed. “The weird laughing pony stole my sack lunch again today, so this will do nicely! I'll get the sliced bread and pickles!”

“What, no!” Olivia protested. “You can't eat a foal!”

“Sure I can!” Cozy answered. “I know I look cute, but I have very sharp teeth! It's kind of you to worry about my safety, but you should be more generous with your offspring.”

“H-he's not my offspring,” Olivia sounded somewhat dumbfounded. “We’re not even the same species…”

“Hm?” Cozy looked back and forth and shrugged before turning to carry the screaming colt away. “Oh, sorry. We have trouble telling the difference between different INFERIOR species. It’s probably because none of you have any friends.”

But Cozy wouldn't get her meal.

It happened so fast. In a flash of white light, a filly that wasn't much bigger than the colt appeared out of nowhere. Tranquil barely got a good look at her pink coat and purple and white striped mane, the twirl of her spiral purple eyes syncing with the spin of the propeller beanie on her head. Given the cutie mark of a screw and a ball, Tranquil guessed who this was.

“Tag, you're it!” Screwball giggled and smacked Cozy on the back of the head.

In spite of Screwball's tiny size and the mutant's massive frame, Cozy hit the floor face down as hard as if she'd been suplexed. Screwball snatched the colt away before Cozy hit the floor and giggled maniacally as she disappeared in another flash of light.

“Nooooo!” Cozy raised a fist into the air as if Screwball had just killed her one true love. “That's the fifth meal the laughing pony stole since we got to the mountain!”

“Laughing pony stole meals all over camp!” complained the mutant carrying Crimson. “And always the most tenderest! At least she leave tasty yellow sauce on less tender meals!”

Tranquil assumed that meant Screwball was saving any foals they captured or brought as food. Well at least those were safe, even if Screwball left the others to die.

“You!” Cozy pointed her finger right at Tranquil as she stood again. “You work for the laughing pony, don't you? You distracted me so that laughing pony could unleash her ULTIMATE ATTACK!”

“Hey now!” Crimson huffed. “Get that gnarly stub you call a hoof out of my wife's face.”

Tranquil couldn't help but be touched that Crimson defended her against such a horrible creature, but dreaded what the result would be.

“All of you in on it!” Cozy said, eyes widening as if she'd just uncovered a secret from bygone ages. “This conspiracy to steal my sandwiches!”

“I don't even know what is going on anymore,” sighed Olivia.

She wasn't wrong. Was this really the general that gave Midnight Sparkle so much trouble? That so many creatures feared? Tranquil had never personally met Trinity, or many mutants at all, but assumed that in spite of her crazy radio show, Cozy probably had some governing sense. There HAD to be more to these things, because Trinity couldn’t possibly believe they were the future of ponykind, yet not even her changelings knew what that was.

“I thought I'd finally gotten used to things,” Mercury still fumbled at her saddlebag, having gotten it open. She'd managed to pull what looked like a sealed glass canister a fraction of the way out. Was there something blue moving inside it?

“Fine,” Cozy took a deep breath. “I'm mad, but I'll show you the power of friendship by forgiving you! In fact, I'll let you pet the tatzlponies! Doesn’t that sound fun?”

“W-wait!” Tranquil stammered. “Those things will just eat or lay their eggs in us!” She didn't know why she bothered saying that.

“What's that, you want to help them lay eggs?” Cozy asked. “Already so loyal! I’m so proud.” She wiped a tear from her eye. “Take new friends to tatzlpen 4. They need egg sacks.” She turned back to her radio console as if they no longer concerned her.

“W-what? No!” Mercury squealed as they were all carried back out of the tent. “You can't do that to us! I can't die like that!”

In her panic, Mercury had forgotten about the thing she was pulling out of her bag, at least until she dropped it onto the ground. The sobbing mare shrieked and tried to catch it with her teeth before it clattered to the ground and rolled away.

Tranquil didn't know what that was but she had to do something. She looked at Crimson, still dreading the harshness of revealing her wife’s death. She watched a rainbow shimmer across her eyes as they reflected in Crimson’s though, and realized it. If she really loved this strange pony, she couldn’t accept being loved back based on a lie. The best way to show that love was to help her grow, and the longer this stayed secret, the harder it would be.

Concentrating as hard as she could, she strained to release her form back to her natural state. Pain spread outward from her head into her entire system as if every nerve was aflame in agony at once, and her body convulsed before a flash of green magic returned her to her true form. She barely managed the transformation.

Well, his true form. He tried to keep a few alterations, but in the end only had the energy to return to his usual base.

“What this?” Tranquil's mutant jumped at the change, then grumbled. “Silly bug-horse! How you get mixed in with ponies? You almost broked the law by being fed to tatzlponies!”

The mutant dumped Tranquil off her back like a sack of wet potatoes. He hoped Crimson didn't take note of certain bits when Tranquil fell onto his back, since she'd be torn up enough at the realization that her real wife had been dead this whole time. From the screech that came from Crimson's direction though, she'd noticed.

But there was no time to explain or even listen to what Crimson was yelling at him. As soon as the mutant tugged off his restraints, Tranquil avoided the mutant's attempt at a head pat and fumbled in the direction of the jar that Mercury dropped.

POV: Crimson Prose

Of all the ways Crimson expected she might die, this was not one of them. On a lighter note, if they were being implanted with eggs, at least the monsters murdering them were female. Probably?

Olivia looked to be thinking hard as if to come up with a plan, while Mercury more or less squealed as she writhed on the back of her captor. Tranquil seemed rather thoughtful as well, but Crimson just hung limp. What else could she do? She hoped she didn't lose her cool and die screaming, but she knew she probably would. Her pretend masochism had limits as Maud had proven.

'You can't just put yourself in the crimorie with me?' Paper Cut asked in her head.

'I already told you,' Crimson answered in her head. 'My horn is restrained. I don’t think it’s one of the Ministry ones I can get out of.'

'Well what am I supposed to do if you die?!' asked Paper Cut.

'As if you haven’t tried to kill me yourself on occasion,’ said Crimson. ‘Wait until one of these things opens your book and then do your best to make friends with it, I guess.'

Maybe Crimson should at least say something profound to her wife before they died. Maybe even something sincere? Nah. All the same, she looked to Tranquil and... stared as Tranquil's body was surrounded in a flash of green magic.

Where Tranquil once lay was now unmistakably a changeling. The creature had black chitin along the legs and head, with a dark pink underside and a brighter red shell area on the back with pink fairy wings folded up beneath. The creature had those solid colored eyes that made the things so creepy, red to match the shell and the three red gem-like protrusions on its chest.

Crimson's face went slack as she tried to pull her brain back together. How was Tranquil a changeling when she’d passed every test to check if she was one? For a moment she forgot her situation, only one thing running through her mind.

If this was a changeling, then Tranquil was dead and had been for some time. Not just that, but she had died without ever knowing that Crimson cared for her, in a manner of speaking at least. This meant Crimson never got to apologize after all, and the huge weight that had lifted off her shoulders returned like a mountain of coal bearing down on her soul. For a moment, she actually teared up.

But the poignant moment disappeared when the mutant hefted the changeling onto the ground. When they landed on their back, it was very obvious to see that it wasn't just any changeling; it was a male changeling. Crimson had bucked a male changeling multiple times without killing it.

“Noooo!” Crimson shrieked and writhed so suddenly that the mutant she rode atop had to stabilize her. “Wait! You can't kill me until I kill that! At least kill it first!”

“Nah, skittle bugs cute, almost as cute as tatzlponies!” Crimson's mutant explained, and turned Crimson's head to see the pen they were sitting next to. “Besides. We not allowed to hurt skittle bugs.”

“That one doesn't work for Trinity!” Crimson went hoarse from how loud she said that.

“You sure?” the mutant asked, scratching his head. Clearly this was one of the dumber strain. “To tell truth, not sure how to tell. Will ask Best Friend Cozy Glow later.”

Well that one wasn't listening to her, so Crimson looked at the pen instead. It wasn't that impressive, makeshift and made from various rocks, logs, or trash that they'd found around the area. It only kept its occupants in because the pen was also dug about two hoofsteps into the ground.

But the creatures inside drew all attention away from that. The beasts had four hooved legs, though that was as close to 'pony' as the tatzlponies got. Their bodies were covered with slimy amphibious flesh, undulating as if it were boiling just under the surface. Their dark purple bodies extended behind them to a long serpent-like tail with red frill along the end.

But the real monstrosity was their faces. Even if they were female, their heads sure looked close enough to cocks to make up for it. There were bright pink heads with red frills around the neck, but it was hard to tell which side of the head was 'up'. It was divided evenly into three segments, each of which had two cold black eyes with red zig-zagged patterns around them. From the yellowish slime oozing from between the segments, Crimson could only assume they opened into a mouth, or more likely a multi-use orifice.

The three in the pen rushed to the edge upon seeing the mutants come close, their legs moving unnaturally like separate tentacles beneath them as they moved. They opened their gaping mouths upon reaching the edge, fleshy interior dotted with jagged yellow teeth, half a dozen thick tentacles covered in yellow slime protruding from their throats.

Well, as far as deaths went, that might actually be fun, if gross. It depended on if they had some nice sedating poison on those fangs to help the prey relax. Crimson could easily assume what implanting their eggs involved as those tentacles whipped hungrily up at them and the creatures let out screeching barks.

“Who we throw in first?” asked the mutant that had been carrying the changeling. “We should let some watch the other first. It funny how they react!”

“Dog goes first!” said the one holding Olivia. “Me more a cat person.”

“What? No!” Olivia had only a moment to protest before her captor bucked her over the edge of the pen.

The three creatures were on her at once, but luckily for her, they didn't want to share, and for a moment they were hissing and fighting over who got the first go. Olivia whimpered, trying to slide further away from them, but there wasn't a lot she could do bound and without magic.

“This is your fault!” Mercury screamed over at Crimson. “Tranquil is dead and now we'll be dead because you had to run her off!”

Crimson looked back at her, but Mercury's eyes were filled with more fear than rage. She needed something to lash out at to make her feel better, so Crimson let her lash.

“I know,” Crimson shrugged, not bothering to make a joke. This was pretty hilarious by itself.

One of the tatzlponies won the screeching match, and it slithered towards Olivia as the other two returned to scratching at the side of the pen. It leaped upon her, but surprisingly didn't open its mouth immediately. Instead it looked two if its eyes directly into Olivia's and stared. Olivia shivered violently, convulsing into some kind of a seizure and falling limp. Was that the psionics they had mentioned?

What happened next made Crimson wish she had a free hoof to masturbate with. It opened its maw wide, latching into Olivia's crotch and sinking its thick fangs into her thighs like jagged nails. Even in her catatonic state, Olivia screamed and writhed as the creature punctured her. The probability of there being a sedative involved seemed zero at this point.

There was no shortage of wet sounds as the creature gagged, lumps sliding down each tentacle as it pushed its eggs into the canine victim. Olivia arched her back as she was pumped full enough that her belly swelled slightly.

“Olivia!” Mercury screeched, making their captors laugh. Crimson wished she wouldn't give the super-mutants the pleasure of reacting.

Crimson just lay still, trying to hide how hot this made her lest they decide to do something even more horrifying to her. What did it really matter? It wasn't like Crimson had anything to live for right now, and it wasn’t like she didn’t deserve this, so she may as well enjoy it for as long as she could.

“This pony not afraid enough,” Crimson's mutant said. “Toss that one in. See if this one get scared.”

“No, no, no!” shrieked Mercury as she was tossed in and the two remaining ones fought over her.

“So I'm just going to be scraps for the loser?” asked Crimson. “How underwhelming. Well, you've mildly upset me. It's no screaming terror, but it's the best you'll get.”

Mercury screamed even louder than Olivia, and tried not to look into the thing's eyes. It whipped her with its front hooves rather humorously as it invaded her mind, until she gave into the psionic coaxing and eventually was able to stare down the whimpering unicorn. A few ripping-like sputtering noises brought Crimson’s attention to Mercury’s rear area, and she saw a puddle of urine forming on the ground below.

“So that’s what it takes to make you piss yourself!” Crimson mocked, making a few mutants laugh uproariously.

“Buck you... I don't wanna die like this,” sobbed Mercury as her movements slowed and the slimy creature slithered to her nethers.

“Not the worst way to die,” Crimson called in to her. “We're being killed by females at least.”

“Tatzlponies no have silly genders,” the mutant that threw Mercury in shook her head.

“Oh, so they're herms?” Crimson asked. “Damn it.” That was close enough to male to irk her, but she tried not to show it.

“Still not scared?” Crimson's mutant asked her. “You'll be scared when inside!”

“Or I'll moan in bliss,” Crimson licked her lips. “By the way, if a bored-looking earth pony arrives and murders you all, could you let her know that I gave permission for her to buck my corpse?”

“She crazy pony,” said the mutant that threw Crimson in. Getting called insane by one of these things was quite a distinction. “Me bet 100 caps that she really moan.”

“You on!” the other said.

And with that, Crimson went over the edge and thudded against the slimy ground next to the shrieking monstrosity that had been designated to rape her to death.

Nearby, Mercury was getting pumped full of eggs, her bounds having come loose so she could kick weakly into the air, but she couldn't do more than sob. Olivia had gone further, sprawled out and shivering. The horrifying creatures must not have taken long to gestate, because her belly had already swelled larger and was undulating as if little creatures were crawling within, making the dog once again whine and soon scream.

Determined not to die like a struggling pig in the face of the inevitable, Crimson rolled over onto her back and looked at the creature directly in the eyes to get it over with. Once bitten, she felt her whole body freeze up, and her movements became haphazard. The venom seemed to intensify rather than dull everything she felt. Well, here we go.

It might have been pleasant if not for the stinging acidic mixture coating the tentacles as they went up both holes. Crimson arched her back, agony shooting through her, but focused on the slightest bits of pleasure and made herself moan through clenched teeth, not wanting to give her tormentors the fear that they wanted. She heard the mutant that bet against her sigh in disappointment.

Olivia's screams turned to wet gurgles and Crimson saw blood fountain from her muzzle in the corner of her eye. The tiny newborns began to tear their way out of her, splitting open her chest. The one that had just laid its eggs in her ripped a chunk of meat free from the canine's torn chest to feast on its egg sack, and Olivia's body shuddered to a stop.

Crimson didn’t look forward to that, but she supposed she’d be the last to go. Mercury’s was currently finishing up, pulling away from her, and Crimson felt an uncharacteristic swell of pity for the poor pony.

In fact, Crimson felt sick at this fate. This was so unlike her.

Sudden convulsions from Crimson's own 'breeder' brought her attention back to her own plight. As she looked downward, the convulsing creature seemed to be sucking the eggs back into its own body, feeling around Crimson's insides to pull them back out. Why was it doing that?

Well, that might have something to do with it. Atop the creature coiled a vine with a bright blue flower: Killing joke.

Even as her first tormentor tugged free of her, Crimson fully expected the joke to do her in next, but instead the creature ran towards Mercury's tormentor like a starved hobo chasing a sandwich. It occurred to Crimson that that must be the one Mercury was carrying around, and if so it had been starved of psionic energy. Psionic creatures like these must be a delicious buffet for it, and it’d completely ignore the ponies until it was done with them.

The second tatzlpony tried to stare the poison joke down, but the eyeless creature shrugged off the effect and latched onto the other creature's face. The second one staggered confusedly as the plant released it, then immediately slurped up its own tail, rabidly consuming itself from the other end.

Crimson's attention was pulled away by another creature standing over her. She turned to see the disgusting male that had pretended to be Tranquil. He'd managed to shift one hoof into a long thin appendage with two claws on the end, which he rammed into both Crimson's holes to feel around to see if there were any eggs left inside.

“Sorry,” the changeling said. “Being sure there’s none left in there. I'm um... Figment, by the way.”

“Stop saving me so I can bucking murder you!” Crimson shrieked and grabbed for the changeling's neck.

Of course, Crimson was in no shape to harm him, and he simply held the unicorn down apologetically as he took out an egg, which would have been enough to kill Crimson had it hatched, and tossed it aside. He then rushed towards Mercury, who seemed in need of the help a lot more.

Crimson tried to stagger to her hooves, but quickly collapsed again. Figment was digging eggs out of Mercury at a frantic pace, the slimy baubles undulating as if seconds from bursting and eating their way out.

Olivia on the other hoof was long past help, as was the creature that implanted her. That one seemed to have a slower fate, as all its tentacle tongues were prying themselves out of its throat and slithering off. The plant then chased around the newborns that had burst from Olivia, happily murdering away. One had a flower grow out of its throat, and another turned inside out. It didn't look any uglier than before.

Crimson's tatzlpony had shoved its eggs into its own posterior and was now thrashing about as they began to dig their way out, dying as it had intended to kill Crimson. Deciding not to be around when they escaped, Crimson dragged herself away from it. The super-mutants watching would surely be angry at losing such good entertainment.

Wait. Why hadn't they stopped it?

Crimson looked up to see that, for some reason, no one was watching them any longer. In her own agony, she'd failed to realize that the sounds of battle and screaming had broken out all around the pen. She couldn't see what was going on, but it sounded like combat. How would an enemy get to the middle of camp so quickly, though?

“The Holder hive will not like this,” a bored voice said from Olivia's direction.

Crimson looked to see Maud standing there in her pulse barding, looking down at Olivia's corpse. Luckily, the killing joke had gorged itself and was now sprawled out happily next to its own victims, uninterested in the ponies when so full. Maud slammed a large rock atop it before it decided it was hungry again, but didn’t kill it so it could cause more grief for the mutants once it worked its way out.

“Well, look who it is,” Crimson chuckled through her own tears. “Guess what? You don’t have to share me with another mare now.”

POV: Maud Pie
Foal Mountains

Maud wondered if she should be doing this. She had to live long enough to save her sisters after all. On the other hoof, she couldn't face her sisters if she had acted cowardly on the way.

The pulse barding kept her hidden, not glitching out for the moment, as well as the cart she was carrying. Movement was a challenge though, dragging a cart with a dead nightkin mutant behind her. She'd told Starlight she was well within her pain tolerance, but a few of her ribs felt like they might have snapped and started grinding together or poking her internals. Either way she couldn't slow down. She was on a timer, and that timer was probably how fast the mutants could shove her friends down their throats.

Her pipbuck vibrated, alerting her that she was near the perimeter. She backed the cart into a crevice between two large rocks, unhitching it and leaving the dead super-mutant there, hoping that she wouldn’t have to leave the range of the signal switching spell.

There were several watch towers and a rather large gun between them, and a patrol of three super-mutants passing in front of them on top of that. None of them were the huge type they fought at first, but they were still Daybreaker-sized.

She flicked on the stealth buck in addition to the pulse barding now that she was in line-of-sight, not wanting to take a chance of her armor glitching out in an inopportune moment. She scampered as fast as she could, trying to avoid stepping on anything that would make a sound. At least in a dead forest there were no leaves to step on.

Once inside the camp, she crept from one creepy tent to the next, looking for any that looked like it might be for either prisoners or food. As she moved along, she dropped the holographic emitters every dozen hoof-steps. When she could, she threw some so they wouldn’t make a straight line.

Her search paid off as she heard the unmistakable sound of someone sobbing in terror, and it sounded like Mercury. She raced towards the source of the sound.

Arriving at the pit, her eyes grew large as she looked inside just in time to see the first monstrosity burst through Olivia's belly as the dog thrashed madly. Mercury and Crimson were in similar situations. Maud clenched her teeth and ducked into a shadow before flicking off the stealth buck and looking at her pipbuck.

There was ninety seconds until another interval where she could break the teleport beacon. She pulled the thing out of her saddlebag, holding it in her muzzle as she watched her pipbuck's time.

Trying to watch the feeding pit as well, she saw a changeling flutter into it out of nowhere and drop a killing joke bloom onto the tatzlpony attacking Crimson. The super-mutants watching responded with predictable rage at their pets being mistreated, but it was too late for them to do anything about it as the time on Maud's clock hit the mark. Smashing the teleport beacon, Maud flicked the stealth back on, leaping into the pit and raced towards the others.

The terminal flashed into existence where Maud had smashed the beacon and all the holographic transmitters activated. Suddenly, the camp was alight with mutant glee as the fighting broke out. Maud supposed any normal army would have erupted into panic, but these creatures seemed pretty happy about another chance to fight. The encampment suddenly filled with laughter and excited screaming, the images of Daybreaker no doubt mistaken for the sudden twilicorn attack they had been waiting for despite the difference in looks.

As Maud arrived, it looked like it was too late for her to do anything other than retrieve the survivors. The changeling had saved Crimson and was prying disgusting looking eggs out of Mercury's body, crushing each one as they removed them. Olivia, however, was well beyond help. Maud let the stealth field fade again so that the others would see her.

“The Holder hive will not like this,” Maud said as she looked down at Olivia.

“Well, look who it is,” Crimson chuckled, but her tears gave away her pain. “Guess what? You don’t have to share me with another mare now.”

“I am sorry for your loss,” Maud said to Crimson, knowing exactly what she meant. It was not hard to assume since Tranquil was nowhere to be seen and a changeling was saving them. Maud did experience some surprise that it was in fact a changeling, but would ask how the thing avoided detection later.

“Don't hurt him,” Mercury gagged as Maud approached, thinking Maud might crack the changeling’s skull or something. “I think this is… who we thought was Tranquil.”

So that is why Tranquil was afraid to let Crimson know who they really were. She decided not to mention the fact that she knew this to Crimson. Instead she pulled out Zapper from her pack, turning it to the lowest energy setting and aiming it towards Mercury’s gut. Each time the changeling pulled an egg free, Maud zapped Mercury in the gut, making the poor girl squeak, but hopefully the lower charge time slowing would keep any from hatching before the changeling was done.

“Maud,” Crimson groaned. “Pick me up and carry me over there so I can kill the cock-bug.”

Ah. So she already knew.

“The one that just saved your lives?” Maud asked, shooting Mercury in the gut again as she sobbed. She felt bad for doing so. “Sorry, Mercury.”

“As if my life is anything important,” Crimson growled.

“Your life is important to me,” Maud said. It was the truth, even if Maud herself did not know why.

Crimson was taken off guard by that and stared for a moment. So Maud turned back to Mercury.

“What is your name, cock-bug?” Maud asked. She stopped firing as the changeling made one more check in each of Mercury’s entries and seemed to come up empty of any more eggs.

“I'm Figment,” the changeling said as his ears wilted slightly, pouring a potion down Mercury's muzzle.

“Hello, Figment,” said Maud, turning Zapper back up to max setting and then putting it back into her saddlebag.

Maud turned to Crimson and slipped the horn restraint off of her. Crimson immediately turned to Figment, clenching her teeth as her horn lit up.

“Crimson,” Maud put a hoof to her horn, the metal of her barding shorting out the magic. “Can you manage to put everyone in the book so I can carry you? And swear you will not harm the changeling while you are in there.”

“Fine,” Crimson sighed.

“Quickly,” said Maud. “We do not know how long the super-mutants will be content fighting holograms before they wise up and check on you. Bring Olivia and one of the dead creatures too. We need them to prove to the Holder hive what killed Olivia.”

“Fine,” Crimson growled again. “I'll help now so you won’t stop putting out, but mark my words; I'm conveniently not saving that thing the first chance I get.”