Fallout Equestria: The Ashlands Timeline

Date: Tuesday 11/22/2287
POV: Sea Blitz
Novo City

It was absurd that the sea around Unicornia was tainted enough to actually glow. Obviously that couldn’t be explained by some balefire explosions on the coast so long ago, nor the CME strike on Mount Aries far to the south. Unicornia was certainly dumping waste into the ocean on purpose as a way to stave off the Children of Novo after they became too annoying to Unicornian exploratory parties.

Luckily for the Novo, they had a nice enclosed base of operations. The old Ministry of Engineering had been shifted down several hundred hoofsteps deeper by seismic activity after the Breaking. Those that could teleported out, and those that couldn’t died from radiation soon after due to the meltdown of their balefire reactor.

Now it was underwater, so it made the perfect base for the sea ponies. The ghouls were cleared, the teleport pads refitted so only they could use them, and they’d even set up large-scale shrimp and kelp farms for food in some of the old warehouses. They had renamed the entire thing to Novo's Ministry.

Unicornia knew they were in the area, but made the flawed assumption that the entrance to the base must be in the well-filtered bay area that they used. In reality the entrance was in one of the more toxic areas of the nearby sea, where they’d never think to look, with several layers of waterlocks and filtration systems to keep it from getting inside. They had plenty of clean water inside that they could recycle, so rarely had to bring in more.

Currently Sea Blitz floated in the med bay in a clear container, the water around him filled with healing solutions as he waited. Despite his injuries though, questioning had begun immediately. Captain Wavedancer now floated nearby outside of the transparent container looking at her computer screen.

“I probably don’t need to tell you that you’ll likely be demoted for this failure,” Wavedancer said. That wasn’t the most hopeful thing to start on. She could have at least asked if he was okay first.

“I know,” said Sea Blitz simply. He knew it was his fault; he should have known better than to fire on a random unibird with no escape plan, but he’d been riding on a layer of fury for the last week after his sister Sealight had been lost to Unicornians. He supposed she’d be ashamed of him now for causing more loss in a doomed attempt at vengeance.

That rage had burned hot during his stay at Unicornia, rage at all creatures that seemed out to destroy seaponies for no reason. Yet, that anger had been shorted out by the most unlikely of creatures.

“I’m worried about this… Figment,” Wavedancer didn’t dwell on it. She’d already explained in a previous meeting that his anger, however justified, could cause further loss. “You said you gave it your tracker? While that’s not a security risk since it doesn’t allow it to locate us, it is… questionable.”

“He saved me,” sighed Sea Blitz. “And I believe his entire group was only there to get a spy into Unicornia.”

“The group that helped in your capture, you mean?” Wavedancer sneered slightly. “This is certainly an about-face for you. I have to say I understand it even less than your tendency to disobey orders for emotional reasons.”

“They helped make sure I was brought in alive,” said Sea Blitz. “And then risked their own mission to save me. I couldn’t not give that kind of potential ally a means for us to find them.”

“And have you considered,” asked Wavedancer. “That Unicornia might also find that tracker and use it to lure us? Sea Blitz, while I did say you need to stay calm and focused, I didn’t mean that you should grow soft. The other creatures out there are no different from Unicornia.”

“What about Applejack?” asked Sea Blitz. “The earth pony that gave us the codes to this facility, helped us clear out the ghouls, and even provided vital information we needed to get the power armor project going again? My understanding is that she wanted to make up for what Equestria had done… and Figment said that their goal is the same.”

“Sea Blitz,” Wavedancer sounded serious, but Blitz cut her off.

“We are facing EXTINCTION, captain!” Blitz raised his voice more than he ever had at his commanding officer, but was low enough in rank at this point that more demotions would hardly matter. “If I am troubling you so much, then send ME to talk to them and offer peace. At worst you’ll be rid of me and at best we’ll have a fighting chance.”

Wavedancer stared at him for a moment, her face tensed in irritation, but slowly relaxed it.

“I’ll consider it,” she said, flicking off her computer screen.

When she left, Sea Blitz had nothing to do but ponder. He didn’t like changelings either, or anything else out there, but he hadn’t been joking when he said they faced extinction. To their knowledge, they were the only sea ponies left. That was why losing his team had been such a huge deal.

It was this that had kept him up at night so many times. He thought of all those that he knew that had been picked off. There were less than 1000 now in this base, down from 1500 just a generation ago, and they had nowhere to flee if this location was compromised. This could not go on without help, even if it meant pushing for an alliance with creatures that he despised.

Date: Tuesday 11/22/2287
POV: Forgot
Holder

Xander wanted to move quickly on the restaurant that he suspected of housing changelings, so Forgot had to get his wits together quickly after Midnight’s visit. Fortunately, he’d been able to do the necessary prep work the evening before. Specifically, stealing an extra key before they closed that night, then planting the gas bomb a few hours after closing.

Forgot wasn’t exactly a thief, but his sneaking experience made it easy enough to quickly duck into the back of the restaurant and find an extra key hanging on the wall in the manager’s office. He was sure a few times that he’d be found out, but as long as he kept his hoofsteps silent, not many seemed to question a quick blur in the corner of their eye. It was a little worrying to him how oblivious to potential danger ponies were.

Placing the bomb itself had been more difficult with all the climbing involved to get it into the rafters, but at least it was more relaxing with no one in the restaurant. Before he left, he’d put the spare key back where he found it, hoping no one had noticed it missing.

Something that Xander failed to mention though was that Forgot needed to be the one to set it off. So now, Forgot ate dinner at the restaurant in question, right beneath where the bomb was, a gas mask hidden in his saddlebag. It felt a little icky to be doing so, but Xander had said that Forgot should only set it off when the manager was within range, so when Forgot was almost done with his meal, he flagged down his waiter.

“Yes sir?” the tan, yellow-maned stallion asked. “How may I help?”

“Ah, well,” Forgot tapped his front hooves together. “I was hoping I could speak to the manager right quick? Sorry… it’s something I wanted to say directly to him.”

“Oh?” the stallion looked a bit crest-fallen, but nodded as he walked towards the back.

Forgot hoped he wasn’t causing a scene, so looked around to make sure no one was looking. It seemed no one had noticed, the only reaction he got to looking around was seeing his friend Fable at the next table over. She waved to him with a gentle smile, and he waved back with a blush. He always went a little red around PUB workers, and wasn’t rightly sure why, but they were probably the nicest residents in the town.

The manager, a large completely-black stallion, approached, and Forgot imagined he was like Chrysalis with more fur and fewer dangerous edges. As the stallion neared though, Forgot saw the waiter behind the counter looking nervously in their direction, and felt his stomach knot at having unnecessarily made them sad. He decided to at least give the waiter something nice for when he woke up, just in case they didn’t turn into a changeling.

“Is there a problem, sir?” the manager asked, possibly-feigned concern on his face.

“Um, no,” Forgot smiled, idly fiddling with his necklace with one hoof. “I-I just wanted to compliment my waiter to you, since he was so friendly and prompt!”

It was awkward wording, and Forgot worried that the manager would ask for details, so he acted quickly after that. Worried that using his magic would be too obvious, he moved his other hoof beneath the table where the activator was on his lap, pressing the button before he finished the sentence then taking a deep breath in.

A chorus of panic rang through the business as the gas exploded above them and rained down. Forgot ducked under the table, holding his breath until he got on his gas mask, not wanting anyone to see him do it. The screams died down quickly, and he poked his head back out just as Xander stormed into the front door with his own gas mask on his face.

The manager was still… the manager, though, just passed out like a brick, so it seemed that Xander’s assumption had been wrong. So were the wait staff, but there was one notable exception among the patrons. On the next table over, where Fable had been a moment before, there was a creature with dark green chitin over their body and dark purple around their torso, passed out face-down in the dessert Fable had just been eating.

Forgot was shocked, unable to comprehend that possibly the kindest person he’d met was the changeling. She’d even sat down with him after his session with her at the pub and given him advice on helping Dinky feel less self-conscious about being cold inside. She told him where to get internal heating units for her, even though it would surely mean Forgot wouldn’t need the PUB anymore. Fable clearly cared about him, and had expressed vitriol towards Chrysalis when he mentioned her scaring him.

Xander seemed surprised too, though more that the manager and staff were not changelings. He wasted no time though, and quickly went for Fable instead.

“Who was this?” Xander asked Forgot, not having taken time to identify the patrons around Forgot. “Do you know?”

“Y-yes, it’s Fable,” Forgot said unsurely. “She works at the PUB, but she’s…”

“Talk more later,” Xander cut him off, grabbing the detonator from the floor and hefting Fable onto his back. “Give me your gas mask and breathe in the gas yourself. When they find you passed out too, no one will think to blame you.”

It made sense, and it was nice of Xander to be concerned for Forgot’s safety as well, but Forgot had to wonder... All of Xander’s initial assumptions had been wrong, and Fable looked a great deal different and less scary than Chrysalis, so was this right?

“Okay, but make sure she’s bad before doing anything, okay?” Forgot nodded. He glanced around the restaurant, having wanted to check everyone to make sure no one got hurt falling down, but realized they were short on time. He removed his gas mask, took a deep breath, and felt himself passing out as Xander took the mask and ran towards the back exit.

When he awoke, he was in the hospital, as it seemed were all the others that had been in the restaurant. None of them seemed hurt, and many were already leaving, so it seemed to have gone well. After the nurses gave him a few tests to make sure he was fine, Forgot assured them he hadn’t seen anything suspicious, and none of them mentioned Xander.

Forgot assumed this meant success, but processing him out of the ward took longer than he’d like. He’d been awake for over an hour when he finally got to leave, hurrying to where he knew Xander was staying. It wasn’t one Xander usually stayed in, with most of the residents away at work or in town at the moment. It was also the building Chrysalis stayed at when in town, right across the hall from her apartment, in fact.

It was a pretty smart choice though, since it meant that this would be the last place they’d look for someone who was terrified of changelings. Forgot remembered using a similar strategy once, making his hideout in a vent just down the hall from where his tormentors emerged, and it had worked for quite a long time before they’d found it.

When he arrived, he knocked loudly on the door a few times, then rattled it a bit when there was no answer. He was worried that he had the wrong room for a moment, but then there was scuffling as Xander checked the peephole before the door opened. Xander yanked him in quickly and closed it behind him.

“Apologies,” Xander explained. “I was under the bubble of silence I set up for questioning, so I couldn’t hear the door until I stepped out.”

Xander motioned towards the corner of the room, and Forgot was shocked by what he saw. Fable was hanging from the ceiling upside down, front hooves pulled behind her back and tied there painfully, wings outright shredded as if with a blade, but they still buzzed about frantically. She wasn’t gagged, but was under what looked like a silence bubble generated by a crystal device sitting on the floor beneath her. She was visibly sobbing though and her eyes looked wrong. It was hard to explain, but they were darting around from more than just fear, as if she’d been drugged with something else. That and, for some reason, she had a very obvious penis that she hadn’t had before… and it was fully aroused.

“W-what did you do to her?” Forgot stammered, too freaked out to speak higher than a squeak. “Why does she have a male thingie like us?”

“Ah,” Xander nodded, not seeming to suspect that Forgot had any real problem with it. “It seems it was a male changeling pretending to be a mare. For some reason, it initially believed that Crimson Prose had hired me to assassinate it for secretly being male.”

“Uh, okay,” Forgot glanced back and forth again as Fable swayed in panic, looking pleadingly at Forgot now. “But why is her male part hard?”

“I dosed it with Hera’s Scorn,” Xander explained. “It causes out-of-control rage and arousal to the point that victims literally murder one another, and has a side effect of disabling a changelings morphing and communication abilities. However, I gave it a low dose so it could still be questioned effectively while still not changing.”

“So, um…” Forgot looked away from the frantic creature, wanting to ask about the obvious torture, but was starting to fear Xander too in a way he hadn’t before. “The manager… and waiters…”

“Indeed, I was as surprised as you,” nodded Xander, face tensing in puzzlement. “However, we lucked out that this one was dining there. Because she believed Crimson had hired me, she assumed that I already knew that all the workers at the PUB in town are changelings and spilled it all. To think, I always thought it was too obvious… but I believe it to be true. I tormented it quite a bit to ensure it wasn’t lying.”

“That’s a lot to take in,” Forgot looked at the floor, shaking his head. “Because they were all so nice…”

“It is a changeling’s job to deceive those around them,” Xander explained. “They must be convincing, otherwise the Trinity wouldn’t get any use of them as spies. More importantly, this is serious indeed. I have questions about why Crimson knew this and didn’t tell me despite wanting to kill them, but more importantly it implies that both Kyo and Olivia were likely changelings as well. That puts Kyo’s daughter Custard into question too, which means I can no longer take this directly to her. This would explain why those in charge here have stood in my way against their own best interests.”

“S-should we talk to Starlight when she gets back?” Forgot started. “Maybe until then, we could let Fable…”

“There is no need to refer to it by its disguise name,” hmmphed Xander. “And we can’t wait. This is one of the last places they’ll look for me, so I’m safe for at least a day here, but before that day is over, this needs to be taken care of once and for all, and you are just the one that can do that. Wait here.”

Xander walked to another room, and from what Forgot could see, he was putting the last finishing touches on something he’d been working on that looked similar to the gas bomb they’d used before. Forgot slowly stepped over towards Fable, and within the silence bubble that surrounded her.

“Forgot, please help me…” she cried as soon as he could hear her. Her voice sounded exactly like her voice as a mare, even if her changeling form was male, and it was hard to hear such a kind voice in such pain. “I don’t know w-what he told you, but I’m just scared and horny, not evil, I swear on my tight butthole!”

“H-he said you work for Trinity,” Forgot muttered, ignoring her overly-aroused phrasing. “It’s hard for me to believe too but… but Chrysalis is a changeling and she was so scary to me, on purpose too.”

“We all hate her!” Fable shook her head erratically, clearly having trouble with coordinated movement. “She enslaved us, just like Trinity enslaves some changelings now, but we’re free! No one at the PUB works for them, we just wanna buck! I-if we were spies, would we all be at the same place?”

“Well um,” Forgot shuffled about. He wanted to believe her, but he also wanted to believe Xander. He didn’t want to think either of them had lied to him. “Maybe because a lot of people go there.”

“Not everyone!” Fable shouted. “Custard and Starlight...oh buck she’s hot, and both don’t! We spend all our time bucking instead of following them around! What kind of spy network wouldn’t hang around the two most important ponies when...when they can disguise at will?”

That actually made sense. Custard was apparently too young and seemed uncomfortable about sex. Dinky had also mentioned that Starlight seemed to hate sex in general. Forgot assumed the best intel was from staying close and direct, and he knew a lot of ponies would lie while at the PUB.

Beyond even that, Fable had a terror on her face that he’d only ever seen on his own face in a mirror. Could she really fake that kind of abject horror? Maybe so when she was sober, but could she when drugged? Forgot had limited experience with it since he came to town, but everyone he’d seen that was drunk or high had no self-control whatsoever, and Fable was clearly not her usual in-control self, if her movements, weird pauses and stammers, and the puddle on the floor were any indication.

“B-but…” Forgot tried to get it all right in his head. “Xander thinks Custard might be one… of you too.”

“Forgot…” Fable whimpered when he looked thoughtful instead of replying. “You know me, the real me. The one you talked to in the PUB is the real, horny and caring me. You can’t judge someone by how their...their ass looks, but by how they act! If we had control of the leader of the city, why would we need to spy at the PUB at all? It’s a shelter, that’s all, w-we just make ponies hap-”

Before she could finish, Xander reached in and tugged him out from under the bubble of silence. Forgot turned to see the zebra looking rather grave, having placed the device he had been finishing on the table nearby.

“S-she said…” Forgot wanted to explain her logic to Xander. “Um… that it didn’t make sense and um…”

“Forgot,” Xander put a hoof on his shoulder. “That creature’s very nature is deception. Anything it tells you is a lie. Trinity has put plans on top of plans, and many conspiracies have been designed specifically to make people think they couldn’t be true. They hid at the PUB for the same reason I am hiding across from Chrysalis’s quarters… because it is the last place someone would look. Their shifting services made them ‘too obvious’, and anything else it tells you is designed to serve that lie.”

Darn it, that made sense too. Forgot didn’t know what to think at all now. How did he tell who was right? What if they were both right and just misunderstanding? Or both wrong? He had no idea anymore. He was sweating now, quietly but surely going towards a panic, unable to keep from glancing at the pitiful creature sobbing silently a few feet away, shaking her head at him pleadingly.

“Don’t worry, what you need to do should not be too dangerous for you, not with your skill,” Xander gently moved Forgot’s head to not look at Fable. “And since you passed out with all the other patrons at the restaurant, no one suspects that you were involved. We have used their own tactic against them, you are the last pony they would think would move to end this.”

Xander motioned towards the device. When Forgot didn’t take it, he picked it up with his muzzle and moved to put it in Forgot’s saddlebag. Forgot stood shivering, knowing that this gas bomb didn’t have the same innocuous substance inside. He looked at Xander with his lip quivering.

“Please, do not be afraid,” Xander put a hoof on his shoulder again. “I would not ask this of you if I wasn’t completely confident in your success. All you have to do is sneak this into the barracks at the PUB. Tonight as they sleep, I will set it off, and the problem will take care of itself.”

“Take care of itself?” Forgot asked, holding his necklace tightly in one hoof. “How?”

“This one is full of Hera’s Scorn, undiluted by sleeping potion as the other bomb was,” nodded Xander. “The gas will be high potency, so they will all fly into a rage and murder one another. I’ve even placed a scanning device on it so that I can know when a majority of them are in the room to set it off. What few that remain shouldn’t be much trouble to round up, and no one will care when they find out what kind of monsters they were.”

Forgot was too stunned to reply. He didn’t look at Fable again with Xander there, but he could hear the creek of the part of the rope above the silence bubble, as if she were struggling so frantically that it’d started swinging back and forth.

“O-okay…” Forgot nodded at Xander. He wasn’t okay, but he was as afraid to refuse as he was to accept. “P-please don’t harm this one more. Um… Starlight might want to question at least one of them, right?”

“Of course,” Xander nodded. “I agree. I’ll take it down, and will just keep it high on scorn to prevent changing. Go somewhere to do something for a while before going to the PUB, lest someone put two and two together.”

Forgot nodded again, making sure his backpack was closed securely, then fleeing the room. He opened the door so hard that it was a wonder it didn’t come off its hinges, slamming it behind him as he evacuated. He turned to make sure that Xander wasn’t following him, but the zebra probably thought that Forgot was merely in a hurry to complete his mission.

If Xander had a scanner on the bomb, he’d probably know where Forgot went, but he’d also said to go somewhere else and do something first, and he could only think of one to do: get advice, and one place to do it: Dinky’s lab.

Resisting the urge to gallop lest he look suspicious, Forgot trotted towards Stable 11. He didn’t like going inside any stable, but that was where Dinky had her lab set up, and where she’d still be working with Solar on the shield generator for the town.

But now that he knew Fable had been a changeling, his paranoia was at the max, it felt like he was in Stable 5 all over again. He couldn’t just outright ask her if he should help murder the changelings; he’d have to word it in some other way.

Even walking down the halls in Stable 11 was emotionally excruciating, but Fable managed to stammer a request for directions and was eventually guided to Dinky’s laboratory. He felt bad that he’d never been here, but his fear of being in a stable had always overridden his desire to see Dinky’s work.

Apparently Dinky had instructed the guards that her ‘coltfriend’ was allowed to come inside her lab, which made him blush briefly even beneath his hysteria. He left his saddlebags just outside of the lab, unsure of whether Xander had an audio link with the bomb, and went inside.

The lab was rather large, having been set up in what must have been a warehouse before. The high ceiling accommodated a large metallic structure that must have been one of the shield generators from Canterlot, which Dinky had mentioned was the center of her current research. Around that were tables with a myriad of parts that Forgot couldn’t identify, most seeming more complex than even the robots that had tormented him for so long.

Kamikaze’s wings were currently on a nearby table. As Solar had finished with the power supply that the shield would need already, she’d been attending to Kami’s long list of requested power-ups. Apparently one of those requests had been to add ‘superheated razor wings’ to her current one without sacrificing maneuverability. Forgot wasn’t sure what it was about, but Kami sure talked about it a lot.

The first pony he saw was Solar, who hadn’t yet seen him. She looked to be taking a break from Kamikaze’s body parts, sitting back in a chair as she read a Journal of Magitech with brand new engineering goggles around her head. It must have been a good issue, because the front hoof not holding the journal was between her hind legs instead. He decided to leave her to it for now.

Dinky was hunched over and inside the tall shielding structure, and he could see her rotten but cute behind as she squirmed about in there. Her size must have been quite an asset when crawling around that thing. He trotted over to her, awkwardly trying to piece together what to say in his head.

“D-Dinky?” he asked quietly. “Um… I’m here.”

“Forgot?” Dinky asked. “You finally came to take a look!”

“Oh hey cutie!” Solar glanced from her magazine and smiled, but then looked back at it and didn’t stop using her hoof. She lacked the shame that other ponies out here had, but it had never bothered Forgot.

What made him blush was the delighted surprise in Dinky’s voice. What intensified that was when she backed out of the shield generator and bumped her behind against one of his legs. He noticed as it brushed to the side for a bit that she was quite warm, indicating she kept her internal heating coils on even when they weren’t playing… or maybe she did things with Solar, a thought he didn’t mind, and that made him blush more.

“Did you want me to show you around?” Dinky tilted her head as she turned around, smiling and looking somewhat flustered herself. He shivered slightly with dread despite the blush. Her voice went slightly dark a moment later as she seemed to notice. “No one’s giving you a hard time, right?”

“No, it’s not that,” Forgot shook his head. “I uh… had a conversation that confused me and I just wanted to see what you thought of it is all.”

“Okay, shoot,” Dinky nodded with a smile.

“Um…” Forgot’s eyes widened.

“Not literally,” Dinky chuckled. “Tell me your question.”

“Well um,” Forgot nodded, sitting back and slowly tapping his front hooves on the floor in front of him. “It was about the… hypothetical use of violence to find infiltrators… and punish them when they’ve been found without talking to them first.”

“Hypothetical?” Dinky seemed momentarily impressed. “My jargon is rubbing off on you, but yeah, that’s a serious question.” She always stopped to take him seriously even when she was busy, which was why he thought to come to her first.

“Violence…” Dinky spent a few moments considering before continuing. “It seldom leads anywhere good, but it’s a lesson no one seems to learn. We’ve all told you about the war, and it happened because everyone went right to violence to solve things, usually because they refused to sit down and talk it out with people they were afraid of. But even legit revenge… it doesn’t help.”

“Revenge?” Forgot asked, thinking her last words seemed oddly personal.

“Did you know that Mercury shot my mother’s head off?” Dinky asked. “It wasn’t on purpose, but before I realized that… I had a brief opportunity to do the same to her. I didn’t take it, and I’m glad now. Don’t mention that to her by the way, she’s a fragile one…”

“Wow, I didn’t know,” Forgot was shocked by all sorts of things today. Mercury, much like the workers at the PUB, was really nice. It was terrible that she’d done that, but if such a nice person was killed because of what they did on accident, it would have been worse.

“That’s why I can almost never get laid here with anypony decent instead of stallions who are rough and insist on my butt!” Solar’s sudden words made both Forgot and Dinky jump. Apparently she’d finished with her magazine, as she was wiping off her hoof with one of the pages, and joined the conversation. “I mean there’s the PUB, but somehow it just isn’t the same if it’s their job to buck you. There was one pegasus I found in a back alley that assured me she was super eager and not just doing it so I’d give her food, but that didn’t work either.” Solar shuddered. “As soon as the guards saw two pegasi going at it, they drummed up dirt on her and she had to finish lickin’ me in the guillotine! For some reason they insisted we finish because they needed to look for legal reasons. Custard came after but it was too late and-”

“Solar!” Dinky cut her off. “I already told you that you dreamed that last part, you’re getting so tired that you can’t tell which memories were dreams!”

“W-what? I only understood half of that, something about stallions laying you down on your butt, guards who can’t look at the right thing, and executions?” Forgot had no idea what she meant, looking at Dinky and hoping she’d explain. He had noticed Solar being frustrated a lot when saying weird things to ponies, but had always figured it was because she was missing the right social triggers.

“She means that sex is hard for her because most creatures hate pegasi,” Dinky said. “Males want to put her in her place more than they want to make love, and won’t believe her that she’s on birth control, so they use the other hole. …and despite efforts by Custard to fix it, the guards do in fact disproportionately punish pegasi. Maybe just not as weirdly as Solar’s dream.”

“Why?” Forgot couldn’t imagine such unnecessary cruelty. Every pegasi he’d met… well, all two of them… had been good friends.

“And it’s all for stuff some of my ancestors did!” Solar nodded, unusually annoyed. “They turned against Canterlot, and it wasn’t even their fault!”

“Kamikaze led them to rebel,” Dinky explained for Forgot again. “But she only did so because someone had tampered with her programming. They all thought they were doing the right thing, as did Canterlot, and they ended up destroying the last major cities because of it. Without that, the world would have made a full recovery and someone would have fished you out of Stable 5 150 years earlier at least.”

“There were pega plot purging programs after the Breaking too!” Solar said, though it sounded like she forgot the actual phrase and made one up. “Crimson said most pegasi outside vaults were slaughtered outright, and their body parts made into trophies… And there were radio broadcasts actually celebrating it and giving ponies advice on hunting them!”

“Much like those monsters in Stable 5 hunted you, actually,” sighed DInky.

“S-seriously?” Forgot had no idea it’d been quite so bad. “But what about like, Trinity… or Midnight?”

“That’s why almost all remaining bats and pegasi work for Midnight,” nodded Solar. “I mean where else were they going to go when they might be killed in any other settlement?”

“So they’re hiding there…” Forgot sighed and looked at the ground.

“We’re not saying violence is never necessary,” Dinky clarified. “Some creatures are apparently and obviously evil, a fact you know well, but resorting to it without it being absolutely necessary is never the right way. You know, you might be surprised, but there are a few creatures in this very city that are hiding because they fear what will be done to them. It’s a shame because they’re pretty nice people.”

Forgot froze. Was she talking about… had she already known? He wasn’t sure if he should ask her though… he didn’t want to get her in trouble either if she wasn’t supposed to tell.

“You know what?” Dinky tapped her chin thoughtfully. “This is going to sound like bad advice, but I want you to consider talking to Chrysalis about this.”

“Chrysalis is one of the few creatures that will-” Solar started, but stopped when Dinky casually punched her in the chest to shut her up.

“A-are you serious?” Forgot shuffled about, somehow even more confused now.

“She’s supposed to check in at the statue to see if the others are back around 2 PM,” said Dinky. “Why don’t you wait to surprise her for once. If you approach her freely and ask her about the history of her own kind being hunted, I guarantee she will take the question seriously.”

“We can go with you if you want!” Solar offered.

“You’re just hoping to get a quickie from her while she’s here,” grunted Dinky, then looked back at Forgot. “I want you to do this alone, it’d be good for you.”

Forgot wasn’t sure how it’d be good for him, but he trusted Dinky’s advice more than anyone he’d met. While she wasn’t as outwardly saintly as someone like Twilight, the way she talked to Forgot just made him feel better than anyone else. He wasn’t sure why, but he wanted to take her advice.

“O-okay…” Forgot nodded. “I’ll see you tonight okay?”

“So when are you two going to invite me-” Solar said before Dinky punched her in the chest again.

“I’ll see you later, love,” Dinky smiled, then turned to crawl back inside the contraption again, only to cry out slightly when Solar gave her a hard slap to the rear.

Forgot briefly smiled and chuckled as he went and got his saddlebags, then looked at the time on the wall nearby. He had around an hour, and Xander wouldn’t think anything of him taking a bit longer, so he walked towards the stable exit. He stopped by his apartment to leave his saddlebags there, then headed to the statue in the center of town. Once there, he climbed up onto the base and sat there patiently, leaning his back against one of the legs as his own hind legs dangled off the edge.

He meant to try to surprise Chrysalis when she arrived, but on his way here he’d also remembered that she’d probably be with Midnight since Chrysalis can’t teleport between cities by herself. He took deep breaths, trying to brace himself for the inevitable feeling of dread that accompanied the monster, but was pleasantly surprised.

“That bitch!” Chrysalis exclaimed as she flashed into existence from a teleport, alone. “I can’t believe she refused to teleport me because she was busy fucking some teen pegasus nerd reading a quantum physics book to her! After all the slime I found out for her!”

“Uh, Miss Chrysalis?” Forgot squeaked from behind her. “Hello um… good day…”

Chrysalis turned, arching an eyebrow at Forgot, and clearly was surprised. She swayed a little, then leaned up against the statue next to him with a smirk. He could see the anticipation in her eyes, and knew she was thinking of a way to terrify him.

“Sorry,” Chrysalis chuckled. “For some reason shifting while mid-teleport makes me a bit dizzy and even more angry than usual. So why were you waiting for me? Are you finally going to tap my big bug booty?”

Shifting during teleport? What an odd thing to say, or do for that matter. He wanted to ask why she had to do that, and how she even got here from there without assistance, but couldn’t. He had to get out the question that Dinky had said would subdue her terror-causing tendencies.

“Miss Chrysalis!” Forgot blurted out. “Can you please tell me about why changelings are hunted?!”

It worked, Chrysalis’s amused expression dropping suddenly, her face serious as if a switch had been flipped in her head. She took a deep breath as if containing herself.

“I’m going to assume that’s a serious question,” Chrysalis said. “Since I think you’re too much of a coward to ask me in jest or as an insult.”

“I-it is…” Forgot nodded, trying not to hyper-ventilate just by being close to her.

“It’s my fault,” Chrysalis said plainly. “The entire Ceaseless Conflict was my fault. I used my changeling hive to infiltrate every facet of society and ensure they were all at each other’s throats. When the fruits of my deeds were laid bare, when they realized my promises of future glory were hollow and that all that awaited them was the hatred of everyone else, they abandoned me, but it didn’t help. It didn’t make others stop hunting them, and it didn’t stop the war. So here we are, 210 years later, still fighting. That a good enough answer?”

Her face remained emotionless, but seemed more like a mask hiding them than an actual calm face. He’d never seen or heard her act in this fashion, so it was clearly something that weighed heavily on her. From the sound of it, it should weigh heavily on her, but still… all the others.

“And now Trinity enslaved them instead, I guess,” nodded Forgot.

“Some of them,” Chrysalis said. “Some others managed to escape her grasp in… various manners, forming small hives here and there to hide both from Trinity and everyone else that wants to murder them for my mistakes. They don’t want to see me though, so I avoid them, often pretending not to even know they are there, and doing my best to help them without them having to deal with my disgusting presence.”

Hidden? That was the information he’d been lacking, and suddenly all the confusion he’d had started to clear. The changelings here didn’t act like spies because they had nothing to do with Trinity, they were actually hiding from her! And Forgot almost agreed to kill them without knowing…”

“We need to talk in private,” Forgot muttered.

“Why?” Chrysalis quirked an eyebrow.

“They’re in danger…” After what she said, Forgot assumed she knew about a hive here even if not in charge of them, and would know what he meant.

Chrysalis didn’t question further, instead suddenly teleporting them both to his bedroom. It was a little creepy that she knew his bedroom’s exact location to teleport there since he didn’t think she’d ever set hoof inside, and now that he was alone with her, the fear that had slowly started to ebb started to come back, shivering as he looked up at her silently.

“Explain,” Chrysalis said, then seemed to notice his dread. “I will not harm you.”

“Xander,” Forgot muttered. “He kidnapped Fable, the PUB worker… I helped him, I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

“Continue,” Chrysalis tensed up as if angry, but didn’t lash out. Even she seemed to know not to before she had all the information.

“I didn’t think he’d torture her,” Forgot sighed. “H-he gave me a bomb, it’s in my saddlebags next to the front door. It has Hera’s Scorn inside, he wanted me to sneak into the PUB barracks and plant it there for when they are all there tonight.”

“Xander,” Chrysalis growled. “To think he would go so far… go get the device and show it to me.”

Forgot nodded quietly, rushing to the front door and retrieving his saddlebags. He still wasn’t sure if Xander had an audio link, but he brought it back anyway. Pulling out the device with his magic, he held it up in front of Chrysalis without a word. Chrysalis’ horn glowed as she scanned the device, then growled as she wrapped it in a magical shield as if cautious about it going off.

“Where is he?” Chrysalis asked, her voice even but a boiling rage slowly seeping up as it grew more firm.

“Right across from the room you were staying in,” Forgot nodded, looking around the room as he had increasingly more trouble looking at her. “He thought it’d be the last place they’d… please don’t hurt him okay? Dinky said violence isn’t a good answer.”

“No, it’s the question,” Chrysalis seemed to have quite a different view on it as she creepily smirked. “And in all cases where my children are in danger, the answer is ‘yes’.”

Chrysalis teleported them again, making Forgot wonder about her magical stamina...she clearly had no problem doing it twice in the city despite having just teleported long-range, which he’d been specifically told that almost no creature could do. They were in front of Xander’s door now.

Chrysalis seemingly wasn’t in the mood for knocking, using both her front legs to kick the door while pressing in on it with her magic. It flung from its hinges so hard that it landed halfway across the front room of Xander’s apartment. Xander didn’t seem to be in that room, and the rope where Fable had hung before swang on its own.

When no one came to check on the noise, Chrysalis walked in and towards the back room, Forgot following awkwardly behind her, hoping she didn’t do anything too terrible that he’d have to feel bad for.

They found him in the apartment’s bedroom, under a silence bubble. Forgot was pretty stunned to see him on the bed with the changeling, one hoof on the changeling’s most sensitive bits and pressing down as if torturing her more.

Xander barely had time to notice someone entered before Chrysalis grabbed him by the tail. She slung him around by it, Forgot having to dodge out of the way as he smacked the wall closest to him. She swung the stunned zebra over her head and flung him to the otherside of the room, where he hit the wall and landed on his head on the floor.

“Forgot!” Xander exclaimed with wide eyes and a pained expression. “You betrayed me? Are you somehow…”

“Listen, you fucking stripe,” Chrysalis cut him off, picking him up with her magic and slamming him against the wall again, holding a hoof against his neck to keep his breath cut off. “After everything else, I come in here to find you molesting one of my children? We molest others, got it?”

“Chrysalis wait!” Forgot moved up behind her and fearfully tapped at her behind to get her attention.

“Well how about that,” Chrysalis smirked back at him, her previous mood seeming to return slightly. “I knew you wanted to tap that ass.”

“Don’t hurt him, please!” Forgot begged. “Does Custard or Starlight know? We can take him to one of them and they can… do something.”

“They’ll just execute him,” Chrysalis grunted. “Then his body’ll be ground up into slop; I’m sure you don’t mind, but I certainly would at him getting such a merciful fate...especially with his head as some damn rare trophy!”

She didn’t harm him immediately at least. She dropped him to the floor again, allowing him to breathe, but held him still with his muzzle closed using her magic. She turned towards Fable, deactivating the silence bubble and then gently beginning to untie her. Fable was still in a panic, which Forgot assumed was due to the drug.

“Don’t hurt me either, please!” Fable was begging as soon as the silence bubble went down. “Just let me go home, you said you’d let us be, it’s not right if you enslave me!”

“I would never do that, child,” sighed Chrysalis, her voice becoming almost unnervingly gentle. “Have you been drugged? If you can’t shift, I can cast an illusion spell on you so that you can safely return to the PUB. You can tell them that they won’t have to worry about this fiend bothering them anymore.”

“I-I brought her here Fable,” Forgot tried to explain, turning away from the angrily-glaring Xander. “I asked her to help rescue you, just to help.”

Fable seemed to calm down, curling up on the bed when fully released from her bonds. Chrysalis’ horn glowed brightly again, and Fable’s body shivered as her wings began to slowly reknit together. She didn’t speak again, just letting herself be healed, probably too emotionally tired to communicate further, but finally not looking scared. Chrysalis used her bonds to tie up Xander instead, making sure to tie his muzzle shut as well.

“So, um,” Forgot started to ask, but stopped when Chrysalis suddenly turned towards him. She leaned down, hugging him against her as gently as she might rock an infant.

“Thank you,” Chrysalis said in the most sincere voice he’d ever heard from her. “I won’t torment you any longer either.” The gentle words notably lacked an apology for having already done so, but Chrysalis was still Chrysalis.

“What do I do?” asked Forgot as she pulled away. Finally, he was starting to feel calm as well, strangely so in fact. He wondered if Chrysalis was calming him with the emotional manipulation he’d been told she had, but he didn’t really care much.

Chrysalis picked up what looked like another detonator from the drawers next to the bed, which looked like it also had a small scan read-out. She held it over to Forgot gently take in his magic, and he nodded.

“Take the bomb to Dinky and Solar so they can dispose of it with science or whatever,” Chrysalis said. “They already know about the hive here, so you can explain exactly what happened, but tell her not to expect to see Xander again. They won’t like it, but it’s not like they can do anything about it either.”

“What will you do to him?” Forgot asked, though for some reason didn’t feel quite so bad about it now that he felt a bit woozy.

“Everything but kill him,” Chrysalis smirked. “Now, I’ll cast the illusion spell on Fable so you can drop her off at the PUB. Since somepony might realize you did it right after teleporting with me, and the drug’s not fully worn-off...you should pass some time filling her ass with spunk, so onlookers suspect nothing more than you getting a ‘freebie’ with me to make it kinkier. She seems to like you a lot more than this monochromatic filth anyways.”

“S-sure,” Forgot nodded again, now simply thankful it was over. “I’ll… wait a bit.”