Sarah walked down the cracked asphalt road, her Enclave Power armor taking the bullets coming at her easily. She’d chosen not to forgo her helmet as had become her norm over the last six months, hell, even with one she’d gotten a few facial scars, so she didn’t have much to worry about from headshots at the moment.

Another bullet skittered off of her shoulder plate and Sarah let out a frustrated growl. She’d just wanted to walk to the Citadel, why in the hell did she have to run into a group of fifteen raiders?

Because in some ways we are very unlucky, Nim replied as she focused on the farthest raider and helped Sarah steady the aim of her Perforator.

Thip-thip-thip

A trio of bullets left the silenced assault rifle and the raider’s head exploded in a cloud of gore.

I know, but honestly, I thought we’d killed all the raiders in this area already, Sarah replied with a grunt as she changed targets and fired another trio of rounds into another of the raider’s skulls.

They are like radroaches, Nim replied as a bullet ricocheted off of Sarah’s forehead and making the woman flinch.

At least you can exterminate those fuckers, Sarah stated with irritation as a blood covered raider charged towards them.

The woman’s hands blurred as she slung the Perforator over her shoulder on its strap and pulled Daybreaker off of her back with one hand and the shocksword out with her other. The raider let out a shout of challenge as he brought the chinese officer’s sword held in his hand down at Sarah’s face.

Time seemed to freeze around Sarah as adrenaline pumped through her brain and Nim focused on her right arm. Daybreaker swung up at an angle, slicing through the officer sword’s faulty metal and the woman brought the shocksword stabbing into the raider’s gut in a single swift motion.

The body spasmed there for a moment before Sarah jerked him off of the blade in time to meet another raider who was charging her, this time with a baseball bat. The woman’s teeth clenched together in irritation, she didn’t have time to waste on this!

Daybreaker’s long blade surged through the air and slashed clean through the man’s wrist. He let out a scream of pain before she silenced it by punching the shocksword through his throat. The sickly smell of boiling blood filled Sarah’s nose despite her helmet’s filters and she pulled her blade out of the man’s new orifice and turned her head towards the other raiders who were still shooting at her.

If there was one thing that the Capital Wasteland’s raiders could have pride in, it was their god damned defiance in the face of adversity. First a group of giant super strong mutants had set up shop in the Wastes, but did the raiders care? Fuck no, they just shot them anyways. Next came the power armor wearing do-gooders against whom bullets didn’t do so well; so what did they do? They got missile launchers.

WHOOOSH

Sarah’s eyes widened in surprise as she spotted the missile flying towards her.

“FUCK!” the woman shouted just before the missile hit the ground in front of her. The woman’s breath left her body as she was thrown several feet backwards. Sarah rolled along the ground for a foot or so until she came to a halt and grunted with pain.

Sorry, I didn’t see him, Nim apologized. He must have been concealing it.

Remind me again how you do that with a missile launcher? Sarah replied as she pushed herself back to her feet, gritting her teeth against the waves of pain that traveled through her limbs.

The constant impact of small caliber weapons didn’t help. One thing that Sarah had learned in her time in the Wastes was that even with power armor on, being shot hurt. Sure, it might not make you bleed out or kill ya, but you could pick up a surprising number of bruises through three inch thick steel armor.

I believe they fold up, do they not? Nim replied as she located the man using the launcher.

I don’t really care, Sarah stated as she reached back to get the Perforator. She sighted the man and pulled the trigger, shooting the launcher right out of his hands before a pair of bullets violated his skull.

With the loss of their trump card, and the violent deaths of their fellows, the raiders’ resolve crumbled and they began to run towards the ruins. Sarah’s eyes hardened and she coldly shot each of them before they could even get close. As their bodies fell to the ground, Sarah took a moment to look down at her armor.

The missile had blasted the grey paint off of it and her experienced eyes could tell that it would take a bit of scrap metal to repair the damage to the lower section which had been closest to the blast. Still, the Hellfire armor had done its job and Sarah felt only tired and bruised rather than dead and bleeding.

Sarah walked up to the place where Daybreaker and the shock sword had been forced from her grasp and picked them up, carefully inspecting the latter blade to make sure that it hadn’t been damaged by the explosion. Luckily, it seemed that it hadn’t. The woman didn’t bother inspecting Daybreaker and slid the enchanted sword into her sheath on Sarah’s back and then returned the shock sword back to its sheath on her hip.

Well, that was a waste of fifteen minutes, the woman grumbled as she glanced down at her Pip-Boy.

Indeed it was, Nim agreed. Let us hope that nothing else gets in our way.

Yeah, let’s, Sarah stated with a mental sigh. She just wanted to get to the Citadel.

“This room must be magic proof!” Chrysalis told the drone in front of her emphatically. “The only magic allowed in or out of it must be mine.”

The drone simply nodded its head. It was not one of those gifted with speech so it was forced to rely on head motions.

Chrysalis smiled as she gazed around the room. It was not a large one, only big enough for herself and the half dozen workers who were finishing the task of magic-proofing the place. In the center of the room was a summoning circle made of silver which had been inscribed into the floor.

To the direct right of the summoning circle was a large green containment pod full of a special liquid. The walls of the pod could withstand anything short of an alicorn pounding on it and the liquid was specially made to restrict movement and fully immerse the target.

It would act as the storage container for ‘Sarah’ until Chrysalis was done with her work. Chrysalis however had decided to not risk closing the ‘top’ of the pod, she didn’t know how much air this ‘Sarah’ would require and she did not wish for her newest pet to suffocate.

The changeling Queen’s mind was abuzz with thoughts for the upcoming trials. Aurora was going to be in Equestria for several weeks so she could not risk sending Sarah to kill Luna until her bitch of an elder sister was gone. Once that had happened she could send Sarah without consequence. Surly, Celestia would kill the woman rather than take her prisoner, maddened by grief that she would be.

Actually... when she thought about it, it would be best to plant her sister’s name in Sarah’s mind. That way if Celestia did happen to capture her the woman would re-direct the monarch’s rage at Aurora and give Chrysalis even more time to plan her eventual take over.

Chrysalis smiled to herself. Despite her previous thoughts of speeding up her plans, she had decided to instead slow them down. Now that she was going to be forced to hold onto Sarah for several weeks, the changeling would have time to truly tear Sarah’s being apart and then rebuild her.

Honestly, this worked better for her. Chrysalis loved the process of breaking ponies to her will. Shining Armor may not have been her best work, he had a very strong mind and as such had been rather difficult to break down in the time she’d had to work with, but she had still enjoyed the process. The feeling of the musclebound stallion squirming beneath her had sent a rush of pure joy through the changeling and she’d loved every moment of it.

Once her quest to see Luna dead and Celestia murdered was finished, Chrysalis would be sure to capture both the stallion and his wife. She would keep them in cages across from each other, just out of reach with magic dampeners on their horns. Then the changeling would feed first upon one and then the other, draining them of their love. Once she was done, she would leave them there until their love built back up and repeat the process until they were both little more than husks.

Chrysalis let out a slight sigh as she turned her thoughts away from the wonderful future and back to the present.

“They appear to be done, my queen,” a voice said from beside her. Chrysalis turned her head to see one of her Operators, a low standing changeling who had only recently been hatched in an attempt to repair the loss of several operators in the field. She had a topaz mane and small eyes. Chrysalis dimly remembered that she’d chosen the name ‘Double’.

“Indeed they do,” Chrysalis agreed as she looked over the room which was now fully magic proofed. The changeling queen could sense the magic in the room being forced out through every pore in the wall, leaving only her own within it. “Now then... all I must do is tug on the connection of love that Luna feels for her... poor the magic into the circle... and drag her and any magic items she has through.”

“My queen... why would you want her to bring the magic items?” Double asked as she looked up at the Queen in confusion.

“Because, my spell is not overly specific,” Chrysalis replied with a small shrug. “Unlike what Celestia had with Luna. Because of that I can only project it in a rather ‘wide’ arc so everything she wears will be transported here with her.”

“But... then she may well be fully armoured!” Double protested. “Not to mention armed with the things that spit fire... do you really wish to bring her here like that?”

“No, not at all,” Chrysalis replied, enjoying as always the sense that her Operator didn’t know as much as she did. “You see, the journey here will destroy anything without a spell of some sort cast upon it as it tries to adjust to Equestria.”

“Wouldn’t that kill the target?” Double asked, her brows knitting together in confusion.

“No, because I am certain that a spell of one form or another has been cast upon Miss Sarah,” Chrysalis replied. “That, or the spell itself will defend her because she is the target.”

“Oh...” Double frowned before smiling widely. “You’re so smart, my Queen!”

“Yes, yes I am,” Chrysalis said smugly before she bent down to kiss the Operator upon the forehead, she really was an adorable little bug. “Now then, it’s time to bring our ‘guest’ here.”

Chrysalis closed her eyes and visualized the world with her mind. Uncounted numbers of strings of love sprang across her vision and amongst all of them three shone out brightest to her. That was fitting because they came from the three most powerful beings currently living on the planet. None of them belonged to either Cadance nor Shining Armor.

Strangely, Luna’s was not where she had expected it to be, and was instead out in the middle of the woods. Odd, but it did not matter greatly to her. The Queen took a moment to examine the link of chained love that Luna held closest to her heart and smiled as she plucked it. There was a rush of emotions, a flash of black hair, an oddly furless naked body, a warm smile and a pair of vast eyes that stared up at the night sky.

Chrysalis withdrew her mind from within the ‘cord’ and an almost serpentine smile curled across her face as she took hold of the cord and followed it to the other end across the empty divide of the void. She felt the ‘woman’ on the other end and secure in the knowledge that she had her target, the Queen’s horn began to glow.

Sarah smiled as the Citadel grew bigger in her vision. She was almost there.

Sarah... I feel something! Nim suddenly exclaimed in her mind.

What? Sarah asked with a frown of confusion. What do you mean you ‘feel’ something?

I mean that I feel magic tugging at us! Nim replied, putting aside her feelings to the opposite to make the woman she love happy. Someone is pulling us towards Equestria!

What?! REALLY?! Sarah exclaimed, stopping where she stood, a smile stretching across her face beneath her helmet. The thought of returning to her Luna roaring through her consciousness like a fiery inferno of heat and joy.

Yes! Nim replied. Though, it is not Luna.

... it isn’t? Sarah asked, her joy halting in its euphoric eruption as her smiled dimmed slightly.

No, I would recognize her if it was, Nim replied. BUT that in and of itself is not a bad thing. It could simply be the Archmage or one of the higher ups.

OH, okay, Sarah replied, her smile returning. Whoever it is doesn’t matter! I just want to see Luna again!

... as do I, Nim agreed quietly. Before Sarah could ask why her voice seemed so... uncertain, her world disappeared in a flash of green light.

The woman felt as if her entire body was being dragged through a very small crack between two very tight walls and her eyes burned as a searing green glow stabbed into her retinas. The woman let out a shout of pain that seemed to go on forever before suddenly the green vanished and she fell to a hard floor.

Something was wrong... the air around her was frigid on her bare skin and the only thing that she felt against her was Daybreaker’s scabbard. Something else was horribly wrong as well, not only was she naked... but her Pip-Boy was gone. The woman blinked twice in an attempt to clear her vision and to her surprise and horror, she found that her longest companion was gone.

Sarah! Dodge to the left! Nim shouted in her mind.

The woman’s mind, long oiled by instinct ceased to worry about her missing Pip-Boy and rolled to the left. A thud echoed in her ears as the woman’s eyes snapped to a bug like creature that was struggling to get back to its four strange legs.

Sarah’s hands went to Daybreaker and the sword sang as it was freed from its scabbard and the woman readied herself for anything as she scanned the chamber around her. A multitude of the bug like creatures were arrayed around her and Sarah caught sight of a larger one behind the rest.

That was all the time she had to process the situation before the bug that had already made a grab for her tried again.

Careful, you are not wearing your armor, the swing must be adjusted to account for the missing weight, Nim commented in her mind as Sarah brought the blade up at the leaping drone.

Daybreaker’s silver shaft clove through the bug’s body and a splash of green ichor splashed down across Sarah’s naked chest. The woman spun on her heel to do the same to another but it nimbly dodged to the side of the swing. Sarah leapt back from the return slash of the thing’s horn and prepared to strike again.

One on either side! Leap back! Nim exclaimed and Sarah followed through a second later, her bare feet barely finding purchase on the slick stone. Two of the drones almost crashed into each other but adjusted their course on time with the third and the three began to approach Sarah.

The woman grit her teeth together. Nim, we need a way out!

I’m aware... but I don’t see anything, Nim replied as she frantically scanned the room. I am also unable to draw any magic to myself despite the fact that we are in Equestria! The room is too tightly sealed!

Sarah didn’t have time to respond to that because the three drones suddenly sprang forwards at her, two of them flying on clear insectoid wings. Sarah froze and her mind shut down as her hands gripped Daybreaker’s comforting cold shaft. Then she brought the blade across in a sideways slash at the first as she stepped aside of it’s attack and the blade hewed through the nearest changeling’s skull. The next move brought the blade thrusting it into the grounded changeling’s back mid leap.

Unfortunately, as she was in mid swing towards the third one, a sickly green glow brought her arms to a standstill.

“Yes, I think that’s quite enough of that,” a voice like torn silk said as the tallest of the bugs stepped forward. “In fact, I would say that’s enough of that for the rest of your life.”

Her horn glowed bright and Sarah felt her fingers beginning to be ripped off of Daybreaker’s shaft, one after another. The blade itself may have been magic resistant to some extent, but her body most certainly wasn’t.

Nim! Can’t you do anything?! the woman demanded as she felt another finger slip away from her two handed grip.

Why do you think it is taking so long to happen? Nim replied angrily. Even with me within you, you’re not immune to magic! Especially within this damned room!

Sarah grit her teeth together and tried to hold onto the blade but it was in vain. Daybreaker clattered to the floor and one of the drones moved forwards to quickly take it in its magic.

“Now then... why don’t we get you situated?” the largest bug asked as she walked forwards.

“Who are you?” Sarah demanded, her voice a low growl.

“My name is Queen Chrysalis, but you may as well call me Mistress, my little pet,” Chrysalis said with a smirk as she closed the distance between herself and Sarah. The woman’s eyes widened as the changeling’s jaws closed around her neck and she felt a pair of light pricks.

The world faded to black and the woman’s legs buckled.