“Huh. It’s big.”
Understatement of the century, Blueberry.
The “Seahorse Aquarium”,as a rotten sign boldly proclaimed in dirty yellow script, was a three-story tall pillarish building easily larger than any single structure I had seen before and even more ramshackle looking. The entire commune, rock face and all could easily be put in it with some room to grow, and the whole thing looked like it was made of rotten cardboard and shattered glass.
Speaking of rotting things, I smelt the place before I saw it, as it had a large outdoor area that probably used to be a pool, and filled with what probably used to be fish. Blueberry dreaded to use her horn to illuminate any more than she had to, and I was somewhat thankful for that. The whole place looked creepy enough with Blueberries half-dozen "mage lights" being the only lighting, and even more so when it became quickly apparent that, going by the amount of stuff covering the entrance of the place, nothing has actually entered the place in some time. Seems like the local's stories about not going inside it might have been true.
The important thing, however, was that there was still a trickle of water filling the shallow, filthy pool from some unseen source, so the fish must have died off recently because of the cold. Blueberry quite nearly bounced in joy when she heard running water, sluggish as it was, and I was glad that I did not pull a cart full of goods for three hours just to go to a filthy, useless ruin.
I got to go into a filthy, useless ruin with a water talisman in it.
But that raised more questions from me.
I scratched my head, right in the spot between my horns. It helped with thinking, at least for me anyway. “Blueberry, I just want your opinion.”
She actually tilted her head at that, as if she was surprised I actually had one about anything. “About what?”
“What if those ponies are mutated because they are drinking the water they bring in from this place?”
She looked surprised, and then visibly pondered the thought. “I guess radiation would have killed them by now, but that’s an odd thing to say. Why do you think it’s the water from here, anyway? Could come from anywhere.”
I shrugged. I thought it was obvious. “The pony said the water here was safer than the snow, right? I don’t think irradiation would cause ponies to be that mutated, but-”
“Taint could.” Blueberry finished my sentence, and then became slightly flushed. “Okay, you might have a point. Still, even if it’s a corrupted talisman, it could still go for a lot of caps if we take it.”
“Or it could kill the town.” I said.
Blueberry raised an eyebrow.
“What? It’s clear those ponies are gone for good. If this could stop ponies from resorting to eating each other, it would be nice.”
Blueberry raised both eyebrows. “My my, someone wants to be a hero.”
I was surprised at that. “What do you mean?”
Blueberry sighed, and I swore the mage-light she was making grew dimmer. “Watchful, some ponies just end up like that. Those cannibals in Braymont? It’s probably not something in the water here that makes them crazy. Some ponies are crazy, and nothing can really change that. It’s a lifestyle for some. You saw those foals sleeping in that little camp. They won’t fit in anywhere else, and I doubt any pony would let them live after learning they regularly eat ponies.”
I stared at Blueberry for what felt like centuries. I wondered if she remembered what happened at the NCR camp? That would be a convenient thing to forget...
In order to get myself out of that funk, I started to try and get any conversation topics out in the air. “Blueberry,could you get one of your lights closer to the water?”
When she did, I got a glimpse at what might have been in the pool at one time, half mummified by the cold. It might have had a fish in its family tree at some point or another, but it had too many mouths and not enough eye sockets.
Blueberry quickly let the light dim, looking slightly queasy. “Okay, it’s probably Tainted.”
I looked around the entrance. Luckily, there was a solid-looking concrete walkway over the probably horrific pool of possibly mutating death.
"So we are going into a place that is literally filled with water to get something that produces said horrible water."
She just nodded her head, unsure about the whole thing now herself.
Feeling slightly guilty, for some unfathomable reason, I thought of something I thought she might find funny.
“Hey Blueberry, you think the pony was right about this place being haunted?” I said in a somewhat joking manner.
She gave a little shrug. “No idea. Normally, I would say no. All the ponies this far north are usually superstitious, especially when they are degenerates like the ones we just met. But this place...I don’t know.”
Well, that was...not helpful at all. “Why do you think this place is different?”
She gave a little shiver, and I doubt it was from the cold. “Call it a unicorn’s intuition, or something. This place gives me a bad vibe.”
I gave a heavy snort. “Oh, is it the lighting or the color scheme?”
She gave me a little glare, and I chuckled. I stopped when I realized she kept glaring at me, her eyes practically flashing red as she apparently tried to ignite me using her mind.
“Don’t make fun of my magic!”
Wait, what?
“Blueberry, I was not making fun of your magic! Why would I do that?”
She looked more annoyed by the minute. “You were! You were making fun of its color!”
I raised my arms in protest, and if it not for the unholy cold we were in, I would have probably began to sweat. Hopefully she was not going to freak out and turn off the lights or anything. Or worse, try to kill me. If she was in one of her shooty moods....
Wait! Idea!
“Blueberry, we should probably get our stuff from the cart before we go inside that place.”
The fuming little mare’s gaze softens unnaturally into a big, grateful grin and playfully smacked the side of her head with a hoof. “Oh, your right! Heh, and I was about to walk in and...oh, how could I forget something like that? ”
Huh, that worked. Ponies really do have one tracked minds, or at least Blueberry does.
And that begs the question about how much control over Blueberry I actually have.
I think I had a answer, but I didn't like it.
-----
The innards of the Seahorse Aquarium was as bad as it looked from outside, or at least that was our first thoughts. Giant displays that I would suppose would have hanged from the ceiling had since fallen, creating the horrific first impression of a giant rotting whale in the middle of the main lobby. The broken glass was as sharp as it was old, and I heard Blueberry wince every time she felt a shard shatter under her weight. Any decorations or wooden objects had long since crumbled, leaving a pulpy mess that left no clues on floor plans or anything of the sort. The shear amount of decay in the place made determining anything’s original color a futile exercise, and the smell was akin to fishy mildew.
It was horrible, especially at night with ghostly lights provided by a crazy unicorn being the only way to see. The resulting shadow-play would be enough to unnerve anyone who saw it, let alone a couple of inbred cannibals. It was understandable why it was called haunted, anyway.
However, for whatever reason, there were no open doors, or at least any I could open in sight. The main set in the back of the room, big and bulky things that had the remnants of some cheery sea-themed pattern emblazoned on it, were nigh fused to the floor and would not budge after a few good swings from my alleged mace. Or a blast from a laser pistol. Or a genuine charge from an annoyed minotaur, which resulted in a dazed me and a slightly dented set of doors.
I could swear one of the cheery little schools of fish painted on the floor was laughing at my efforts.
Blueberry was as annoyed as I was, but she had a more...fitting way of expressing it as she punched at the cursed thing futilely.
“Why would they need fucking hermetically sealed doors in a stupid, glorified, zoo! What were they expecting, evil penguin uprisings!”
In fact, while Blueberry was having a little fit of treasure-denial, I noticed something on the wall I did not see before: a little knob of brass, obscured by the false whale’s tail. After slowly making my way there and seeing the little lock on the door, I sighed and pulled the knob. Most of the door came with it.
Revealed to me was... a janitorial closet, abet one with a tiny working light bulb. Cleaning supplies on half-rotten shelves, a few nasty looking piles of things that probably used to be magazines, and a...set of bones. I took a little shaky breath when I saw the remains, but when I looked at the table it was sprawled on I quickly grew pleased.
Bless old folk and there stubborn self-reliance.
Besides a corpse, the table had a tiny working terminal, a few score bits in a little pile, what looked like a paper with some numbers written on it, and the mother load: a large map that resembled the ruined one’s we had found in the lobby, but brightly colored and what looked like notes and annotations in a neat, clear script. Actually, it wasn’t so much a map as a floor plan, which was even better.
I took a moment to look at the remains on the table, and found two little objects under (inside?) the skull which caught my interest. The first one explained the body’s relatively untouched state: a plain six-shooter, unadorned of any markings or signs of damage. The second one made me slightly wince, as it was a colorless picture of what was probably body’s owner with what looked like to be a family. A scruffy stallion had a leg over the shoulder of a lithe mare that looked half his age, and there was a tiny little foal balanced happily on his head. The little inscription at the bottom of it nailed the scene in the head.
Sweeps, Glitter, and Gleam, at the Seahorse. Sea you Soon!
I took a step back, and after a few moments at looking at the little snapshot of a pony’s life I could never fully understand, I slipped the picture under the stallions fleshless head gently. After a few moments of thought, I slipped the gun into my belt. The map slid easily off the table, and to my surprise the terminal had two options:
Unlock Main Doors
Shut Down H1
The second one made no sense, but the first? That was simple enough choice.
Enter
The grind-hiss sound coming from the lobby, followed by Blueberries shocked squeals, was enough to let me know that the main doors were opening.
After carefully taking most of the objects off the table, and carefully covering the bodies head with the cleanest cloth on the floor, I walked over to the newly made entrance and looked at what was behind the oversized doors.
And I felt my mouth slowly drop open.
And open some more.
It was not because of the hallway’s seemingly spotless floors, or that the fact the place still looked as if the world never ended at all.
It was not because the glass walls and ceiling was the only barrier between me and who knows how many of gallons of murky grey-brown water.
It was not because of the glowing shapes moving around in the water, stirring it up as they created colorful golden trails in the water.
It was none of those, but the rad-fish helped a bit.
It was the light green mare who was looking at us with deep blue eyes from the other side of the glass, with a long, dark serpentine shape where her lower body should have been, giving us a savage little smile with far too many teeth.