Fallout Equestria: Blue Destiny

by MagnetBolt

Chapter 113: Just Around The Riverbend

“I’m sorry,” I said. The words were worn so deeply into my soul that they’d be the only thing ponies remembered about me.

Lathe nodded sadly, pulling off her respirator when we passed through the bubble into her protected city of ETROT. We’d made a stop in the replica castle at the center of the old park and I’d tried to free her brother, but nothing had worked.

“The problem is the dark magic,” Lathe said. “It’s not something you can help with.”

The way she said it made it sound like she’d been hoping it would work but hadn’t really expected it. Disappointment. A broken promise I hadn’t even made. Worse, we were both idiots, me for giving her hope and her for thinking a dumb pegasus pony could help with a magical problem.

She didn’t say all that. She didn’t have to.

I followed her into town and she spotted Elder Flysteel, shaking her head sadly and walking into one of the concrete buildings, this one shaped in a tall A-frame like a tent. The front and back of it were concrete and stone up to just above where I’d be able to reach if I stood on my back hooves, and the rest was glass bricks. Inside, it was some kind of cafeteria or restaurant, with long communal tables and a kitchen area under a long, square skylight.

“Do you want something to eat?” she asked.

“Only if it’s not any trouble,” I said. “I haven’t done anything to earn it.”

“One of the principles ETROT was created on by the Founder is that nopony should go hungry,” Lathe said, patting my shoulder. “He was an idealist and left his ideas to us to make into reality. Are waffles okay?”

A few minutes later we were sitting down at one of the long plastic tables with plates of fresh, thick waffles and plenty of sugar syrup to put on them. The texture of the waffles told me the paste they’d been made from wasn’t any real kind of grain, but it also had that tang of vitamins and minerals that really fortified food could get.

“The way I see it, there are two problems,” Lathe explained, as she ate. She picked up salt and pepper shakers and used them as props. “First, there’s the magic.” She held up the salt. “Dark Magic was forbidden even before the war, and there are definitely no records of it here.”

“My Mom was a historian,” I sighed. “And she apparently had a lot of outside help before she turned herself into a monster. She probably learned how to do it from some old spooky book. Buck, maybe it was going to be part of Cozy Glow’s plans…”

“Worrying about that is thinking backwards,” Lathe chided. “Imaginseers look to the future. We learn from the past, but we think about solutions and next steps. We need an expert on Dark Magic.”

“...There was one pony,” I admitted. “That weird witchy unicorn.”

“Acadia.” Lathe Nodded. “I have no idea if she’s willing to help. There are all sorts of rumors about her. She might predate the park, or it could be a title that gets passed down from pony to pony, or she could be a raider just using the name because it makes ponies wary and keeps trouble away.”

“I’ll ask her for help,” I said. “I’m not in great shape, but magic doesn’t work so well on me. If she tries something I might be able to punch her in the snout and tell her to knock it off.”

“The other problem is this… infection that’s reprogramming the crystals,” Lathe held up the pepper shaker. “You were able to de-nature the flower field in the old submarine ride, but you couldn’t do anything about the crystals. Why?”

Because I was an idiot and a failure. She must have seen my thoughts on my face because she continued before I could say anything.

“It’s a machine. It might be an advanced, microscopic machine, but it is still a device. The machine spirit can help us if we can discover the right ritual to access it.”

I tapped my hoof against the table. “If it helps, I know some kinds of anti-radiation drugs can slow it down, and datura tea really helps a lot.”

“Every bit of information helps,” Lathe assured me. “So while you go to find the witch, I’ll work on the ritual. I have some ideas.”

She reached into her robes and produced an old map pamphlet, carefully folded and re-folded thousands of times over the years, taped and repaired when it split and annotated by dozens of hooves in a variety of inks.

“This is a map of the island,” she explained. It really did look like an alligator from above, curled up on itself so its snout was almost biting its tail. “We’re here, and the witch is here.”

She indicated the small town on the map and a hoof-drawn shape that was either a mushroom or something extremely rude that a pony had drawn in the middle of nowhere, as far as possible from the rest of the park. If she really predated construction here, maybe they’d kept the guests as far from the witch as possible.

“This map is extremely precious,” Lathe said. “It shows many of the secret paths and staff-only ways.”

“Thank you for letting me have it,” I said.

“When did I say you could have it?” Lathe asked, confused.

---

I grumbled to myself and trudged through the swamp, trying to stick to high ground and find some kind of landmark. The photocopy of the map I’d been given was washed out, black and white, and printed on cheap recycled scrap paper.

“Yep, she’s upset that I couldn’t help her brother,” I sighed. I tucked the map away into my salvaged barding and tried my best to hop on three hooves so I wouldn’t get the prosthetic either gummed up with mud or torn from my shoulder and lost in the mud.

There weren’t even proper paths to the spot. I’d wasted an hour trying to find my way through a tight ring of mangrove trees. They were like a solid wall and I would have sworn they were moving when I wasn’t looking to deliberately get in my way. I would have sworn that right up to the point when a few of them literally shifted to the side while I was looking and revealed a path inward.

“At least she’s good at magic,” I sighed. I glared at the trees and walked down the path since she was either taking pity on me or had enough fun teasing me.

The wall of trees gave way to a raised path that led through murky, root-filled water to a hillock that hosted a grove of the largest mushrooms I’d ever seen. I don’t just mean tree-sized, either. The small ones were like squat trees with trunks as wide as cloud-garden sheds. The big one was the match of a six-story skyscraper and probably just as tall as the model castle in the park. And it was somehow totally invisible until I stepped through that ring of trees.

“See if I ever work for you again!” somepony shouted. I looked around for somewhere to hide, but I was on a narrow path and I had a strong feeling that going into the water was a bad idea. I was half-sure the roots in the murk were moving on their own.

A pony in a black dress stormed out of a round door on the side of the mushroom and down the stairs, tearing a white lace apron from her front. She looked at me with fire in her eyes and jammed it into my chest.

“Here! You can make her stupid tea! I’m going back to being a pirate! At least then when I dress up like a maid they stuff bits into my apron pockets!” The mare stomped past me and out of the swamp. I blinked in surprise.

“What was that all about?” I mumbled. I stuffed the apron into a saddlebag because you never knew when something would be useful, then walked up the short flight of wide steps into the mushroom. And there wasn’t mush room inside, either. It was a tall room with more headroom than useful floorspace barely wide enough for two ponies to stand side by side.

There was something strange on the floor. A circular pad made of brushed copper with a ring of silver around the outer edge.

I assumed it might be some kind of elevator, stepped onto the pad, and--

---

--I reappeared in a flash of light somewhere else. I could smell ozone in the air and felt magic crackling around my hooves and spine.

“What the buck-- a teleportation circle?” I asked.

“If you are here to apply for de loyal assistant job, den you are just in time,” Acadia said. She was facing away from me, stirring a cauldron. The room was definitely inside the upper part of the mushroom, with walls made of lacquered wood supports and tool marks as if it had been carved in the same way as a mine shaft.

I cleared my throat. “So, uh, hi. Actually, I’m here for--”

Acadia held up a hoof and dropped something into the cauldron before turning to look at me. She glanced me over with mild distaste.

“Can you make tea?” she asked bluntly.

“Not very well,” I said.

“Hmph. An you won’ look good in a uniform anyway.” She shook her head and sighed. “De position just isn’ right for you, girl.”

“I’m not here to be your maid, I want help with a magical problem,” I said quickly. “But for your information I would look great in a maid outfit. I’m very fit.”

“I like de maids to be a little, eh,” Acadia made a sweeping motion with a forehoof. “Curvier. An’ good wit tea, dat part is more critical. Besides, you are de type of pony to bring messes to my door an’ not to clean dem from my floors, non? So what can de most powerful witch do for a little pony girl like you?”

“I need to find a way to break ponies free from the dark magic controlling them,” I said. “You were studying it at the resort, so you know what I’m talking about.”

“I do,” she agreed. “Dat is some serious hoodoo you’re talking about, oui?”

“It shouldn’t be a problem for the most powerful witch,” I countered.

She cackled. “Oh ho! Meybee so! But breaking de spell would only be temporary.” Her expression fell into a serious line. “De problem is dat the spell is renewed every night. If you break somepony out of it, dey will just be enchanted again de next time dey sleep. It’s deep within dey spirit, you see?”

“So you can’t help?” I asked.

“I didn't say dat. I kin help you. I can see snatches of de future an' I can see de kind of hoodoo you really need. I kin make it, but it won't be easy or cheap. De price may be higher den you expect!”

“It’s better than nothing,” I said. “If there’s something that can help, I can at least get Lathe’s brother out of there like I promised…”

“Making promises, eh? Dat is dangerous. Promises are powerful.”

“I intend to keep it,” I said.

“Good,” Acadia nodded. “A pony should stand by her word. But if you want my help, den you must do something for me.”

I took out the apron and grimaced.

“Non,” Acadia said. “It would be amusing to see you try, but I need a permanent assistant. I keep losing dem somehow. Dis one quit, de one before got eaten by a zombie when it was not even de zombie weather, and before dat my apprentice up an’-- well, dat isn’t important.” She waved a hoof dismissively. “Find me a new maid.”

“A curvy mare who can make tea?” I guessed.

“Dat is my preference, but what is really important is dat dey can take care of demselves. I don’ want another one getting eaten. An if dey know enough about poison to avoid eating any of de dangerous herbs in my garden, dat would be good too. De tea cupboard is not for de unwise.”

“You know that’s a really specific list of requirements,” I grumbled.

Acadia shrugged. “An yet I can see on you face dat you already have a pony coming to mind.”

“I might know a pony who is good with poison, and she’s attractive, and knows how to fight,” I admitted. “I have no idea if she can make tea. I do know she’s probably pretty upset with me after what happened the last time we met.”

“Dat seems like a personal problem,” Acadia scoffed. “Go an’ get her. If she does well enough, den I will make you your hoodoo.”

“Right,” I sighed. I looked around and made a sound. “Uh, how do I…”

“De same way you came in. De fastpass.”

“...Fastpass?”

Acadia scowled. “De teleportation circle, girl! Dey are all over de park. You can use dem to go back to any fastpass circle dat you have been to before. Dey were going to replace the monorail, but like everyting else in de new park, it never worked as well as dey wanted.”

---

“She could have at least told me how it works,” I grumbled. I’d had to walk across the entire island to get back to the resort. It wouldn’t have annoyed me half as much if I hadn’t known I could have teleported instead and saved everypony time and effort.

The resort was still there when I arrived. Part of me thought it might burn down because I wasn’t there, but it had stood for centuries already and it was probably safer if I stayed away if I was being honest with myself.

“Chamomile!” Grog waved to me when he saw me approaching. I waved back to the security guard. He looked me over. “You look like you rolled around in the mud.”

“At last I haven’t had any more legs fall off,” I said. I smiled back at him. He looked exhausted. The bags under his eyes were a full set of luggage. The stallion glanced back into the resort and motioned for me to follow him.

“I need some coffee,” he said. “You want a cup?”

“Sure.” I followed him to one of the kiosks. I expected him to order some kind of super complicated drink using one of the dozens of options of flavor syrups and foams and toppings, but he just stared blearily at the menu for a moment before ordering two black coffees and giving me one of the cups.

“I’ve been herding ponies all day,” he explained. “Some ponies were taking medications to help them sleep but it just makes them impossible to wake up. The caretakers are doing a good job of keeping them from hurting themselves but they aren’t designed to take them back to their rooms and lock them in until they wake up.”

“It’d probably be considered very rude to have your guests locked inside during normal operations,” I guessed. We sat down at one of the tables. He looked grateful to be off his hooves because he’d been up all night. I was glad to be off my hooves because, again, I had to walk across almost the entire bucking island.

At least my prosthetic wasn’t complaining. I took the opportunity to take out the folded paper Elder Flysteel had given me and followed the prayer-slash-maintenance guide to top up the oil. Just in case the machine spirit was a real thing.

“They weren’t designed to be rude,” Grog agreed. He wached me with obvious bemusement. “If it gets much worse I might have to put them in emergency mode. They’ll put everypony in a shelter even if they have to carry them there.”

“It might be worth trying to sleep down there and see if the dark magic can get in,” I suggested. “I don’t know much about sorcery but I’m pretty sure concrete and steel are still pretty good at stopping spells.”

“I’ll try it tonight,” Grog said. “Thanks.”

I nodded. “Have Bird of Paradise and Gleamblossom given you any trouble?”

“I don’t like them having them so close to town,” Grog sighed. “Especially with everypony on edge like this, if more raiders show up I don’t know how well we’ll be able to fight them off.”

“I might have a way to help with that. Think you’d feel better if they were on the other side of the island?”

“Now you’re asking me if I’d rather have danger right next door or somewhere far away where I can’t see it,” Grog joked. He tapped his hoof against the counter. “I’d be better to have the distance, for now.”

“Great. I’m going to offer them a job.”

He looked unsure. “I don’t know what you’re planning, but you need to be careful about making agreements with them. They’re dangerous ponies. They spent buck knows how long planning revenge, making deals with raiders, brewing poison…”

“But they didn’t dump the poison into the water tanks,” I pointed out. “They’re not insane.”

“Maybe not, but there’s a lot of bad blood there, and they’ve got a grudge against you. It’s in their nature to try and hurt you.”

“I’ll be careful,” I promised.

---

The ruined farm was looking better than I remembered. The fields hadn’t been plowed, but the farmhouse was looking more together, with the holes in the roof covered with a tarp and boards taken down from windows and doors.

A knife pressed against my neck.

“You came to the wrong place,” Bird of Paradise growled. “I could kill you right now.”

“You could try,” I corrected. “But then you won’t know why I’m here and you’ll drive yourself crazy trying to find out. That’s why you’re talking instead of stabbing.”

She sighed and walked around me, putting the knife back into a sheath hidden under her small saddlebags. “You’re right,” Bird of Paradise admitted. “So what do you want? You don’t seem like the type to gloat.”

“The opposite,” I told her. “I came to offer you some help.”

“With revenge?” she asked. “It’s a little late for that. Do you know how much my mother is hurting having to be out here where the love of her life died? Do you have any idea what it’s like to lose everything?”

“You do not want to start comparing tragedies with me,” I cautioned her. “I’ve been through stuff that would turn you white.”

She looked at my pale coat and shrugged, accepting that it might be the case. “So?”

“I want to offer you a job,” I said. “You don’t want to be here but you don’t have anywhere to go.”

“What kind of job? Following you around? Are you going to ask me to be your deadly little sidekick?” she laughed.

“Do you look good in a maid uniform?” I asked. She stopped and looked at me with a combination of worry and confusion. “The witch, Acadia, needs a new apprentice. You’re the first pony I thought of that meets all the requirements.”

“You want me to work for a witch.”

“I have no idea what they pay is like but it’s got to be better than farming.”

Bird of Paradise glanced at the door, thinking. “I won’t leave my mother here alone.”

“Can your mother make tea?” I asked.

“Of course she can. We had to do everything ourselves in our old bungalow. None of that robotic help from the caretakers.”

“Perfect. It’s a two-for-one deal. I don’t think Acadia will mind having two ponies to split the chores and know enough not to try eating anything poisonous.”

“I’ll talk to my mother. Wait here.”

She walked to the door, gave me one last look to make sure I wasn’t following her, then bolted inside and closed the door tight behind her.

“Oh yeah, she’s not plotting betrayal at all,” I mumbled to myself. “Good work, Chamomile.”

I waited for a few minutes until Bird of Paradise stepped back outside.

“We didn’t even get a chance to unpack,” Bird said. “My mom is going to box the rest back up. I’ll go with you to check it out, and if it checks out I’ll come back and help her with our things.”

“That makes sense,” I agreed. “I’ll lead the way.”

“Yeah, no,” Bird of Paradise scoffed. “Show me where it is on the map. I know this place better than you do.”

---

Bird of Paradise had suggested a map that went in a wide arc around some of the rougher brush I’d gone through on the way back.

“You think too much like a pegasus,” she said while she led me down an old path. An abandoned passenger carriage on one side of the path let me guess what had originally gone through here. It didn’t have a harness for somepony to pull it, and there was no room for an engine, so I had to guess the metal trough in the road had something to do with it.

“I am a pegasus,” I pointed out.

She shrugged. “A grounded one. The fastest way to walk somewhere isn’t always just going in a straight line. Following this road is a longer distance but we avoid walking through the middle of the gator preserve.”

“There’s a gator preserve? That explains a few things…”

“And this is the idiot that took down all my raiders,” Bird sighed.

“I’m very hard to kill.”

Bird snickered to herself like she was thinking of a funny joke. The road we were following continued onto a short concrete bridge and then into something that could have been the exciting downtown district of some pre-war city, a street lined with nightclubs, arcades, and shops. Like the rest of the park, all the things that took away from the fantasy had been surgically removed. No apartments or parking lots or gutters. Just the fun parts.

“Are you sure this is the right way?” I asked.

“Oh, definitely,” Bird teased. She stopped in the street. “You idiot, I’ve led you right into the hooves of the Downtown Delvers, the meanest bunch of raiders on the island!”

“Did I hear somepony mention the Delvers?” A pony stepped out from behind the neon facade of a sign on the second story of a nightclub. She was a mare in a combination of a nightgown and black leather armor. She looked down at Bird. “As I live and breathe! If it isn’t Bird of Paradise!”

“Chamomile, this is Belle View. She’s the leader around here,” Bird explained. I looked around as more ponies stepped out into the street from the shadows of old stores and buildings. I recognized some of the armor and style.

“They’re the raiders you hired to attack the resort?” I guessed.

“And they’ve got one buck of a grudge against you,” Bird of Paradise said.

“Oh darlin, that ain’t true,” Belle View protested. “You’re the one who led my dearies to their fate. That means the debt is on you.”

Bird of Paradise’s expression fell. “But… she’s the one who--!”

“You don’t blame a pony for defending themselves,” Belle said. “Still, we don’t want to look soft. Everypony? Kill ‘em both. I want them turned into crocodile kibble.”

---

“I can’t believe they’d betray me!” Bird of Paradise yelled. She kicked a rock off the road and into the swamp. Behind us, several buildings were on fire and ponies were lying in the streets. The smart ones were pretending to be dead, the dumb ones were trying to get up. I sighed and walked out of the small fake downtown area.

“Good thing Lathe isn’t here or she’d be angry about all the broken machines,” I said. It was important to find a silver lining.

Belle pulled a hidden throwing knife from her dress and threw it over her shoulder at a noise. A pony yelped and fell out of the shadows. She glared back at them, then followed after me.

“I’m not going to apologize,” she said.

“For trying to kill me? Again?” I asked.

“You would do the same thing if you had a chance!” she snapped. “You ruined my life!”

I stopped and turned around to look at her. “Really? You don’t think the way you decided to try and burn down the resort might be the reason your life is ruined?”

“I’m not apologizing for that, either.”

I glared at her for a few more seconds then turned again and started stomping away. It wasn’t very long before I heard her hooves behind me.

“Why are you following me?” I asked.

“We’re still going to the witch, right?” Bird of Paradise asked. “You need me.”

“You think I’m still going to introduce you to her?!” I scoffed.

“I think she has something you want and you don’t have any other options.”

I hated that she wasn’t entirely wrong.

“Just… try not to slip on anything and accidentally stab me in the back,” I shot back at her.

“I’ll be very careful,” she promised.

---

“She does look good in a maid outfit,” I admitted. Bird of Paradise made it work almost as well as the black leathers, even if the apron and skirts left more to the imagination instead of being on display like a menu.

“The tea isn’t too terrible,” Acadia allowed. We were sitting at a table made of old wood, worn smooth by use and marked with ancient stains, some of which had to be blood. “I tink somepony added foxglove to dis.”

“Isn’t that highly poisonous?” I asked.

“It is,” Acadia confirmed. We both took deliberate sips of tea while Bird of Paradise squirmed. “Oh, I am being rude! I should offer some tea to de new apprentice. Why don’ you sit down and have a cup?”

“I have to… clean…” Bird of Paradise said, backing away quickly and finding something else to do. She muttered to herself once she thought she was out of earshot. “Why didn’t it work?”

“I like her,” Acadia said. “She has de right spirit! Ambition an’ no fear to seek it out.”

I put the teacup down and groaned. “Good. I don’t know where I’d find anypony else who wants the job.”

“I’ll work on you hoodoo. It’ll take a bit.” Acadia stood up and picked up a staff with her magic, shaking it until the crystal at the end started glowing. “Apprentice!”

“Me?” Bird peeked out from behind a bookcase.

“Yes, you. Get me de notes I have on de crystal empire stones. I haven’t thought about dem in ages an’ I wan’ to refresh myself.”

Bird of Paradise looked around. “...Where are they?”

Acadia rapped the end of her staff against the floor, sending up a spout of multicolored sparks. “Don’ make me do everything myself! Find dem yourself! It’s part of your job!”

Bird of Paradise ran off, obviously terrified. The overwhelming feeling of magic in the air probably had something to do with it. Acadia watched her bolt into another room and start going through books and scrolls. The witch shook her head.

“She’ll have to learn on de job,” Acadia said. “Her mother kin tend the garden an’ help out with meals, so I’ll house dem both and keep dem from doing anyting else stupid like trying to get revenge on de resort.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“Come here.” Acadia held out her hoof. I stepped over and took it. “I will teach you how to register at de fast pass kiosk. De system works, but it was locked down, so you need to use a spell to do it.”

“I’m a pegasus,” I reminded her.

“An you is carrying a hundred pony’s worth of enchanted metal! I could teach a stick to cast dis spell, I can teach a pony.” She closed her eyes and focused, and I felt heat on my left forehoof. It burned. I yelped in pain and tried to pull back. She didn’t let go, her hoof sticking to mine like we were glued together.

She looked into my eyes seriously. Her horn was glowing faintly.

“Feel de magic,” she said. “It don’ matter what kind of pony you are.”

I could feel it. It was rough and intrusive, like when I’d picked that lock in the utilidors. It was slipping inside a mechanism and changing things manually, but in a sort of abstract, magical way.

Sparks flew between our hooves, and she finally let go. I stumbled back, not
expecting her to release me, and looked at how much damage she’d done. A symbol had been burned into my hoof, carved into the metal as if the witch had a welding torch inside her leg.

“You should be able to git back to de machine pony town on you own,” Acadia said. “Dere is a kiosk dere, an’ once you activate it den traveling here will be easy, non? I won’t even have to open de door for you myself like I have been.”

“Thanks, I think?” I said.

“You tink,” she cackled. “Come back later an’ de hoodoo will be ready.”

---

“She couldn’t be more specific than later?” Lathe asked. She pointed to the middle of town. “Over there.”

I followed her guidance to the bronze circle set into the ground. It was wider here than the one at Acadia’s hut, bit enough for a small family to use all at once. I pressed my marked hoof against it and focused, trying to copy what I’d felt. It was like reaching outside my body. There was an electric spark, and the stylized alligator pressed into the surface of the platform glowed green for a moment.

“These things aren’t safe,” Lathe warned. “They’re purely magic. The machine spirit can’t intervene if anything goes wrong.”

“You’re a unicorn,” I pointed out. “You do magic.”

“Yes, but I have a license,” Lathe informed me smugly. “I’m not using that thing. It never worked correctly. The Founder built the monorail for a reason!”

“Because he loved trains?”

“Yes! They’re a pure expression of the machine spirit’s power and will!” Lathe exclaimed.

“Okay, okay,” I agreed. “No teleporting with you. So you said you had somewhere you wanted to go?”

“Yes. I realized what we need is a pure, uncorrupted conduit to the park’s control system. I think I know just the place to go.”

She pulled out her map, unfolding it and pointing to buildings that had been unmarked on the original but had hoof-written annotations next to them.

“They made the memory orbs for the rides here,” she said. “The control system had to have a connection to program them. It’s the perfect place to find what I need - the original codes for the New Park Experience access!”

“How likely is it to be infested with monsters or raiders?” I asked.

“It’ll be fine,” she assured me. “You’re a strong pony! We’ll just be careful, and I’ll have my scanner.”

Comments

[Thought Prism]

Scene break, everything is on fire

Seems legit

[Reese]

"At last I haven’t had any more"
"At least I haven’t had any more"?

"He wached me with obvious"
"He watched me with obvious"?

"I don’t like them having them so"
"I don’t like having them so"?

"counter. “I’d be better to have the"
"counter. “It’d be better to have the"?

"I have no idea what they pay is like but it’s"
"I have no idea what the pay is like but it’s"?

"hut, bit enough for a small"
"hut, big enough for a small"?

I continue to quite enjoy this story; thanks for writing!
Oh, and an obligatory pun groan for there not being mush room inside. :)

[FridayPie]

Is this island inspired by Boracai (Crocodile Island)?