Fallout Equestria: Blue Destiny

by MagnetBolt

Chapter 61: In The Hall of the Mountain King

A concussion grenade hit the ground next to the gazebo, and what Star Swirl had been trying to say was lost in the blast. I shook my head, trying to clear the ringing from my ears.

“What?!” I shouted.

“I said we can’t stay here!” Star Swirl yelled. “I can’t form a decent shield in this mess!” He waved a hoof at the darkness around us. “If they start remembering how to aim…”

“Just stay here!” I stood up and bolted out of the gazebo, trying to draw their fire. DRACO was tracking the Rangers. Three of them. One on top of a pile of rubble and firing those concussion grenades, the other two circling and flanking. They were definitely smarter than the rest of the undead since they’d graduated past running directly at me and screaming.

They were big targets, which would have made it really embarrassing to miss them entirely. I put the targeting reticle over the one giving covering fire and pulled the trigger for DRACO to go weapons-hot. The computer-controlled rifle minutely adjusted my rough aim and fired, launching a sputtering flare into the heavily armored knight. It bounced off the thick armor plates and scattered away.

“Destiny!” I yelled.

“Sorry, sorry!” the ghost yelped, pulling up menus in my vision and changing things. “That’s my bad! I still had it locked to flares!”

The Ranger adjusted his aim and he didn’t need any fancy targeting computer because he nailed me dead-on with a grenade. The blast threw me back, and the impact and noise overwhelmed my senses. I must have blacked out because I woke up when I hit the dusty ground in a heap of limbs.

My vision was blurry and I couldn’t read the bright red flashing text in the HUD. I was pretty sure it was bad.

“You are not dead yet, squanderer, even though you are painted in its pale colors,” a hissing, raspy voice said, echoing in my ears. “In this place, life and death are separated by a razor’s edge, and the hungry blade comes to sever your light…”

“What?” I groaned.

“You need to move!” Destiny shouted, that raspy voice suddenly gone along with some of the disorientation, uncertainty, and shock being replaced by the sharp pain of shrapnel and torn flesh. It was knitting, slowly. “The potions aren’t working like they should!”

I looked up and saw a Steel Ranger storming towards me, dragging a huge sword that left a trail in the air like it was rending the atmosphere in its way. I knew if it got to me, I’d be finished. The armor was an iron prison as I stood, heavy shackles on all my weak and bleeding limbs. The ranger lifted his sword, ready to swing it down and demand an answer from me about how I would stop the inevitable.

---

Light flooded back into the world, new strength supporting my failing limbs. The armor took up its own weight and more, and the healing potion kicked in, my wounds closing.

“We’re back?” Destiny asked.

I turned around to check on Star Swirl and a pack of zombies lunged at me like they’d been waiting for me to look before they attacked. I instinctively headbutted the first one, the horn on my helmet going through its eye socket and getting lodged there, leaving an undead horror blocking my vision.

More of them swarmed me, and I lashed out literally blindly, snapping my blade free and cutting through rotting flesh with one hoof, striking out at random in every direction at once and mostly hitting air, but they weren’t smart enough to not walk into a flailing limb and get pulped.

Destiny fired a bolt of magic, exploding the head stuck to my helmet and putting in her best effort to finish coating me in black and brown globs of gore.

“That was the least elegant fight I’ve ever seen,” Star Swirl said. He took off his hat and frowned at a small hole in the brim before putting it back on.

“I’m fine, thanks for asking,” I said. “I only got hit with a grenade and swarmed by the undead.”

“You’re not fine, but the shrapnel is being broken down by SIVA and most of the wounds have closed thanks to those healing potions,” Destiny corrected. “You’ll be fine with some rest.”

“You can rest when we’re done,” Star Swirl said, leaving the gazebo and walking up to me, stopping outside of the circle of gore around me. “The Darkness is trying to stall us. Rockhoof is here for some reason, and this is our chance to disrupt whatever they’re planning and save him at the same time.”

The light vanished like a goddess had flicked a switch and turned out the sun.

---

The sword came down. Ice flooded my veins, and the world slowed just long enough for me to react before it took off my head. My blade met the Ranger’s sword, white-hot sparks flashing for the barest instant before their light was swallowed up by the eternal gloom.

The armored undead leaned in, pressing forward, trying to break my block. DRACO beeped a warning about the other zombified rangers. I slid to the side and went low, letting the Ranger’s momentum carry him forward and past me, right into the path of the grenade that would have hit me. The Ranger’s armor was considerably less effective, shattering under the concussive force.

“Do we have actual bullets yet?” I shouted.

“Yes!” Destiny confirmed.

I spun around and pulled the trigger without aiming, hoping DRACO would know what to do. The shell cracked through the winter-quiet air and hit the second Ranger, putting another hole in his head, this one putting him back in the grave instead of pulling him out of it. The last of the knights stepped back into the open from where he’d been circling, aiming a big rotary gun at us. It started to spin.

“No you don’t!” I yelled, throwing my knife at him. It went right past Star Swirl’s head and there was a spray of sparks as it flew through the Ranger. The gun started firing, spraying wildly and at random and tilting back with recoil as the Ranger collapsed, his head going one way and body the other direction.

The blade spiraled back to me like a boomerang and clicked back into place. I sheathed it again between the bones of my forehoof.

“Was that elegant enough?” I asked.

“It was... sufficient,” Star Swirl admitted. He huffed and walked towards the far edge of the space, where the gazebo and rock garden cracked and crumbled away.

“How many drugs did you inject me with?” I whispered.

“It’d be faster to say it was one of everything,” Destiny replied quietly. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize, it made me look good in front of your big crush.”

“I do not have a crush on Star Swirl the Bearded! I just admire him as a near-mythical hero and inventor!”

“It’s fine, Destiny. We all have a type. You like old, rude stallions, I like a mare that can beat the shit out of me.” That left Destiny sputtering and upset, and I took the opportunity to walk up next to her hero.

The edge of the platform turned into rough, natural rock, just fading smoothly from one to the other. There should have been wind, icy cold. That’s just what a pony expected around the summit we were standing on. I could dimly see a long, barren slope stretched out below us, as high as any mountain I’d ever seen. A river of lava oozed down the slope, the radiant heat dim and only warming as much as the sun on a fall day against the cool dark air.

“We’ll have to make our way down there.” Star Swirl nodded. “Can you see it, right at the foot of the mountain?”

My HUD enhanced the image, but I didn’t need it. It stood alone against the darkness like it was the only thing that existed down in that valley. Maybe it was. A small collection of rough-looking huts and houses, right in the path of the lava. It hadn’t yet reached them, but it was only a matter of time.

“I see it,” I confirmed.

“That is Rockhoof’s village. This place has been built out of his memories. Perhaps it’s keeping control of him by reminding him of his greatest triumph?” Star Swirl frowned.

DRACO popped up a display without prompting.

“I’m seeing movement,” I said. “There are ponies down there, but… they’re just shadows. I don’t think they’re really there.”

“This is good,” Star Swirl said. “Rockhoof will intervene and save them, and that means we’ll know exactly where he’ll be! We just need a safe way down… damn this place for being so bloody difficult to navigate!”

“Flying is harder here,” I said. “But I think I can glide down even with some extra weight.”

Star Swirl was about to refuse, then sighed. “Fine, but be dignified about it.”

---

“I specifically requested dignity,” Star Swirl said, using one hoof to keep his hat on his head while we flew.

“They wouldn’t call it a princess carry if it wasn’t dignified,” I countered.

He crossed his hooves and glared at me.

“If you don’t like it, I can let go and you can levitate yourself the rest of the way down,” I said. We both looked down at the river of lava. It wasn’t radiating anywhere near enough heat to be the real stuff, but it still wouldn’t be pleasant to fall into. I could feel on my wings that it wasn’t convecting correctly and wasn’t producing even a fraction of the extra lift it should’ve.

“Self-levitation is an incredibly niche skill,” Star Swirl said. “Why bother when I can teleport?”

“Can you teleport right now?” I asked.

“Of course not! I’d be torn apart! Or worse, I’d vanish and just never reappear!”

“Sounds like that means you should stop complaining.”

Star Swirl rolled his eyes and looked down at the village. We were just behind the volcanic flow, the glowing surge keeping ahead of us no matter how fast I went. When I slowed down, it kept pace, slowing along with us.

“It seems as though it’s going to arrive just before we do, no matter what,” he said.

“But it’s just liquid rock, right?” Destiny asked. “How can it decide to do that?”

“It’s not just magma. It’s part of a story.” Star Swirl frowned. “Where is he? He should be getting ready to save the town!”

“There!” Destiny yelled. DRACO popped up a window. Star Swirl leaned in to look at the small screen. “He’s walking into the main street!”

“Good, right,” Star Swirl nodded. “Look, you can see him digging a ditch.”

Rockhoof stomped, and the ground opened up in a wide rift right in the path of the lava. The shadow ponies around him cheered until he started pushing them into the deep ditch.

“Oh no,” Destiny whispered.

Rockhoof shoved the ponies back in when they tried to climb out, and we could only watch helplessly as the lava neared the shadows, the silhouettes panicking and silently screaming in terror.

The crest of the flowing lava broke like a wave, closing over them like a set of liquid, fiery jaws and--

---

The light blinded me for a moment, and the return of lift to my wings nearly sent me out of control. Star Swirl yelped and grabbed onto me tightly.

“Pull up! Pull up!” he shouted.

My vision cleared, and I saw why he was worried. We were underneath one of the floating landbergs, the mist at the bottom of the world growing thicker around us. I had no idea what would happen if we fell but Star Swirl seemed to think it wasn’t good and I was inclined to believe him.

I caught the air and steadied myself, trying to get my bearings. A boulder suddenly loomed in front of me, barely giving me time to dodge. With the light coming from every direction, the blur of mist was disorienting.

I spotted something solid enough to take our weight hanging underneath the rocks. I swerved towards the darker stone, flying through an opening that had looked much larger a moment ago when I’d spotted it and coming to a halt in a smooth-sided cavern.

The light behind us dimmed, and I watched the rock smoothly close over like a healing wound. We weren’t quite plunged into darkness. Glowing crystals set into the wall at eye level provided a blue-green light.

“What the heck?” I whispered.

“It’s not SIVA,” Destiny said. “I’m not detecting the typical signal.”

I nodded in agreement. I already knew it wasn’t SIVA. I could feel it in my bones - literally. “Some kind of earth pony magic? He can open up big holes in the ground.”

“This is something else,” Star Swirl said, looking around. “It isn’t pony magic. Keep your eyes open. We might be in great danger.”

“It’s so weird,” I mumbled, touching the wall. I couldn’t really feel the material through the armor, but it reminded me of something that had been smoothed by the flow of water, with a surface so slick that it almost looked polished. If a fossil was something that had been alive and turned into stone, this was like stone that was in the process of becoming alive.

I led the way into the next room, Destiny and Star Swirl providing extra light with their magic, sweeping the corners for anything that might be lurking in the twisting, changing pathways.

A platform stood in the center of the room, held up by crooked stalagmites that reached out of the floor like a hundred hooves supporting a single carved, rotting throne made of acid-worn, cracked black rock.

“That shouldn’t be here,” Destiny whispered. “I’ve seen that, in old pictures. Old even in my time.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“There was something here recently,” Star Swirl said. He reared up and examined the seat of the huge throne. He touched the surface, and his hoof came away with a thin coating of green slime. “It’s like some kind of empty nest…”

Before anypony could give me an answer, the cavern opened up like somepony cracking an egg. The half-living stone bled gouts of mud, and more normal and natural stone and crystal rained down from above as the room split apart. I could see the mist below through the growing gap in the floor, and the sky above.

Rockhoof jumped down, his axe raising sparks from one side of the rift as he used it to slow his fall from above.

“Looks like he decided to find us!” I yelled.

Rockhoof slammed down and kicked the ground. There was a sound like some kind of great beast moaning in pain, and the two halves of the island started sliding away from each other, the gap through the middle of the room widening with Star Swirl on one side and me and Rockhoof on the other.

The big, shadowed pony turned his spotlight-like gaze on me.

It felt a lot like the moment right before Four had decided to break all my bones by stomping on me with her giant Assault Armor.

“You know we’re trying to save you, right?” I asked, taking a step back. “You don’t know me, but you have other friends, and they’re worried about how you’ve become a huge evil monster. I’m here to help them talk sense into you and--”

He attacked without a word, sweeping the axe in a low horizontal blow. I took to the air, letting it pass under me and smash through the bizarre throne.

“Okay, we’ll do this the hard way,” I said. I charged directly at him and grabbed for his neck, trying to get him in some kind of lock. Headlock, necklock, earlock, whatever. I tried to get a grip on him, but the shadows covering him made everything oddly slippery like I was trying to wrestle a cloud instead of a pony.

I felt the crawl of nearby spellcasting along my spine. Rockhoof must have felt something too because he turned to look at the other half of the island at the same time I did. Star Swirl threw a spell at him, a crackling ball of magic that hit him in the chest and sent a shock through both of us, hitting me hard enough to throw me off the big pony and into the roof, at which point I was politely introduced to the ground by our mutual friend, gravity.

“Destiny, your idol needs to learn the difference between friendship and friendly fire,” I said, shaking myself off. My body was half-numb from the stun spell, and even with Destiny closing windows as quickly as they opened I could tell the armor was trying to reboot as quickly as possible.

Rockhoof jumped right over the gap and to the other side of the split room, almost landing right on top of Star Swirl. The wizard yelped and teleported just before impact, blinking back into the world on the far side of a chest-high wall of debris.

I took aim with DRACO.

“Destiny--”

“I’m not going to give you lethal rounds,” she warned. “So don’t ask!”

“I was hoping for smoke.”

“That I can do,” she agreed. She adjusted my aim and DRACO barked dully, firing slow rounds that landed at Rockhoof’s hooves and exploded into billowing clouds of hot smoke. The earth pony looked confused, backing away and swiping at the air with his axe.

Star Swirl backed away from the smoke on his side of the wall. With the cloud between him and Rockhoof, he couldn’t get a shot off. He charged up a spell, but couldn’t see a target.

“Just shoot!” I yelled. Rockhoof was a huge target. Even if Star Swirl just fired blindly, he’d probably hit.

The wizard smiled and fired right at me.

“I got it, I got it!” Destiny panicked, letting the error messages pile up and grabbing at the oncoming spell with her magic, deflecting it in a near-180 and sending it towards the confused and enraged Rockhoof. The backlash sent waves of pain through my temples, sparks flying from my wingtips from the residual energy grounding itself.

The stun spell hit Rockhoof cleanly and caught him off-guard, knocking the axe out of his grip and bowling him over. He didn’t even pretend to stay down, forcing himself back up on shaking legs and roaring in pure annoyance.

His cry blotted out the light from the world, and everything washed away in a tide of inky blackness.

---

I blinked at the sudden shift to monochrome. Before I could see what was going on, the ground broke up under me and I instinctively jumped, trying to take to the air. The stone collapsed, sinking into a rising tide of magma. At the same time, the weight had returned to my wings and the darkness sapped the magic that would have given me lift.

“Over here!” Star Swirl yelled. I looked up and saw him perched on a stable basalt island in the sea of lava. I banked and beat my wings frantically, landing hard next to him on the increasingly crowded boulder.

“That was close,” I said.

“We need to pin him down long enough to perform the ritual,” Star Swirl said. He raised the edge of his cape to show me the shovel strapped to his side. “I am open to ideas on how to accomplish this.”

“First, we need to get away from here,” I said, looking around. “He’s big enough to throw both of us around like toys, and there aren’t a lot of safe places to land.”

“Hold on,” Destiny said. The empty weapon slot on my side flashed, the Dimension Pliers sliding into place from extradimensional storage. “Just have to use the right tool for the right job. I’ll track the distortion and try to give you some waypoints to follow.”

“That might not be so easy,” I said. “Anywhere else, we’d just go as the pegasus flies, but there are only a few paths out here.”

“Unless Rockhoof can swim through magma, he has to use the rocks to get around too,” Destiny said. “Try this way.” She put a pointer on my display.

“Lead the way,” Star Swirl said. “But, ah… I might need some help. I’m not as spry as I was nine hundred years ago.”

We jumped from rock to rock, the haze from the darkness and heat making it feel like an endless hellish expanse. In truth, we only went a few hundred meters before we spotted it.

“Is that the village?” I asked. The ground had broken away from it on all sides, leaving it as a cluster of burned-out husks on top of a mesa surrounded by a moat of molten rock.

“Unfortunately, I believe so,” Star Swirl said. He lowered his voice, mumbling to himself as I helped him to the next stable platform. “Why here, Rockhoof? This was your greatest personal triumph!”

Rockhoof appeared at the edge of the mesa like he’d heard Star Swirl talking. He looked down at us and stomped his hoof. A stairway of broken slabs of stone rose out of the lava. The massive shadowed pony turned and walked out of sight.

“He’s rolling out the red carpet,” Destiny noted.

“I guess he’s tired of running,” I said. “Stay behind me in case it’s a trap.”

“Such a brilliant plan it’s amazing I didn’t already think of it myself,” Star Swirl said dryly.

I gingerly put my weight on the stairs. I almost expected them to collapse right under me, but maybe he didn’t need that kind of trap. They were as solid as the rocks they looked like, and I walked up them to the village.

It reminded me of the oldest parts of my home town. A maze of small streets, too narrow for anything but hoof traffic, with one big main street and an obvious town center. It was also all ruined. Volcanic ash covered everything in a thick layer like the world’s filthiest snow. Under it, there was no soil or cobblestone, just bare rock. The buildings didn’t have interiors, there were no glimpses of some fleeting and lost life like in the wasteland. It wasn’t a real village that had burned down and fossilized, it was more like a model of one. A theme park celebrating a disaster.

Rockhoof stood on top of the broken town hall, waiting for us.

“Why is he ready to fight now?” I whispered. “He was always running away before.”

“We’re in an Eclipsed Place,” Destiny guessed. “Star Swirl and I can’t use magic here, and the armor isn’t nearly as effective.”

“Oh. So he thinks he has the edge.”

“That’s because he does have the edge,” Star Swirl said quietly. “We can use that to our advantage.”

“How?” I asked.

“I’ll try to reason with him one more time,” Star Swirl said. “He always used to listen to me. I’m sure I can keep his attention. You circle around and wait for the right moment to strike.”

“Got it,” I agreed. I hung back and let Star Swirl take the lead.

“Rockhoof!” he called out. “Listen to reason! I’m here to help you. You need to stop this! Whatever the Darkness promised you, it’s not worth it! It’s our responsibility to--”

Star Swirl didn’t get a chance to make whatever argument he was going to make. Rockhoof jumped into the air, his axe cutting through the still, dead air, coming down like a sledgehammer. I bolted, shoving Star Swirl out of the way.

It didn’t hit me straight on or else I’d have spent the rest of my short life split in half. The angle meant it just slammed me into the dust and ash on the ground hard enough to drive the air out of my lungs.

He raised the axe again, adjusting his aim to bring it down on me like I was a stubborn log that needed splitting.

I looked at his hooves and pulled the trigger, DRACO following my gaze and shooting with accuracy I’d never have on my own. The shell exploded on contact, blasting the weapon out of his hooves.

Rockhoof roared in annoyance and reached down to grab me, picking me up and throwing me into the debris of the ruined village. Everything blurred around me until it ended in a sudden stop and terrible pain.

“Chamomile!” Destiny gasped.

I could feel it. That little warning bell that meant I was broken inside, again. I looked down at the black wood emerging from just under my ribs. It was as cold as ice and as hard as iron.

“Buck,” I gasped, unable to draw enough breath to properly speak. I reached down with shaking hooves.

“Wait!” Destiny warned. “If you pull it out you’ll just bleed out! Healing potions work too slowly here!”

The ground rumbled. I looked up to see Rockhoof charging at me. I was pinned in place like the butterfly in Dad’s extinct insect collection.

Pounding hooves hit the dirt and faltered when it opened up under them, Rockhoof stumbling and falling out of sight into a sudden pit.

“I wasn’t sure that would work,” Star Swirl said, Rockhoof’s shovel in his hooves. “I was counting on his magic still working, even here. He did make the place, after all.”

He quickly trotted over to me, looking me over.

“Damn, I wish Meadowbrook was here…” he mumbled.

“Here,” I said, my voice weak. I popped the blade out of my leg and detached it. “Cut through the--”

“I know, I know,” Star Swirl said softly. “Just stay still. I’ll get you out of there.” He patted my shoulder and reached back with the blade. I could feel him working on the burned wooden beam piercing my torso. Every vibration through it sent a wave of agony through me, the cold primal terror of shock giving way to blinding pain.

The beam gave way, and I slumped down, trying to catch my breath.

“You must stay calm,” the old unicorn said, keeping a hoof on my back. “I’ve pulled through with worse than that. Why, there was one incident with a few unruly sirens where I was actually eaten alive!”

“I’ll keep her stable,” Destiny said. “Can you do the ritual?”

“Hm?” Star Swirl looked up from my wound, which he’d been staring at with concern. “Right, yes. We need to get this done quickly.”

He took off his hat and reached inside, pulling out a tightly-rolled scroll.

“Even here, this should work,” he mumbled, unrolling it. I only got a glimpse of what was on the parchment. I wouldn’t have understood it even if I’d been able to see it clearly, much less with my vision wavering as much as it was. It was a bunch of runes and geometric diagrams, all written in multicolored, glittering ink that glowed slightly as he ran his hoof over it, maintaining their hues even in the Eclipse.

Rockhoof started climbing out of the pit the Shovel had opened, obviously having more trouble with it than he had before.

“From one to another, another to one,” Star Swirl said, putting the scroll on the ground and the shovel on top of it in the middle of the scribed circle. “A mark of one’s destiny singled out and fulfilled.”

The shovel started glowing, white light surrounding it and starting to take on the bright colors of a rainbow around the edges.
“Harmony sheds its glow though the night, and the dark things cannot stand the light!”

Rockhoof pulled himself over the edge, and the shovel erupted in radiance, sparks erupting out of it and rushing at the dark pony in a tide that burned with every color I could name and more, washing away the darkness of the Eclipse.

---

Magic rushed into my body, and I took a deep gasping breath. I must have lost consciousness, because I woke up with a start of terrible pain. It faded with the warmth and soft electric static of healing potions working their magic on me.

Star Swirl dropped the broken shard of wood in front of me, the charcoal beam dripping with my blood. It vanished after a few moments, dissolving away into nothingness.

“How is she?” asked a weak voice. “I didn’t mean to--”

“She’s fine,” Star Swirl said gruffly. “You weren’t in control of yourself. Don’t apologize.”

I got up with shaking hooves. I felt the armor’s magical fields kicking in, supporting and stabilizing me. Star Swirl was standing next to… a pony that was much smaller than I expected. He was practically puny, a head smaller than Star Swirl, equipped with thin legs, knobby knees, and an exhausted, worried expression.

“Ach, I’m sorry lass,” he said quietly. “I don’t care what he says, it’s never proper to hit a lady.”

“If you tried any harder to kill me I’d think you were one of my ex-marefriends,” I joked. The pain was almost gone. I was absolutely sure that was more because of the Med-X Destiny had pumped into me than the healing potions. The familiar feeling of opiates settled over me like a comfortable sweater.

“Yes, well. Good work, Chamomile,” Star Swirl said. “And you cast spells quite smartly, Miss Bray.”

“I’m just trying my best,” Destiny said modestly. I could sense her almost swooning from the praise.

“We all are,” Star Swirl said. “Of course, my best means that we’ve just brought things back from the edge of disaster! Now we aren’t in a stalemate with the binding spell.”

“Aye,” Rockhoof said. He sighed, looking back at himself.

“I admit, I kind of expected you to be, um…” I hesitated.

“Bigger?” he suggested.

“He needs to recover,” Star Swirl explained. “The ritual drained practically all the magic from him. And, unfortunately…”

He offered Rockhoof his shovel. The blade was shattered. Rockhoof took it solemnly and nodded.

“I apologize. No one item could withstand all that magic. If we were able to divide it up, there might be a way, but…”

“A tool is meant to be used,” Rockhoof said. “And anything broken can be fixed if a pony is willin’ to put in the effort. A shovel, or a friendship.” He smiled and patted Star Swirl’s leg. “My throat’s a bit dry. How about you do the talking and tell me about your new friend on the way back?"