Fallout Equestria: Chumming Waters

Fallout Equestria: Chumming Waters

Chapter 9 - The Path One Chooses

“Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions.”
― Dallin H. Oaks

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"Before we eat, let's pray." Victoria spoke up, and we all bowed our heads. "We thank Celestia and Luna for this bounty, and we thank the goddess for gifting us with the strength to take victory for ourselves. My you guide our fallen to the promised land, and continue to watch over us all. Amen" We all repeated "Amen" after Victoria, and dug into our food.

I looked down at the assorted plate of apples, pineapples, and a few other things that all looked good. Sadly I didn't feel like eating. Having taken a bite of the pineapple slice, it tasted the same, but felt different than before. Luckily, Black Spot had taken a seat next to me, and scooted in close, so I had him eat the rest.

What was left of the Corps Brigade were enjoying themselves at the table, eating, drinking, and messing with each other. I never got the time to count them before, but from the looks of it, there were less than half of us left from before the fighting started. There were some other ponies at the table, I could only guess that they were important, but definitely not part of the Brigade. Also we had ponies serving us the food and drinks, most of which seemed to be the what was left of the guards, all wearing the clothes that the whores used.

Victoria had gotten up onto a makeshift stage, and Puppet Strings held up a microphone for her. "You are all wonderful, you know that. Not only did we take this ship, but with the capture of the demon, we ensured our place among the fleet." Her voice boomed through the speakers, and a cheer came from the crowd. "Now for all the ponies worried about things changing for the worst. Do not fear, our first goal is to get everything up and running as soon as possible. Until then, rations of food and water will be handed out to all workers who are prevented from working. And to the ponies worried about crime, I ask you this, did Blackpowder ever care about that in the first place. We will seek to keep the order, and will begin recruiting more ponies into our family soon. So if you want our city to become even better, you know who to turn to, our door is always open."

Taking a long drink of water, Victoria looked over at me. "Now let's honor our heroes in this fight. First off is Puppet Strings, who disrupted the loyalist ability to communicate to each other over the com. And Carving Doll for leading the assault, as well as disposing of our power armored gusset. Last but not least, little Star Charter, who rang the first shot, struck the final blow, as well as lured in the demon for us to capture." I sipped on my cup of grog as all the others looked at me. I finally had the respect I always wanted, and it felt good, but yet I didn't feel happy about it. "Now a song by yours truly!"

Somewhere beyond the sea
Somewhere waiting for me
My lover stands on golden sands
And watches the ships that go sailing

Somewhere beyond the sea
He's there watching for me
If I could fly like birds on high
Then straight to his arms
I'd go sailing

It's far beyond the stars
It's near beyond the moon
I know beyond a doubt
My heart will lead me there soon

We'll meet beyond the shore
We'll kiss just as before
Happy we'll be beyond the sea
And never again I'll go sailing

I know beyond a doubt
My heart will lead me there soon
We'll meet (I know we'll meet) beyond the shore
We'll kiss just as before
Happy we'll be beyond the sea
And never again I'll go sailing

No more sailing
So long sailing
Bye, bye sailing...

We all finished our breakfast, I even managed to take another bite before letting Black Spot have the rest. Getting out of my seat, I trotted off to Cargo Town. With nothing else to do, I wanted to take a look around. Black spot quickly followed behind me.

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It was still too early for Cargo Town to be busy. Ponies were out and about but most were taking care of their personal business. Much of the aftermath of the fighting could be seen everywhere, with shells, and bullet snuffs littering the area. Some ponies had taken to cleaning up their little area, but most just ignored it like any other trash.

Even though the street was far from being full, the other ponies made sure to give us space as we passed by. If they had anything to say about us, they kept it to themselves. I caught a few dirty looks, but that was few and far between. No pony here was going to try to thump me, or call me ship rat, they were too scared to even try. I probably could just take something of theirs and not worry about them stopping me. I had finally gained the respect and fear I deserved.

"Hay Star, Hay!" Black Spot rubbed his shoulder against mine. "Is it true, did you rip out another ponies throat." He leaned in and whispered. "with your teeth?" I nodded, wondering why he was asking. "That's cool, I'm gonna do that to, show em all how strong I am. I bet if they let me in that fight, I'd be a one pony army" I chuckled, Black spot was a lot of things, but a fighter he was not. He had been hiding behind my flank ever since I saved his. "Don't laugh, I'll show you and everypony else. Captain Black Spot, t' most feared captain o' t' fleet!" He slowly waved a hoof across as though the title was right above his head.

I gave him a playful little shove. "By feared, you mean fearful." He puffed his cheeks and I laughed. "But a Captain o' your own ship, you think I can do it?"

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Didn't you kill t' captain o' this ship, and Victoria dotin' on you like her prized sister. It be stupid if you didn't get your own ship." He nuzzling me, catching me by surprise. "You make me jealous, you know that. Whatever you want, you go and get it, and no pony can stop you."

Wait what? "What was that last part"

He suddenly backed up "Sorry, I didn't mean jealous, I meant admire, ya! I admire you. Can we cuddle?" I facehoofed

"No, no. After that."

He stopped for a moment, taking a thinking posture. "You mean the part about you getting whatever you want?"

Is that true? I did want all of this, the respect, the fear, and the attention of Victoria. But why don't I feel happier? Before I met Prism Paint this was all I wanted... That's it, she must have done something to me. "Black Spot!" He froze in place. "Get me stuff, and meet me in fore o' t' chapel."

He tilted his head. "Why?"

I sighed. "I have a question t' ask a pony."

__________________________

It hadn't taken Black Spot long to bring me my saddle bag to me. It was all there; the rust gun and ammo, my cutlass, the battle saddle, the stuff taken from the captains bedroom, and even my tinted goggle eye-peace was in there.

"So what be you goin' t' do with that stuff... wait, be you goin' t' kill t' demon?" Black Spot had an understandably confused look on his face.

I shook my head. "No, I just need t' ask her a question."

"Then why do you need all your stuff?"

Putting on the saddle bag, I bopped him on the nose. "Can't go in unprepared, never know when you got t' shoot some pony." He took a step back as I grinned wide. "Now stay out here, This probably won't take long... probably." He nodded, and I walked to the door.

As the door slowly opened, I could hear a follower shouting. Her voice carried the tone of disgust and rage to it, but the normally preachy feel seemed more like simple shouting. "WHY HAVE YOU COME HERE DEMON? WHAT INTEREST DO YOU HAVE IN OUR CHILDREN!?"

Taking a peek I could see that Prism Paint had been strapped to the floor, and badly beaten. The Follower that was shouting held a whip in her magic. "We are but lost, we only wanted to help the child."

*Crack* the whip lashed out across Prism snout. "WHO ARE THIS WE!? WERE ARE THEY? ANSWER!" *Crack* another lash of the whip hit her side.

"We are alone, we became lost." Prism's voice quivered.

The sister sneered. "I don't believe you. Whatever your plannin', I will find out. By t' grace o' t' goddesses I will find out!"

I loudly cleared my throat, catching both their attention. The sister looked positively lived, were Prism looked shocked to see me. "Before you harm her any further, I have somethin' t' ask her."

*Crack* the sister snapped the whip in my direction. The sudden action failed to make me flinch. In truth I was half expecting her to flat out attack me, and was willing to take the first hit. "Now why would I let you do that?"

I cracked a smile and slowly trotted to other to them. “Because I asked nicely.”

She coiled her whip, and began staring me down. “For nicely, I didn’t hear a please, or any begging.”

She didn’t scare me, I remember the followers being scary, but her threats felt hollow without any follow up of violence. “No I didn’t.” I glanced over to Prism, who up close looked even worse, and back at the sister, looking her in the eyes. “Should I?”

The sister grimaced. “Foal, show some respect, or…”

“Or you will hit me? I thought you were goin' t' do that t' moment I spoke up.” They always do, but not now. “So why are you holding back?”

She raised her whip back with her magic, but it never came down. Our eyes were still locked, her face still scrunched up. It felt like a staring contest, one that only stopped when the sister had backed up into the altar, and she lost her hold of the whip. “Monster.” slipped out from under her breath.

Blinking, I looked around confused. The sister taking the opportunity to jump behind the altar. “Wait, what’s goin' on?” The sister pulled out a shotgun, the barrel shaking in her magic.

*BLAM* she missed, and I dived for cover.

“FUCKING SHIT YOU CUNT!” I shouted as I hid under the pews. Getting out of hoof was an understatement. Detaching my rust gun from my bag, I quickly rummaged for a magazine. I needed to start putting them somewhere easy for my hoof to get to.

“YOU’VE BEEN POSSESSED BY EVIL YOUNG ONE, LET ME FREE YOUR SOUL!”

*BLAM* The pews blocked the shot, sending pellets flying everywhere.

“YOU’RE A CRAZY CUNT YOU KNOW THAT” Pulling out the magazine, I quickly slid it into the rust gun.

She came into view, shotgun over her head. “BY THE GLORY OF THE GODDESSES, BE PURGED”

I rolled. *BLAM* she missed. Taking aim at her hooves I bit the trigger. *KLACK-KLACK-KLACK* I hit her in the hooves, causing her to fall over onto the ground. Our eyes met once more, and I could see the fear in her eyes. I bit the trigger.

*KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-KLACK-click*

Her head was gone, leaving nothing but a stump. Pulling out the empty magazine, and placing it back into my bag, I stepped out from under the pew. Taking a quick look around again, and seeing that no pony was around, I reattached my rust gun to my bag.

“Why did you do that?” Prism spoke up.

I sighed. “All I wanted t' do was ask a question, she shot first.” I trotted over to Prism, She was chained down excessively.

She took a deep breath. “And what question is that?”

Sitting down in front of her, I looked her in the eye. “What did you do t' me?”

“What do you mean?”

I waved a hoof. “I have everythin' I want now. T' respect, t' fear, Victorias attention! But why be I not happy about it?”

Prism tilted her head. “And you think we are the cause of of your unhappiness?”

I slammed my hoof on the floor. “STOP ANSWERING ME WITH QUESTIONS!” She stared at me silently. “SAY SOMETHING DAMMIT, GIVE ME AN ANSWER, STOP MAKING ME FEEL BAD! JUST STOP IT!”

“Do you feel better now that you shouted at us?”

I grit my teeth frustration. “How am I supposed to feel better. All I want is an answer!”

Prism took another deep breath. “If we give you an answer, do you think you will actually feel better.” I nodded. “Fine then. If we were to guess, we say that all the things you say you wanted, aren’t something you actually want.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “How can it not be what I want, It’s what every pony wants.”

She shook her head. “When we came to unity, we wanted to forget. But now that we remember, we know that we had been just lying to ourself. It’s why we came out here, lost and confused. All we really wanted was our son back, and without him, we didn’t want to live.” Prism attempted to stand, but the chains held her down. “Unity was an excuse, so was becoming lost. We wanted to die, but we couldn't kill ourself.”

“And how does that relate t' me?”

She smiled. “You reminded us of our son, so daring and full of life. So willing to fight for the things you wanted. He would talk about how he would become a hero, and we would live in a castle, but we think all he really wanted was to see us smile.”

“And?”

She rolled her eyes. “What you want is something more simple, everything else is just bluster.”

I stood up. “So what be it I want?”

“To be free. You looked at those maps like we looked at rainbows. Each page of the book you would linger on images of stars, and that sextant, you studied it like we studied paint.”

“That’s it, I can be free in…”

“The fleet. Do you think they actually let you be free. We've seen life on this ship. Nopony looks happy, much less free to be themselves. Tell us one point in time were you ever free in this place?”

“I.. I” I couldn’t think of one point. Even if I had respect, I’ll still have to serve the fleet in a few years. Would I still be with Victoria? “SHUT UP! WHAT DO YOU KNOW, YOU'RE THE ONE TIED DOWN, NOT ME, NOT ME!”

Prism sighed. “So then why are you upset?”

“I’M NOT UPSET!” I stomped my hoof to the ground again.

She looked me in the eyes. “If that true, then leave. Live your life, and let us die.”

“I DON’T WANT YOU TO DIE!” I winend.

Prism looked away. “We don’t want to see you die either. You see, our son didn’t want to see us cry, or be hurt. So one day he tried to defend us, and… and he died in our hooves for it. So please, just leave and live. Let us go.”

I spat at the ground. Was that it? Was that why I was feeling this way? I didn’t like it, I didn’t like it at all. Looking over at the headless sister, I quickly trotted over to her body and rummaged through her pockets.

Bingo, a key!

Running back to Prism, I dropped the key at her hooves. She stared down at the key, and then up at me. “What are you doing?”

“I.. I don’t want you t' die, so I’m helpin' you escape.”

She shook her head. “We can’t, you will be punished for this.”

I shrugged. “Ehh, I already killed t' sister, so I got somethin' comin' me way.”

She sighed once more, and lifted the key in her magic. Click by click, she unbound herself from the chains. Freed from her bindings, she got up and stepped over to me. “Two things.”

“What?”

She lifted me up with her magic and place me on her back. “First, we need a navigator if I’m going to get anywhere.”

Caught off guard, I quickly held onto her neck. “What’s the second?”

As walked over to a corner of the chapel, where her saddle bag was. “We need provisions for our trip.” She slung the bag onto her back, and slid it under me.

“Trip, what are you talking about?”

She smiled and we became invisible. “Were going to Equestria. Unless there is some other place you want to go.”

This felt odd, but my heart was pounding with excitement. “Well one o' t' maps had a chain o' islands called t' Marewaii Islands… but Equestria sounds better.”

“Equestria it is.” We turned to the door, and she trotted over to it. I glanced at the mirror to see that yes, we were invisible. The doors opened up, and she stepped out. A crowd of concerned looking ponies had formed, and seemed confused to how the doors had opened up by themselves.

Black Spot was nearby, keeping hidden behind another pony. I wanted to say goodbye, but I didn’t want to get Prism captured again.

With the sound of flapping wings, we lifted up off the ground, leaving the confused crowd down below us.

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We circled the city, it looking just as small as I remembered it from last time I was riding Prism like this. As we flew, I could see one lone figure at the top of the main tower. “Prism, can we make a quick stop?”

“Yes, but why?”

I was going to make a gesture, but remembered that we were invisible. “On t' top tower, thars a pony I need t' saygood bye to.”

Prism suddenly descended to the tower. I could see Victoria standing at the edge of the tower, and hanging from the flagpole was the body of Blackpowder.

Saint Roseland protect me
Hold your Rifle for all to see
Thundering loudly through Luna's night
Keep me safe till Celestia's light

Victoria stopped her singing and look in our direction. “So that’s how you were buzzing around. No, don’t drop your invisibility, best to keep this between us.”

“How?” Prism asked.

Victoria giggled. “I have my ways. So is this the path you chose Star. It’s never too late to come back to my side.”

I took a deep breath. “Aye, I’m goin' t' go see Equestria with Prism Paint. I… I just wanted t' say Goodby.”

She smiled. “Goodbye, Nonsense! It’s not like we will never see each other again. Let’s just say… Until next time.”

I let out a breath. “Until next time.”

Victoria rose a hoof. “Oh, and Prism Paint was it. Would you kindly look after my little Star Charter. I do expect to see her again, and I’ll not be pleased to see her become a weakling.” Prism didn’t respond. “Good, now get going. If you two stick around, it’s only going to cause a panic.” She turned and walked away.

In noble battle did she fall
Protecting us from evil's thrall
Now she leads us all
keeping us from sinful fall

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We headed in the direction of the rising sun, as Prism told me that she had come this way going the direction of the setting sun. It wasn’t until nightfall that we stopped, Prism picking a lone cloud to sit on.

Using the maps, the star chart, and the sextant, I looked to find out where exactly we were. What took the most effort was locating the right bunch of stars, but after some time, I found what we were looking for. After finding the star constellations, I got to work using the sextant, with some help from Prism. The moon shined in my eye as I lined it up with the horizon, and made a note of the numbers the sextant landed on.

Looking through Dead Reckonings notebook, I found the part about using the moon to navigate, and how it worked. Applying that with the constellations, I found which map we needed to use.

Equestria was not take far away. I didn’t know how long it would take us, but I could see it on the map, and I knew, just knew it was the right map. “Prism, we just need t' keep goin' east, Equestria be not far away now.”

“Star Charter, look?” I looked at her, and she was looking at me.

“What?” She lifted the sextant with her magic, and poked my flank with it… My cutie mark had appeared, and it was of a sextant over two crossed Cutlassas!? “Wow!”

“Your an amazing little filly you know that.”

“I have a badass cutie mark… my life is complete now.”

Prism laughed, and I laughed. We had a direction, I had a purpose, and Prism looked happy. I didn’t know what was waiting for me in the future, but I was going to enjoy it.

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Quest Completed: Hard Choices.

The End.