Fallout: Equestria - Red, White and Blue

Whitestar.

That's what everyone else called me. I didn't have a name for myself, though. I always found that strange because everyone else did. Tequila was my angel. Lots of Money was Mr. Money. And Carbon Copy was Ms. Copy. I was at the Ark and Dove Cathedral before I presented the Mother Puncher Seeds. Their eyes went wide and I asked them why. It was awe, he explained. I was the first of thirty in ten years to ever come back from that cursed place sane and intact. I wept for Carbon Copy, though, because I was largely unsure of her own sanity. I asked him what that... fish thing was in the bog.

And Mango Summers went entirely pale. He looked pale, but, not as pale as me, sadly. I tilted my head in total curiosity. Why was he so pale. Why was he so frozen.

"Fishpony... fishpony from Road Island. They come to Merryland. You must kill. All fishpony. All monster. They eat tribal when old times. Used to have peaceful sacred bog. Now fishpony come to sacred swamp. Leave with me, Celestia pony. Take me to mansion and tell me where we grow puncher. We need work... now."

His ominous words and grave statement kept me cold inside. We were all children in her eyes. Celestia had plans for all of us, I recited, never falling, but wavering. If tribals feared the fishmares of Rhode Island, who else would fear them. I relayed to him how difficult it was to slay the Sharkpony.

He told me it was swamp magic, plain and simple. It was corruption from a local magical source not entirely in Merrlyand, but over it's fringes. The fringes of that boggy county and murky coastline were full of what Summers called 'taint.' Taint was a relatively universal term for corrupted magic, or black magic left from megaspell fallout and all the other useless wartime destructions. I rather scoffed at their racist conflicts and selfish agendas, because that was a prosperous time.

We did not live in a prosperous time. And we did not have the comfort and security to not be judgemental and prejudiced monsters. I helped Summers pack his puncher supply. We stayed on the roaded path and never strayed. Because that was just right. That was just safe. I never doubted Summers because he was the only savage I ever had the pleasure of understanding.

He was a farmer. He was a tribseman. And that was honest. He wasn't a liar or a backstabber, a serial-killer or an arsonist like Redstar and Bluestar. Mango Summers stayed to the right of me. I noticed then when he opened the doors to Caviar Mansion, that he was like my father. The same, blunt hooves and the same, goofy smile when he showed me... how happy he was to be alive.

He was afraid of them, the monstrous folk. And he feared because of the Sodom fire. We were both home, I knew. Tequila greeted us. We never kept secrets, so it wasn't any surprise to my half-wife. It was no surprise at all so we all readied for the coming storm. Tequila was studying her puncher fruit specimens. And I joined her amidst the strong-backed tribalmares unloading their cargo.

"So what have you found so far." I inquired, crossing my forelegs one over the other.

"I'm looking at the acid structure right now. There's citrus, amino, citrus protiens and a lot of other vegan junk. But something else is in here. I'm pretty sure meat protien is present, too. The atomic structure arranges the same way a mushroom's does. So... these things are related to fungus and homosapien strains."

"... Homosapiens?"

"Let's just say it's an advanced relative of the chimpanzee or something. And that puncher fruit should be a lot easier to grow than it has been in the last few years. All we need is to grow it in the botanical gardens. But that also means I have more research to do. Maybe fungi is part of the answer to cleansing Equestria. So... I guess this is it. This is all I need. I'll ask the tribals for a better irrigation system in the backyard area. You can do whatever you like from now on."

Tequila closed her eyes and shot me a grin.

"Even me. Especially me." My angel teased.

I slipped away from Tequila's lab after half an hour or so of knowing her. And I knew her so well, I considered another session. But time was short and we were still busier than anypony else in Merryland. I stayed wordless and crept to the basement. I never met a soul.

Downstairs was Sodomite. And that was all he was to me. I tied some hemp to my waist and tied him to the other end. I dragged him out and trotted away from Caviar Mansion. My next endeavor was finding another fishpony. So I made my way to Scaley's Hardware and kept to the clear ways. No methane swamps, no tree husk brooks and no shrubbery.

Twas chillingly noiseless by the old and rickety shop. And nothing seemed comforting. The only pleasantry I had was seeing Scaley again. She was just a shopkeep. She wasn't some blood-crazed killing machine out to hurt anyone.

We stood by her counter and I greeted her with a traditional hooves-together bow. She said her usual 'ni hao' and I returned it. Her grace, the queen of that fine and civil place, with fine oil paintings and water color illustrations of old communist peoples, poured me her own blend of hooflong tea. It was hard to get hooflong tea, she stated, because all the ingredients were scarce. She'd only received them from an old friend down in The Canterlot Wasteland. That very same friend had investigated an old factory of sorts only to find hostile asiatic ponies. He found a crate of it lying right outside the escape route.

We sat comfortably and I enjoyed the tastes and scents of somepony else's homeland.

"And you come to me... asking about fish people?" I heard her ask, sipping her tea again.

"Yes. Fishponies, to be exact. There was one peculiar specimen in Sacred Bog yesterday. He was hard to kill and he tried to... mate with one of my companions. But what I find most curious is the fear one of my tribe felt talking about them. Do you have any idea why he'd be frightened?"

A curious glaze took her eyes and she took minutes to respond at all. I helped her cup up and took it myself when the tea spilled. I set it down and my cup too, because that was the right thing to do. Scaley returned with one, silent nodding. The constant bobbing motion worried me. What exactly was it that disturbed her so deeply. It stuck inside her and brought a rattle to her irises. I tapped her shoulder and whispered 'Scaley. Scaley? You're here now. It's okay.'

And she was back, visibly brittled and jittering in both her hooves.

"I... I'm sorry. I'm not sure it's good to talk about that. A-all I can say is there used to be a lot more fishponies here. But they were pushed away, back to Road Island. We only had Star Spangle and her sister Independence... They were mages, big, big mages with how many spells they were slinging that night. Star Spangle was at the shore when she held the sea up. And Independence drove them back with her fire. Fire is the only thing that can hurt them."

Scaley managed to force herself still for a sip of tea. Then, she marched onward, detailing the account she witnessed not too long ago. And I knew she'd seen that evil affair with unspeakable devils and monster mares. Her eyes were never alive. They glazed over in degrees of hopelessness not even Celestia could mend.

"It doesn't b-burn the skin but it cooks them alive inside. They're used to being cold so the fire scares them, too. That was five years ago. There was another pony here called the Lone Wanderer. She had this big old telekinesis spell that shot them right across the ocean... That's the only way anypony's ever beaten them back. You can't really kill them with anything but magic fire and big round ammunition. The only thing here in Point Lookin strong enough to pierce a fishpony is a lumber axe or a double barrel. And we-we're understocked on anypony good enough to handle either in wartime."

I knew it. That was Celestias plan. There was a danger. There was a clear, unmistakable threat facing the boglands of old Merrlyand and it could only be stopped by Celestia's children. I felt it, a pyre deep inside, churning and stoking on how hard I'd fight for all of them, the sinners, the saints, the bitches and the lovers. I sipped carefully and emptied my fine china cup.

"Scaley. I know exactly what to do. And I need you to help me reach the locals."

Her eyes grew low and she inquired the question 'what did you have in mind?'

"I need you to gather the good of your kind and speak to the swampfolk. I'm going on a journey. I'm travelling Point Lookin for followers. Somepony has to believe in hope. It's the only way we'll survive this incident and burn them all to perdition. I need your charm. And your good will. Spread the word of the bible. And I'll build a nation for us." I hushed, hoofing her the black book and drawing tears from her eyes.

"Do you really think this will work...?"

"Celestia works in mysterious ways. It's my job to make it happen. Twilight Sparkle fought with friendship. I fight with faith."