Fallout: Equestria - Old Grudges

Under the cover of darkness, she snuck forward, inching towards her prey. The drumming of far away thunder on the night skies hid her hoof steps, while the shadows kept her an unknown specter of the night. The unsuspecting Detrot dockyard workers milled about around the suspicious shipment that was the intrepid hero’s goal. Big Slim wouldn’t slip his contraband out on the midnight steamer, not this time. Reaching a secluded section of the docks and perking an ear, it was clear that the mafia’s hired help didn’t care to keep from digging themselves into a much deeper hole.

“So ah, what did da boss say was in dees here crates?” One of the stallions spoke up, sounding even dimmer than the lantern light they shared between them.

“Shut yah yap. He ain’t payin yahs ta talk, just ta keep watch.” Angler Trap grumbled to the others. “Besides, better dat none of yahs know. Keeps yah from gettin’ any funny ideas ‘bout stealin’ from him.”

“I ain’t wantin’ ta do dat.” The first stallion rose his forehooves defensively. “Just curious is all.”

“Still, keep yah yaps shut. Boss said that we may get an unwelcomed visitor tonight.” Angler Trap chuckled, shifting from his seat on top of one of the crates. “An’ I got quite da bone ta pick with her.

“Oh yeah? Who’s dat?” Another dolty stallion spoke up.

What pony could pass up an introduction like that? With as relaxed a pose as she could take, she straightened her hat and coat, and strolled into the lantern light.

“Oh, you mean little ol’ me?” Shadow Spade smirked as she levitated out her trusty sidearm and a set of hoof shackles. “Any of you boys interested in coming quietly? Or are you going to make an otherwise boring night interesting for me?”

“Who wrote this crap?” I sighed, tossing the old world noir detective novel back onto the bedstand that sat between Bluejay’s bed and mine. “Seriously, I could write better. I have written better.”

“Well, you were the one who started reading it.” Bluejay sighed from under her covers, giving a soft yawn as she did. “Find something else to occupy your time and be glad we aren’t walking across the wasteland.

“I only started reading to keep my mind off the fact we’ve been sitting in a hunk of metal drifting through the sky for over a day now.” I huffed, flopping back down onto my own bed again. “There’s only two things I ever do to pass the time at home. I either write, or I drink, and apparently, I’m not allowed to do either here.”

“How hard is it to find something else to do?” Bluejay grunted and rolled herself over in her bed, facing away from me with a sigh. “There must be something else on this ship that can keep your attention.”

“Did you know that there were four hundred and thirty eight rivets in the ceiling?” If she wasn’t going to help me think of something to do, I’d bug her until I did. Really, that’s all Eff EL ever did to me back home, and I always gave in sooner than later.

The whole room shuttered, sending a shiver up my spine and my heart beating hard against my chest. So far, turbulence has been the only thing to send my heart rate skyrocketing. Nothing helps to remind you of how big of a mistake this was than the sound of groaning metal. Along with the groaning, the constant drone of the engines changed pitch, and I felt an odd sensation in my stomach pulling me forward. With a crackle, the hidden wall speakers came to life.

“Sorry about this, but it looks like we’re going to have to make a pit stop.” The voice that spoke was of the engineer mare, Gauge. “I’d hoped to go another few weeks without replacing the coolant, but we’re running a bit thin as is. Hope you all don’t mind, but our flight path put us right over Byblis, and they have the best coolant around.”

The speaker crackled again. “Howdy, folks. This is yer captain speakin’.” The eccentric stallion who flew this lovely bucket of bolts cut in. “This’d be a great chance ta stretch yah legs, get some fresh air, and maybe get somethin ta eat that didn’t come outta a can! If yah need any information on the locals, feel free ta ask Pai fer any details.”

Another crackle roused a grunt from Gauge. “The coolant exchange shouldn’t take more than an hour, so keep that in mind if you do leave.”

“There, are you happy?” Bluejay moaned from in her sheets, curling up tighter. “Go do stuff, get something to eat or something, I don’t care. Whatever you do, just let me enjoy some sleep for once.”

While that was a great idea, the fact that I’d been flung unprepared halfway across the wasteland on this little trip left me a little light on the caps. Even so, just getting off of this fucking boat for an hour would still be better than sitting here. Doesn’t mean I can’t leave empty hooved.

“I’d love to, but I don’t have any caps.” I sighed, eyeing over at her. “Guess I’ll just stay here.”

As she covered her head with a pillow, her horn glowed for a moment. Without much warning, I found a small velvet blue sack of caps smack me right in the side of the muzzle. Reaching out with my magic, I caught it before it dropped to the floor.

“Fine, but you owe me every single cap you spend.” Bluejay grumbled again. “Just go already.”

After taking a few minutes to get my gear on, I walked my way down into the cargo hold. Surprisingly, the cargo bay door was still closed, and no pony was even around. The flicker of the holographic console next to the wall terminal down here caught my eye, and I was met with the small pink filly smiling up at me.

“So, why isn’t the door open? Is nopony else going out?” I asked, making the filly gasp.

“Oh! The door is closed due to the toxic air outside, silly!” Again, the way she spoke with such enthusiasm almost broke my brain. However, the idea of toxic air made it less of a pressing issue that I leave the ship. “Both Gauge and your friend Vanilla already left. Gauge is working with the locals to complete her work, as the coolant swap is done from the outside. Vanilla went to check out the markets, if you’re looking to go hang around with her, you’ll need one of these!”

As she said that, a panel on the wall popped open, revealing it to be a storage container of sorts. In it was a few sets of Ministry of Peace medical kits, along with slots for three gas masks, one already missing from them and presumably on Gauge. More disappointingly, there were also three life preservers hanging in the hold. I guess if this hunk of metal crashed into a lake, one of us might find use out of these…

“Why is the air toxic? Do I need more gear than just a mask?” Reaching out with my magic, I grabbed one of the Gas Masks and floated it over to me.

“Oh! Well, this place used to be called Gardenia. Named after the beautiful white wild flowers that covered this valley, it quickly became a botanical reserve for every rare flower and plant in all of Equestria!” Pai’s eyes reflected every ounce of enthusiasm of those words, which was weird to see. Not even Vanilla had such convincing expressions. “After the war, only one type of plant remained here. The only one of its kind ever, the Byblis flower is closely guarded by the locals, who have made it this settlement’s namesake. Unfortunately due to what is most likely a balefire radiation mutation, it’s pollen spores are both excessively produced, and toxic to all equine kind. That is, unless you’re a ghoul!” Leaning close, she eyed over me oddly. “Are you?”

“No.” I scoffed at the notion and loosened the straps to the mask. “So, if there’s only a flower here, why is this where we’re getting spark reactor coolant?”

“Due to the altered chemical nature of the plant, one of its byproducts works as a highly efficient viscous lubricant and thermo-regulatory fluid that isn’t found anywhere else in the wastes!” She smiled brighter than before, which was getting harder to understand as she already seemed far too happy. “It is why they insist on doing coolant change outs for any and all customers. Of course, they do trust the customers to not go analyzing their trade secrets once they leave, but I don’t think Gauge cares to know what it’s made out of so long as it works!”

“Uh huh.” I blinked a few times, not really paying attention. Really, I just wanted to get outside. Slipping the rubbery and constricting mask up onto my face, I strapped it on tightly. The two round glass eyepieces were in fairly good condition, with only a few scratches around the edges. “Care to open the door now?” My own muffled voice sounded off to me, but I’d rather deal with sounding funny over breathing in toxic air.

“No!” She smiled and pointed to the stairway door. “Not until you seal the hold. Wouldn’t want the others to get poisoned and die here, would we?”

I guess that was a good point. Trotting back over, I shut the door and used my magic to turn the handle until it sealed. An electric hum came through the walls before a small light above the door turned green. For a moment, the hold was quiet. The hydraulic door hummed to life, opening up to the windy outside air.

Reflexively, I raised my hoof as the hazy breeze pressed against me. Looking out, it looked almost like the foggy mornings that would sometimes happen back home. Only, this fog was tinted a sickly yellow color and killed all visibility about thirty feet out. Funny enough, both well clothed ponies in gasmasks and ghouls trotted around several buildings that stretched on into the fog. A couple of them were toting around well wrapped goods as they pulled merchant carts behind them, others had foals scampering around with them. For being a deathtrap outside, this place looked fairly lively.

With my curiosity piqued, I stepped over the gap between the floor and the ramp out, heading into the town. The first thing I noticed here, was that the ground was sticky and uneven. Every inch of it was covered in the pale yellow pollen, and wiping a bit of it away with my hooves revealed a latticework of plant roots running across the entire area. Having heard about some of the odder places in the wasteland, this wasn’t so much of a shock to me. I just hoped that I could get all this pollen off me when it was time to head back inside…

“Howdy there!” The muffled sound of a mare just in front of me spoke up. Quickly, she trotted up to me and held out a rubber sheathed hoof. “I’m guessin’ yer new in town? Roll in with Lucky’s caravan, or you come on that monstrosity that came from the sky an’ all?” Scrunching up her muzzle, she spoke up again before I could respond. “Aww hell, not like it matters. Y’all here on business or pleasure?” Looking over the mare, she wore a bright orange hazmat suit. The helmet had a solid glass enclosure on in it that let me see and eerily familiar pink smile. “Name’s Daisy Drambuie, local bar and brothel owner.” I didn’t care if this pink coated mare was acting suspiciously friendly, my brain stopped at the word ‘bar’. “My place is just across the way here, so let’s get you inside. I’m guessin’ you’ve had a long and stressful trip?”

“You have no idea.” I muttered a muffled reply that lit up her bright green eyes. As her smile widened, my stomach gave a groan that I could have sworn beat out the whistling breeze. “You serve food in your bar?”

“Hell yes we do! Best rad boar ribs this side of equestria!” The mare chuckled and waved her hoof. “That and we got other delicacies for entertaining your other hungers.” She gave a flick of her tail and a playful giggle as she turned around to lead me there. “Stick close, sugar. Don’t want ta get lost now.”

Something struck me as odd about here that I couldn’t shake. What was the owner doing so far from her bar, just looking for new arrivals? Maybe she was on break, and I doubt that this town is big enough to be impossible to not know everypony. A sharp spike of pain down my horn snapped me from my train of thought. Gah, no use in doing my normal over analyzing here. I can’t think when my body is complaining like this!

Food is good, booze is even better. However, the ‘entertainment’ was something I’d rather stay away from. Not that I didn’t mind a good bit of stress relief with no strings attached, most mare’s charge by the hour. And that’s an hour I don’t even have to get my money’s worth out of. Well, Bluejay’s money’s worth.

Following the mare ahead of me closely, she lead me down a few wide streets. The further we went, the thicker the roots hidden under the pollen felt. As we passed an old green house looking building, I noticed that it’s steel beams were completely encapsulated in dark green vines. On the vines, had to be thousands of tiny purple flowers, each with an orange center. Not having much vegetation out in Star Walk city, I couldn’t help but smile under my mask at it. It truly was a sight to see, and made getting off the airship totally worth it.

That is, until I bumped right into the flank of Daisy.

“Oooh!” She giggled, batting at me playfully with her hoof. “Gettin’ a little eager there, aren’t we?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…” I paused when I noticed that in front of her were three burlap robed ghouls standing in our way. A shuffling to my sides made me look around to see that two more had appeared out of the fog, their rotten ghoul muzzles sticking out from under their pollen coated robes. “What’s going…” I began to say, only for the back of my head to erupt in pain, and for everything to go black all at once.

“Okay there, you have to wake up now.” Daisy’s voice drifted through my mind, pulling me back to the world of the living. The back of my head hurt, and again I had one hell of a headache. However, opening my eyes, I had to shield them from an obscenely bright white light above me. Well, I tried to shield myself, only to have my fore hooves stop halfway to my face with the clank of metal chain. Both my forehooves were bound in chained shackles that were bolted into the wall. Trying my magic, I found that it was blocked by something. I couldn’t see it, but I’m sure one of those annoying ‘anti-magic’ rings was on me.

“That’s it, just get yourself all woken up.” Daisy spoke up again. This time when she did, I realized her voice wasn’t as muffled. The cool air of the room smelled stale without my own gas mask on, and at first glance, the room I was in didn’t have a single speck of pollen in it. In fact, the muted pink of Daisy’s coat was just as clean. “Sorry for the confusion you must be feeling, but before I answer any questions you might have, I’ve got two of my own.”

“What’s going…?” I started to say before Daisy hit me across the muzzle, knocking off my glasses. Not even thirty seconds off the thing and I’d fucked up enough that I’d regretted leaving the ship. The singing pain from the hit ebbed, dripping a line of crimson down my nose and onto the pristine floor.

“Now first, the basic blood work we did shows that you haven’t had a history of genetic mutations, diseases, or STD’s.” Daisy smiled as she spoke. “Can you recall off the top of your head if that’s true?” Her curly yellow mane bobbed slightly as she canted her head and looked at me expectantly. “I expect that maybe because you got that fancy do-dad on your leg, you came from a stable? Maybe your parents did?”

So I’m knocked out, dragged down to who knows where, and stuck in some sort of clean room? All so she could ask me if I’m healthy? Fuck this bitch, I’m not saying shit.

With a sigh, she shifted uneasily on her hooves. “You know, hun. This could be so much easier if you’d just answer when I ask you a question.” Tipping her forehooves forward, a few loud pops came from her foreleg joints. “I could always go back to hitting you again if you find that easier.” That, I believed she would do if I still held my tongue. “Just, I need to know if you’re healthy or if you’ve ever been really sick, it’s an easy question.”

“Give me a moment to think if I can remember anything.” I grumbled. Okay, so that would buy me a bit of time to size her up. She’s an earth pony mare, so strength is her thing. From the way she’s toned, and the way I was hit, I’m sure she’s holding back. She doesn’t want to damage me for some reason. Looking up into her eyes, they weren’t focused or determined, rather, slightly ashamed. She didn’t want to beat me up, she was putting up a front to hide something from me, and she didn’t like what was happening to her.

I need more time.

“I was born in a Stable. It was raided when I was young,” I spoke, stretching out my words as slowly as I could. Maybe this mare was in over her head? Could she be forced to do this? No, I really don’t think that’s it, not if I couldn’t see this up on the surface. “Sold into slavery, bought by my owner who I do work for.” This was less ‘I don’t want to do this to you’ and more ‘I thought I could handle this, but I can’t’ sort of guilt. “That’s been my life in a nutshell. No major illnesses, nothing of note injury wise.”

In answering her question, it looked like a wave of relief washed over her. I don’t know why, but I felt that I could slightly relax as well.

“Okay, second question.” Daisy stood up straight and tried to act studious. “I know I found you in front of the airship, but did you arrive on it?” She looked at me expectantly again. This time, I just simply nodded. “Excellent. I was afraid you’d arrived with one of Lucky’s carts!” She gave out a quick laugh and shook her head. Obviously, I was missing the joke, so I didn’t so much share in the jubilance. “He and his fellow caravaners are so close knit that I’m sure they’d tear this town apart lookin’ for one of them if they went missing.”

My blood ran cold from that. Yeah, this was bad. Between what she said, this place, and her oddly mixed character, something about all this didn’t make sense. However, the only thing I cared about now, was getting the hell out of here. That starts with getting some answers.

“What do you want from me?” I spoke, bracing myself for another hit to the face. Just because she said I could ask questions, didn’t mean that Daisy had to keep her word. “Why foalnap me?”

A loud buzzing from the wall startled me.

“Would you be a dear and just… excuse me for one moment.” Daisy smiled and spoke to me like a mother would to a foal. However, as she did, I could tell her demeanor shifted again. It was relief, like somepony was saving her from dealing with me. She turned and trotted over to a polished metal door not unlike one I’d once had for my own room back in the stable. As she stood and waited for the door to open, I looked at her cutie mark. It was a purple flower much like the ones I’d seen outside, only this one had a big yellow water droplet dripping down the bottom petal. As the mare slipped through the door and shut it, I was left again to my thoughts.

Okay, so, Daisy had at least clarified some things. What’s happening to me now isn’t unusual, what is however is that she is doing it. Maybe she’s never done whatever this is before? My heart skipped a beat as my thoughts reached a terrifying conclusion. Or, she’s uncomfortable because she know’s what’s going to happen to me…

Another buzzing snapped my attention to the door. With a mechanical hiss, Daisy returned. Along with her, a pair of ponies completely encased in gas mask hazard suits followed her in. She gave me a sad sort of smile and stopped just inside the door. The other two hazmat ponies however, walked over to my sides.

“So, due to the unorthodox nature of this situation, I’ve been given permission to at least give you some closure before we proceed.” I was both relieved to know that I’d been correct that this wasn’t normal for her, and horrified to know that this was going somewhere I wouldn’t like. Ponies chose the words they say for a reason, even without thinking about it. The word ‘closure’ to me didn’t fill my mind with the allusion that I’d been expected to live through whatever comes next.

The two ponies in the suits quickly undid the bindings around my legs. I wasn’t sure how well they’d thought that idea would turn out, but I knew opportunity when it knocked. The second my forelegs were unshackled, I pushed myself up to my hooves. Letting out a grunt, I lowered my head down, pointing my horn right at Daisy. Pushing myself into a gallop, I charged her. She went wide eyed, but did the smart thing and jumped aside from the door. While I didn’t have my magic due to the stupid ring, unicorns generally come with a great self defence spike that’s not easily removed.

“Whoa there.” Daisy spoke calmly. In fact it was calmer than I’d liked. As I focused on just making it out the door, something hit my side painfully and knocked me off course. Quickly I found myself slammed against the mechanical door frame. With the wind knocked out of me and now both sides of my ebbing in pain, I struggled to get myself moving again. Still, halfway out the door was a start, I just needed to find out where to go next.

Looking into the next room, I froze in horror.

Just past the door, every wall of the attached room was covered in the purple vine flowers. Each vine trailed back along the walls, over old scientific equipment and through storage containers, all to meet up behind an enormous bulbous plant. Roughly shaped like a dark green vase, it had two bulges that protruded from near it’s base. The hundreds of glowing yellow pustules that adorned the bulges looked like hundreds of tiny eyes. Just like the ‘eyes’, the rim of the vase seemed to secrete more of the glowing yellow liquid, dripping inward and collecting inside itself. The plant undulated, and as it did, a shiver went up my spine.

It spoke.

Feed ME.

Without warning, I was grabbed from the side by one of the robbed ghouls I’d seen outside. I don’t know where he came from, but when I tried to resist, I knocked his hood down. It was no ghoul at all…

The thing had vines growing through the various missing parts of it’s skin. Various ones wrapped around from out of it’s decayed maw, down through it’s neck and up again into it’s ear. A particularly thick vine had burst up through the top of it’s skull, trailing down it’s spine with it’s purple flowers adorning it like a mane. More disturbing than anything else, it’s eye sockets had been emptied, and instead held more of the glowing yellow pustules in it.

“You will sit.” That thing spoke to me with the voice of it’s host. Reaching out with it’s hoof, it grabbed me again. I felt as vines climbed along his hoof and to around me. Once they were around me, he pulled hard and dragged me all the way into the room. Carefully, he walked around the side of me, standing next to the open doorway and ensuring that I wouldn’t be getting away from here. “Be glad that you are blessed with the honor of learning about a god as benevolent as the one before you.”

“Dr. Pestle, I’m sorry…” Daisy spoke up.

“Quiet.” The monster snapped at her, chattering his teeth as he turned his attention to her. “First you put us at risk by bringing us a visitor, then you let that visitor get the better of you.” With a low growl, he pointed to the ceiling. “Your insolence will be dealt with after the feeding. For now, return to the surface and see that the visitors are compensated for their loss.” With his words, Daisy’s gaze drifted to the floor. She gave a small nod before turning around and heading for the other door across the clean room. “Now,” The monster spoke, again turning his attention toward me. “What is it you would like to know?”

“Why are you doing this?” I spoke up. I wanted to get a read on this thing, what it wants, what it’s mannerisms are, but I just can’t. Hell, I can hardly stand to look at this thing. “Why me!?”

Looking back toward the clean room, the other Hazmat ponies stepped inside and shut the door behind them. The weak, yellowed lighting of this room was only accented by the yellow light that the eerily glowing pustules themselves gave off. My heart rate jumped as the door hissed and made a mechanical latching noise. Once it did, I felt the vines around me loosen and start to retreat from me.

“For nearly two and a half centuries, this place has been my home.” The monster spoke up. “My colleagues and I were researchers here, doing work for the Ministry of Peace.” As he continued, he stared at me. I shut my eyes tight, not wanting to look at something so hideous as he spoke. “In the final months of the great war, we had re-discovered a rare species of carnivorous plant living deep in the Talicon jungle. First catalogued by the unfortunately shamed explorer Dr. Caballeron, he noted that a byproduct of its digestive process was a slippery viscous fluid. However, no pony had the chance to analyze it back then.”

“So, that’s where you get your lubricant. You feed the plant and collect it, don’t you?” I sighed, squeezing my eyes together as I really didn’t want to end up becoming part of the next coolant swap the airship made…

“Yes, but you see,” The ghouls shifted around, prompting me to open my eyes again. He’d turned toward the plant, which now slightly undulated as he stepped closer. “The magical fallout from the bombs didn’t harm it, it only made it stronger, gave it power beyond that of the old goddesses. My team and I catalogued its growth, even as we started to die from radiation poisoning ourselves.” Reaching out, he softly caressed the behemoth plant, his touch seeming to sooth its spasms. “It used it’s power to save us, infecting us, growing inside and changing us into what you see now. That is when we all realized that we were in the presence of an intelligence far outpacing anything before, and of much greater importance than anything our scientific selves had ever seen before.”

“But it wasn’t just giving you back your life for free, was it? It did that because still needs you, doesn’t it?” I spoke up. As grotesque as he looked, it still seemed to be a pony in control of the body. If I could maybe get on his good side, maybe I could barter for my life. “You’ve been feeding it because it’s rooted here. You hunt for it then?” If I played into keeping him talking, I’d find an opening sooner or later.

A rotten smile spread across the monster’s muzzle, showing off even more of the vines inside himself. “Yes, you seem more keen than the average specimen we bring down here. Normally we feed it raiders or bandits. Ponies that no one cares if they go missing.” Stroking the plant again, it made an odd gurgling sound that took the smile from the monster’s muzzle. “But recently, the raiders have been sparse, and our God has gone hungry. Our God gives us our lives and our livelihood. All of us in this town agree that it’s worth a few small sacrifices in the grand scheme of things. That is where you come in.”

“And that’s where you’ve made a mistake.” I spoke up. For once, knowing Eighth Note might just get me out of a jam, instead of deeper into one. “I’m not a free pony, and far from a nopony. I’m a slave, and I belong to somepony who would not take kindly to anypony who fed me to some plant.”

“Oh?” The monster gave his own gurgling laugh, as he did, the same yellow plant goop trailed down the edges of his muzzle. “I should have expected you would try to talk your way out of this.” With a disappointed sigh, he shook his head. “No matter, this room is sealed, and there is no way out for you.” As he spoke, I could feel the floor under me move. Vines started to work their way around my legs, grasping me tighter than he had before.

“You get lots of merchants around here looking to purchase your lubricant, right?” I spoke faster, feeling the strong grip of the vines start to accelerate upwards around me. “My owner, he runs the biggest settlement in the Los Pegasus ruins.” My words didn’t seem to be doing anything for the monster, who still simply stood there looking at me.

“And why would I ever believe you?” The monster canted his head. “More so, why do we care?” As the vines wrapped around my shoulders and my ass, they started to lift me into the air. With an ease not even afforded by magical levitation, I was being drawn across the room toward the large open top of the bulbous plant.

As much as I hated it, I looked the monster straight in his glowing eye sockets and kept talking. “Not only could I convince him to purchase regular shipments, but I could have him arrange a steady stream of raiders for you to use!” The vines stopped moving. “I can prove it if your friends go and find another pony who belongs to my owner.”

The monster cupped his chin with his forehoof, the vines on it squirming around from under his cracked and broken hoof. “You would be open to a… negotiation if this were true?” Even with his oddly gurgly voice and his odd eyes, I could tell he was suspicious of my words. However, it was the first thing I’d been able to read off him off the bat, and that meant I had to be getting somewhere. “This other one, what do they look like?”

“She’s a mare with a white coat, blue and white mane, blue eyes.” I answered him, feeling oddly on the spot being held in the air in the middle of the room. “She’ll be hard to miss in the markets walking around without a gas mask on.”

“A ghoul?” The monster inquired.

“A machine.” I hated referring to her as that, but my life came before my morals. “She handles the business side of Eighth Note’s affairs. Tell her that Sawyer suggested it to you as a sort of investment, that should get things started.” Keeping my eyes on his, I tried to make as stern an impression as I could while hanging where I was. “So, you set things up with her, and I get to walk out of here. Is that a deal?”

The monster set his hoof down, and as he did, the vines brought me down right in front of him. They didn’t let me go, but it was a start.

“When a deal is struck, only then will you be released.” The monster nodded as he spoke.

“I’d love to shake on it, but…” I nodded down to my still vine covered leg, trying to get him to release it. However, he didn’t seem to care for the gesture. “Ooookay then.” I sighed and tried to do my best to relax my still pounding heart. At the very least, I’d bought myself a few minutes more to figure things out. Maybe Vanilla would realize that this wasn’t really something I’d ever do and go get help?

Nah, I’m not that lucky. She’ll believe anything you tell her until she catches you in a lie. If somepony were to propose business, even if it was me, she’d do her damnedest to follow through with it thoroughly. However, I just hope that she finds it in Eighth Note’s best interest to invest in this place, because if not, this was going to cost me my life, and Eighth Note more of a price than I think he’d ever be willing to pay…

After ten minutes of sitting in near silence, I found the vines finally lower me to the floor. The retreated from me, and the metallic clank of the door relieved an enormous amount of pressure off my shoulders. I turned to head toward it, but found myself stopped by the outstretched hoof of the monster.

“An agreement has been reached.” The light from his pustule eyes seemed to ebb now, shifting in intensity as he looked over me. “However, you are to speak to nopony of what you have seen down here, not even to Mrs. Vanilla or Mr. Eighth Note.” The undulating vines in his maw retracted, leaving a fresh line of yellow liquid dripping down along his neck. “Do you understand these terms?”

“Yes.” I nodded. As I did, he twisted his hoof around, pointing the bottom upward. His skin split as a vine pushed through it, a small bulbous protrusion on it opened and unfurled into one of the purple flowers.

“Then go with the grace of our god.” He spoke with a smile, swinging his flowered hoof to point to the open door. “I hope we will meet again in the future, Mr. Sawyer. Whenever you return to Starwalk City, please do give my regards to Daisy. She will be the one overseeing our vendor stall and coordinating back to us here.”

“Great, looking forward to it.” I half spoke up in response, half to just get him to shut the hell up. All I wanted to do was get back onto the airship and away from this place. I don’t care if we were flying, anything is better than being digested into some sort of industrial lubricant.

Trotting through the clean room, I found one of the hazmat suit ponies waiting at the other door. They showed me through and took me into another room. This one held a bunch of lockers and a few rusty showers. They retrieved my gear from one of the lockers, and removed the anti-magic ring from my horn. With my magic returned to me, I’d geared up in record time and tightly strapped the gas mask over my muzzle again. With a nod to them, I was more than ready to get the fuck out of this place and never return.

I was lead through a few winding rooms that had all sorts of rusty and broken lab equipment in it. Moldy furniture and musty papers lined the floors of what had at one time been a productive bio-research lab. The yellow and pink hued walls of this place still gave the distinct impression of a Ministry of Peace hospital, much like the Sacred Heart hospital settlement in the southern ruins of Los Pegasus. However, the vines that criss crossed the walls gave it an oddly natural feel, and overall was probably something the wasteland could use more of. Well, more nature in the traditional sense, and less carnivorous plant sense…

Turning around one corner of the many hallways I’d been lead down, I was met with a familiar white and blue unicorn. “Hello Mr. Sawyer.” Vanilla smiled the same smile she always did. “You will be happy to hear that I have secured a contract with those who run this settlement, and I agree that Master Eighth Note will consider this a fine investment for the future.”

“Yeah, sure, I don’t care.” I grumbled. “Let’s just get back to the ship.”

“Yes. I am glad to see that your enthusiasm for this trip has not waned as much as I had feared.” Vanilla smiled as she turned and walked with me. I knew she couldn’t see it under the gas mask, but I was wondering just what the hell she was going on about. “We are already behind schedule by fifteen minutes as is, and expediting our return to the Dauntless would be advised.”

“Yeah yeah.” I sighed again as we walked out the front double doors to this building, and back out into the hazy, pollen covered streets. As we continued, my stomach protested with the fact that like the enormous plant back there, I hadn’t eaten anything like I should have.

“Did you not get anything to eat?” Vanilla asked, a hint of worry flashing across her face.

“Lost my appetite, really.” I shook my head and trotted faster.

“Then I shall deliver something from the galley to your room once we are airborne if that is agreeable.” Vanilla’s worry disappeared behind her smile again as she trotted on ahead of me. As she did, the looming shadow of the Airship came into view through the haze, and I finally felt like I could relax a bit. “I wouldn’t want you to be eaten from the inside out by your own stomach! Could you imagine?” She let out a rare giggle to go with the just as rare joke she made. I used to count how many times a year I could get her to make them, but today they were just in poor taste…

Which in itself is a poor choice of words.

“More than you know, Vanilla.” I sighed as we trotted onto the ramp leading into the cargo hold. “More than you know.”

--Chapter End--

“Anypony need a machete?”

Quests Finished: Venus Pony-Trap

Quests Started: Venus Pony-Trap

Levels Earned: none

Perks Earned: none