Fallout Equestria: A Wastelander Tale

Fallout Equestria: A Wastelander Tale, Chapter Eighty One

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I was expecting some old bunker, a place made by the ponies from the old world before the wasteland. Something like the stables, or some other fortification. But as my hooves finally reached the bottom it became clear to me that this was far older. The smell, the feeling, the everything was just old, older than old. It was absolutely ancient.

"By Celestia it… Celestia?" Spell said as he trotted up to a moss covered statue of two alicorns. "But it looks too small to be her, and same for Luna… wait, this must be when they were… young?"

Getting a closer look, I could see it. What had to be Celestia looked to be around my age, if younger. I had seen photos of Celestia and Luna in the old magazine, and they always appear bigger, and just… more. But the masterfully carved stone depicted what had to be teenagers, not regal adults. Even still, it gave off a faint warmth, as though the stone radiated magic.

Spell Circuit then blew off some dust on a plack in front of the statue. "Right, here we are. It says, in dedication to the fifth anniversary of Celestia's and Luna's ascension to the throne, commissioned by their mother, Princesses Platinum."

"Wait… Princesses Platinum is their mother?" I asked, a bit confused.

"Adopted mother." Spell answered. "There's a biography found in Tenpony Tower about Princesses Celestia, where she talks about her first ten years in Equestria. The royal family at the time were supposedly animated about adopting her and her sister when Starswerled the bearded brought them to Equestria. Even gave them their own palace."

As Will-o-Wisp floated around this ancient place, other artifacts could be seen. Mostly artworks, but also swords, shields, twisted staffs, even several guns, though far bigger than what I used. "What in Tartarus is this place?"

"One guess, my ancestors had a habit of collecting artifacts." He trotted over to the large gun, eyeing it. "King Grover's imperial musket, post griffinstones economic collapse." He read. "And it's clearly not just from Equestria's past either. I wonder if some of the things here are magical artifacts too?" He then frowned. "Maybe this is why the Necromancer came here in the first place. He wanted something here that my ancestors kept locked away, but when he couldn't get to it, he cursed the mountain and left."

Looking around, the fur along my spine stood on end, as I saw shadows in the corner of my eye. Vague black shapes of ponies peeking out from behind pillars, or a kind of outcoav, their white lifeless eyes clear as day.

"Probably, but I really don't want to find out what such a monster wanted here." I said as I then tugged at the egghead to move on. "You can come back here later, but right now lets just get fucking moving."

As we trotted, we passed more and more artifacts, each given their own little place with plenty of space between them, as though on display. But as we reached what had to be the end of this place and to a door, something caught my attention, but I don't know why.

It was a jar, just a simple old cracked jar. Nothing about it was remarkable, though at some point it must have been painted in bright colors, but only faded flakes of paint remained. Yet I felt drawn to it, as though something important was inside.

Come here.

The cracked clay jar seemingly rippled, as though the faded paint depicted a beautiful golden mare sitting on top of the jar.

Open me.

The golden mare stood in front of a crowd of ponies, who were bowing in worship. Not of her, but of who she represented.

Open my lid, and tell me your secrets.

The face of the perfect mare was filled with… disdain, disgust, and overall disinterest in the other ponies, as though they were beneath her.

A secret for a secret, I offer you this.

I then felt magic restricting me, my hooves just barely touching the jar. "Lottery!" Spell Circuit shouted in surprise before dragging me away from the jar. "Thank goodness Will-o-Wisp broke its control over me just in time."

"Wh… what happened?" I asked as my head started to pound.

He eyed the jar as we both backed away from it. "Very ancient and very evil magic." He then checked to see if his glasses were still on. And they were. "It appears that it's powerful enough to break through our defenses… or more likely, devious enough to get around it."

"Why did it want us to open it? What is it?" I then asked, further putting more distance between us and it.

"Not sure. But it's probably a corrupting influence. Thanks to Will-o-Wisp, we both would have been further under its influence." He then adjusted his glasses trying to read the plaque from afar. "Ancient jar of secrets, recovered by Dr. Caballeron. Warning, dangerous magic, do not break the seal! Do not stare at for extended period of time!"

"Wait… Dr. Caballeron, as in the fictional villain from the Daring Do books… weird." Spell said in confusion before he then scowled. "Not even the warning of our ancestors is heeded by my brother." He then pointed below the jar where I saw several hoofprints in the dust. "My guess is that both Tripwire and Catalyst were here, and they unsealed the jar for some stupid reason."

"Maybe it killed them?" I suggested with hope.

"We can only hope, but the next outcoav says differently." Spell said as he pointed to the next display.

I raised an eyebrow at it, as whatever belonged there was missing, but in its place were bent iron bars, a destroyed glass display case. But stranger was the black crystals growing like an infection all over the display case.

"Umbral Infinium, recovered by Dr. Caballeron. Warning, dangerous magic, do not break the seal! Also a bad idea to look at for too long!" Spell read, shaking his head. "It's a guess, but there must have been a cursed book here. Which does not bold well for whatever Tripwire is doing."

I didn't know books, but if Spell was worried, so was I. So we moved on, leaving the artifacts behind.

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The ancient stonework gave way to the more familiar concrete, looking more and more like the proto stable, though still older than that. We eventually came to a blast door, nothing as grand as a big cog, but there was no easy way past this door.

"Wait, why are all the relics outside, and not inside?" I then asked.

Spell scratched his goatee for a second as he studied the door and terminal that stood before us. "My guess, this is actually the back door, not the front. In all likelihood, this place is only meant to be entered through magic." He tapped on the terminal for a moment, and text scrolled across the screen. "And before you ask, the reason why my ancestors didn't live down here like a stable, is the same reason for the library back at the Elysium Memorial site. From what Pentagram wrote down about this place, it could only keep a group of ponies alive for a few months at best."

A buzz sound then came from the terminal.

"No, that's not it. Let's try this." Spell muttered to himself. "My ancestor didn't write too much about this place, only that it was a test build for a newly formed Stable-Tec, as he performed his phycological tests at the other proto-stable. And that his family stayed here as Pentagram when looking for help in the wasteland. After his return, he didn't write anything more about this place. Which is strange, with how useful these shelters are."

The terminal then beeped, and the blast door opened. "I knew it had to be one of the passwords that Pentagram wrote at the back of his journal." A foul smell of rot and chemicals then hit our noses. "Oh, how I don't miss that smell." Spell said in mild annoyance.

I covered my nostrils with my neck bandana. "It smells like rotting eggs mixed with a dead radroach and ancient socks!"

"Worse, that's the smell of cooking taint byproduct used for making chems." Spell said with disgust. "But I doubt Catalyst is making chems."

"Her alicorn fetish?" I asked.

"Ya, and I have a really bad feeling about this." Spell ancwered.

We hesitantly trotted inside, the smell only getting worse, but not overpowering. The walls of this place were a bleak gray concrete, the lights a dull fluorescent white. Though everything was clean, it was bleak and lifeless, as well as dead silent. Our hooves echoing on the hard concrete floor, with each step a threat at warning the enemy of our presence

Then we heard it, heavy hoof steps coming our way. There was no room to hide, just the hallway and what was now coming for us.

Pulling out my IF-64, and taking aim, both Spell and I got ready for a fight. And slowly, this pony came into view.

An armored smelter rounded the corner, the eyes of his gas mask glinting at us, his head tilting back as to size us up. He said no words, just standing there looking at us. A gurgling sound then came from the smelter, and from his air filter dripped a prismatic fluid. The fluid sizzled on the ground, melting the concrete.

He then took a step forward.

"Fuck, don't let him near us!" Spell said as he opened fire.

Joining in, my shots landed, but didn't do enough damage. So I pulled out Last Dance, and sent a .308 round through the Smelters head.

Our ears were ringing despite my rifle's suppressor, but the bastard fell over. The rifle round sprayed rainbow fluid across the wall, staining it as the concrete sizzled and melted.

"What the fuck was that?" I huffed out.

"Not sure, but that was clearly taint coming out of that pony." He took a few steps forward, and with his magic, pushed the dead smelter against the wall. "Looks more or less inert, but best be careful to not get too close, unless you want to grow an extra leg."

"Noted." I said as I carefully followed Spell, and further down the hallway. Rounding the corner, things didn't get any better as the concrete warped, becoming a prismatic stain of magic that was hard to understand. Thankfully our glasses filtered out most of whatever the fuck was going on down here, as the light along the edges of the glasses was a swelling of sickness.

"By Celestia, what is Catalyst doing down here?" Spell muttered as he pushed forward, clearly having trouble trotting straight.

I wasn't doing any better, using Spell as my anchor as everything else was slowly pulsing. "You holding up?"

"I know how to filter out magical corruption like this, how about you?" He asked back.

"The glasses are helping, I just need to focus on your flank." I answered. "So how fucked are we by just being here?"

"My guess, so long as we're out of this mess and soon, we can recover. Fortunately the taint here is mostly inert, just byproduct fucking with our vision, it's the radiation I'm more worried about." Spell told me as he pushed forward.

We then passed a dead pony, their body twisted like gnarled roots, but from their back a single beautiful rainbow feathered wing. Another pony was nearby, it shriveled to a skeleton, but with a long majestic horn that radiated magic.

"This is horrible!" I commented.

Spell let out growl as he said. "Indeed. Catalyst has no morals in her experiment. But no surprise from a member of my family that turned raider."

Pushing on, things didn't get better, and I worried for our safety, but Spell insisted that most of the taint was inert, used up. Still, I didn't like it. From the walls that rippled, to the mangled corpses haphazardly discarded. Not all of them were dead, not completely, as a few corpses twitched, one growing tentacles that reached out for us, which I used Rime Frost to destroy. I figured that freezing and shattering them was the most effective way to keep them down,

"By Celestia!" Spell said in shock as he passed by an open door, whatever was inside making him on the verge of throwing up.

And seeing myself, I didn't blame him. It looked like a moving mound of flesh, where the ponies trapped in it were still alive. A mass of flesh fused together like patchwork stuffed animals, with limbs everywhere some splitting and forming new ones. I even saw a head in the process of becoming two heads. The mass gave off a labored breath as it struggled to breath.

Surrounding it was several malformed alicorns, some far more complete than the others. The longer I watched the more I began to realize that this mound of flesh was giving birth to those alicorns.

"What the… what fuck is that!?" I asked silently.

"Not sure, but it's horrible." He said. "If this is a result of her taint experiment, then it's a bad sign. Mutations on this scale rarely result in anything living, as what we saw in the hallway. But Catalyst managed to keep this one from dying, which should be impossible. From what Majestic told me, only Twilight figured it out, but only just barely, and that's with the pure materials, not taint."

"Wait, this is a success!?" I said, feeling confused.

"Maybe, I'm no expert on this." He then pulled out a canister from his saddle bag. "But I do know that without the Goddess to control the transformation, a pony either dies or becomes a mindless horror when exposed to that much taint. And this, as horrible as it sounds, must be a step towards alicornification. Or at least she has found a way to prevent the horror mutation from happening. This mass of ponies, it's similar to what Majestic said the Goddess was. A pony goes in, and an alicorn comes out."

Spell tossed the canister in, and it began bellowing spark and then smoke. Using his magic, he then blocked the doorway with a barrier just as the canister filled the room and then popped. A bright flash was followed by intense heat, and I watched as the poor mass of ponies were set on fire.

Spell then sighed. "Along with the mezmetron, whatever Catalyst has figured out must never leave this place."

Once the flames died down, and the mass of ponies were now smoldering, we moved on. Only more mangled ponies greeted us, victims of Catalysts experiments, though the further we went, the less they looked twisted. Some didn't even seem to have died on their own, having a bullet hole through the head.

"It's like a trail of her experiments. Each one is closer to perfection than the next." Spell said before freezing at one victim.

A little filly with both a normal unicorn horn and normal pegasus wings. She was so thin and frail, but what pissed me off even more was the curt across her neck. Actually all the bodies now had similar injuries, rainbow red blood staining the floor.

"By Celestia, she must have succeeded, and then repeated the experiment. Then slaughtered her subjects." Spell said through gritted teeth.

I got Rime Frost ready, making sure she was fully loaded. "Fuck sneaking around, lets just find the bitch and kill her." I said and Spell just nodded.

Rushing past the rest of the bodies, and down the blood stained hallway into an atrium like area, we were greeted by the sight of bodies and body parts hanging from the wall. At the center of the atrium was a large cauldron in which a rainbow-like fluid boiled inside, sending prismatic smoke out in puffs.

Spell reached out his hoof to block me. "Careful, that taint is still active, and it is likely condensed."

Just then, something flew through the air and fell into the cauldron, making a splash. In a panicked struggle, a normal looking rat hast fully crawled out and flopped to the ground. Within seconds, its tutored riddled skin began to pulsate and bubble. Massive boils formed on the rat as it grew to size, not just expanded, but its legs grew longer, its eyes bulged, and its small claws became like daggers.

"Oh, I'm calling this one a death rat, or maybe a rodent claws." Catalyst said as she stepped out from behind a pillar. The raider looked far cleaner than before, and on her head was a crystal like glowing horn, and out of her back were two wings that were covered in prismatic feathers. "You two got here just in time for my new experiment. Since I've obtained perfection, I now need my own army."

"Your insane Catalyst." Spell said to her. "Who knows what that stuff has done to you!"

She rolled her eyes as she trotted towards us. Giving the mutant rat a glance, she then waved her wing at it and the thing burst into bubbles. "You know, I need something to match my majesty. A creature more elegant… or maybe a pony." As she got closer, I went to draw Rime Frost, but found myself unable to move. "Oh no no no, you can't be acting all savage now."

"Big words from a raider!" I growled out at her.

She glared at me and I felt a pressure on my throat. "I did what I must to survive! Everything was taken from me, everything. When Redeye attacked, I had only just proven myself worthy to be part of the Naysayer family, and freed from that disgusting half brother of mine. That pathetic hoof licker Chainlink threw himself at Redeye's hooves when he should have fought him. No way was I going to run back to him, so I chose to be a raider and lay low!"

Spell let out a chuckle. "So you're from that family of power hungry bullies. No better than raiders, so not much of a change for you."

Catalyst flung Spell over to her like he was nothing more than a paperweight. "Unlike a coddled failure like you, I had to suffer under that damn family as their unwanted child. And unlike you I actually proved myself to both father and our brother, despite all the torment I endured." She then smiled as she opened her wings. "Now look at me, I have reached the level of a god. And nothing like that mutant Goddess, a real god, a true god!"

Dropping Spell, she then got muzzle to muzzle with me, her eyes wide. "Pathetic mortals like you can do nothing to me. Though I'll enjoy watching you try." From the corner of her eyes I could see black specks, and some kind of wiggling strand of darkness. She was absolutely insane, and something was inside her, something evil.

But her teeth were the same yellow as any raider, both cracked and filed to a point. She may say she did it to survive, and I'd believe her too, but it was clear that unlike Molo she never wanted to leave that life behind. She just wanted more power, and felt no guilt for what she did. Whatever she has become, her true self could be easily seen through this face alicorn skin.

I chucked as the thoughts ran through my head.

Catalysts eyes flared with anger as I was lifted into the air, my neck being squeezed like there was a noose around it. "What's so funny ya pathetic mortal!" She growled out at me. But I couldn't say what was on my mind, I couldn't even breathe. This seemed to make Catalyst smile. "Oh not like it matters."

I was then roughly moved, placed over the cauldron of concentrated taint. Laughter convulsed out of Catalyst as she held me there. "You see, I needed a medium, something to take the burden of transformation, so that only what I want I get." The bitch fluttered her wings, showing them off. "Took awhile to get it just so. Unfortunately my previous medium burnt out from it, became utterly useless. But if I'm to make my perfect army, I need a new one, which will be you."

Spell got up and shot a blast of magic from his horn, but with a flick of her own horn, Catalyst sent the blast back at him, flinging Spell into a wall.

Again Catalyst laughed, louder and more vindictive. "Oh this power, it is everything I wanted and more. Not even my elder brother can do anything to stop me. Yes, I'll even make Tripwire grovel at my hooves." Her attention then returned to me. "But first, a whore like you needs to be put-"

I fired Rime Frost at the bitch, having pulled her out while Catalyst was distracted.

"Oh, nice try!" Catalyst said, unharmed due to the magical barrier around her. "I know your tricks, using that cursed weapon to catch others off guard." She then rolled her eyes at me. "I ain't no second rate goon, such tricks don't work on me!"

That was my last trick, and she easily deflected it. Was there anything I could do, something? But nothing came to mind.

Catalyst smiled wide. "Yes, that's it, that's what I live for. The look of utter defeat. You lost and you know it."

She was right, but something nagged at the back of my head, like somepony was whispering to me. Maybe it was the lack of air, or my impending loss, but someone in me was still not ready to surrender.

No, not just me, but Rime Frost. She pulsed in my hooves, wanting to do something, but what. Each pulse threatened to drop her, but I could do that, not into that cauldron. But again she pulsed, trying to break free.

Still I didn't want to let her go, not after what we had been through.

It will be fine.

The words resonated through my head, comforting me.

I'll still be with you.

But I still needed Rime Frost, I needed her!

I know, but I must go. And thank you for accepting me. My long nightmare became a pleasant dream because of you. But now the dream must end, I must wake up.

With one more pulse, Rime Frost slipped from my hooves and fell into the condensed taint. The sickly rainbow fluid bubbled fiercely as it consumed Rime Frost, melting her.

"Well I don't know much about cursed things, but I'm sure it cannot stand up to that." Catalyst said with a chuckle. "But enough of the brahmin shit, you're getting dunked in… enjoy!"

I was then let go, my stomach churning as I fell. But I only hit a cold and hard surface. The taint had frozen solid, and now looked a multicolored of blues and white.

Pressing my head to the ice, I whispered, "thank you my dear Rime."

Absolut shock formed on Catalyst's face, which quickly turned to pure rage. "You bitch! You know how long it took me to gather that shit. How many ponies I had to sacrifice to refine it!" She then took a deep breath and calmed down. "On, it's fine. I can easily do it again. Just as easily as I can crush you."

Though the threat of the taint had been neutralized, Catalyst was still going to be a problem. Her magic was too strong. But If I could get close to her, then maybe I can get a hit in.

Stepping off the frozen cauldron, I glared at Catalyst. "Tell me, what is your endgame, why do you need all this power?"

"Really, you want me to monologue." She glared at me with disappointment in her eyes. "Probably buying Spell time to pull some brahman shit out of his hat." With her magic, she dragged the two of us over to her with a psychotic look in her eyes. "Now what to do first?"

I then smiled. "You know, if you didn't have your magic, I'd only need a minute to beat the shit out of you."

She then slapped me while keeping me restrained with her magic. "No, that's not how this works, you whore." I felt a crushing pressure from all sides, making it impossible to breathe. "From the very moment you passed through that blast door, I could have crushed you like a bug. But I wanted to have fun, to play a little." I then threw up as the content of my stomach was forced out of me. "But now I'm done playing. So will you just die already!"

An electrical burst engulfed up, sending a tingling through my body as I took a deep breath and hit the ground.

"The fuck was that!?" Catalyst said in shock as she stumbled back.

Spell chuckled. "An anti-magic bomb, my pathetic sister!" he then glanced at me with a smile. "Go kick her flank, Lottery!"

He didn't need to tell me that twice as I dug my claws into the concrete floor and launched myself at Catalyst.

One hoof strike connected, sending blood spraying to the floor, and then the second… was blocked! I was then thrown over Catalyst's shoulder, and slammed into the ground.

"I was a fucking raider ya ignorant bitch!" She shouted. "Ya don't think I don't know how to throw down without magic!"

Bouncing back up, I shoulder checked Catalyst, following with a back hoof of my gauntlets. She took the hit and the head butted me, dazing me for a second. The next thing I knew, a hoof connected to my jaw, causing me to stumble back and spit out a tooth.

Catalyst then charged at me, throwing herself into a tackle, knocking the wind out of me. But I used the momentum to roll, and in getting on top of her I began slamming my hooves down on her face. She didn't block my attacks as they came down on her face, instead bending herself backwards and sending me face first into the floor. Separating herself from me, she kicked my side before I could get up, and if I still had anything in my stomach, it would have come out from that hit.

But this pain was nothing, and again I threw myself at her, but this time going low, and kicking at her legs. She reared back, seeing through the attack, and with bloodlust in her eyes, slammed her hooves back down on my own. Loud clunk resonated as her hooves connected with my gauntlets, and she then stumbled back from her own attack. I still felt it myself, but the gauntlets were unbending, protecting me from most of that attack.

Taking the opportunity, I charged again, throwing my hoof at her face. Catalyst smirked seeing the predictable attack coming, and with a graceful dance-like step, moved to the side, ready to use my own attack against me. Then I dug the claws on my back hooves into the ground, stopping my moment and twisting my body to the other side as I reversed the position of my other forehoof as I spun around in a wide arch.

Catalyst took the hit with her face, cutting three deep gashes across it and sending her stumbling back. Before could recover, I charged again, reversing my body as soon as I got close, and bucked her as hard as I could, sending her flying into the cauldron.

Sitting up against the cauldron, Catalyst, wheezing for air before hacking up blood, glared at me with pure hate. "Where did a fucking whore like you learn a move like that!"

It took a second for me to catch my breath, the brawl having taken a lot out of me in just a short amount of time. "I… happen to know a few… griffins, that taught me a few tricks." I lifted a clawed hoof. "So happens that their way of fighting works well with my gauntlets,"

Catalyst gave a pained laugh, "I bet you had to fucked them to get-"

*BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG!*

I unloaded my bandit revolver at Catalyst, but to my annoyance, her magic had returned, and all shots were stopped by a barrier.

"Checkmate whore!" She said as her injuries began to heal. She then pointed at me with her hoof, smiling wide with her madness. "I won and you…" she stopped and looked at her hoof, ice blue boils forming on it. One popped, and frost spread over the leg. "Wh… why?"

Turning her head around, she saw that the cauldron had a crack in it, in which the concentrated frost taint was now leaking.

Scrambling to get away from it, one of Catalyst's forelegs shattered into ice shards, sending her to the ground. "No! Not like this! Not when I just won!" She dragged herself forward, more of the boils forming all over her. With a pull, her lower half broke away from her body, reducing Catalyst to just a torso, a leg and a hate filled head. She then grind wild as she glared at me.

From her horn a ball of pure magic, and I still to out of breath to run. "I still win!" She yelled.

*BANG*

Her horn shattered, the magic going wild before sputtering out into harmless shards. Spell stood not far from her, holding Grizzly's pistol, a look of disgust on his face. As Catalyst turned to look at him, her face cracked, and began to flake off. Her mouth moved but nothing but a fog came out, her voice frozen.

Spell and I just watched as Catalyst cracked and crumbled, turning into nothing more the shares of bloody ice. Once the moment had passed, I looked up at Spell, telling him, "nice shot."

He shrugged. "It wasn't a hard target, now let's get out of here." His eyes glanced at the leaky cauldron, the dangerous fluid pooling around it. "I don't want to find out how dangerous that stuff can be."

Tapping my gauntlets, they likely saved me from Catalyst's fate, so I gave him a nod. "Ya, let's not test fait."

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