Fallout Equestria: Desperados V2 (of Blood and Dirt)

Desperado’s V2, Chapter 19

Rising Star (Part 1)

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My eyes opened, I was sure of it, but everything was black and cold. But the cold didn't bother me, it was just… what it is I guess. Like a cool night after a hot day cold. Ya, a bit chilly, but that good feeling chilly. No, my issue was that I was blind, and underwater.

Fuck!!!

I failed about, holding my breath, wondering why I wasn't dead. But then calmed down as hazy memories slowly came to me. Then I took a deep breath, the cool water filling my lungs like heavy air.

"Fuck! Right, I'm actually a Kelpie, I can breathe underwater." I said to myself, still partially baffled as the memories of meeting my ancestors slowly came to me. "Now what?"

"Curious, you can talk underwater? Oh, so can I!" A voice rippled through the water.

Shock, I busted off in a random direction, hitting a wall. After rubbing my aching head, I looked around, and saw a green glowing… thing? No, I recognized it. "Azure?"

"How you say… E'yep." The glowing, pony shaped crustacean said, looking quite happy with itself, all the while giving off the vibe of some deep sea horror. "The magic of this world is just… amazingly weird."

"You don't know the half of it." I said, looking at my hooves now that I had some light. I recognized its backwards shape, which was not normal among ponies, and the long tuft of fur hanging off the back of my fetlocks. In Azure's green glow I could see the Oracle's Eye and the silver chain that held it around my neck. "And neither do I."

Looking around, everything was still pitch black, Azure's glow only going a few hooves out. "By the way, where are we?" I asked.

"Deep in the tunnels I believe, but let me check." The alien sparkle-lurker swam about with the agility of a bat, the antenna fins on his head and barrel stretching out as he clicked. "Hmmm, yes, it seems that we are in fact, in the deepest part of the tunnels."

I was left rather confused. "Huuu, some much, what?"

"Right, sorry about that." He then wiggled his four antenna. "A bit of echolocation, it doesn't work on land for my kind, but in the water, we just need to talk to see through the darkness. It's why I'm surprised, though not shocked, that we can talk under the water."

I cocked an eyebrow. "Wait, then… was that clicking… you talking?"

Several whistles and clicks then came out of Azure, some hurting my ears a bit. "The other races call it whistle script, it's my native language. But unfortunately, it's rather hard to speak it on land." He then scratched his chin, taking on a more serious look, which was odd since it was with his face claws. "Oh right, no time for cultural exchanges. We need to get you out of here."

My own eyes widened, remembering what sent me down here. "Harp, we need to save Harp!"

Azur lifted his hoof at me, "We know, Miss Harp figured it was a trap as soon as we got a request to meet you and Lean Year in a remote location. We unfortunately underestimated Quicktrot's resourcefulness in avoiding traps herself. By the time we caught up with her, she had already vanished into the mines with Miss Harp. Slowtrot appeared not long after, but unless we can get past the barrier, there's not much we can do to help our friend. Truthfully, I was sent down here to recover your corpse after realizing you weren't with them" He then swam closer, somehow smiling with those face claws. "But, this is a most fortunate turn of fate to find you alive."

I sighed. "So Slowtrot's fine, thank Persephone."

"Though Miss Percussion Cap seemed rather annoyed that we didn't tell her about any of this, like she knew something we didn't." Azure said as he backed off. "But that aside, we should head on up and rejoin the others. They will be ecstatic to know that you're alive."

"Shit, then they're beyond our reach." Without Harp, there was no way to get past the barrier, and Quicktrot knew it." Thinking about it, I remember something my ancestor had told me right before I returned to the living. Lifting up the Oracle's Eye in my hoof, I could see a blue spark in the magical magnifying lens. "One shot a day."

"Are you alright Miss Star Charter?" The crab pony looked at me curiously

I nodded, then looked into the darkness. "Say, where does this tunnel lead?"

Again, Azure stuck out his finned antennas, and let out a long whistled, then pulled out a compass. "I did see a map on the wall as I was swimming down here, and if I remember correctly from one of your pipbuck maps, this tunnel does go far. Lets see, it should extend from under the mountain, and all the ways to wear Green Lake Farm is."

"Just as Quicktrot said it did." I wasn't sure if it was possible, but it didn't hurt to try. I was considered dead anyways, so it wasn't like anypony was expecting me to show up. "Let's head under the mountain, I want to try something at the barrier, if it doesn't work, we can turn back."

Azure again scratched his chin, then nodded. "I'm guessing you think this might connect to the mines. A sound idea, and one worth investigating." He then put his compass away. "Alright, follow me."

He jetted off, and I stumbled in the water. Remembering what my ancestors had taught me with the little time we had, I visualized my mane and tail flattening, becoming more fin-like. I slowly began to move faster, following the quickly growing smaller glowing light.

"Hay! Slow down ya fucking crab bastard!" I yelled.

The light stopped, then became larger as Azure swam back to me. "My apologies, I'm guessing this is new to you?"

Grumbling, I said, "Ya fucking think!"

"Alright…" he said as he looked at me with a puzzled expression. "Just so strange." He then got side by side with me. "Here, just relax and copy my movements. Think of it as cutting through the water, and everything else should follow."

Watching the glowing crab pony slowly move his body side to side, his tail making a smooth but wide sway. I then did the same, and almost just as easily, moved forward. The more I swam, the more naturally it started to feel, and soon Azure and I picked up pace.

Still blind, I stuck close to Azure, where now and then he'd warn me of hazards in the water. Sometimes it was a piece of rusty rebar, another a preserved corpse of a pony. Parts of the tunnel had collapsed, providing only claustrophobic holes to squeeze through.

It felt as if we swam forever, making me worry that the tunnel extended beyond the mountain and we overshot it, but something then caught my eye. "Wait!" I yelled as I saw a glint in Azure's green light. Swimming to it, we found another wrecked part of the tunnel, and in the wreck was something that reflected Azure's light.

Lifting it up and brushing it off, I found a raw clump of gemstones in my hoof, not all that big, a gemstone nonetheless. Unfortunately I couldn't tell if it was an amethyst or not due to the only light here being green, but I felt it was safe to assume so.

We must be near the gemstone mine, now let's find a way up." I told my glowing companion.

"Alright, just stay there and I'll look around." Azure then jetted off, and I watched the glowing crab pony as he flew along the wall, clicking along the way before returning. "Good news, I found a door."

"And the bad news?" I asked.

He shrugged. "It's closed, so probably locked. Maybe rusted, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem." Digging into his bag, he then pulled out a small fucking crowbar. "My wrecking crowbar should get the door open."

"Right…" I said as I followed him. "Wait, did you bring all your shit? Isn't that paper, ya know, bad in water?"

We arrived at a fucking blast door, and Azure got to work removing the control panel. "It's fine, everything I have is either water resistant, or kept in water tight containers. As strange as it sounds, my books are made from limestone, not wood pulp, so I can write on them even when under water. It even makes good emergency rations of the situation is desperate enough."

A bit dumbstruck, I watched as with little effort, Azure ripped the panel off, and began pulling wires. "Your paper is made of… rocks? How? And you can fucking eat rocks!?"

"Ehh, not my area of expertise. All I know is that they work, and they're expensive." He said as he jammed his crowbar into the control panel and twisted it. "As for eating, both our exoskeleton and endoskeleton are mostly made up of Limestone, so we need to regularly consume limestone to keep from growing brittle." A loud click came from the blast doors, along with a mass of bubbles as it opened. "There we go, figured this hydraulically locked door had the same flaw as any other."

I shrugged, giving up on asking how, and just accepting that it just is what it is.

Swimming through the door and into a stairwell, the water became a lot cleaner, and it quickly became clear we had made the right decision. As the smooth concrete gave way to roughly carved out stone. Gemstones could be found within the walls, slowly becoming more abundant. Even the concrete stairs below us were replaced by roughly carved stone.

"Most spectacular." Azure said as he swam up into what was a cavern. "This reminds me of a hidden village I once had the privilege of visiting. Though here we're lacking the village."

Even I was in awe, as with even the little bit of light we had, it reflected on all the gemstones covering the walls. They sparkled all about, reflecting Azure's light and giving us a good enough view of the cavern. Then I saw it, like a smooth mirror, the surface.

Both of us rushed to it, and as our heads were breaching the separation of the underwater with the dry air, it felt like entering a whole different world. It even took me a moment to adjust my eyes to the air, and for me to expel the water from my lungs.

Then I saw it, a pink glow in the distance. Swimming to it, we came to the barrier set up by the Ministry of Moral. It glowing pink and giving off a feeling of paranoia, as though it was actually an eye watching me. Looking below, the barrier unfortunately extended below the water, showing no signs of a way through.

"So this is the barrier." Azure said as he swam up to it, a curious tone to his voice. Reaching out and running his hoof along it, a slight sizzle came from his touch. "Some resistance, but also a volatile reaction. I don't think we can get through it. Not alive I mean."

I sighed, figuring as much. I had held out some hope it would be easy, but now seeing it, I knew our options were limited. "You sure, nothing warping the barrier, or something out of place?"

Azure shook his head. "Unfortunately not. It's solid throughout, and unless we have something of equal or greater power, we're going nowhere but out where we came."

A smile crept onto my muzzle. "Equal or greater? As in magic?"

"Yes, but it's only something I've observed." Azure explained. "Magic from my world is rather volatile, and even those who are masters of it, barely understand it as it is. But I do know that if you bring one magical artifact to another of greater power, the more powerful magic tends to disrupt the weaker. It's not uncommon for those who dispose of evil magic to keep something of powerful evil, and feed lesser evil magic to it. A nasty practice, but better to keep one big evil than a hundred smaller evils."

That… made a little bit of sense to me.

"Then I think I might have a magical thing that could help." I said as I placed a hoof on my Oracle's Eye. "Now how do I do this?"

"Do what now, Mis Star?" Azure asked me.

I tried to will it in my head, but nothing came from it. "While I was out, I met my ancestors. I know, it's crazy, but I did. One, the mare who made this magical magnifying lens put a musket made of cold fire iron inside of it. Said it can hurt the undead and other stuff. I just don't know how to access it."

There was silence for a long moment before Azure then asked. "You sure you weren't just suffering from oxygen deprivation?"

"I fucking don't know!" I shouted!

A sigh came from the Lurker as he came closer to me. "Well, it's not like I understand any magic. Either from your world or mine. But my friend always told me that most magic requires an intermediary, something used to direct magic, like a code in a computer. Only masters can just make magic happen."

I let the Oracle's Eye go, figuring that Azure was right, then pointed at him accusingly. "But where would I even get something like that? Do you see any magic wands or some shit of the like here?"

Azure then tapped on my pipbuck.

"Oh." Was all I could say as I remembered that I had the arcano-tech device on my fentlock.

Using my S.A.T.S. time slowed down and everything turned green as options appeared. One of which was to punch Azure in his crab face. Ignoring the fun option, my pipbuck let me target the barrier, and with something called a cold fire shot. Selecting it, my world turned an icy blue as Hardballer's musket formed in my hooves. Taking aim, the musket fire, letting out a blast of blue fire and dark smoke as a ball made of bone shot out. Slamming into the barrier, it shattered, leaving a large hole through it.

Time returned to normal and wasted no time Azure and I swam through. The barrier slowly reformed behind us, leaving us now trapped inside.

"Well… that worked." I said, looking at the Oracle's Eye.

Azure looked at it as well, squinting with his two pairs of eyelids. "Did you have that before?"

"No, well ya I did, but it was a long time ago. It was just recently returned to me. And it can do a bunch of magical stuff."

"Can you do whatever that was again?" He asked.

I shook my head, "it's a once a day deal… I think."

He again touched the barrier, it having its volatile reaction like before. "Well, if that's true, we at least have a way out. Let's just hope we'll not need it."

Right, Harp was in here, and we don't know how long we have until Quicktrot leaves. "Okay, then let's get moving. Time to wipe the smirk off that digital bitches face!"

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The caverns were rather extensive, and it had become very clear that several cave-ins had happened over the last two hundred years, forcing Azure and I to take detours. But eventually we made it to what had to be where Four Stars had set up their base.

It also helped that the lights were on, finally showing me the dazzling purple of the amethyst covered walls. It was absolutely beautiful with how they refracted the light, bathing everything in a purple hue.

Nearby, a Waste Pony mercenary kicked an uncut gems into the water, and turned to another who was smoking as he worked on a generator. "Why is all this shit flooded! Gives me bad vibes, ya'know."

"Ya ya, I know." The smoker took a long drag of his cig as a spark jolted out from the generator. "Reminds me of the glowing lake back home, before the damn smooth coats purified the radiation. Fucking giant shrimp always poping out to drag us down. Good eating, but they killed my brother when he wasn't paying attention."

"Nerely got snatched as a foal by those damn shrimp too. Though it was the leeches that gave me nightmares, and how they like to mimic a pony. Fucking shit they were creepy." The first waste pony said with a shiver.

"Also good eating if ya catch it." The smoker said with a chuckle.

A groan came from the first, annoyed by the comment. "The fuck are ya even saying. Trash is good eating to us ya git! Or ya forget we can barely taste anything. I mean fuck, my mother surved a rost cooked on a blasted out bailfire bomb and the sauce was toxic waste, and we ate it noproblem."

"Ahh, good old hearth's warming eve. My Pa would hunt glowing molerats for the supper just to give us something soft to eat." The smoker further commented just as the generator came to life, and even more lights flickered to life.

Swimming up closer, they were unfortunately in the way. Looking over at Azure, he motioned that we submerge under water.

Ducking down, I had to breath in the water before asking, "you got a plan?"

"Not a nice one, but we can't have them alarming any of the other mercenaries that could be out there. So on three, you grab one of them, and I grab the other. Together we can subdue them without making much noise." Azure told me as he pulled out a rope from his bag.

I cringed, already knowing how it feels to drown, but it would prevent them from doing anything to warn their friends. "Alright, let's do that. Anyways, we're going to need weapons, so why not take theirs."

Getting into position, it felt eerie looking up at the blurred shape of the pony above. And as I slowly surfaced, I hoped that they didn't look down into the crystal clear water and see me. Actually it was strange, as Azure glowed, but he was practically invisible to anypony not paying attention, so damn unfair.

Surfacing, and getting ready to attack, the first mercenary then looked down at me, confusion on his face. I froze, not sure what to do next, hoping I didn't blow it. "Hay… why is there some weird weed in the water?"

"The fuck are you on about? Ain't no plants down here but mushrooms." The second said, finishing off his stick.

The first mercenary took a closer look at me, not seeing a pony, but a mass of kelp. "I wonder?" He said as he got face to face with me, turning to look at his friend. "Can we eat th… hay, where did you go?" The other mercenary was gone, as though vanished into thin air. He then looked back at me, worry on his face.

I blinked, and his eyes went wide. Before he could pull back I grabbed him by the head and pulled him under. In the water I easily got behind him and held the mercenary down, and as much as he tried, there was nothing he could do to brake free.

He let out a breath as he saw Azure holding onto his friend, the sparkle-lurker easily carrying the pony over to us and solving them together. "Hold them as I tie them up." He told me. Within a few seconds the two mercenaries were bound and gagged, so we surfaced.

Our captives tried to yell and scream, but it was of no use. So leaving them by the edge of the water, I turned my attention to their saddle bags next to the generator. I pulled out a shitty pipe gun, and a rusty knife, leaving me disappointed. "Say Azure, why didn't you bring your gun with you?"

He shook a bit of the water off his jacket as he stood on dry land. "Didn't think I'd need it." He then poured water out of his messenger bag then took out a pen and journal. "Just a moment as I leave a note for the map. And… done, let's go. Anyways, water and iron do mix well, and that lever action was already in bad shape as it is."

I guess that made sense to me. Why bring an already in poor condition gun down to the bottom of a water reservoir.

Carefully, we trotted further into the half sunken mine, surrounded by amethyst deposits and rusted mining equipment. It didn't take long to find the other mercenaries, a group of the loitering around, eating some rancid looking canned food. The smell of it alone told me it expired at least a hundred years ago. Even Azure's antennas folded down in disgust.

As we backed up, my hoof hit something, and one of the rusted construction equipment then shifted, causing a loud clunk. Seven pairs of radiation green glowing eyes then looked in our direction, resembling more of a group of feral ghouls than actually living ponies.

"Oy, you two better not be fucking around. Da boss ain't paying us to jack each other off." One of the mercenaries yelled.

Peeking out, I saw that they all had drawn their weapons, and took a defensive formation. These weren't simple raiders, or some militia pretending to be killers, but professional mercenaries guarding a choke point. Even if their guns were shit, they would ventilate me before I could get them. Even Azure with his brahminshit perception thing wouldn't get to them in time before they noticed he existed.

Looking around, I saw a ditch filled with water, not all that big, or deep, but maybe enough to work.

Looking over at Azure, I tossed him the shitty pipe gun, telling him, "distract them."

He nodded and I hopped into the water. Several gunshots went off, and the mercenaries responded in kind. I felt myself almost melt into the water, not completely becoming one with it, but my form shifting just enough to fit and swim. Just like my ancestors had taught me. Pushing forward, the mercenaries were too distracted to see me coming up on them.

With a rusty knife in my muzzle, I burst from the water and stabbed the closest mercenary in the shoulder. Panic then came over the group as the mercenaries were caught off guard by my appearance, nearly shooting their own in the process. Keeping them from regrouping, I charged another, and tackled him, knocking his scrap built SMG from his muzzle and tossing him into another mercenary.

Jumping back, I bucked at another mercenary before she could get a shot off at me, then headbutted another in a dash. Both mercenaries were left disoriented and stumbling about.

"Ya bitch!" The mercenary I stabbed yelled as she pointed her own SMG at me and fired. Rolling out of the way, I fell back into the water, where the mercenary rushed over and fired in.

But I had already moved further away, jumping out behind one of her companions. Using them like a shield as I grabbed the disoriented mercenary and charged at the still armed pony. She attempted to reload, but her rusty magazine refused to smoothly eject, and by the time she got it out and a new one in, her companion was tossed into her.

I then spotted another mercenary scrambling for their gun, jumping to it and aiming it at me. But my eyes locked with their own, freezing them in place.

"I'd surrender if I were you," Azure spoke up, now holding one of the SMG's. "Nobody needs to die, and I don't like killing people." He then aimed the gun at one mercenary attempting to crawl to their gun. "But I will if you're stupid."

They finally surrendered, hooves held in the air. One of them eyed with both respect, and a bit of disdain. "You could have easily killed us, so why didn't you?"

"Think of this as my thanks for not raping me, also, your two friends further down are alive, we just got em tied up down there." I told them.

"Much appreciate it mam." One of them said to me. "My Pa always said that if we act like monsters, we die as monsters."

"Words to live by I say." I replied. "Now if you could go and help your friends back there, and maybe stay down there for a bit, that would be mighty nice of you."

One of the mercenaries sighed. "We understand, you do whatever you're planning on, and we stay here until you're done. Anyways, we're not in the business of fighting dead mares. At least not for the pay we are getting right now. So I hope we don't meet again, or at least not when we're working for that crazy bitch."

"Why work for her anyways?" Azure asked, his journal out.

The waste pony chuckled. "I guess a freak like you wouldn't get it. But we, waste ponies as you call us, aren't all that well liked. Ghoul ancestor and all, so the other ponies think we'll go faral or some shit. Ain't our fault that cleaning up the wasteland destroyed our homes, now we got noplace to live, and no honest work to be had."

"Then Blue Skies came along." I commented.

The mercenary nodded. "Ya, and we ain't under no delusion to Quicktrot's schemes, we're here to get paid, simple as."

Azure then closed his journal. "Not the first time hearing that, I pray that Quicktrot never runs out of money, or undercuts you."

All the mercenaries chuckled, and the talkative one then said. "Very much so, there's a lot of us, and we ain't ones to take things on the chin." He looked down the tunnel and nodded. "But until our contract is over, we have orders to follow. Fortunately those orders were to look around and take out any pests. Nothing says for us to fight a drowned mare and the pony from the black lagoon." The other mercenaries then got up, and trotted in the direction we came from. "Well, see ya around. Or not."

"Compared to other mercenary bands, they're rather pleasant." Azure said as he put his journal away.

"And a bit creepy." I said as a thought occurred. "But I wonder, if the radiation was never cleared out, where would they be in another hundred, or two hundred years?"

Azure shrugged. "Don't know much about them, so I can't say. But probably best to leave the theorizing to another day."

"Ya, lets go." I said, and trotted down the cavern.

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