//------------------------------//
// Et Tu, Nocte Praesidio? 
// Story: Fallout Equestria: Taking Life By The Horns 
// by Pokonic 
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After taking about fifteen seconds to realize the overenthusiastic filly was not a ghost and was, in fact, a solid creature made of bone and blood, I stopped screaming and did my best to calm both her and Blueberry down, with the former being expressively interested in what I was, what I was doing, what was my favorite color, and so on, while the other was screaming incoherently.

Quickly making sure that the ponies on the ground were, in fact, not her parents, or any pony she knew for that matter, and working out that the lump was just a old teddy bear ( and getting over the fact that the filly was living in a abandoned shipping plant in the same room as two corpses, alone, a few miles from what was formerly a bustling town), I told her my name, what I was, and why the blue pony at the corner of the room was trying to find a another non-existent exit to the room while screaming for mercy to whatever local deity would listen. 

The little pony, Candy Cane, was thankfully naive, and believed me when I said that the blue pony didn't like candy, which made the little pony upset, but it quickly recovered when I asked if she was afraid of me at all. Which sparked a long conversation about how she wasn't.

Apparently, I was 'cool looking', which was a new one as far as I was concerned. 

Blueberry was slightly more approving of the little pony’s presence when she trotted up to her and said she was pretty, which might have been the first complement she's heard all week. She finally came over to the other side of the room when the little filly offered her what looked like a hanky, a gesture that even I could see was utterly adorable.

Soon, everyone was calmed down, happy, and almost okay with the fact the roof was slightly leaky and the room was cold and smelled lightly like spoiled meats and mildew and less mentionable things. According to the little filly, she couldn't find a home in Watershed for whatever reason, and found her way in here by swimming in the river until she got into the shipping chambers. Which only raised more questions, mostly regarding what happened to her parents, but I was too afraid to ask and Blueberry was too busy cleaning her face up.

Of course, the little filly was wondering why there was a "big brahman thing” and a unicorn in her "room", and she really didn't get it when I told her that we were scavenging. She also didn't know that there was fighting going on a brisk walk away, which was somewhat surprising. 

To me and Blueberry's collective surprise, the little filly had no idea we were here and had no idea what we were talking about when we mentioned the red ball, but she did have an imaginary friend called "Miss Batsy" who rarely came and played with her at night, who Blueberry brushed off as a cute little foalish thing and I found profoundly unordinary for a child to have. However, in order to change the subject to something less uncomfortable, I asked her how she got her food, as I did not see any fish around. She then showed us a crate full of what seemed to be dried green-brown cubes, which she eagerly showed adsorbed water to transform into spongy, tasteless, but apparently filling blobs filled with proteins and vitamins. How a little filly that was too young to get there butt-mark knew what a vitamin was left unsaid.

Candy Cane was decent company for what seemed to be a pony who was young enough to have most of her baby teeth, if just a bit ignorant about the world outside. So, when I asked if she wanted to sleep near a fire, she said okay without a second thought, which surprised me a little. And so, the three of us went down to the fire to keep warm and hopefully go to sleep.




However, the little pony did not realize it was either late at night or very early in the morning, and continued to talk. Loudly. And in a little high-pitched voice that hurt my ears. 

"-and that's why I like Daring Doo, sir!" Candy Cane said eagerly, chewing on a food bar much like how she talked. 

Loudly. 

Blueberry groaned, slightly annoyed, and continued to pretend to be asleep near the other side of the room.

I couldn't blame her. We were planning to leave as soon as the little filly fell asleep, but that was not going to be an option at the rate she was bouncing around. I could only hope the little fillies "candy" was just that, and not some colorful pills and such. 

"Hey mister minotaur, is your friend okay?" Candy Cane said, pointing to the groaning blue pony at the far side of the room. "She doesn't seem to be sleeping well. Is she alright? Does she need a hug?"

I stared at the light brown earth pony child, eyes half-lidded and limbs heavy. I wondered, only for a moment, how far it would go if I threw it outside, but I quickly deemed that a horrible idea, considering that my wrists hurt and my back hurt slightly from having a roof fall on it. 

"She's she just needs to sleep. And my name is Ever Watchful, little one."

"Okay, mister minotaur!" the little pony said, not comprehending my words whatsoever. 

"I am tired too, little pony. Big people like me and Blueberry need to sleep. Please, talk softer." I said, calmly and with little in the way of emotion.

"Okay!" she said cheerfully. 

I said nothing, and laid on my back. The little pony stared at me for a few moments, then prodded me in the shins, which was still sore.

"Mister minotaur?"

"Shut up." I grumbled, only realizing what I actually said when I heard the words come out of my mouth. Candy Cane flinched, and scooted away from me, and the fire for that matter. I didn't see her face, but she sounded like she was starting to sniffle.

"Okay..." she said softly, and she looked at the staircase.

I leaned up from my spot on the floor, and I tried to sound apologetic. "I didn't mean that, it's okay for you to talk, really, just be softer."

The little filly looked at me, eyes watering, and began to wander ever so slightly to the staircase. 

"No, its okay, I think I am going to bed mister minotaur, its late." she said, words carrying an undertone of disappointment. 

I didn't know what to say, and I watched at the little filly climbed up the staircase. 

It took a few minutes, but Blueberry all but bounded to me and prodded my ribs.

"Watchful, what the hell was that? She's a foal, and you just told her to shut up!" she said lowly, continuing to put pressure on my sore sides.

"Blueberry, I didn't mean to say that, and stop doing that!" I said, lightly pushing her hoof away with a hand. After stepping back a bit, she continued to sound argumentive.

"You can't say things like that to...she doesn't even have parents." she said gruffly. "She's a foal, who lives alone and doesn't get out much. We are probably the first things she's seen in weeks, and you just told her to shut up like you have any right to!"

I said nothing for a while, but eventually nodded. "I didn't mean too, Blueberry, but this is a odd situation. It's not like you expected the little pony to follow us down stairs. And you were the one who pretended to go asleep." 

She stopped glaring at me, and after a few moments rolled her eyes and lowered her shoulders. "Oh, okay, fine, you have me there. But still, Watchful, she wanted to talk to you. She likes you, and you...she's really, really young, too young, and now she's probably crying right now!" 

I sighed, upset at both myself and at Blueberry, and shrugged. "What am I supposed to do? It's not like you were planning to take her along with us!"

She blinked at me, and bit her upper lip.

"Your kidding, Blueberry. We can't. We can't" I said, dumbfounded.

"She's a foal, and she is sleeping on a shelf in the same room with two dead bodies, Watchful!" she said, pleadingly. "We can't just leave her here!"

I rubbed the back of my head with a free hand, and kneaded the spot where my horn buds connected with my skull. "Blueberry, we can't take Candy Cane. Yes, she's alone here, but she's fine right now. I mean, she has food and stuff, right?"

Blueberry pouted. "But what if somepony comes in here and finds her? She's...not really wasteland survivor material, Watchful. Most ponies would have at least attempted to steal our stuff, but she's just a little filly, and with Watershed all but destroyed, there's going to be scavengers, and the moment this place is noticed, she's going to be the only thing between them and the stuff in here."

I felt mildly ashamed, being the one saying that we shouldn't take in the orphan foal, but I still shaked my head. "Blueberry, what would we do if she did follow us? We can't take care of her, we have enough issues as it is, and-"

"And what, Watchful? What the hell is wrong with you lately? I thought you would be the one who would suggest it first!" she barked.

I leaned my head back and threw my hands in the air in a defensive motion, which Blueberry did not find funny in the least. After a few moments of thought, I realized something that could work.

"Okay, Blueberry, how about this. Tomorrow, you ask her if she wants’ to come with you, but we are going to drop her off at the nearest place that would take in foals that doesn't look like a complete hellhole, okay?"

Putting a hoof under her chin, she slowly nodded in agreement, if hesitantly. "That's okay. Actually, I am sure she could find a home in the Watchers. She's independent enough."

I grunted in response, and stood up slowly. "I am going to take a walk around; you go ahead and go asleep."

She raised an eyebrow, but yawned. "Okay, whatever. Don't talk to Candy again, no offence, and don't go and get hurt."

"Don't worry, Blueberry, I am tired too, I just need to get some blood flowing. And there's always the chance Sea Salt is around."

Blueberry stopped walking away, looked at me, and without warning started to walk just a little faster away from me, making sounds that could have been laughter if it wasn't so sour and bitter. Face flushed, I just watched as she trotted over to the area with the least amount of working overhead lighting and plopped down on what seemed to be the soggy remains of a desk, curling up under some rag-like joke of a blanket and facing away from the fire and, by extent, me.

Now, feeling guilty, I took to the stairs, leaving the fire and a understandably upset Blueberry behind me. 





It took a while, but I found something else to catch my interest in the shipping area. I could tell that Candy Cane was asleep without even entering the room she was sleeping in, going by the soft sounds of her snoring, and my continued search for a animal of some sort came up in failure, so I decided to make my way to the second-lowest floor to search the rooms Blueberry and I missed on our first run-through of the place.

It was only then did I realize just how eerie the place was, with its dirty, eternally flickering lights powered by some source or another to the distinct lack of corpses to the constant trickle of water from the rain outside to the subtle splashing of the water below. 

I also noticed, for the first time in quite some time, that I was probably not what ponies two hundred years ago had in mind when they built there buildings. This would not have been such a big issue if I could walk on one side of the railing without scraping my horns on the other, which I could not. 

"Stupid, stupid, stupid." I muttered to myself. What was getting into me? First I make a foal cry, and then I all but did my best to get Blueberry to hate me over the course of a day. This walk was a stupid idea, and I had a better chance of slipping on something and falling to my death in the slimy water below than finding anything worth taking, and every minute that Sea Salt didn't show up was another minute that my faith in her arriving lessened.

Finally, after a few minutes of careful guardrail-hopping and ladder-climbing, I planted my two hooves on the second floor. Mostly devoid of crates and far more exposed to the river than the one's before, I took note at how the support beams and wooden planks were far more decayed than the ones above, if only slightly. The lighting was off, as well, thanks to most of the bulbs above either covered with filth or out entirely, making the entire floor darker than the one's above. 

Taking careful steps, I went inside the first room I saw, an office, apparently, going by the remnants of a name on the glass on the door, 

Stepping inside, I knew something was off, as the lighting went off as I walked inside, throwing the entire room into weird shadows.  

This was compounded when a red ball dropped down, seemingly from the ceiling, and slowly bounced towards me. 

I stared at it, and I was so into staring at the object that had no right to be where it was that I almost didn't notice that something large was shifting on the ceiling. 

I then realized I made a mistake in doing so, for as I did, something black and leathery launched itself off its perch and knocked me on the ground. In the dark, I could not see what was now pinning me to the wet floor, but it four limbs, all of them hoofed and shod with some purple boots, the front pair ending in two points that drew blood when they scraped my chest.

My attacker’s face, if it had one, was hidden by the shadows, but I could clearly see that it had yellow eyes. And dark wings, given the dark and rough objects that fluttered as it somehow found the power to hold down my arms at the elbow.

I was also certain it had teeth, sharp one's at that, considering that the last thing I saw that night was a cruel sharped-toothed grin and a purple hoof-claw slamming into my head.