//------------------------------//
// Perhapes They Might Need Another Kind Of Therapist. 
// Story: Fallout Equestria: Taking Life By The Horns 
// by Pokonic 
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"No, really, I swear that there's a place where there's a bunch of hairy ponies running around. I met one, he looked like he was fused to a shag carpet. I think that was his name, actually. Shag Carpet." 

"Blueberry, all ponies are hairy. It's just that some are moreso than others." 

"So are minotaurs! You look like someone took a few pillows and a couch and made a living creature out of it." 

"I will take that as a complement, if only because I'm not the one who's been whining about the wind chill for the last few hours." 

"Oh, bah, my point still stands. Remember that guy from Braymont with two bodies?" 

"Well, it really was a bit larger than a filly and it was kind of sticking out of his spine, which kind of made it look funny, but it was pretty minor as far as what I have heard about. Or seen. I would think that I have seen stranger things out here." 

"Really, you think that's a minor mutation?" 

"Well, yeah. You know who's the strangest pony I have seen?" 

"Who? Besides Sea Salt, though, because that's not really fair." 

"Well, if you must know, she has blue hair with thin purple stripes and she is this tall-" 

Blueberry hit my right leg lightly with a playful nudge, laughing a little bit, and Candy Cane echoed her. 

The conversations for the last four hours or so have been like that, really. We really didn't want to get into anything that could scare the local six year old filly who we somehow ended up traveling with, and said little filly was more than happy to wander a fair bit away from us as we walked by the river. I discovered that whatever made the water smell like sewage must have been downriver, as after a good amount of traveling I found that the water tasted nearly as clean, surprisingly, as the water from the artificial pool we had. It wasn't, of course, who knows what sort of junk was in it, but I didn't regret my words about what I would drink. 

We soon found ourselves going uphill, and because of that Candy Cane started to struggle keeping pace. Really, considering her age, she was acting very mature as far as things went; especially considering that less than two days ago she was hiding out in a old building that might have been the only home she had known.  

"Candy Cane, are you tired?" I said finally after watching her stumble around a little after we had gotten to a level area near the top of the hill. She looked out of breath, either that or simply cold. The wind chill was getting worse every day, I supposed, and even I was feeling a little cold. Blueberry had yet to put on her robes, just to rule out any way she might upset Candy Cane, and the little filly herself looked worse for wear. 

"No, I can still walk, I can keep up." she said quickly. 

Blueberry gave her a concerned look. "Candy Cane, if you don't want to walk anymore, we can rest." 

"No!" the little filly yelled, causing Blueberry to actually wince, "I don't want to stop walking!" 

I felt odd, watching Blueberry and Candy Cane talk to each other. While Candy Cane seemed to act like any other filly her age, Blueberry was besides herself, as if she had never had to deal with a understandably tired child herself. While I never had to personally deal with rowdy youngsters, I knew enough from personal experience and watching the poor saps who had to deal with them that Candy Cane wasn't being unreasonable, really. Blueberry just didn't seem to know how to handle her, despite her seeming want to gain her trust. 

Luckily, I had a idea that could solve everyone's problems. 

"Candy Cane, do you know what a piggy back ride is?"  

It took her a moment, but she nodded. "Yes I do, Mr. Minotaur." 

I looked at Blueberry. From the look she was giving me, I could tell she didn't know what one was. For shame.  

"Do you want to keep walking?" 

Candy Cane, her apathetic frown upturning, eagerly nodded, especially after I leaned and let her climb on my back. Or, more accurately, my head, considering she might as well have been using my horns as grips to hold on to and was practically standing on my shoulders, mostly settling her weight for the back of my head. 

I couldn't really see her, but I could feel her, and going by Blueberry's priceless look of confusion, it must have been a sight worth seeing. 

"I can see everything from here, Mr. Minotaur!" Candy Cane loudly exclaimed when she got a good glance at our surroundings from her newly improved vantage point. 

"It is great, isn't it?" I said, more to Blueberry rather than the little filly currently clinging to my head. The blue mare just stuck out her tongue.  

"Don't make me come up there." she said to Candy Cane, who just giggled slightly.  

As it was, the hill was not as big as we believed, and so after a few quiet moments of travel we found ourselves near what I could have only assumed to be the home of the ponies Gabriel was talking about. 

First off, there was a radio tower. It was big. It looked like something one should be able to spot from miles away. 

Secondly, there was a decent sized building a good distance away from it near the edge of the river that had more than a few lights on. 

"Huh. Wonder if there's a generator down there." Blueberry commented. She blew it off when I gave her a unamused look. 

"Hey, I haven't said anything about taking it! Yeash, paranoid much?" 

I almost said something that might have been rude to say in company, but the slight wiggling feeling of the little pony basically leaning on my neck stopped me. 

"Come on, Blueberry, let's just meet these ponies. It's too windy out here anyway." 

Saying nothing else, we decended downwards, which made me realize just how steep the cliffs were. I had to take slow, measured steps, reducing me to Blueberry's speed, and she was carrying most of our collective stuff as it was. Candy Cane bounced around a bit, yelping slightly as I almost slid down one rockless part of the hillside, but after a few moments collected myself and continued to walk down it. 

Soon, we were at the bottom of hill, and more importantly at ground level. I did not notice a road or anything that lead to the tower from any direction from where I was standing, which made me wonder how it's inhabitants got their food or visited Watershed. 

Another thing of note was that the house was protected by a rather sturdy fence that, after Blueberry uprooted a dead shrub and brushed it against it, turned out to be a electric one of the "instant explosion of fire and electricity" type that could have vaporized any of us if we touched it. 

After a few moments of walking around to what seemed to be the front of the building, I became even more puzzled. It was a three story house, more of a small mansion really, and it seemed to be in very good condition compared to the rest of it's surroundings. Furthermore, to my mild amusement, there was a rather cheerfully decorated gate built connected to the house by a cobblestone walkway that was dominated with a large red button and single speaker. Blueberry was reluctant to even bother trying to fiddle with the gate after what she saw what it did to the plant. 

As such, after a few moments of examining the gate thoroughly, I shrugged my shoulders and pressed the big jolly red button. 

The speakers crackled to life, and after making a muffled Ding-Dong noise, there was a moderately long pause before  the response came.

"Er, excuse me, who is this I am talking to?" 

The old speaker warped the voice a little, but it was still unmistakably small and timid, and oddly, strangely, familiar.  

"Hey there! My name is Candy Cane!" the little pony on my head said excitedly. 

"Oh, are you alright?" the voice at the other end of the speaker said quickly, perhaps worried at how loudly the little filly was talking. 

"Yes, I am alright, but I have two friends with me that are really tired!" 

Blueberry decided to cough loudly right then, and I decided that I might was well speak then. 

"Mame, we were told to ask for a 'Golden Dawn'. Also, we were given directions here from a servant of Dive Bomb." 

The speaker was silent for a few moments, and a little whirring noise I didn't know that was in the air stopped existing for a few moments. I prodded the gate, and it swung open easily.

"Please, come inside. Sorry with the trouble with the gate." the voice spoke apologetically. 

I didn't answer back, as it quickly fizzled out with a little harsh popping noise, and I was tired and ready for a welcoming stay with whoever these kind ponies might be. 

Quickly, I found myself at the only door I noticed in the front of the house, darkly painted so that the only thing that really distinguished it from the rest of the wall was the big brass handle. The porch itself had a single rocking chair on it, but little else, and even what windows I did see were covered from the inside with dark shades. 

Blueberry and I waited for a few moments at the door, occasionally looking at one another as if to confirm that we were completely out of our domains and were eager to get some half decent rest. 

A few minutes or so passed before the sound of key's being shuffled around came from inside the house, and soon afterwards the door slowly opened, revealing the pony who was talking to us. 

Or it would have, if she were not clad in a long-sleeved black hoodie and a pair of...sweatpants, not showing a bit of her actual body. Even her face was obscured by the hood she had over her head. I had yet to see a pony so completely covered in cloth before, and it was slightly surreal.  

"Why, hel....lo?" she squeaked after she looked up to me, which let me see that while her eye's were uncovered, a rather interesting red-purple color, the rest of her face was covered by what might have been a black scarf. 

"Hello." I said curtly, not entirely sure what else I could say to the mare. 

"Hello." Blueberry said, sounding slightly puzzled at our host's appearance but still happy at the sight of a pony who didn't seem to have it out for us. 

"Hi there miss pony, why are you wearing all those cloth's!" Candy Cane said, vocalizing my thoughts perfectly. 

"Oh, well..." the mare seemed to not know how to respond to the little filly currently resting on my head. "I have a delicate skin condition." 

I really didn't believe her for a moment just by how she said it, but Candy Cane seemed satisfied at the answer and Blueberry, who did not seem to want to press further, simply nodded sympathetically. 

"Now, please, come in, come in, there's plenty of room here. Just give me a moment, I was in the middle of something before you came, sorry about the mess." She paused for a moment, "Also, I am Golden Dawn." 

After putting down Candy Cane, wiping my hooves on a well placed welcome mat and taking my first steps into the house, I noticed that it was probably was one of the nicer places I have been in my life. The color scheme tended towards dark hues, with the walls all dark wood and the carpet being thick and black. Even if it looked like a heat sink, it was actually quite cool inside; not the chilly breeze of the great outdoors, but very much a comforting sort that made me want to simply take out a blanket and sleep. 

The hallway was long and lined with rooms, but she just stopped at one of the ones closest to the door and pushed it open. "Please, have a seat in the parlor, I will be with you in just a few minutes. Please, don't be afraid to eat what's on the table." 

"Thank you very much, Miss Dawn. Most ponies would not be so eager to help travelers, especially out in the wasteland." Blueberry said politely. 

Saying nothing, the completely covered mare nodded slightly and made her way for the set of staircases at the end of the hall while we walked inside the room, or, in my case, shimmied through the door frame. 

The parlor, as Golden Dawn called it, seemed to be freshly dusted, if not seemingly used often, with two large couches and three oversized fluffy looking chairs, all ranging from brown to dark grey. There was what seemed to be a large set of speakers off to the side near the singular fireplace, and there was a large table, true to her word, with a small assortment of glass jars seemingly filled with candy. What surprised me was that there was also a large rectangular dish set on the table with three dozen or so flat circle-shaped light orange objects that smelled really, really good. 

Candy Cane did not seem to register that the freshly prepared meal was already there when we entered the room, and as such started munching on the sweet-smelling orange things. 

After she put down her bags on the ground, Blueberry popped one of the orange things in her mouth. 

"It's carrot. It's actually carrot." she mumbled, sounding amazed. "How could you get a carrot to grow this far north?" 

"What's a carrot?" I said, feeling even more out of place than I did before.  

Blueberry looked at me like I was insane, but just hovered a handful of the orange things over to my face. 

"It's a root vegetable. Really, they're not that uncommon, but these are really fresh and really good. Doesn't taste as good when it's preserved." 

Reluctantly, I took the thumb-length carrot slices in my hand, and bit into one. It was sweet, slightly crunchy, and almost savory. I was never one for the tasteless excuses for plants that came out of cans, sticking with cheeses and meats, but I did admit that I liked this newfangled 'carrot'. 

"It's good." 

"Why, thank you." 

Slightly startled, I turned around. Golden Dawn entered the room somewhat quickly, making her way to one of the large easy-chairs the dominated the room. "We don't have a dedicated dining room in the house, so we eat brunch in here." 

Candy Cane looked up at the completely covered mare with the biggest smile I have yet to see on her face. "This is really really good! Thank you miss Golden Dawn!" 

The mare, just by going by her physical reaction, seemed to be somewhat flustered. "Oh, thank you very much little one." Sparing a look at the other two adults in the room, she looked at the plate of food almost regretfully. "I know it is rude, but I cannot eat with you all without risk." 

After a long pause dominated with the sounds of Candy Cane eating, the mare looked at us directly." On that matter, I don't believe I got your names before." 

"My name is Ever Watchful, and this is Blueberry Cream." I said between carrot slices, motioning to the blue pony next to me on the couch who was nibbling on a few herself. "And these are quite good. I suppose you grilled them?" 

It took her a few moments to respond. "Why, yes. We have a friend who owns a farm a few days from here, and he let's us buy them at a discount." 

Blueberry spoke up. "There is another pony here, right?" 

Golden Dawn looked at Blueberry for a few moments, and for a moment I thought I saw something under the cloth over her mouth that was certainly not a tongue. "There is. Her name is..." for some reason, she paused. "Hermitic Order. She's sleeping right now, but she should be up soon enough. The carrot was supposed to be a surprise, she's had a long week, you see, but I guess that having visitors will be surprise enough." 

I wasn't sure what to say, other than that was a horrible name, but Blueberry kept talking. "That's nice. So, are you some sort of slave or something?" 

The quiet in the room could have smothered a elephant. 

"N-no, she is my marefriend." she said, stuttering slightly in shock. 

I gave a hard look at Blueberry, who, if anything, looked less comfortable than before. "My apologies." 

"Quite." Dawn replied quickly. 

The silence in the room was quickly broken when Candy Cane discovered a small plastic jar under the table that was, in actuality, an ice-box filled to the brim with Sparkle-Cola and other sugary pony drinks. 

"Miss Dawn, can I have a soda?" the little filly said, surprisingly calm. 

The garbed ponies expression was unreadable, but her voice lacked that subtle sourness that made the last thing she said sound so displeased. "But of course, if your caretaker's don't mind." 

She said 'caretakers' like it was a in-joke. 

"We don't." Blueberry spoke for me. "We are not actually her caretakers, really. She's a orphan, and we were hoping to drop her off somewhere safe." 

Candy Cane actually nodded at what Blueberry said, leaving me to wonder if they had talked about it when I was out and about getting chased by ponies. 

"Ah." Golden Dawn said, sounding surprisingly nonplussed to the whole thing for a pony described as liking children. 

A few moments later, I could tell that any further conversation was likely to only make one of us upset. 

"Do you mind if you could show us to a room we could stay in, I mean, to get our stuff off the floor?" 

It was a bad excuse, but it sounded like Dawn was almost relived to get us out of her sight. "Oh, take any room upstairs. All the doors are unlocked, and they should all clean." 

Blueberry got up first, taking her bags with her, followed by Candy Cane. Blueberry gave me a expecting look, but I shook my head and soon she got the message and went into the hall for the staircase. After a few moments, it was just me and Golden Dawn. 

"I am sorry for my friends rudeness." I said, bringing my fist to my face to muffle a cough. 

The pony nodded, and stood up from her chair and made her way to the plate of carrots, apparently making note on how many were left, which wasn't many. "Thank you, but no need for apologizing. I understand that my appearance might cause some questions. A mare living seemingly alone in a massive house with an electric fence covered completely should make one ask questions, anyway. " 

I shrugged. "I suppose. On that note, when could I see this...Hermitic Order?" 

Dawn hummed lightly. "Soon. The last few weeks have been hard on us. A cousin of her's is arriving soon, and we are planning a big trip to Tauronto." she paused for a few moments, and she took one of the carrot slices from the plate. "She doesn't like the idea of me coming with her." 

I took a soda from the open icebox, and popped the lid of it and took a drink. It was more of a way to continue the conversation than anything related to thirst, but it did let me indulge in a weakness of mine for Sparkle-Cola. "Is it because of your condition?" 

The mare turned her head away from me for a few moments, seemingly lifted the bit of cloth covering her mouth, and after a few oddly wet-sounding crunches she turned back to me, flap back over her mouth and the carrot gone. "Yes, actually. We both take frequent visits to the local doctor there, we can afford it, really, but she doesn't like how the restless the city has been getting in the last few weeks. It always gets a little more dangerous to visit when winter comes around, but we are in the middle of fall and it is looking like it is going to be a bad year." 

I wasn't sure how to react to her turning away to eat. "Understandable. Where I come from, winter is the hardest time to live through. Right now, I suppose, they would be preparing to preserve food." 

The pony suddenly seemed interested in what I was saying. "I wasn't aware that there was any minotaur's left in Tauronto." 

I was getting a little sick of not knowing things about that city. "Actually, I am from a town a few days travel from here. Could you explain what you mean by that, exactly? I keep hearing about it." 

Dawn seemed surprised. "Well, a long time ago, Taurontos northern half was controlled by a vast herd of minotaurs and buffalo, and they raided places around and in the city a lot. But a few years ago, perhaps thirty or so, really, they suddenly stopped doing raids. It was like they simply went away. Vanished." 

Her words were disappointing, really, but at least they held answers. The Elder seemed to have lied to me. Again. 

"I see. Thank you." 

The mare sighed a little, and looked over to the radio in the back of the room. "It's a pity, about that filly. Where did you find her?" 

I was starting to feel comfortable around the mare. It wasn't that I wasn't before, but something told me that, despite nearly every other pony I had met so far in the wastes, she didn't have any secret plans or was involved in something that was probably antagonistic in general. 

"She was in a building in Watershed, living alone. Blueberry might know what happened to her parents, but she doesn't...trust me, really. Well, I think that she is okay with me, but she's still unnerved by me. Understandably, of course, but it's a little disappointing." 

"Oh, I am sure she's just nervous. I mean, I wear...this for a reason." she said, words trailing off as she spoke, eager to change the topic. 

I decided to beat around the bush. "You don't wear that for a skin condition, do you?" 

She was quiet for a long time, long enough that I was surprised when she answered. "Yes, yes I do. But it is not a...traditional skin condition." 

" I figured that out when you ate that carrot in the other direction. I wouldn't suppose you have, say, tentacles for a mouth or something?" I said, a little weary that I could be right. 

To my surprise, Golden Dawn laughed. "No, no, but a good guess. But please, I would rather not talk about it. Perhaps later, but not right now." 

I understood that it must me a sensitive topic, and that there had to be more to it than her mouth, considering what she was wearing, so I dropped the topic. 

However, going by the sound of someone walking down the hall, I doubted I could have continued talking about it. 

The unicorn who entered the room was a bit different than I was used to in the wasteland. First and foremost, she looked more like the ponies you saw on those ruined ads or murals, a little thicker around the edges in general and generally clean looking, with greyish fur and medium length frizzy violet-colored hair that had a few lighter stripes, with eye's the same general color as her hair. Furthermore, she didn't look like she had been outside for more than a few days in her life, with no signs of hardship gracing her hooves or body whatsoever. Not a hair out of place or a discolored patch of fur or even a scar. Nothing.

Also, she was wearing purple knee-high socks and some sort of red lacy undergarment that I felt strangely embarrassed at looking at. That was another thing.  

"Oh, Dawn, whatever that is, it smells so-guh!" the mare, supposedly named Hermitic Order, snapped out of her sleepy daze when she noticed me, apparently too surprised to continue speaking. I could only notice that she sounded very familiar. 

"Hermitic Order, this is Ever Watchful. He and two other's are going to be spending a few days here, and were suggested to come here by one of Dive Bomb's servants. " 

"Gabriel." I said, causing the grey mare's ears to perk up. 

"Oh, really? Well, that's okay." she said, not sounding entirely certain about what was going on herself. I could relate. 

"Actually, I have been meaning to talk to you. Your name is Hermitic Order, yes?" 

She paused. I knew it. 

"I don't think that's the case. Your name is Nightcore, right? You'r the mare from the radio." 

Both the mares in the room reacted strongly to this. Golden Dawn just breathed in deeply and started to shift away from me, while Hermitic Order, or, rather, Nightcore, broke out into a toothy grin. 

"What do you know, somepony knows who I am." she said, but she gave herself a look-over and started to look embarrassed. "Er, wait a moment, I gotta go change out of this, didn't expect, uh, you." 

I raised a hand, slightly reluctant to cut her off considering that I was the guest here, but I was feeling slightly impatient. "I require a informed source of information about a few things. I have never been to Tauronto and I need advice from a pony who has been there." 

The mare took that in. "Well, that's reasonable, sure. Let me just-" 

I moved to my own bag, the only one that Blueberry did not take herself, and took out the most important item in the bag, shifted it until it rested in the center of my palm, and showed it to the mare, sticking my arm out a little to do so. 

"Do you happen to know what this thing is?" I said, feeling a little hopeful. 

Nightcore stared at it for a few moments, and a brief flicker of interest past though her eyes.

"Huh," she said, voice filled with approximately none of the shock I was expecting, "it's a Alicorn Amulet. Haven't seen one of these things in years." 


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