Fallout Equestria: Taking Life By The Horns

by Pokonic

I'm Sorry, But Your POV Is In Another Chapter. Until Then, Ms. Cream Shall Suffice. Or Suffer. Same Difference.

I have no idea when I dozed off, but when I realized I was still tucked in the (admittedly very silky) sheets that covered the (very soft) bed with my head face burrowed into one of the many (perfectly sized and fluffed) pillows on it, I mumbled a curse and slowly got up, leaving the terribly inviting spot I left on the bed to go find out where Ever Watchful went.

The bed he was supposed to be sleeping in was empty and untouched, so that meant he was doing something else in the house or...well, that was it, wasn't it? I fell asleep before he came back upstairs, but admittedly, that wasn't long after I checked Candy Cane. I was tired, and still felt the aftereffects of that alleged breakfast, which was more of a breakfast-lunch-dinner combo that made my center of gravity shift a little after it hit me just how much I ate, so I went under quickly when I had the chance.

I rolled my eyes when I noticed that said missing minotaur's own bag was tipped over, it's contents spilling out of it. Then again, this peaked my interest, if only slightly. He wasn't a messy individual, so he must have either knocked it over accidentally or it simply fell over by itself. Going over to it, I felt a little sad when I noticed there wasn't anything in it that was his, really. There was a few more of those food bars left, a little motorized chainsaw-knife, along with a butterfly-marked medical kit that would have been really useful a day ago, but other than those few things there was nothing unique. Nothing personal.

Quickly shoving everything on the floor in the bag and putting it upright, resisting the urge to try and locate my necklace, I quickly went over in my head what I was doing here, a habit that was hard to break even now that I was in relative safety.

"I'm in a little house up north with three other ponies and Ever Watchful. One of the ponies is a filly named Candy Cane who knows me, while the other two ponies are a couple and are letting me stay here. I am going north to get a few ponies together to head to the Crystal Empire."

I took a few moments to realized that I did it again, rambling out my own thoughts without really thinking about it. I needed to stop doing that, it was going to get me in trouble eventually, or make somepony worry.

Unless Watchful already noticed it and had told me, and I forgot, but that would have been impossible, he kept on top of that and would have told me, right? Or what if that was the reason he was gone, because I was starting to be a burden for him? No, that couldn't be, his bags were still there and he didn't know what to expect in Tauronto even if he got there by himself-

I paused after a moment of realization, and felt myself go numb all over with horror.

I had been saying everything that was running through my head, and I was doing it loudly.Like a crazy mare.

Forcing myself not to tremble, I sat down on my haunches and looked at my hooves. They weren't pretty; they were chipped a little on the edges and the fur around them was discolored and dirty, but they were still there and they were mine, and most importantly of all they weren't stained red.

Suddenly, I felt pain around the base of my horn, too sudden and sharp to be just the start of a normal headache, and I made my way to the vanity mirror set in the mantelpiece at the end of the room.

I hadn't looked at myself in a long time, and I couldn't help but think that there was a reason for that, besides mirrors being short supply in the wastes.

Because, really, I looked like hell.

I was sure my fur was a lighter color of blue last time I looked at myself, and that my hair wasn't a big poofy mess that stuck out of the back of my head like it did now. It made me look like my head was three times as wide as it really was, and the purple stripes that rested on the sides of my head were lost in the frizzy mess. My eyes were framed with big ugly bags, like I had not gotten a good night's sleep in weeks, and even then my eyes were too watery and red-rimmed for me to say that I would have looked fine even if the purple frame around them were gone. My face was worse, my nose looking like I was dealing with a cold and my lips grey and bloodless.

I almost didn't want to, but I tilted my head and ran a hoof through my hair until I got to the slightly itchy, terribly sore spot that was on the right side of my head. Six inch-long raised scars were hidden by my hair, but they were still there, along with a matching set closer to the back of my head. They didn't hurt, really, but they still made me feel nausea considering what they implied.

Sea Salt, no matter what Ever Watchful might think, was an abomination. There wasn't another word for it, really. Abomination. Her face was too long and her eyes were too big, and, no matter what she might have been two hundred years ago, she was a pony eating monster with limbs that were all claws and webs and a body that was a sin against nature. She was a pony in the same way a alicorn was, and she presented most of the same dangers. I don't know what happened when I entered that shark tank, but whatever happened next resulted in me covered in my own blood, sporting bite marks on my head and a little scar on my back.

I didn't trust her. I didn't like the idea of her. I could care less what Watchful thought about her because I had no intentions of being 'friends' with her. There were plenty of mutant ponies out in the wastes that are hostile to other ponies, and normally they rightly were killed when they did so. But, apparently, Ever Watchful decided that sparing the local deamonic killer mutant seapony was a good thing. I felt a little dirty that the thing that apparently killed me (I didn't even want to think about what that implied) was swimming around nearby and my only friend in the world approved of it.

I didn't like that, but then again, there was many things I didn't like about my life right now.

Turning around in a little half-circle, I got as good as a vertical look at myself as I could with the mirror being where it was, and sighed a little.

As much as I hated to admit it, Watchful poking fun at my weight to get Candy Cane to stop eating hit a old sore spot in me. I didn't mind my physical appearance, really; it amazes me it took me as much time as it did when I was younger to figure out why colts kept following me with their eyes a few weeks after I got my cutie mark, or why sometimes stallions slowed down when I passed by.

Then again, that was years ago, and it's usually a toss up if somepony sees me as a soft target or not now, and I do wince a little when I see just how close my stomach is to touching the ground sometimes because of me having a small frame. It wasn't a big deal, but...

I shook my head, trotting away from the mirror before I started moping about how I looked. I had three ponies and a minotaur to find.

---

"I hate this place." I let myself mumble as I walked down the hallway to the room Candy Cane was in. It didn't...sit right with me, how it seemed like somepony did there best to ignore the existence of the wastelands outside and live like pre-war ponies. That wasn't an exaggeration; I could only imagine how much the sum of this place's parts would go in a market.

Opening the door at the end of the hall, I was greeted with a thankfully normal sight. Candy Cane was still asleep, so that meant that, going by the lighting, it was probably mid-afternoon, plenty of time to get things in order.

The room Candy Cane chose weirded me out a little when I first saw it, considering just how perfect it was. The walls were covered in brightly colored patterns, there were dozens of books of varying size and shape in a neat little bookshelf, and entire room had toys scattered all over the floor. I could only think that this was a room made just for a foal, which, considering the owners of the house, made me feel a little uncomfortable.

Regardless of what I thought, Candy Cane didn't seem to pick that up, and the little filly was sleeping peacefully in her bed, just like she was a day ago when I last checked up on her. I let myself smile a little when I noticed the little filly was curled around a big stuffed teddy ursa, one that was seemingly enchanted to have little fake stars blink in and out of it's fuzzy hide. Just one more thing that told me that these ponies were more to meet the eye; I could only guess how much something like the ursa would go for. Toys were expensive, magical ones even moreso and it seemed almost impossible for all the one's in this house to have been in it before the war.

Trotting over to the little filly, I felt a little amazed at just how tiny she was. Of course, I knew she was small, she was a foal after all, but it never actually struck me how little she was. I don't know just how much time I spent with her in the boat dock, or how much she told me about herself, but she seemed to like me like she saw me as a sort of parental figure.

I didn't like that at all.

Candy Cane was a innocent in the wasteland, that was a fact. I had no real desire to be seen as a authority figure, especially to one so impressionable, and I knew I wasn't good with foals anyway. I did not want her to be out and about with me and Watchful out in the wasteland, and I just wanted to drop her off at the nicest looking place that would take in lonely foals that didn't look like a slaving ring and leave her. That wasn't wrong, right? To admit you didn't want the responsibility of raising a foal? I didn't have the ability to teach her anything beyond mechanical engineering and reading, and she was already a smart cookie who knew how to read anyway. It didn't sit well with me, knowing that she probably thought Watchful and I would be something like to surrogate parents to her.

But, there was another option that was in the back of my head. As much as I didn't want to, I needed to discuss dropping the little filly here with ponies that lived well and peacefully. Nightcore was an obviously intelligent individual and Golden Dawn seemed to be the sort who would be too meek to object.

I couldn't think of a better pair of lesbians to drop off a probable orphan I barely knew.

"Er, hello." a very quiet voice said directly behind me.

Doing my best not to scream,resulting in a embarrassingly squeaky sound going past my lips, I turned around to see Golden Dawn clad in a large plain black robe with a light red shawl draped uselessly over it, seemingly a afterthought as to not look like she was about to go skulk in some graveyard or another.

"Hello, Dawn." I replied, trying to sound as amicable to the mare who either was quiet enough to walk pass me without me noticing, or, worse, was in the room the whole time.

The becloaked mare blinked at me, eyes fluttering like she was focusing on a far-off object and I wasn't it. "Sorry if I startled you, I was just checking up here, actually."

I didn't like her tone. It was was too unsure. "Do you know where Ever Watchful is, Dawn?"

She blinked once more, and shuffled her legs a bit to get a closer look at Candy Cane. "A old acquaintance of ours arrived late last night, and it seems that she and Ever Watchful both have business with Nightcore." she paused. "They are in the radio-tower right now."

The way she said it was probably supposed to sooth me, but it rubbed me the wrong way. "Who's this new pony and why would Watchful want to talk with Nightcore alone?"

I must have said it a bit harshly, because Golden Dawn shrank back slightly. "Her name is Umbra, and I would not think she would be any trouble to you. Ever Watchful had some personal questions about Tauronto, and Nightcore offered to help him. Please, there's no need to worry."

I might have been okay, even accepting of what was going on, if it was not for that last thing she said. "Worry? Why should I worry? It's not like you just appeared right behind me and told me that there's another pony here and that-"

I almost continued, but I realized that I was talking to a stranger, and I was being rude to the pony who, just yesterday, served me the best meal I had ever eaten. And so, with that in mind, all the little angry thoughts running around screaming in my head were smothered by the dawning comprehension that I was being stupid and mean.

"Are you okay, um, Blueberry Cream?" Dawn said slowly, looking a little taken aback by my sudden sulkiness. "You actually do not look very well. Do you feel ill?"

I sniffled. "I have a little horn-ache, actually, thank you. I look bad, don't I?"

Because of the fact her entire body was covered, I couldn't pick out any body language that might have helped me feel more relaxed around her. However, just by the way she closed her eyes and tilted her head slightly, I would like to think she smiled at me.

"Oh, no, not really, just a little tired. Understandably, of course. Do you sleep well in new sleeping environments?"

I tried to keep myself smiling. I wasn't sure if she was just prone to flattery or if that was a honest lie, but she still managed to keep a even tone of voice even when saying something that wasn't true. I would like to think I am good at picking out lies, really. But Golden Dawn's combination of facial concealment and general uncertainty made it hard to do so.

There was also the pure weirdness of her speech patterns. Who calls a bedroom a 'sleeping environment'?

"I travel a lot, so I am used to sleeping in different places. The room wasn't the issue, and I don't feel sick, but thank you for your concern. I just have a bad headache and I woke up in the wrong place."

I really wished that I used a different metaphor, as Golden Dawn's eyes narrowed at me for a split second, the most obvious sign of being displeased she had shown to me in three days. "I see." she said curtly. "Perhaps you did."

Neither of us said anything else for a few very stressful moments, as she seemed intent on making me say something while I was too distracted about figuring out what to say.

"Ah, excuse me." she said after a while, sounding remarkably regretful. "That was rather out of order for me to say."

"No, please don't apologise. I really am sorry, I must seem like a terrible pony." I took a breath, more to seem calmer than I really was than anything else, "And thank you for feeling worried for me. This must be stressful for you, keeping company like us."

I paused for a moment to gauge her reaction. "I really am sorry, really."

She blinked slowly, but nodded. "Thank you, but you don't need to apologise. I am just doing my best to make you feel comfortable here. I understand that you just came in from Watershed, yes? It was attacked by raiders."

I didn't want to correct her, as I was simply happy that we had found equal footing in the conversation again. "Yes, it was. Candy Cane was living there. I was passing through with Watchful on our way to Tauronto, but we were awoken by the attack and took shelter in a nearby building. We found Candy Cane there, and the next day we went outside to see that the Purebreds were fighting a little civil war outside."

Golden Dawn looked surprised, well, at least her eyes widened a little. "Oh, goodness, that sounds frighting. Do you mind if we can continue this outside? I have some drinks out on the balcony if you like."

"Of course." I said. "Where is it? The balcony, I mean."

She gave a quick look at Candy Cane for a moment, probably seeing if the filly's sleep was disturbed at all by our conversation. Satisfied after a few moments of observation, she turned to the door. "It's on the third floor."

Shrugging carelessly, I motioned for her to lead the way, which she caught after a few tries.

---

The third floor of the house was far less kept than the rest of it, seemingly, it being more of a dignified attic. It was cluttered and ill-lit, but it made me feel a little less on edge than the rest of the house if only because it seemed less artificially preserved than the rest of it. The balcony was a interesting affair, wooden and hanging a little off the house itself, close enough to the river that I could hear it. Two black plastic chairs were in the middle of it, with a small table with a bucket full of ice in between them.

Taking the initiative to sit down in one of the chairs, I noticed that said ice bucket was graced with a gold foil-topped wine bottle.

"Oh, sorry if this seems odd." Golden Dawn said almost immediately as I looked at her drink of choice, "I actually had this out for Nightcore and I. The currant predicament at hoof is as much as a surprise to me as it is to you."

I thought about that for a few moments, letting myself get more comfortable. I needed to relax, I really did, and the air was nice and the river below was calm, and I supposed I could have used a drink a long time ago. "Okay," I said, "I get that."

She took great pains not to expose a single bit of her body as she slowly sat down on the chair, making the robe sway slightly past her hooves and her half-raised hood droop down a little. Purple eyes, hair a light hue of pink ,and fur white with the slightest blue tint to it. Attractive in it's own right, I supposed.

"Do you want me to uncap it, or are you hiding a horn somewhere on you?" I said, trying my best to sound light-hearted, which was hard for me to do.

Golden Dawn looked vaguely unhappy at what I said. "No, I cannot. Would you be so kind to do so?"

I was going to say something along the lines of 'Why are you being so formal?' but I thought against doing so and simply removed the gold foil and crumpled it into a neat ball, placing it on the table itself. The cork popped neatly and without much fuss, and after a few moments I had two hovering wine glasses filled with yellow-colored liquid.

"Thank you." she said quietly as she brought a hoof up to take one of the glasses from out of the air. I didn't respond immediately, too focused on the mare's impressive ability to balance the cup on one hoof without spilling it.

"No, thank you, really. You are the one who offered." I replied, letting my glass find it's way to the table, not sure if I wanted to drink before she did.

Dawn looked away from me for a moment, out at the view beyond the house. It was all dead trees and grey dead grass, with the iron-colored waters of the river accenting it's own sterility.

"Hm, I suppose. If you don't mind me asking, what is the story behind you two?"

I almost said something I would have regretted then, but I was smarter than that. "What do you mean, exactly?"

She shifted slightly around in the chair to face me fully. "Well, how did you and Ever Watchful become..."

I knew from the tone of her voice where she was heading with this, and I had to suppress a laugh. "Oh, we're not like that. There's nothing romantic between us at all."

The mare raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? Really, he's quite sweet, really eager to please. He offered to help us with any physical labor we might need to be done later to make up for the time that the three of you are staying here."

I could see that, honestly. "I sometimes think he has to make up for everything he does, like he owes me something."

"How did you meet, then?" she said, a little bit of curiosity seeping into her voice.

I thought for a moment on how to phrase properly. "I was coming up here from the middle of nowhere, came around to his village, and he and I ended up leaving it at the same time. We pretty much traveled for mutual protection at first, but I think we've warmed to each other since then."

She shrugged lightly. "I see. He told a more in-depth story, actually. What were you doing before you decided to come up to Tauronto?"

I bit my lip and eyed my wineglass. She caught me telling a half-truth. "To be honest, not much. Inner Equestria is boring. Nothing much to see or do besides visit no-name towns."

She sighed agreeably and, after turning to the right slightly, took a sip of her wine. I really wished I could tell what she was doing, but when she turned around her glass was visibly depleted and the little red scarf around her mouth seemed dry.

"What about you and Nightcore?"

The robed mare raised a hoof to her mouth and giggled. "You really wish to know? It's a silly, sentimental story." she paused, and then her tone became more apologetic. "Ah, perhaps it is right for me to do so, seeing that I have already asked you to tell your own."

I, mostly for show, took a sip of the wine, which I regretted almost immediately. I only had wine once or twice before, and it was all red, but this tasted mostly of alcohol with a vinegary undertone. It was horrid. It made my head ache.

"Before I met her, I lived in a small village that sat in a sea-cove." she said, seemingly not noticing my despair over the taste of the drink."I suppose one could say it was insular, but that really is not the right word for it. There was about thirty ponies living in it in all, and they were united under one thing, really."

I decided to pose the question. "What?"

"My mother." she said.

I blinked. Several times. "Okay, then. Why did they unite under your mother? I'v been to the coasts, they tend to either have big ports or tiny fishing villages. I would guess you grew up in the latter?"

She nodded. "Yes, indeed. My father, now, he was a member of a group of several Equestrian settlements that attempted to form a united banner. He was sent as a diplomat of sorts to try and get on good terms with my mother. Not directly, of course, he was simply sent to negotiate with the village's leader. He had no idea it was my mother, of course." she narrowed her eyes for a split second before her look brightened up. "You asked why they gathered around her, did you not? They saw her as a wise leader, a bringer of peace." She took a moment, and I think I heard the amusement in her voice. "They were also superstitious tribal fisherponies who saw her as a deity of sorts."

I wish I had bothered to pretend that I enjoyed the wine by suffering through another sip, if only so I had something to spit out. "Really? They saw your mother as the... a goddess?"

I wasn't sure just what I was surprised at the most: me having yet to accomplish anything I wanted to do today or the fact I had the sinking feeling that everything she was saying was true.

"No, that's not the right word for it either. 'Goddess' would imply something like how one would see Celestia or Luna. No, they saw her as a creature beyond them who was there to offer them wisdom and guidance. A very earthly deity. Much easier to grasp and understand." she paused, turned to drink her wine, and looked back at me like she had said or done nothing unusual. "I do not remember my father very well, actually. He died in a accident, a genuine one involving the nets one uses to bring in fish. His mourning is actually one of the few clear memories I have of him, actually. I was eight at the time."

I said nothing, not wishing to bring up any bad memories.

"Now, when I lived there," she made a sound like a sigh, but it was more of a full-body exhale than anything else. Her shoulders slunk down. Her stance on the chair slackened. Her legs started to quiver slightly."I was very lucky. I knew how to read and write, a rare gift in my home that my father passed to me before he died. I never had to work the fishing boats or hunt because of me taking after my mother. Life was very good. I could do whatever I wished." she gave me a wristful look. "I was a smart, inteligant young mare who was treated like a princess by a slew of loyal savages who obeyed my every command. I also had a few romance novels. I was imaginative."

That made me giggle, if only at the sheer absurdity of the restrained mare before me being some sort of seaside sex addict.

"I didn't do much besides indulge my every whim for some time, really. One day, however Nightcore and her uncle visited my village. Her uncle, he...wasn't a very kind stallion. He killed my mother."

That was a brutal turn of mood, but I said nothing. Her voice had a soothing quality, I had to admit. It helped ease my headache a little.

"Nightcore saw me before he did, and I was too frightened to say anything. It was a long time since I had seen a pony I did not know extensively, you understand, and I was a scared filly. But Nightcore is a year my junior, and she was just as frightened as I was, probably moreso. We didn't talk the first day we met,our first meeting was...brief, but she enjoyed talking to another mare besides her two adopted siblings."

I didn't feel the need to press about Nightcore's relatives, so I just nodded.

"It was very hard for me to leave my home, but Nightcore made me feel safe. I had...I will admit that sometimes, I felt like I was a curiosity to her, as what seems to be divine to one pony seems to be odd to another, but in the end we said that we loved each other and admitted it. That's it, really. Eventually, we split off from the main group, per say, and we spent a year or two in Manehatten before finding this old house."

I couldn't help but smile a little. She sounded less reserved than she did just moments ago. "What's her story?"

She shuffled around a little. "She's of the sort who would tell you that gladly. She likes the idea that ponies know her from the radio." Dawn looked at the wineglass in her hoof, but didn't take a drink. "She lived with her mother, once. She died a long time ago, however, and her uncle took her in. As I have said before, he wasn't a very nice stallion. Cruel, really. But he knew magic, powerful magic. There was a time where the two of them separated, a very long time, comparatively speaking, and he got restless in wishing to teach others magic. That's why he adopted others along with Nightcore, to teach. I think they are all big names in the wastes now."

I decided to ask a raise a few questions, mostly because I was starting to feel comfortable. "Did she ever live in Tenpony Tower? She looks..."

"Clean? Not touched by the wastes?" Dawn prompted.

I nodded.

"She came from a place that doesn't exist anymore. Her uncle did too, but I guess he was glad to see it go." she shrugged. "It was better than Tenpony. It was far better then Tenpony. Sometimes Nightcore cries about it, and it's one of the few things I cannot truly understand. Perhaps I cannot comprehend it. You surely could not."

I stared at her intently, hoping that she would say more, ignoring the insult she said like it was a fact.

"I am not telling you anything else about it. It's a sore topic for her, rightly so. If you think you could get it out of her, go ahead and try." she said, a acrid undertone beginning to creep into her voice.

I expected her to pause and apologise for how she said what she said.

She didn't.

"Your cooking is the best I have ever had." I suddenly said, blurted really, words coming out of my mouth half-formed.

All the firmness, all the hostility in her posture and voice vanished in seconds. "Oh, really? That's very nice of you to say that. Really, it's very kind. Anything you especially enjoyed?"

"Well, the seaweed was very good. Actually, it reminded me of salted pork. Was it supposed to mimic it, or is it a happy chance that it tastes the way it does?"

"We don't eat meat in this house." she said slowly, "Nightcore cannot stand it. It's supposed to be like...bacon, yes."

"It does it's job well, I have to say. Actually, on that note, I have a question about Candy Cane."

I couldn't say more, because Dawn cleared her throat. "No, we have no interest in raising a foal. Thank you for thinking about it anyway."

The kindly way she said it contrasted with the simple, bold truth in her words, which made me feel a little uncomfortable.

"Sorry about, well, playing on the stereotype." I said, feeling my face flush red. I downed a bit of wine for show.

"No offence taken. Really, Candy Cane is quite a adorable foal, but I have no will for a foal and Nightcore would want it to be a unicorn anyway." she said mildly.

I raised a eyebrow at the implications of what she just said. "Really?"

"Well, yes. I would think it to be the most practical option, anyway. Goddesses, Nightcore wouldn't want a stallion in our lives, and if we did choose to have a 'natural child' as they call it, I would turn it down because I would worry about the implications of raising a foal who cannot go outside completely clothed, and Nightcore would turn it down if only because she has no wish to become pregnant. There is always adoption, of course, but the both of us would not want to place our own emotional baggage on some poor foal who saw their parent's die in a fire or somesuch."

She paused, to talk a sip of her wine.

" And there's always the need for the ability to connect with the foal, such things need to happen early. And Nightcore would wish for a unicorn, if only because she believes she has a duty to spread her own knowledge."

I wanted to talk about the house, or the radio tower, or something else, but it seemed that the day was only going to get shorter and that Golden Dawn was getting visibly displeased, for whatever reason, and so I vocalized the single question that, for the sake of my sanity, needed to get answered.

"What does a 'divine look' look like?"

As a whole, I felt alienated by her because of her clothing and her off-way of speaking. She was slightly off as a whole, really. She seemed nice, and she probably was, but for whatever reason I couldn't help but think that I wasn't sitting next to a pony.

"I am not sure what you mean. Are you talking about why I wear this? It is for your own benefit, I assure you."

"Please, I just want to know." I said, pleadingly.

"You will not expect what you see." she said gravely, rearing up slightly.

"I will not tell Nightcore." I said, trying to thing of something that could appease here, "Or anyone else!"

I couldn't see her mouth, but I would guess she was frowning. "Are you sure? I will take your word for it, but...you are a nice mare, and I have no wish to scare you off."

I shook my head. "I don't think it could be that bad, right? I mean, you have ponies that love you, right?"

Golden Dawn was clearly caught off guard, but she seemed clearly more accepting of the idea after giving that a few moments of thought.

"I suggest you go to the radio tower after I show you this." she said reluctantly, as if she was making a plan in her head,"Is that reasonable?"

I nodded. "Of course."

"Fine then."she breathed, "if you must."

She started to pull the sleeve up on her right arm with her spare hoof slowly, and up to around the small of said limb, it seemed normal. At the small of her arm, however, there was what seemed to be what almost seemed to be a raised lump in the middle of it, which made me wonder what exactly what I was looking at until it fluttered open and blinked at me.

I stared at the third eye for a while, until I noticed three other, smaller ones above it open above it, like a row of bright purple pool-balls.

"Okay." I said after downing the rest of the alleged wine that was in my glass, "I have to admit, you got me there. I guess you don't want me to see your face?"

"No," she confirmed, "I don't. Perhaps at a later date. Go to the radio tower. They are waiting for you."

I looked at the mare with ghost-white fur and the salmon-pink hair, then at her exposed leg-eyes, and then at the view above. Normally, I would have like to stay and think about what I just learned or saw, but at this point eye-legs are out of my league. Leg-eyes are on the same level on the wacky wasteland meter as seaponies and ghosts and that one pony with the two torsos.

As such, I trotted slowly out the door, down the stairs, down the other set of stairs, and then simply walked outside.

---

I wanted to think about what fantastical, nonsense things I just heard and saw. I really did. But the whole way I walked to the radio tower, I couldn't. My horn-ache was acting up, this time worse than before.

The radio tower was a relic of pre-war power. The radio tower also looked like it was like to fall down any moment. It creaked with the wind. If it was the sum of it's parts, it was still worthless.

As such, I was almost happy to see that the building that seemed to be called the 'radio tower' was actually a small square building directly next to it, seemingly connected to the main structure with a mess of wires I didn't have the time or will to observe more intently.

The door was unlocked, thankfully, my headache was starting to get to the point where I was seeing little red blotches behind my eyes when I blinked, and it felt like somepony took a jackhammer and started to chip away at my skull.

The room was mostly wood, with little color.That was a good thing, because if it did, that would just make my head hurt worse.

"Blueberry?" something large said, almost right in front of me, and it sounded worried, "Are you okay?"

I looked up. And up some more. I kept seeing black fur, until I craned my neck all the way until I saw the long, tree-limb arms and the ivory spread of horns that identified the individual in front of me as Ever Watchful. Two little pinpricks of grey that I knew to be his eyes were bearing down on me.

"Hey, Watchful. How's it going?" I said, not liking how hard it was to suddenly form words. I wasn't drunk, or even tipsy. One glass of wine couldn't make me tipsy.

"Oh, fuckity fuck me! Look at her, there is no way she is okay! There are ghouls wandering around that look better than that, don't be a foal!" somepony yelled in a shrill, feminine voice, one that might have sounded smoother if it wasn't for the fact that the sound of her voice made my head hurt. The worse thing was, it sounded like it was coming right above me and all around me at the same time.

"Enough Umbra!" somepony else roared from across the room, somepony who sounded like I should have known her, "This is not something you should be concerned with! Go check on the filly!"

I didn't know what was going on, my horn-ache was just worse, but I felt something leathery touch the small of my back and I just felt my legs go out from under me, like it happened to be the button one pushed to make a pony's legs stop working.

"Hey, what's go'in on, Watchful?" I said with a smile, in a attempt to make my head stop feeling like less of a scrambled mess.

"Blueberry, I need you to close your eyes right now, and think of something really happy, okay?" he replied, sounding far too scared to for his voice to be calm."A really nice place, okay? Just clear your head of everything else."

"You've seen her like this before? This isn't good." said the other voice, the one I was pretty sure was Nightcore.

"No, she's never been like this. It has to be the Amulet, then." Watchful said tiredly.

I almost said something, but my head suddenly became a big ball of painful, molten-needle-point-redness, and I couldn't really say anything because I wasn't sure if I could even feel my mouth. I guess I felt like I was drunk, but instead of a general fuzzy feeling I felt like I was going to boil out of my skin in any second.

"Did you say...Amulet?" I mumbled, the word sounding like I should have known what it meant.

"Blueberry, I really am sorry for this, but I will make it up to you after you wake up, okay?" the big burly minotaur in front of me said, sounding too tired to be angry or sad or anything, really, besides resigned.

"It's okay, Watchful. I trust you, you know that? Your like, my only friend. ever, and you keep a close eye over me. That's your name, too. Ever Watchful. Hee. I bet if you were a pony, my face would be your cutie mark."

Nightcore made some sort of gagging sound in the back of her throat. It sounded like a word, but I wasn't sure which one.

"Blueberry, it's okay. I need you to close your eye's for real." he said patiently, without much emotion. "Please."

I looked around the room quickly, and I spotted Nightcore off in the back of it, looking at me like I was being weird or something, mouth curled up into something like a scowl. Or snarl. Either or.

I didn't say anything, so I just turned back to look at Ever Watchful, but then I noticed another figure in the room, thinner than him but with almost the same weird biped build. It's face was almost like a pony's, actually, but it had a curled goat horn that extended from the right side of it's head, so it wasn't a pony or a minotaur. Seeing that it was probably a fever-induced hallucination, I smiled at it broadly.

"Hey," I said slower than I intended, "are you a goddess too?"

I couldn't make out the rest of it's body, it being a little hazy, but I did see the little whipcord-thin figure's jaw drop and it's left eye twitch exaggeratedly.

I was in the middle of looking up at Ever Watchful when I felt a bunch of long and thin things come down at me and wrap around my neck. It wasn't really unpleasant, just unexpected, but when I was in the middle of saying something I felt something disconnect from my body, and while I did feel a very sharp pain in my head and shoulders before I blacked out, I was happy to feel that the deep throbbing pain in my head was gone.