Fallout Equestria: Taking Life By The Horns

by Pokonic

The Title of The Story

I woke up face-first in a pillow, covered with a thin sheet, hungry and cold. Yawning, I kicked my legs as I shifted around, my brain slowly processing that I was on a small mattress, probably on a floor going by the resistance it was giving me, and that the room I was in was cold.

I was tempted to just not move at all and go try and go back to sleep, actually, simply because I didn't feel like getting up and facing the reality of my situation. I didn't really remember what made me pass out, only that my head started to hurt really bad and my thoughts were clouded and hazy by the time I had done so. My neck felt like it was bruised all over, and I almost cried out when I lifted my head because of the pain.

Reflexively, I clenched my teeth in preparation for the initial wave of pain that would be coming from my horn any minute now, which never came. Letting it flicker on and off quickly, I realized that, to my joy, that my head felt clear and clean and utterly free from any pain,

I felt a wave of uncertainty bubble up from deep inside me when I recalled what had to have happened a few hours ago. I remembered walking inside a little building, and then things got weird. Really weird. I had to be seeing things by the time I felt those weird long things on my neck, and I had to be hearing voices. The more I tried to think of what just happened, the more it seemed less of a memory and more of a dream. I really didn't see a mare with eyes on her legs, right? I didn't feel something like a leathery claw stroke my back, right? I didn't see a thin thing stare at me, right?

No, I had to get up, face what happened, and do what needed to be done.

And so I did, throwing back the blanket covering me and looking around.

The walls of the room I was in were still the same boarded wood paneling that, for whatever reason, I remembered the building having and the floor was bare of carpeting, but the only other object in the room besides the mattress I was sleeping on was a small table off in the corner with a hot place with a large red bowl on it that had something in it that smelled fantastic. I noticed a door behind me that was halfway open, but my main concern was the fact that there was food and I was hungry.

Quickly scrambling to my hooves without further thought, I made my way over to the table, small enough that I could see over it without a chair, and glanced at the contents of the bowl. It looked cheesy, bright yellow with red tomato slices half-sunk into it, smelling rich and, well, homemade, but I felt a bit unnerved that Golden Dawn probably made this for me. Giving it thought for a few moments, I figured that, just because the pony who made it had eyes on her legs, it didn't mean that food wasn't food and should be wasted.

I almost lifted the ladle-like spoon next to the bowl of cheesy goodness before I noticed that, on the floor a little way's under the desk, hidden by the table-leg, was a purple bottle and a note attached to it. Lifting the bottle off the floor and setting it next to the bowl, I levitated the piece of paper closely to my head and started to read the neatly printed message that it declared with teal-colored ink.

Extremely sorry about the wine yesterday, I did not know it had gone sour. Please drink as much as the healing potion as you can.

G.D

I turned to look at the bottle in my magic, slightly skeptical. I knew healing potions were supposed to be darker in color the stronger they were, but this one was a dark, rich purple, bordering on black, darker than any other healing potion I had ever seen. Twisting the lid of the bottle off, I thought about drinking it, not exactly ready to just go ahead and drink it. My neck hurt a little, but I didn't feel that bad and I wasn't so sure if I should go ahead and trust her now. She seemed nice, and she probably didn't mean to be rude. Even if she was a freaky mutant pony, she was a nice freaky mutant pony who was letting me stay in her home and eat her food.

Opening the cap to the bottle, I took a sniff just to make sure that it was, in fact, a healing potion. They had a certain smell, one that wasn't really easy to describe but was easily recognizable to anypony who have had one before, and this one was one. I didn't feel that I was being suspicious; after all, given the fact I was in a room I had never been in before in a unfamiliar place, a certain level of caution is healthy.

Pausing for a few moments, I put the spoon down, hunger quickly being replaced by an sickly feeling. I was trying to avoid the issues here! I had no idea where I was or what I was doing! I didn't know what happened that made me end up here! Here I was, about to eat a heavy meal right after waking up, without even checking to see where I even was! I didn't even have a weapon with me or a way to get one! I'm...I'm....

"I'm stupid." I croaked out, turning over to the door, desperately ignoring the generous, tasty, wonderful mental distraction a few feet away from me to make myself feel like I was in control of my life.

Which I wasn't.

---

The building I was in was cold, but clean, that much I realized after I made my way up the staircase that was directly in front of the room I was in. Said staircase led me to a hallway, half-lit and lined with many more doors, all locked. But I knew the general sounds machinery made, and I could only guess the at the things behind the doors. Presumably, it was equipment that helped run the radio station, but that was just a educated guess.

The hallway led to a single chamber, something between a office and a war room. A large mahogany desk was in a corner, covered in paperwork and other things that were probably useless, and scattered around the room were stuff that I would associate with survival: stacks and stacks of canned goods and bottled water, sealed and unopened. There was even a Pipbuck just laying off to the side, to my shock and indignation, in decent shape and next to other small mechanical objects.

Was it that Nightcore is a Stable-pony? She seemed to fit the bill, really. Clean, apparently very educated, and with the wish to isolate herself from the rest of the world as much as possible. Then again, I thought, if a pony was educated at all, they would want to isolate themselves from the rest of the world.

Letting myself laugh a little, I took my time looking around. Going by the soft light coming through the single window near the front of the building, it was very early in the morning, early enough that I could have been justified if I went back to bed. There were three other doors, all closed and seemingly locked up, so I didn't see a reason to prod around them further. A cooler next to the desk was filled with packets of Rad-Away and Med-X. And if my eye's were not deceiving me, behind the desk, half-hidden behind what had to be thousands of multi-colored pins was a...map of Equestria?

Blinking, I turned and made my way behind the desk, quite surprised at what I was seeing. Now, it wasn't like maps were not uncommon, it was that they tended to be smaller and focused on certain cities and regional areas. Even then, they tended to be damaged or at the very least out of date; hardly helped to know what Manehatten looked like two hundred years ago before the bridges were down and buildings had collapsed, after all. But I knew for a fact that maps like the one that was pinned up on the wall was all but priceless in it's own way.

Even with it's colors faded and covered with little needles and markings, what it showed was clear: the locations of Stables. All of them, apparently, going by the little "Stable-Tech" logo half hidden in the upper right corner, and a few that probably were not officially made by them but were probably made by them anyway if the little markings on a few that didn't have a number listing was anything to go by. The exact locations were given as Global Pegasus Service numbers, and beside each little blue dot on the map was a number and a date, presumably one that signified its assigned number and the date of completion.

I marveled over what I was seeing. This almost had to be one of a kind. Hell, if there was a pony who would know that, I would be it, considering I lived in the Stable-Tech HQ for more than a year and was one of the ponies who first had to move in there and explore it. This must have been smuggled out of it or something before the war, because it was sealed tighter than a drum before we took control of it.

Besides the blue dots, I noticed larger, red ones mixed in with them, harder to see because of the faded colors. No numbers or dates accompanied them, but when I looked up and saw that, in the upper right corner of the map, several small strings were propped up with larger pins, making a web around the general area of Manehatten. Besides the thick bunch of strings centered around the city, there was singular strings that came out of the mass that ended near other major cities; everywhere from Maripony to Fillydelphia to Hoofington and more.

Looking up as far as I could, near the very top of the map, a short string connected Manehatten to a single red dot circled with purple marker, within Caldonia and just next to Tauronto.

"Good morning." A tired, almost pitiable voice said behind me, "Find any of my stuff neat?"

I stopped myself from yelping in surprise and turned around, putting on a brave face. Nightcore was walking out one of the rooms that I assumed to be locked tight, mane messy and generally looking like a wreck. That wasn't to say she wasn't pretty, no, she was one of those lucky ones who looked like one of those mares you could find in the sort of magazines one didn't let foals get to, but she was probably not a morning person, if the sluggish way she was moving was anything to go by.

"Sorry about snooping around, I mean, I really am sorry for-"

I was cut off by a lazy wave of her hoof. "No, it's alright. I understand, your curious and want to know where you are." she paused for a moment, scratching the back of her head as she did. "You drink coffee?"

"Never had it." I said honestly. It was too expensive, and what cans were left seemed to be in the hooves of those that could afford it. "But thank you for offering."

She slowly blinked at me, and started to move towards one of the many piles of stuff around the room and pulled out a small shiny-red bag out from at least five others, shaking it a little to get the dust off, and started walking to me. This made me think. Ponies moved in certain ways, really. Some moved fluidly, like they could break out in song and dance at any time. Some moved ruggedly, in jerking, powerful motions that showed that they had power in there limbs. Some moved fast, jumping from hoof to hoof with every step in a attempt to get somewhere else.

Nightcore didn't move like that. She didn't move like a pony who had a stranger standing a few feet away from her. It was all smooth, uncaring motions, little effort involved at all. Not a single bit of edge to her walk, no guard raised or anything. She didn't move like a pony.

"You want to try it?" she said, yawning slightly as she started to make her way to me, "It's good. Helps you wake up."

She paused, giving a quick look to the the window. "Do you feel okay?"

There was something not quite like apathy underlying her tone, something that made me feel unnerved.

"I would love some, yes. And I do feel okay,actually. My neck hurts a little, though."

"Okay, okay. Hey, I know you have a lot of questions, but so do I. Mind if I just get a pot started?" she yawned as she turned around, giving me a odd toothy smile that somehow didn't look intimidating. "You've eaten already, right?"

I had to look up at her because of how close she was now. "No, I just got up. I just needed to know where I am after something like...that."

Nightcore dropped her smile, but her carefree tone didn't change. "That's understandable. Make yourself comfy while I make a pot." she looked at my puzzled expression for a few seconds and quickly clarified. "A pot of coffee. You make it in a coffee pot."

"Oh." I knew almost nothing about the stuff, but, in hopes of getting a conversation going, tried to scrounge up what I knew about coffee. "Didn't coffee come from zebra lands, before the war?"

At first I thought I said something wrong, because Nightcore stiffened up sightly, like I said something rather shocking. But after a few moments, all the tenseness left her body and she gave me self-indulging smile.

"Yeah, actually it did. Probably does still in some lucky places, anyway. But all the stuff I have came from Saddle Arabia. This places was stocked with the stuff when I came here. I think ponies imported it from there to not have to pay premiums for the stuff. Tastes the same, though."

"What's Saddle Arabia?" I asked as she started to make her way to a table that had a small device that seemed to be made of glass and plastic.

"Oh, it was a country across the sea, near the griffon's homeland I think." Nightcore said as she opened a hinge on the top of the object and started to pour what I could only assume to be coffee into it, "Pretty sure it run by horses."

I hoped I misheard that. "I don't think that's a nice thing to say about ponies that lived a long time ago." I said a nicely as possible.

Nightcore looked up at me, blinked once, and chuckled. "Horses, not whorses. Like, actual horses."

Huh. "Never knew that."

Nightcore was a chatty mare, I was starting to learn, as she kept talking even as she uncapped a bottle of water and started to empty it into what I could only assume was a coffee maker. "It's funny how things like that end up, isn't it? They were interesting, too. They lived in the desert, really far away from Equestria, so they never saw Celestia as a goddess. In fact, they saw Luna as the nicer sister, because all they knew about Celestia was that she controlled the sun." She stopped for a moment, letting the hinge on the coffee maker shut with a small click. "They never were on Equestria's good side, really. They only really warmed up with Equestria when Luna took control of it."

I was slightly lost about what she was getting at, but I nodded. "I could understand why, really. If they were not ponies, then they would probably be scared of them, being goddesses after all."

Nightcore gave me the oddest look, but shrugged her shoulders and started making her way to the desk. "Yeah, I guess they would. Actually, I would be scared of them if they were in Equestria, They would probably do great in the wasteland, and they probably wouldn't be nice."

I shrugged my shoulders, not seeing where she was going with this. "Why's that?"

"Well, they were bigger than ponies, and usually faster too. They also had slaves, even back then, before the war, usually camels and donkey's but also the unlucky earth pony. The stallions kept as many wives as they could, and fillies were often married off when the parents could get away with it. Big families were expected, you see, and as soon as a mare got old enough..."

She shuddered slightly. "They didn't like magic, or cutie marks. Unicorns and pegusi never went over there if they could, but some made it over there anyway because the government offered incentives for them. Usually, anyway. Occasionally there was stories about 'earth ponies' with strange scars, but nopony did anything about it because Saddle Arabia had oil that wasn't connected to the zebras."

This wasn't my typical morning conversation fair, of course, but I didn't feel especially sickened by what I was hearing. After all, they were probably all dead and gone, right? Why talk about something so old and useless? She talked about it like it was a pressing issue, even when they were probably all dead and gone.

But I didn't say that.

"You seem to know a lot about them. How do you know so much about pre-war times?" I said evenly, trying to get some information out of her that could be useful to understanding the mare in front of me.

She hummed slightly as she made her way over to the desk, looking at the map. "I have plenty of spare time to read, actually. The ponies who lived here before me had a lot of books lying around here, probably because a radio station is boring when it's working. Bunch of history buffs."

I moved away from behind the desk, nodding as a response. "It must get boring, up here."

She smiled widely, seemingly amused at me. "No, not really, I just like reading when I can. I see you noticed the map."

I was a little taken aback by how casual she was about it. "It's interesting. Where did you find this?"

She shrugged once, and than again when she saw the look on my face. "I bought it from a scavenger a long time ago. He couldn't read, but I knew what it was, so I only had to pay him two caps for it. Don't know where he got it, but it's interesting, isn't it? A map of all the stables and radio towers in Equestria and it's border nations."

I heard some noises coming from the coffee maker, loud enough to make me pause before answering back, but after a few moments I nodded.

"I heard that radio announcement. What made you so upset?"

Her eyes widened for a moment, and at first I wondered if she was going to yell at me.

But she didn't. She just kept that lazy, natural self-satisfied grin on her face.

"I hate Tauronto." she said simply, with no little amount of genuine loathing, "And I hope it burns down to the ground. Apparently, five members of the Purebreds were holding a meeting with several of there associates about opening up another slaver station down south so they can tap into Red Eye's markets."

"What." I said, angry and ashamed. I was almost one of them, just by a hair. You had to pay a large flat caps fee to get in, just to make sure you had the ability to access every bit of the services they provided. I didn't have the caps, and the last thing I remembered about Tauronto was being in a hotel room on the outskirts of the city. Next thing I remembered, I was in a caravan heading south. All in all, I felt filthy inside, knowing that I could have joined a bunch of slavers.

Nightcore looked at me and nodded, seemingly taking my darkened look for anger at the slavery itself.

"I know, it's horrid. But the thing is, they can't do anything about it. Hell, I should know, I'm a member." she said.

I must have still looked angry, because she suddenly looked panicked. "Hey, hey, don't...do you even know much about the Purebreds?"

"They're Unicorn extremists, right?" I said, a little annoyed at the mare's tone.

She gave me a odd, almost embarrassed look. "It's a bit more complicated than that, actually. You..." she tilted her head to the side,"you want know what they are, really?"

I huffed, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew she had a point. I guess I didn't know as much as I would like to think I did. As much as I hated to admit it, I knew almost nothing about them. All my memories about Tauronto were fleeting and hazy, and sometimes I wondered if they were real.

"I guess I don't. But I don't..."

I stopped talking when I realized I was being bitchy.

"...I'm sorry if I'm being rude. I am being rude, arn't I?" I said, knowing that I probably sounded timid and pathetic.

Nightcore stood there for a few moments, looking at me like I was a live grenade. Finally, after what felt like a hour, she shook her head and lowered her shoulders in a attempt to look reasonable.

"No, no your not. You don't have a reason to be in a good mood." she said slowly, voice softer than I expected. "It's okay, I understand."

"No you don't." I mumbled.

She didn't look at me with fear or even pity. Just concern.

"The coffee's done. Do you want a cup? It will help you feel better." she said, getting up out from behind the desk, most of the papers on it now in neat piles.

"I guess." I said half-heartedly. "You are all really nice ponies, you know that?"

She didn't laugh, actually, but the small smile on her lips as she made her way over to the coffeemaker was telling.

"Really, that's very nice for you to say that. But really, I haven't been a good host, honestly." I watched her as she took out two large cups and started to fill them accordingly. "I'v been cooped up in here for the last two days. Dawn is just worried that you are still weary from traveling."

I almost laughed. "Oh, Goddesses, she doesn't, really? These last few days have been some of the most comfortable in my life. I feel like I'm stealing from you two. This might be one of the nicest places I have ever been in my life, and I would like to think I have traveled a bit."

She raised an eyebrow as she made the two cups land gently on the desk, one set closer to the end than the other, without spilling a drop. "You have? I have to admit, I have to ask; where are you from? Also, cream or sugar?"

I was confused for a moment, but she quickly clarified. "For the coffee."

"However you take it."

I heard somepony say that, once. It sounded dignified and polite, anyway.

Nightcore grinned the same big, wide grin I was starting to associate with her. "Two sugars and a cream it is, then."

Several small packets and a set of spoons appeared from some unseen drawer near her, and in a flurry of movement the two formerly pitch black contents of the cup became light brown.

"Thank you." I said, putting a hoof around the handle earth-pony style for the sake of appearance, "And it's a long story, really."

I thought for a moment, wondering if she would accept the truth without fuss. She seemed to be a accepting individual.

"I used to be a Steel Ranger."

She blinked in response. And again. After a few moments of wide-eyed staring, she sipped her coffee.

"Huh."

Well, that went over better than I expected.

"I was actually a little worried to admit it, because of how you talked about them on the radio." I said, finally giving in and drinking the coffee. It was different, really, I wasn't one for hot drinks but it tasted good, if a little bitter."I also heard another pony talk about how the Reavers hated them."

"Don't listen to anypony who trusts the Reavers, they're just proof that even oppressed minorities can still be assholes." Nightcore said, shrugging lightly. "And as far as I know, there are no more Rangers left here, they all either went to Manehatten or Dise. I don't think there were any in Tauronto since I have been here, honestly."

I was startled. "But I thought you said you considered them a cult?"

She shook her head. "No, I don't have anything against the Rangers. You are the first one I have met, actually. I wasn't in a good mood when I recorded that, anyway, and most of the ponies in Tauronto don't agree with me. The Reavers have a bounty for them, you know."

I nodded my head. She returned it sympathetically.

"Anyway, I just want to say thank you for this." I said, hoping I wasn't sounding like a broken record. "This really is kind of you. Also, please tell Golden Dawn she is the best cook I have ever met, would you?"

Nightcore chuckled. "She actually told me earlier that you told her that. She doesn't get many compliments, and she usually doesn't take them well. It's usually just the two of us, and we have long passed the point where we constantly say how thankful we are for each other, but she is a good cook, but she doesn't like to think that she is. We've had discussions about it, really. She had only a few books when she was younger, and one of her favorites was a cook book written by some pony from before the war named Steward. I think half the recipes involved butter and the other half was butter."

I giggled. "Candy Cane actually asked me if Dawn was fattening her up so she could eat her." I paused, mainly for dramatic effect. "I wasn't sure how to respond to that, so I said I didn't know. Is that so wrong?"

At that, Nightcore erupted into a fit of choked laughter, only half-done with finishing a sip of coffee and clearly not expecting the punchline.

"Oh...oh...hee." she said, a little out of breath and red-faced. "That's adorable. The little filly did eat a lot, though..." she paused, as if she was going to say something she wanted to say for a long time, but was conflicted about doing so. "Dawn does make a lot of food, but we tend to freeze leftovers when we can. There's been a nice boom in the amount of crops for sale,so we've been eating well because of it. Well, me anyway." she said plainly, prodding her tummy for the sake of showing what she meant. "Dawn never eats what she makes, though."

I could only wonder what that implied, and shrugged. "It couldn't be because of the taste, right?"

It seemed that I was trudging on a topic that was a little sensitive to her, and the slight crease on her face showed that.

Nightcore looked at me like she was debating to say something incriminating. "Well, you know she's not a...normal pony, right?"

I nodded, but I really just wanted to jump up on the desk and yell the word 'yes!' in her face, which I didn't do, as one of my hooves was occupied holding a cup of coffee.

"She can't taste things, really." she said slowly, "She only ate fish and seaweed for most of her life, and she can taste those easily. But other than that, she can only identify sweet things. Regular coffee is just hot water for her. It's hard to get fish to keep this far inland without spoiling, and besides that, I don't eat any meat, so even when I try, I couldn't get her just to buy fish for herself." She paused, her eye's shutting as if she was in pain. "She is really, really embarrassed about the wine."

I felt a twinge of pity for the mare, if that's the right term for her. "It's not a problem."

She shook her head. "No, it is. She's...she's been a little weary of you since you have arrived, you know?"

I forrowed my brow. "Really, why?"

I took a sip of the coffee, starting to understand why this costed so much.

She shuddered. "Well, first of all, she thought Ever Watchful was going to rob us."

I tilted my head. "Huh?"

Nightcore looked at me like I was crazy. "Well, he is a minotaur. I mean, it sounds bad," she sounded a little disgusted at herself, even, "but it's true. It's like finding a Hellhound on your doorstep. What do you expect?"

I didn't like her tone, but I shook my head. "He's not like that. I mean, he can fight, but he's nice."

Nightcore nodded back. "Oh, yeah, I know. He cleaned this place up since you've been..."

I didn't want to touch on that just yet, and by the mortified look on her face she didn't want to either.

Coughing lightly, I nodded and forced a smile. "He did? Yeah, he's nice like that. Now, weren't we talking about Dawn?"

She looked grateful at me for changing the subject. "Yes. But really, there's not much more to say." After a few moments, however, she gave me a pained look. "She's not really in a good mood. Well, really, she's worried sick about everything."

"Does it have to do with me?" I replied slowly, hoping that it wasn't the case.

I could have sworn that she looked so depressed that her mane was starting to deflate. "Well, kind of. But...do you really want to hear about it? It's...relation-shippy." she said, sounding a little embarrassed. "I don't know if you want to hear it, really."

I took another swig of coffee. "Go ahead, I mean, I am eating your food and drinking your coffee, so I might as well learn what damage I am doing to my hosts."

It seemed to take a moment for Nightcore to get the joke, and after a few sparse chuckles she started talking again.

"Well, she's been worried sick about going into Tauronto, and did not want me to go to it anyway because of the trouble there. Then you arrived, and according to her, for a few moments, she thought she was letting two slavers and their captive come into our home and eat our food, and that the comment you made about her being a slave made her feel really scared."

I couldn't look her in eyes when she said that.

"Basically, she went from thinking that you two were a bunch of slavers who had a filly around as bait to lure me out to thinking that you thought of us as a pair of freaky mares who live alone who walk around wearing 'provocative clothing' in a few minutes." She smirked. "You did, didn't you?"

I took a swift drink. "I did, sorry for that."

"She was also embarrassed that I came downstairs wearing lingerie, if that means anything."

I couldn't help but blush a little.

She waved a hoof dismissively at my flustered look. "Oh, don't bother, it's okay. Now anyway, she wanted to make up to you, so she decided to share a bit of wine with you to relax. And then she thought you were being rude, at least until I tasted the wine and told her it had deteriorated, and then she started to think that she was coming across as being rude and that you were trying to be a good guest. And then you had that...episode, and she thought she triggered it."

I didn't want to talk about what happened yesterday. Going by her own look, she didn't want to, either. We each took our time drinking, the both of us having a good excuse to not carry on the currant topic.

"So, I have to ask, who's this 'Dive Bomb' pony, and why would Dawn still think we were bad ponies even when we mentioned his name." I paused, frowning. "And why would she lie about your name?"

Nightcore shrugged. "Dive Bomb is a fairweather friend of the Purebred, and he's a friend, but plenty of ponies know that and she wasn't sure if you were legit. I try and keep as low as possible, too, so if a pony doesn't know I'm here, that's a good thing. A lot of wastelander's don't like me."

I was confused by that last part, really. "Why?"

Her expression took a downturn past Sullen Street to somewhere near Unhappy Highway.

"I try and take a neutral stance in what happens in Tauronto, but sometimes it's hard, and even then I don't even think I had a regular listener. The ghouls didn't like that I down talked the Reavers, the Pure didn't like that one of their members was taking cracks at them when she could, the Scions don't like radio, period, and everypony else just thought I was a biased mare sitting around in some cushy place all day and doing nothing but doing commentary about what's going on."

She sounded like she was going to say 'and they are right', but she surprised me and just let out a heavy sigh.

"I mean, I thought I was doing something good, right? Until I got wind that somepony figured out that I was paying off ponies in the city to tell me what was going on in it." she sighed. "Then some ponies thought I was being payed to not say anything bad about the Reavers. And then the Pure, and so on and so on."

"Were you?"

She sighed. "It's complicated. I can only do this because I'm technically one of the ponies in the top-tier ranks of the Pure, and it's only because of that I have ponies occasionally radio in reports about what they've heard of. But I don't get in trouble, really, because the Purebred are too busy right now for anypony to be bothered with actually stopping me from making broadcasts."

"Really? What's with them, anyway?" I said, trying to not look too interested. This was a topic I was shifty on, and I needed some confirmation about what I was doing for the six months I was in Tauronto.

Nightcore gave me a exasperated look. "You really want to know? It's a stupidly complex and silly system."

I thought about it for a few moments. I had so many questions. What was the Purebreds deal? What the hell was a Balefire Dragon? What was Dawn? What were these Scions she kept mentioning?

But then I realized I had been trying to avoid the real issue here.

Me.

"No, I don't, really. Do you know what happened to me yesterday?"

Nightcore suddenly looked unnerved.

"Yes." she said, like it was a especially evil curse, "I do. Give me a moment."

Nightcore's horn lit up, and two objects hovered up from under the desk and landed on the table.

The first one was a book that looked like it could be used to brain a pony. It's spine was cracked, it's paper was yellowed, and it's binding looked like it was dry-rotted, but what really got my attention was that it looked like it was written in some weird wiggly language.

The other object was mine. It's gem was bright red.

I hissed in anger. "He gave it to you?!"

How dare he betray my trust! I thought this was a secret! A important secret! This was one of the reasons I trusted him, and now he's handed it off like it was nothing!

"How did you get this, Blueberry?" Nightcore said, tone even.

The fact she was so blase about it was bad enough, but then she started to move it away from me, letting it hover in the air out of my reach.

"My mother gave it to me! Give it back!" I growled, prepared to jump up on the desk and take what was rightfully mine. And it was mine!

I put my coffee cup down on the floor, just in case. It was starting to taste cold, anyway.

"Where did she get this?" she replied calmly.

"A Ministry building in the heart of the city! She said that it was...why do you care, it's mine and give it to me!"

"Blueberry, this is a Alicorn Amulet." she said, a little edge in her voice.

That word. Alicorn. Another word for the Goddesses.

That's where I knew it from.

"You...it has a name?" I said, feeling stupid and foalish.

"It does." she replied curtly. "Here."

The book opened up as it was enveloped in a haze of pink, and after a few moments it stopped at a section where a crude sketch of something that looked like it. There was a dark red spot in the paper where the jewel was, and I half-wondered if it was actually paint.

"Now, I have seen things like this before, but they weren't the genuine Amulets," Nightcore spoke as I started at the picture. "They used to be gag-gifts among academics, enchanted so they did strange stuff with a unicorn's eyes and horns. Great party favors. But this," she pointed a hoof at my Amulet beside her, "this I don't know."

"So what if it's real?" I mumbled as I looked over the image. There was no way it was bad. It wasn't possible, was it?

....

It was, wasn't it?

"Now, the book you have in your hooves claim that all the real Alicorn Amulets were destroyed many years ago, but that's not true. A few popped up in pre-war times, too, but always in private collections and stuff. They were supposed to be destroyed, though."

"What does that even mean?" I said helplessly. "What does that mean?"

Nightcore for the first time, gave me a truly fearful look. "I don't know. Even when this old thing was written," she said, tapping the elderly book gently with a forehoof," unicorns who found them were quickly captured and separated from it. Apparently, the longer they held it, the more powerful and dependent on the Amulet they become. When they became enraged, the Amulet grew more powerful, and one's mind breaks under it's control. It taps into the spot where your horn connects to your skull and..."

A horrible pause came over her.

"If your mom really gave this to you...that long ago, I don't know what to do that could help. I don't. I don't think there's anything written about something like this." she stopped for a moment before letting my Amulet land on the table softly. "Do you wear it often?"

I shook my head. "Only when I feel really bad about myself. I think the last time I wore it was about two weeks ago. Ever Watchful..."

"-also said something about you knowing invisibility spells and spells that can summon chains. Is that true?" Nightcore interrupted me.

I shook my head. "I just know some basic spells, like making mage-lights and stuff."

Nightcore slumped in her chair. "Do you think he would lie about something like this?"

I felt myself wanting to slap that horrid, doubting look off her face, right up until she let out a weary sigh.

"No, he wouldn't. But...I don't know what to think. You seem to know more about it than I do."

She nodded slowly. "I guess. I can only suggest that you...you should keep it on you at all times, but you shouldn't wear it unless you need too. Don't use too much magic and try and control your emotions."

I felt a headache, a normal one this time, build up in my head. I squinted at my cup of coffee. "That would be hard, I think. Like, right now, I want to touch it."

Nightcore gave me a look that wasn't so much as fearful as it was upset, like I had said something objectively bad, like 'Slaving isn't evil!' or something.

"It's yours, I don't know if you should, though. Everything I have about it pretty much says that the longer you touch it, the harder it is to get rid of. It's like a drug."

I was filled with a loathing for the mare in front of me. How dare she compare one of the few things in my life that was important to me to a drug?! A drug!

"No, it's not. I used to have a Mint-al kick. Used to help a lot."

Nightcore's face went whiter then her coat, somehow."Wait, you're an addict?"

I almost laughed in her face. "Used to. Does it surprise you, really? I needed to be on my top shape to work with the other Scribes, and it helped me concentrate and get stuff done. I got detoxed a long time ago, even though it distracted me from...the Amulet."

The word felt like it shouldn't have come out of my mouth, and Nightcore just looked at me, a little surprised.

"You do know that Mint-al withdrawal is pretty much a combination of poor judgement and headaches, right?" she said haughtily.

"Do you think I'm stupid? Of course I know, but I didn't care because ponies didn't complain when I was on it, only when I was wearing the Amulet!"

She looked a little taken aback, and for a moment her eye's turned to the big book laying between us, as if it had all the answers she needed.

"Well, if you think they help, I would suggest you start taking them again." she said, like she was trying to distance herself from what she was saying. "Anything to curb the usage of the Amulet to a minimum."

"You are...you're telling me that I should try drugs." I said flatly.

Nightcore bit her upper lip.

"Anything that could stop you from having a incident like the one that happened yesterday from occurring again is worth a try."

I felt a little cold shiver start in my hooves and worth there way up my spine. "What did you see?"

She closed her eyes and breathed out. "You looked like hell. Your eyes were bloodshot and you were moving like...a zombie or something. You looked out of it. Badly. Your horn was sparking red, but Ever Watchful told me that your magic's blue."

I frowned. "It is. He's told me that before."

As such, for show, I tried and raise the book, stopping immediately when I saw it engulfed in dark purple.

"Its...it's supposed to, anyway." I said, too shocked to say anything else.

"The Amulet does that as well, actually. The corruption goes deep." she replied tonelessly.

I shuddered. She was right. Only a few things were unchanging in the world, but one of those things was a unicorns magic. It was unique to every unicorn, really. You could line up a entire village of unicorns and every single one would have a different color of magic, if only by shades and hues. It was something that never changed.

And here, here was a shining example about how nothing really was sacred in the world.

"I don't know what to do." I said suddenly, feeling like I had to say everything on my mind or I would simply snap, "I never thought...I can't get rid of it. It's all I have to remember my life besides my gun, and I don't want to get rid of it."

"I agree." Nightcore agreed, "It's too ingrained in your body now. There's nothing written about it, and if what you are saying is true, what happened yesterday happened because of you not using it enough. I..." she looked down, "...I don't like saying this, but I don't think I can help you. I don't think anypony can help you."

I was about to say something along the lines of 'but you've helped me more than anypony has before', but then she kept talking. "I really am sorry. I mean, I am. Er, wait!" she blurted suddenly, as if I was about to leave. "I have this book, somewhere..."

She took a moment to shift through the piles of papers on the desk, and after a few moments she pulled a moderate-sized brown book with a blue cover out of it.

"Here," she said, a little hopeful, "this might help."

A little doubtful, I pulled the book closer and read the title. I swore I had seen the author's name before, but I wasn't sure where I had seen it.

Taking Life By The Horns: The Iron Will Story

"It's a self help book." Nightcore conformed my initial thoughts, "But it's different. I'v skimmed through it a bit. It's nice. It might give you some ideas about what to do."

A tense quiet filled the room.

"Is there any place in Tauronto that keeps permanent housing?" I asked, breaking the quiet.

"There's a old roadside hotel that got converted into a Purebred base, and they do that. It's decent if you have the caps." she said absent-mindedly. "It's close, actually, a day on hooves."

"Thanks." I said, getting up from my spot on the floor, coffee cold and not feeling especially hungry. "I'm going to get Ever Watchful and see if we can't be on our way soon."

"You don't have to do that." she said, almost pleadingly. "It's not safe in Tauronto, really."

"I can handle myself, and Ever Watchful can as well." I stopped for a moment, thinking about what I had just said. "You wouldn't be able to take care of Candy Cane, would you?"

She tensed up suddenly. "There's a orphanage in Tauronto."

I felt myself get angry. Not just at the mare who was sitting behind a desk in front of me, trying to pretend the world never ended and surrounded by mechanical wonders of pre-war technology, telling me she couldn't take care of a child.

"Would it be such a burden to you to do it!" I snapped, taking a step forward, "Would it!"

She reared up, putting both hooves on the desk and she propped herself up on it. "How dare you tell me to take on another burden! I have a marefriend who cannot go outside without getting lynched and a small army of ponies who would like to see me dead! I want to help ponies like you, but you know what? None of you are worth a damn! You are all selfish, miserable foals who wallow in their own self pity and can't do anything about it because they can't accomplish anything without scrounging up stuff from a better time, and even then you just misuse it! I don't care if your a Steel Ranger or not, you are doing nothing to help the world!"

Still angry, she looked at the Amulet still on her desk, glared at it, and tossed it off with a hoof. Then one of her hooves went for a long, thin black object nearby, and set it straight up on her desk. It just looked like a black tube with a small hollow end. A few moments later, a lighter and a long cigarette appeared out of a desk drawer, and soon the cigarette was set on top of the object, top lit.

"Get out of my office. You have until the end of the night to leave." Nightcore said coldly as she leaned back on the wall behind her, propping up the slim cigarette holder in the space beside her like it was a weapon.

Snorting with indignation, I picked up Taking Life By The Horns and my Amulet with my magic, setting it on my neck. It was refreshing, to feel the weight on it again. A little cold, but that was a reminder that it was still there.

"Fine." I said. "Have a nice day."

With that, I stomped outside the office, passing all the varied pieces of machinery and finery that, on a better day, I could have took my time and examine. I only took a breath when I heard the door shut behind me.

I unclasped the Amulet from my neck and placed it haphazardly in the book, held fast by the paper. It was cold enough outside.

It was bleak, too. It looked like it was fall, really, from the way the wind was blowing. Grey dead grass was around me, and it crunched under my hooves when I walked across it. I had too many questions in my head that were unanswered, but I didn't know what to do now.

Well, I needed to get Watchful, anyway, and probably apologize to Dawn. I really needed to figure out what I needed to do with Candy Cane, and...

...is that a barbecue?

Close to the house, half-hidden by shade, was what seemed to be a fire pit with a large animal hanging over it. I saw movement, as well. A stray Brahman, to be exact, was wandering around, aimlessly and lost, moving in short bursts of movement. It mooed occasionally.

Wondering what exactly was going on, I stopped walking to the house directly and over to it's side. There was signs that other ponies were around the pit recently as well; there was a small fold-out table with some condiments laying on it, and a white cooler was stacked with sodas.

I looked at the animal on the spit. It was another Brahman, if a rather small one. It was small enough, actually, to check if the one passively standing around was a cow, which it was. I felt a little guilty; I liked veal as much as the next person, but this was a bit much. I would imagine that the two of them kept some cattle around for the sake of cheese, but Nightcore and Dawn were apparently vegetarians after a sense and probably wouldn't like it if there single cow was sad.

Then again, there would have had to be a male Brahman wandering around, and there wasn't, as far as I could tell.

I watched as the large beast went to the river, watching it jiggle slightly all the way. It was a well fed animal, anyway, not a skinny working beast but a expensive looking one that could feed a town for a week, it's black hide shiny and heads identical.

I looked up, seeing the balcony above me. This was a decent spot for a cookout, I supposed. Going by the state of the animal on the spit, there was some time to go before it was ready.

"Hey there, miss cow, do you know whats going on?" I asked it, trying to amuse myself. "I don't know if I'm crazy or not, but you weren't here before, were you?"

Funnily enough, one of the heads looked at me, like it understood what I was saying. Silly creatures, Brahman.

Then, in a flash of blue-green, Sea Salt burst out of the water and dragged it under, it's screams overtaken by the sound of tearing flesh and popping bone.