Fallout Equestria: Taking Life By The Horns

by Pokonic

To Think, That They Might Actually Get Out Of That House Soon

" Now, prince, what was all that funny business about a hillside hideout?"

"Forget about it. In all honesty, I cannot believe I actually mentioned it to you."

"Hmm? Why is that, Blueblood?"

"I don't know a single one of us who would like to see you alive after all this is done and over with."

---

"Do you think I could get some sort of job working for the Purebreds?"

The office didn't smell any better, even hours after Nightcore stopped smoking. Blueberry and Candy Cane were getting ready in the house, Sea Salt had taken off into the river a hour or so ago, and Umbra was off flying around and doing whatever dead bat ponies did when they were alone.

That left me and Nightcore to talk things over.

I didn't like what I was hearing.

"I don't think it would work." she sighed, not even bothering to sugercoat her words, "I mean, I would think you could, they always want muscle, but you don't plan on actually staying in Tauronto, right?"

"Where else would I go?" I said, not appreciating her tone.

"Can you at least fight?"

I frowned. "I can. I used to be a guard in my own village."

"But this is the wasteland." she half-exhaled, "You seem like a nice colt, but you don't look like you can fight."

I was going to correct her word choice, but I decided against it. There were bigger topics to tackle.

"I can fight." I repeated, exasperated.

"You didn't bring any weapons with you." she noted. "That little ripper-cutter you brought with you isn't good for anything besides cutting boxes."

"Blueberry has a sort of energy pistol with her." I said in a explanatory manner. "It is very effective. And Umbra seems to be a very good fighter."

"But you have no weapons with you. Or armor." she said once more, leaning forward slightly, "How do you expect to survive?" She motioned over to my shoulders, "I can see you've been hit with a bullet, but you look clean enough that I can tell you've never been in a real fight before. One good shot could kill you, you know. One pistol in the back could end you."

Putting a hand on my forehead to wipe a bit of dust off it, I breathed in deeply.

"It doesn't matter at this point. Please, if you are a member of a extablished society of ponies, I would deeply appreciate it if you helped me become integrated in it. It seems structured enough that I could deal with it."

I balled my free hand in a fist.

"I just want to get back to a state of living like I had before I was exiled. I just want to be able to know that the place I fall asleep in one day will be the same on I will sleep in the next. Is that too much?"

Nightcore's daze softened. She looked sorry, almost. Like how some would look at a wounded animal that was on it's last legs.

It might have been the most insulting look I have ever been given.

"I can respect that, I do, actually. But you can't...I don't mean to be rude, but you can't just walk around without any means of defending yourself."

Almost violently, I tapped the bottom of my left horn. "I have these."

Without missing a beat, I raised my free arm and flexed. I didn't consider myself very muscular, but never less the muscle that shifted around under the skin on my arm seemed to be more then what Nightcore had on her entire body.

"And I have these. I can defend myself."

Nightcore blew out some air from the side of her mouth.

"I guess you are right. So, you want to join with the Purebreds, huh? You don't have any caps, so you will have to do something to get in. Even the lowest of their servants have to do something to walk into places they own if they don't want to end up in chains."

I smiled. There wasn't any happiness meant by it, but it simply a way to show that I already had a solution.

"Would taking out a traitor to the Purebred be enough?"

"Depends." Nightcore said, tone now purely diplomatic. She smiled slightly.

"Does the name Princess Cheesecake mean anything to you?"

She took a swift breath. It sounded like a gasp.

"You killed her? Cheesecake Crumbles. Blond mare with white coat?"

I nodded. Saying that I killed her by proxy would've been more appropriate, but it really didn't matter at this point.

Nightcore let out a harsh noise, not really a laugh but not really a hiss.

"Ug, I liked her, too. She called herself 'princess'? She was stupid, then."

Nightcore looked at me, looking regretful in a distant sort of way.

"She was the one who made that mess in Watershed, then?"

I rolled my shoulders. "Mostly. From what I saw, there was three groups. One was the Purebred members under a pony named Troubadour, and the others were a few griffons and the ponies that followed Cheesecake."

Nightcore scowled. "Troubadour? You met him?"

I nodded, glad to see her express roughly the same amount of dislike for the stallion as I did.

"Unfortunately. I gave him a letter that Charnel ga-"

"What!" Nightcore barked, hair bobbing as she raised her upper body on top of the desk, so she could look at me in my eyes, "Charnel gave you what?"

I stood tall, knowing what Nightcore was doing. She was trying to intimidate me, there wasn't another word for it. She looked angry, and with her horn and her hair and with that furious expression she almost looked like she demanded respect, but I could see that her belly juggled lightly as she made that sudden movement and it sounded like she was unused to raising her voice.

I didn't like her. I decided that a while ago, as much as I hated to admit it. I didn't hate her, but I didn't especially trust her, as apposed to Dawn.

"She gave me a letter. She said it was a wedding invitation. Something about a pony named Boffenspark."

Nightcore's hard look didn't soften. "You told me you met Charnel; not anything about doing anything for her."

"Well, I did. I was captured by ponies under her, and I was told to take a letter to a member of the Purebred. I did that. It wasn't my real decision, she had guns pointed at me."

Nightcore didn't look especially pleased at my confession. "That note was a threat, probably. Charnel has no friends in the Pure. If she said she was coming, then that letter was probably a threat against his life."

I raised a eyebrow, remembering something I had almost forgotten.

"Charnel said she was a sister to the bride. Pyra, I think."

Nightcore shook her head, sinking back into her seat slightly. "That's a lie, actually. A joke."

"I see." I replied, not really seeing the joke. "But, I must ask again, it is possible for me to get a job working for the Purebreds?"

Nightcore gave me a rather fascinating look. She looked disinterested at me, like this entire conversation was something that needed to be done but wasn't a top priority. She also looked amused.

"Well, you can break into rooms easy enough."

Something froze in me. It might have been my heart, or lungs. Or blood. But there was a heavy weight there that wasn't there a few moments ago.

I think I started to break out in cold sweat.

Nightcore just propped her head up on the table with her elbows, grinning at me like I was a small child who had a hand in her cookie jar and with another in her purse.

"You think I'm as paranoid as I am and wouldn't leave a little string on top of my bedroom door? For shame."

I gulped lightly, and moved away from the desk instinctively.

"But you are not here to kill me." she continued casually, as if we were still talking about a normal, every day topic. "You even admitted you met Charnel. You even claim to have done a favor for her. So unless you'r suicidal or really, really devoted to her, you just stumbled into my home and invaded my personal space by yourselves. And Charnel doesn't have anyone devoted to her, none that are alive anyway."

I made a brief little nod.

Nightcore smiled.

"I'm not going to hurt you. But, considering that you're not denying me, I want you to carry something for me. I mean, I have let you, Blueberry and Candy Cane stay at my home, and because you have helped clean this place up, I'm going to let Blueberry Cream's foul behavior slide. But I still delivered that little message of yours. That leaves you in debt."

Without missing a beat, she leaned back, grinning in that sort of way that signified that there wasn't anything funny going on.

"So, I have a deal. In exchange for me giving my word, that you are, in fact, good for stuff and will not, in any way, start wreaking things as soon as you step into Purebred territory, you will stop Charnel screwing things up in Tauronto and deliver something to Boffenspark for me."

I shrugged my shoulders and raised my arms slightly, as a signal for her to get along with it.

The object she levitated out from under the desk was rather odd. It was rectangular and black, with sharp edges on it's sides that made it look like it was some sort of club. It didn't seem to be either wooden or plastic, but the smooth curved lines etched in it's surface, spirals and knotty twists interlined with more solid lines and geometric shapes, told me it probably wasn't made of metal. It was roughly half the length of my arm and half it's width, but it had a sense that it was more then what it looked like.

Nightcore looked at the object, unease starting to slip into her expression.

"Don't bother trying to break it; it's not even a real box." she said, after looking over the strange object held in her magic, seemingly checking for possible damage on it. "The outer part has so many inlayed spells on it you would probably need a few thousand pounds of explosives to crack it open, and the inner part has spells so esoteric lining it that even if one manages to break it you're not going to survive the magical protections that would activate."

"It's hollow?" I asked, more surprised at it containing something than anything else.

It didn't look like a box, anyway.

"It's sealed up tight, yeah." she muttered reflexively. "There's a reason for it."

"So really, I am giving this 'Boffenspark' pony what is inside it." I said, mostly for my own sake. "So what's in it? You seem to know about it well enough."

Nightcore righted herself, giving me a thoughtful look.

"I don't know." she said sheepishly, "But you should know that this-" she tapped the side of the object, causing it to make a dull ringing sound, "-is deep magic. This has the hallmarks of military-grade magical protection, and whatever inside it isn't supposed to see the light of day ever again."

"Where did you find it?" I asked, curious.

Nightcore raised a eyebrow. "I didn't, it's Boffensparks; I just borrowed it to see if I could crack it. I have a few books on magic and some training myself, but this is out of my league. This probably had a dozen unicorns busy for months just to make the basic enchantments. He said he found it in some bunker or another, but I would guess it's some military project or state secret or something.."

Slowly, I reached out to take the object; box, really, from off the table. It was surprisingly light; it really did seem to be hollow.

"Why do you want me to take it to him?" I asked, trying to sound unbiased.

Nightcore gave me a simply inexpressive look, one that wasn't precisely angry so much as done, like I was bringing up some old argument that had long since been forgotten.

"I was once part of a little group that kept trying to kill him. I switched sides after a while. Charnel didn't. It wouldn't be polite for me to show up when he's about to get married."

Well, that wasn't what I expected.

"He let you live after you tried to kill him?" I said, baffled and wondering if I had heard that correctly.

Impossibly, she continued talking in the same casual tone. "Yeah. He's like that. Well, really, it was because I switched sides that I got away alive. I mean, if you met the guy, you would probably understand why someone would want him dead. Boffenspark's annoying."

"But he let you borrow some of his things. After you tried to kill him." I replied weakly.

Nightcore shrugged lightly. "Yeah. It's a long story. It's over. There's no need bothering you with it. Just deliver it and ask nicely for a job."

"You don't look like a pony who would try to kill another pony. Or anything."

She just shrugged at me, the sides of her mouth flat lines. "You don't know me very well, then."

And that was my cue to stop questioning her. Taking the pillar-like object under my arm, I nodded to her, trying to hide the discomfort I was starting to feel around her.

Before I left the room, I paused. I had forgotten to say something.

"Thank you."

I waited for a few moments before I left the building.

Nightcore didn't answer back.

---

The inside of the house was quieter then I expected it to be, curiously absent of sound. Even when I placed the pillar-thing down in the parlor, next to that book that Blueberry brought with her, I went upstairs.

---

When I walked in our little room, I wasn't sure what to expect.

"So, whatch'a think?"

It wasn't Blueberry wearing her Amulet and Steel Ranger robes, anyway.

At first, I was stunned, simply hanging around the doorway of the room that happened to contain a blue pony with creepy red eyes that I was utterly convinced was going to snap at any moment.

I didn't say anything until she laughed off my abject horror, trotting over towards me.

"Blueberry, why are you wearing the Amulet?" I said quietly. "How can you still wear it after what happened?"

She paused, frowned, and with a small click-clack sound the horrid thing on her neck was removed and placed in one of the bags on the floor.

"It's mine." she said, somehow having the strength to look at me in the eyes, even when her own were unnaturally red, "And I can do what I want to do. It's my own choice. I'm not upset right now. I am doing just fine, actually."

The only reason I wasn't immediately reaching for the hovering bejeweled thing at her side was because how honest she sounded.

"Blueberry, I understand that, but if what Nightcore told me is true, you probably shouldn't wear it."

At that, she just raised her head out from her bags, blew some hair from over her eyes, and huffed lightly.

"It's my choice, Watchful. I can make my own choices."

"Blueberry, that Amulet isn't right. It's bad, and Nightc-"

"I don't really trust Nightcore."

I almost said 'I don't either', but I didn't have the chance to do so, as someone else spoke up behind me after prodding me in the back of my right knee.

"Mister Watchful, am I adorable?"

I turned around to see a little tan filly clad in a pair of pink footie pajamas.

Candy Cane stared up at me with big brown eyes, pouting slightly. She was standing on her hind legs, hooves up to her chest like a rabbit.

"Yes, yes you are." I said, trying to keep my dignity intact.

I think Blueberry was the source of the squealing noise behind me.

"Well, I'm glad." Dawn said as she slowly sidestepped Candy Cane and into the room, "At least it's something warm for her, anyway."

I took pause at the pesudomare's entrance, and Blueberry looked a little unnerved herself. But that might have simply been because of her own words earlier. At the moment, she was wearing just a cloak and scarf, around the mouth of course, but it was still the lightest-layered outfit I had yet to see her in.

"Sorry, Dawn, about the trouble." I spoke up, bowing slightly. "I hope we haven't done too much damage here."

To my surprise, the mare blinked, looking astonished. "Oh, no, you have been fine. Really, this has been quite eventful. And you are all wonderful po-people," she said, stumbling slightly when she looked at me once more, "and I am quite glad to have met you."

"Dawn, I don't think I said thank you for the rarebit." Blueberry said, sounding subdued as she walked over to the mare. After a few moments, she blinked, and a somewhat remorseful look passed over her face. "Thank you."

"Oh, no, please don't thank me; I merely didn't want you wake up to-"

Blueberry raised her hoof, and for a few seconds she looked rather upset at herself. "Please, don't. Nothing about what happened to me was your fault. I was b-" she suddenly realized that Candy Cane was still in the room, observing the conversation quietly, "I have been a bad guest here this entire time. I have insulted you multiple times. I didn't deserve a bit of what hospitality you gave me."

I didn't know what to say, and Candy Cane just made her way over to the beds, and as such, Dawn was one to reply to her.

"Well, now we know each other." she said, remarkably chipper, "and now we are on equal footing with one another. Now, there is the issue of what you will be taking with you to Tauronto."

I coughed lightly. "Well, Nightcore already gave me a object she want's to de-"

"No, no, not that old thing! I mean food and cloths." Dawn said, waving a hoof to cut me off, leaving me surprised and slightly uncomfortable. "You brought almost nothing with you, and winter is coming along, and it would be just dreadful of me to leave you three out in the cold without some foodstuffs and warm clothing."

Blueberry spoke up, sounding slightly upset. "I don't think it would be right if we took any more from you two, really, its not right."

"I have to agree. It has not been fair for us to take so much from you already."

Dawn blinked owlishly, and looked directly at Candy Cane after a few moments of deliberation.

"Well;" she said slowly, now truly speaking her mind, "I would think that Candy Cane has no extra clothing, correct?"

Candy Cane nodded her little head before I could agree with Dawn first.

"Well, then." she continued, now a bit subdued. "I have a few sets of clothing around prepared for a filly of her size, and that dresser there, Blueberry, has plenty of clean cloths that you are free to take."

Astonished, Blueberry took a step away from Dawn. "But, really, I am fine-"

"You will be ended if you wear that cloak in Tauronto." she said firmly, but her wording was light enough to make me aware that she still recognized that Candy Cane was in the room. "And it is far too cold for you to be running around without warm clothes, Blueberry Cream."

Blueberry, bewildered, could only nod.

"Thank you, Dawn. Again."

She looked at me, and I guess she could have been smiling. "Oh, no, there's no reason to thank me."

I wasn't sure about what to say next. Neither did Blueberry.

Luckily, Candy Cane existed.

"Miss Dawn, can I get something to drink?" she said sweetly, jumping off the bed softly.

Bring a hoof up to her mouth, the mare nodded quickly. "Oh, of course dear."

Moving to the side so that Candy Cane had a better access to the doorway, the two ponies exited the room and made there way down the hall.

Blueberry waited until she heard them get to the bottom staircase to go over to the window before she started to get visibly upset.

"That wasn't fair." she mumbled, looking sullenly at her own bags as she trotted over to them, "That wasn't fair at all. Now I can't hate her. She's giving us clothing and food."

I shrugged, looking over at my own bag, which seemed to have been straightened up since I last left it.

"Well, if it means anything, I dislike Umbra too." I said, doing my best to sound upbeat, "So there is a pony you can hate with reason."

Blueberry looked up at me, huffing lightly. "See, that's it. In the last few days, I have been getting angry at people I should be able to trust. And I don't want to speak badly of them when I am still full from eating a meal one of them made for me!"

I nodded slightly, motioning over to the vanity mirror. "I will get our things in order, you can go through some of that clothing in that dresser if you want."

I tipped my head forward slightly, more of a bowing motion than anything else, and sat down on the ground to go through our collective worldly possessions.

One recollector, a ripper-knife, a medical kit, a small bag filled with Sea Salts things, and dried food and tea bags. And a black box that contained Blueberry's memory orbs.

That was my bag.

Blueberry had an Alicorn Amulet, a total of fifteen cybernetic parts that had greasy stains around them that made me wince when I saw them, none of which were bigger then my arm, two small handbags that were filled with varying screwdrivers and screws each, an ornate ivory comb, three more bags containing large bullets of the sort that probably did not fit into a normal gun, two unopened packets of gum, fifteen bits, twenty bottlecaps, a sharp tooth of an origin I wasn't sure of, some scattered papers that seemed to be about magical technology, Self Defense, and a photo, wrapped in a thin layer of protective plastic.

The last one was a new one for me.

It wasn't especially old, like the one I saw in the Seahorse. Much like that photo in the Seahorse, however, it was a family photo.

The mare in the photo was giving the camera an amused look, one that clashed with her otherwise somber-looking garb. Her hair was darker then her coat and was worn long, and other then looking a little weary around the edges she looked content at the moment, eyes narrowed in a slight squint and mouth a knowing smirk. She was wearing what seemed to be a sort of sash, of a bright color going by the light shade of grey it was in the photo, and a robe with a light flaxen pattern around the neck. She was standing next to a small pedestal which held a small variety of items laid across it carefully in a pile; tiny shield, a pen, and what looked to be a thin knife; each had the apple-icon that seemed to be on much of the Steel Ranger's attire somewhere on it.

Besides the pedestal, on the other hand, was a filly; not quite a foal but not an adult. She looked almost exactly like the mare, only happier looking and plumper, and if it were not for the little nubby horn on her head and her hair having two different shades in it she could have been a clone. Said filly had a sash akin to the one the mare was wearing, but she also wore a little bow in her hair, to keep the bun it was in together,and was grinning widely at the camera.

"Oh, hey, you found that old photo, huh?"

I looked up. Blueberry was now fiddling around with the stacks of clothes she had made, picking out things that looked decently sized for her. She was looking a bit more cheerful now, and apparently was happy I had picked the photo up.

"It's a nice one. Is that your mother? Blueberry Sabre?"

She nodded lightly. "Yeah. It's the day she ascended to be the Elder. That's why there's all that goofy ceremony stuff around her. The Fillydelphia chapter has this little tradition in which every new Elder gets propped up in that toga thing and poses with some objects that symbolize the purpose Steel Rangers. The shield's to protect the weak, the sword is to keep back invaders, and the quill is to keep records of what happens in Equestria."

Ah. Totems for a tribe. Appropriate, really.

"The two of you look really similar."

It was a little uncanny, really. Sabre, even in a photograph, reminded me of Blueberry in a rather uncomfortable way. It was the smile. I kept expecting to see the Amulet around her neck.

Blueberry narrowed her eyes at me, looking at the photo as closely as she could from where she was.

"Eh."

Feeling that I was't going to get a better answer out of her, I carefully placed the photo back in her little pile.

"So, between one and ten, how does this look?"

I looked up, and blinked.

Blueberry seemed to have a thing for black, I was starting to realize. She was wearing a woolly black shirt with a hood (a hoodie? Is that a real word?), and it looked like the interior was fuzzy, going by how the inner part of the hood looked. She was wearing little blue boot things that seemed put another inch on her height, along with little purple socks.

"Is it warm?"

She rolled her eyes. "I am asking you how it looks."

"Blueberry, minotaur's don't normally wear cloths. I don't think ponies do either." I said slowly. "I don't think I can judge."

"Just tell me how it looks." she replied, now looking a little annoyed.

"It looks warm." I said, not knowing what else to say. "And comfortable."

Blueberry didn't frown at me. It was too mild to be a frown. "Ugg, fine. Really, you can't tell me if this looks good or not?"

"You could ask Dawn."

"Dawn would just say that I-"

A rough feminine voice, one I was starting to become more familiar with in a dreadful sort of way, rang out behind me.

"You look fine."

As Umbra fluttered in on those tattered wings of hers, armor not seeming to be any issue in flight, I was starting to wonder just how much traffic this room was going to have today.

"Where have you been?" I asked first, less perturbed by the bat-pony's arrival then Blueberry was.

"Flying." Umbra replied flatly, staring at me for a few moments before turning her attention to Blueberry. "And you look fine. Might want to lose the socks, but you're fine."

Blueberry looked at her hooves. "But I like the socks."

"It's too much. The robe's fine, but not the socks or shoes." the bat mare said, nonplussed. "So, when do you two think you are all ready to leave?"

Blueberry said "An hour or two." but I said "An hour.", so for a few seconds, we just stared at each other.

"Glad to see you two have worked out a good plan." she said, apparently not amused. "So, we're taking that weird thing Nightcore picked up from the Purebreds, right?"

Blueberry gave me a quick look of befuddlement before I coughed lightly and turned to Umbra entirely.

"I was going to ask you about that. But, if I may ask, what's the reason between the antagonism between the Reavers and the Purebreds?"

Furrowing her brow in a funny way, Umbra lowered her head slightly, like she was looking at something through distorted glass. "Antagonism is a funny word to use there. But, really, you don't know? The Purebred's used to be a bunch of little tribes and factions, but they got united about sixty years back by a stallion named Whitemane. Whitemane got offed ten years ago, and those were good years. But in the last three, Boffenspark's been the leader, and he hates ghouls. Besides, they want the whole city, and a lot of it has ghouls in it. Reavers got to protect what's their own, after all."

"Who's Boffenspark?" I almost said, but Blueberry did it for me.

Umbra snorted. "Friggen weirdo. Came out of nowhere with a bunch of robots, offed about half the incumbents for the title of King, and has been pretty much been a freak. Pretty sure he was a jester or something, there's no way he got that far up in that pit of infighting and betrayals on his own. Pyra's the real power, though. Kinda bitchy, good with magic."

Something clicked in my mind. I wasn't sure what it was.

"Wait, I heard something about a cult once."

Umbra perked up slightly, ears actually standing up straight and mouth forming a shape that wasn't a frown for once.

"The Scions? Their fun. Fun but weird. They run a orphanage."

Blueberry coughed lightly.

"So, if their a cult, I mean, what do they worship? I don't think I ever learned that part."

Umbra let out a throaty chuckle.

It was not a sound that was enjoyable to hear.

It was not a sound that was a sign that all was right with the world. It was sort of the opposite of that.

"Nightmare Moon."