/ / EMBARK \ \
Welcome to the Realms of Enchantment. It's been fifty-three years since the bombs fell, and three years since Stable 43 opened its doors and founded the Twig of Sprays.
Nopony really likes the name. A fringe group of Stable citizens wants nothing to do with a civilization with such a silly name, and seven of the more radical ponies have decided that living in the middle of an unforgiving wasteland would be better than introducing themselves as Sprayites.
Pineheart, a male unicorn, is a powerful warlock who hates oysters.
Wasp, a male unicorn, is skilled at unarmed combat, having spent many years brawling in barfights.
Blazework, a male mud pony, is skilled at finding edible plant life, although he has trouble controlling his urges.
Grove, a male mud pony, studied pre-war insects as a hobby. Because the Stable didn't have any bees, he ended up as a security officer.
Fragrance, a male unicorn, is a skilled markspony and loves nothing more than the fragrance of burnt gunpowder.
Lantern, a female unicorn. Unlike Wasp, her melee skills aren't instinctive; she spent her long years as a security officer honing her martial arts skills.
Moral, a female mud pony, enjoys swimming in her spare time.
/ / SPRING \ \
In honor of an ancient military commander, the ponies named their destination Shieldsparkle, before realizing that it was an irridated hellhole.
They quickly started organizing a camp, with Blazework crafting a few basic tools, Moral scavenging what she could from the rundown shacks nearby and the rest hunting for anything edible. Once Wasp remembered that bighorns are made of a lot of little edible things, he went about turning one into a nice neat pile of said edible parts.
Soon Moral was bringing in a steady stream of salvage, and Pineheart begun to sort through the garbage for usable parts. Blazework started putting up a simple wall out of mud, metal scraps and wooden logs. When Moral came back with a shovel she found in a toolshed, Wasp started digging a defensive trench. The defensive fortifications were nearly done by the time Moral ran into camp, reporting a pair of mirelurks that had shown up nearby. The Sparkles watched the crab-like creatures meander about for a while, but thankfully the monsters didn't decide to make a mess of things and left soon after appearing.
Another sinister threat arose, however. A dust storm rose on the horizon and bore down on the camp. A hastily-dug cave was enough to shelter everypony until the storm blew out, although more permanent shelter was impossible without the use of power tools. With that need in mind Moral went out in search of advanced mining equipment. After a few hours she stumbled across a decrypt warehouse that contained Ministry-issued civilian supply crates, and the scavenger brought them back to the camp with an excited spring in her step. With baited breath, the rest of the ponies gathered around Pineheart as the unicorn pried open the crates. Among other treasures the boxes contained canned food, steel saws and charged batteries, but the desperately-needed drills weren't there.
The dissapointment was dispelled when the last crate turned out to bear the cogwheels and apples of the Ministry of Wartime Technology. Alongside a strange talismain and some electronic equipment were a combat rifle, a flamethrower, a chainsaw and a pair of anti-tank mines. While neither weapon had ammunition, Wasp wasted no time in carefully storing the explosives while Pineheart fitted a fresh battery into the deadly melee weapon.
/ / SUMMER \ \
The snow melted and the river started to run as the temperature rose and Spring gave way to Summer. Wasp dig out a resevoir and tapped the river, giving everypony fresh drinking water without the need to risk leaving the camp. He then had Blazework set up a few tripwire traps around the edge of the camp's entrance; loaded down with tasks, the craftspony recruited Lantern to help.
While the two were working, an old foe made a reappearance. Another dust storm blew across the compound nearly without warning, and both ponies were caught by the storm. After it blew away, both ponies were dragged into the cave, battered and bruised; after being sick in a corner, Blazework stumbled to his hooves and shrugged it off. Lantern, however, seemed to have suffered far more damage. Her flesh sagged on her bones and she fell into a near-coma, only waking up periodically to gasp for water. Her irradiated body filled the cave with a foul stench, and everypony kept their distance from her bedroll.
Lantern's agonizing and prolonged death overshadowed the first migrants to arrive at Shieldsparkle, nearly doubling the camp's population.
Beard, a female unicorn. She is clumsy, but almost never sick and quick to heal.
Luxury, a female unicorn. She was an armorsmith in Stable 43, and is nervous about venturing into the Wasteland.
Wheel, a male mud pony. He lived in another outpost for a while and picked up a knack for fishing.
Lark, a female unicorn. She was a security captain in Stable 43 and mastered the use of many different weapons. She is married to Wheel.
Aquaglimmer, a young female unicorn. She is Lark's foal.
The influx of labor meant that several new projects were started. To help buffer the dwindling food supplies, Wheel started fishing in the resevoir, while Lark started planting celery seeds in a freshly-dug space off of the storage area. Moral had the time to go on another scavenging trip, and came back with more civilian and Wartime Technology crates. This time the crates contained not one, but a pair of power drills, and Wasp started designing the underground facilities with Luxury's help. There were several more combat rifles in the Wartime Technology crates, but still no ammunition for them. Dissapointed by the lack of ranged firepower, Fragrance designed a simple toy rifle out of a wooden log and a spring so that he could practice on the local wildlife. The lightened workload gave Wasp and Lark time to train with a pair of steel knives, and Luxury and Grove began to excavate the new living quarters.
/ / AUTUMN \ \
With the discovery of power tools, solid facilities were been constructed, with more under excavation. A thriving celery farm and plentiful fish were granting the Sparkles a steady food supply, and the surface defenses were being extended with a double-drawbridge airlock. All was not well, as Luxury was still lying nearly comatose in her cot; her irridated flesh has melted into the sheets, and it's impossible to move her anymore. The security teams were also woefully underequipped, with nothing but steel knives to their names. The stability of Shieldsparkle was far from guaranteed, and with the colder months coming about the fledgeling society would have their integrety tried as only the Wasteland can.
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Topic: Fallout: Equestria (v0.30c) Pinkie Pie is Watching (Read 507412 times)