Second Stable report.
Stable: Sister Tower, 2nd year
Granite 2. Our new year celebration had an unexpected guest yesterday. It is the meanest ghoul the wasteland threw at us yet. Its body has some insect like armor melted to it, and its eyes glow red. It has wings without feathers, but it still flies around. It's horrifying. The sprite-bots we fixed to the turnstiles raised their alarm, but nopony noticed it until morning. By that time the sprite-bot music and laser show pissed it off so much it wrecked everything in the trading area. The thing even tore off the security doors. Thankfully both blast doors were closed, and it couldn't get through those. It's good Smile didn't want to be disturbed last night.
Granite 3. The ghoul is practically crazy now. Not that i can tell, but it should be. It's trying to get the sprite-bots for the last day, and they are playing their combat music ever since it showed up. The whole subway is echoing with it. I can even hear it in my dreams now. Not that I have slept this year yet. Thank you Luna their normal music isn't this loud. We would go totally crazy, and massacre zebras and minotaurs and each other and everything else too. My horn sparkles.
Granite 4. Silence at last. Mobtulip brought his protectapony to the entrance, and the sprite-bots shut up. So that's why it's called Musicstop. Ha ha. He could have done it sooner. I'm awake for about five days now. Hallucinations come and go, but curiously my mind is clear. The gears turn very slowly though. I think the others noticed it too. This stallion is speaking to me for a while now, and he is looking at me funny. Oh that's just me. I think I'm going to be asleep for a few days.
Granite 6. Okay, I'm alright. Sister Honest told me about the last days. Apparently I didn't manage to get into my bed. I fell asleep halfway there, and hit myself. That's why my head hurts. My horn on the other hand hurts because I was trying to cast spells in my sleep-depraved state. Fantastic. And I don't even know any spells. I guess 'Brother' Clocks last attempt at persuading me hit the wrong nerve in my head. I will set this thing straight with them. Sister Honest finished the inventory. It's a short list. Nothing else worth mentioning. Oh the reaver is still here. It has stuck into something. I didn't go to see it. At least it's quiet.
Granite 12. It's my birthday. We had a little party. I got a new jumpsuit, and they made a bunch of quarry bush cupcakes. I even danced a little with Smile. I prayed until morning after the party ended.
Granite 27. Three quiet weeks. Only the weather changed. The sky is filled with clouds as usual, but it rains more.
Slate 2. Well this was unexpected. I'm not in charge anymore. Maybe I should start at the beginning. So, the day started as the day before: waking up, praying, taking on my clothes and going around to check on the others. Then we ate breakfast, and I went outside with Grotto to look for useful things. Ever since that reaver ghoul showed up no other creature comes near our settlement. Maybe its smell or something. Anyway it was fairly safe to go outside, and we were busy digging through some carriages when He showed up. Yes, Goldcobra. He came with fourteen others from the stable to take over. He was even smug enough to greet me with this: "Well, well, well. How does it feel when the tables have turned?" Really.
At least it's not him who is in charge. It's Brother Kindness. Who is only slightly better. That stallion is a true follower. Shis.
So, they got us by surprise, we were outnumbered and we couldn't beat our old drill instructor hoof to hoof anyway. Mother Lemon is not someone to take lightly, her missing nose is proof to that. Hell even her second in command, Sister day could beat all of us any day. (and mostly that's what she did.) We gave up. I didn't know why did they come, and they didn't told me right away. I was told not to resist, and they won't hurt anypony else. They put me in the long-ago holding cell- now chicken coop, and left to take care about the others. Around sundown 'Brother' Clock brought me some food, and told me everypony is alright. I told him to cut his shit and don't pretend with the others because they won't tolerate his magic talk. First he was surprised then he got angry and started shouting with me. Then walked away. I'm really worried about his safety. Our order has very strict rules about magic, and they won't hesitate to enforce them just because he is an outsider.
Slate 3. Around midnight Brother Kindness came to my cell with my old sparring partner Brother Shell. It was nice to see a friendly face even if Brother Kindness was using him to get to me. In our stable sparring partners are chosen at foalhood. Not by us, but the Elders. They tell you with who you are going to train with the rest of your life. At least we got lucky with each other and became friends.
Now he was telling me to relax, everything will be fine, yadda, yadda. Brother Kindness only wants one thing and that is loyalty. Then he was sent out, and I were left in private with my fellow inquisitor. On a whim i recorded the conversation.
"Well old Cactus what should i do with you? You have committed many crimes against the order. Even treason. You have to purified from your sins."
"Will i get a fair hearing or will you be my judge jury and executioner?"
"Oh relax, we are both the same rank here, you are not going to be executed. Punished yes, but nothing you won't live through. So answer my questions, and I will decide how much pain your punishment will involve. Is this fair enough for you?"
"I guess i won't get a better deal."
"Let's get started then. What mission did you give to the dozen brothers you kept from returning with Cobra?"
"None. Cobra stormed off on his own, and I only kept the caravan here until they got better. They were free to leave at any time. And they weren't a dozen just four. Not including Cobra. You can ask anypony here. I guess nopony from the caravan did return."
"No, they did not. Cobra came back alone, and told us you went mad. Nopony believed him actually until your transmission a almost a month ago. That was quite disturbing."
"What transmission? Wait, three and a half weeks? Oh please Princess Luna don't tell me I used that thing in my delirium."
"Delirium?"
"I had a rough patch after new year. Some problems with a metal ghoul and sprite-bots. I couldn't sleep for days and i was pretty messed up. I don't remember much."
"Well now I can see you are quite alright. Not counting your weird speech, of course. What's about that?"
"Shot in the mouth by sprite-bot."
"Oh my, you are joking. Really? And here i thought you were bitten by a raider. You know that's contagious. Come out then old friend and let's get a drink. Let me open that cage for you. I think we got a bit over our heads here. Cobra was talking about a lot of alarming stuff, but seeing this place with my own eyes not one of his claims seems true."
"You know, I thought you were going to kill me."
"Sorry, about that. You know how this works. You have to look scary and intimidating. We really should change some things in the order. Don't tell Father Thorn I said that though."
"So you are not going to punish me?"
"No, not really. I mean you will get whipped, and lose your rank but you won't get the serious stuff. Oh and I will be in charge from now on. You know, since I proposed the expedition here in the first place. And since now I'm here..."
"What about the others?"
"The outsiders? Well they look useful. I guess they could stay and work."
"This isn't what I thought was going to happen."
"Just between us? I expected something different too. Like a bloodbath and you fighting to the death. But aren't you happier it turned out this way?"
"I guess so, yes."
And that's about it. He had a bunch of other questions after we started drinking, but those were mainly about technical aspects of our lives, like schedules, and inventory, and who sleeps with whom.
In the morning i got twenty lashes on my back, ten on my legs. It was symbolic punishment, but Mother Lemon made sure I felt everyone of her strikes.
After that I was sent to be taken care of by no other than dear Brother Cobra. Thanks Celestia we don't have any access to drugs. The stallion thought I was going to take revenge. He was jumpy the whole time, and messed up my skin a little more with the bandages. Now I'm thinking about taking his ear. Just joking. Him being our CMO is a distressing thought though.
Slate 5. I'm back on my hooves. My legs still hurt, but not enough to be an excuse to stay in bed. There are a few changes around our settlement. The biggest for me is losing my rank. I got shuffled back into the fighting pool. Which means training and sparring everyday. At least Brother Shell is going easy on me.
Brother Kindness returned to his heartless overseer role. Smile and her husband were evicted from their new home in the security station. Mother Lemon and her squad took it over. Sister Shelter had to give up her forge to Brother Fruit. Also she is not supposed to be called Sister anymore. Same with the other outsiders. They were not hurt, so they are content with the changes. They have to work more, but that's about it.
Felsite 10. It's over a month now since the order showed up. I'm starting to ease into my new role as a simple soldier. The training and the daily routine don't leave too much time to think. Not that I have any important decision to make. Rum or Beer. Brother Kindness handles everything tightly.
Hematite 2. After all this time the miners gave up. They think the blast door is magically reinforced somehow. Sister Shin even brought some special drill to get through it. Didn't work.
Hematite 6. Sister Sing and Brother Hammerroot has married. Cheers for them. I wonder what will happen if they have a kid. Back at the stable if you had a baby you had to give it up in the infirmary. Every foal were transported to a separate part of the stable, the Herd, and we grew up there. You never knew who your parents were. You could guess who your kids were but it's forbidden to tell them.
Life in the Herd was simple. Praying and training exercises every morning. Then brunch. Then school until dinner. More praying and more exercises in the evening. After a few years you got a sparring partner. There was fighting mixed in from then on. When you reached the age of nine you had a fight for real. Sometimes to the death.
Later I learned this is our population control. Without parental records you got more inbred children. Anyone with noticeable mutations are culled at birth. Some of the survivors are stronger then the others, some are weaker. The death-fights are for those, or if the stable is over of its capacity.
But now we are out here in our little wasteland oasis, and there is no limit on how many residents we could have. Well living space and food, but those aren't in short supply.
Malachite 3. Brother Fruit proved today how much can be achieved with the simplest of tools. He made a suit of armor from iron. It has some archaic design and it's heavy and impractical as hell. He claims some spirit was talking to him and helped him make it. He even named it to Speaker Dissolve. Shelter was very impressed.
Malachite 7. Smile has given birth to a filly today. She named her Hurricane. I didn't know she was pregnant, it wasn't showing. The other outsiders looked thinner too. Maybe they get less food. I'm going to ask.
Malachite 8. It seems everypony outside military duty only gets half rations. We should have over 300 units of food stored away, and the farms are producing more. I don't understand what's going on.
Malachite 9. Okay it turned out brother Kindness closed off most of our food. He gets a bit overzealous sometimes. Apparently he was preparing for the supply caravan. I persuaded him to give out more food. If the ponies are starving they can't work.
Malachite 14. Shelter has given birth too. The kids name is Calmvoice. She can calmly make my ears bleed with it.
Malachite 19. Another baby has born. This time it's a colt named Trim. Sometimes I wonder how effective weapons crying babies would be in the wasteland...
Galena 17. Wastelander caravan came to town. We were not allowed to trade with them.
Sandstone 16. Pink Cloud. Biggest one yet.
Sandstone 25. Pink Cloud. We don't go outside too often, so they don't bother us anymore.
Timber 13. The supply caravan has arrived from the stable. It was lead by a fellow inquisitor, Brother Limbplant. We were loading them with food, when three stallions jumped at us. They died to baton strikes. One of the brothers were bitten. The pink fog was getting thick north, so they left in a hurry.
Opal 15. I noticed Goldcobra is more off than normal. He talks to himself, and draws strange figures in the dirt.
Opal 16. Okay something definitely strange is going on with Cobra. He was playing with a bunch of gems in the middle of a puddle, and he was singing. I tried talking to him, but he just stormed off into a tunnel.
Opal 17. Everything back to normal. Kind of. Mother Lemon's squad found Cobra. They beat the crazy out of him.
Opal 18. Cobra was working on some kind of crystal device. Versetrance was carved into it (and his signature). Brother Kindness locked it away.
Opal 20. Pink cloud.
Obsidian 5. Pink cloud.
Obsidian 17. Pink cloud. The weather has turned nastier i guess.
Obsidian 24. Sister Kiss has given birth to a healthy colt, and named him Clock. Now we have two Clocks. Also he will be the first child of the order growing up outside of the Herd. Brother Kindness thinks about sending him back with the next caravan, but the kid will be too old by then.
I have to admit i savescummed once with the first artifact, as the iron Scorpion Armor boot was less then satisfactory, and more like annoying. I hate artifact boots, and ponies even need four of them. The iron power armor sounds badass, but i have no idea what to do with it. It goes into the vault this time. Maybe later i can open a box of power armor, and forbid the one i get from that.
Brother Kindness has almost identical personality to Brother Cactus. They are more alike than they would like to be.
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Topic: Fallout: Equestria (v0.30c) Pinkie Pie is Watching (Read 507617 times)