Day 3
POV Lycaeon
"Thank goddesses you let us in!" the old unicorn stallion, and apparent leader of the escaping ponies said from where he lay in the dirt.
They had just let five miserable looking ponies inside their little burrow, and had risked their lives doing so.
What these newcomers didn't know was that they were pretty much trapped down there with no plausible way out again.
They could risk it and run, but they would have to leave most of everything behind, bringing with them only a couple of barrels worth of food at most which would leave them with nowhere near enough food rations for the travel back home.
Even then, food and general supplies wouldn't be their main problem, there would still be raiders, ghouls and Celestia knows what else to contend with, just getting to Pineapple had been a rough journey, getting back would be no joke.
No. The chances of them getting out of there were very slim, the Lovers of Fruit knew that, and it was why they had decided to stay and try and build a cozy little home in the dirt.
Lycaeon helped the stallion up.
"It's the least we could do."
The stallion was seriously old, he looked like he was in his early seventies and was really small for a pony, it wasn't a specific part of him that was small, his legs weren't stubby, his back wasn't shorter, just overall he seemed to be... smaller, somehow.
He had a pale pink coat and a very unkempt medium length tan mane and tail. His eyes were aquamarine and his cutiemark was a picture of three stone mugs.
He wore a tattered synth-reed cloak with a hood and two saddle bags which looked empty and full of holes, it's contents had likely fallen out during his escape.
Swung over his back was a BB gun that appeared to be made out of mostly iron components, despite it's aged appearance it appeared to be kept in good conditions, it was the only thing about the stallion that was really.
His companions were no better, with him was an old thin looking (but larger) unicorn mare with sea green hair roughly about his age, a middle-aged looking pale blue unicorn stallion, an earth pony mare with indigo hair and a young looking unicorn stallion (about their age) with a very dark brown overall appearance, the last had a bronze BB rifle stuck in under his empty saddle bags.
They all looked terrible, like they had been through a marathon chased by angry dogs, which maybe wasn't all that far from the truth.
Lycaeon's first thought when looking them over was strangely the word "Soap".
Replica was eyeing the new ponies with an air of concern, she seemed worried about something, as a leader always should.
"You must be Pokon..." she assumed, speaking to the elderly stallion.
"Yes, I am Pokon, Pokon Oilweather. I'm guessing you are Replica Planternourish? The leader?"
"...leader?" she said slowly, looking at him as if he had asked her about an alien concept.
She was the leader alright, everypony had agreed on making her such because they thought her compassion when met with the problems of others and sense of duty to her friends and the stable were qualities they needed in their leader.
But she hadn't felt especially excited about it, in fact, she felt pretty uneasy whenever somepony referred to her as 'leader' or 'boss'.
"Yes Replica, you are our leader." Zebio said, going up beside her and giving her an encouraging look, she was comforted by her little go-to cry-on-the-shoulder stallion and loosened up a little.
Lycaeon didn't like Zebio Lizard, he really didn't like him at all.
It had nothing to do with how he was trying to creep into Replica's nethers and her bed or anything, it was just that the stallion seemed very suspect, like he had something other than her well being and respect in mind.
Lycaeon suspected that Zebio was secretly trying to get everypony under him and take over as their leader, he had already shown a significant initiative by devising the well project among a few things and knowing his friends it was something they respected, he was sure that they liked Replica and all, loved her like a close friend and one of the sustaining 'pillars' of their little group, but he also knew that they respected a strong and capable leader more than anything, and Replica was, despite her compassion and sense of duty not at her best right now, she was vulnerable, weak even.
He was afraid that Zebio was trying to use Replica.
Lycaeon wasn't too happy about that, he was perfectly fine with having Replica as their leader, he liked her, he admired her.
To him, Zebio was nothing but a plotting asshole bent on taking over Pineapple.
"What brings you here?" Replica wondered, "Are you... are you the rescue team? From Lemon?"
It was a question with an obvious answer, why she had asked it after seeing their condition Lycaeon did not know.
Pokon looked bewildered, he gaped and stared at her wildly.
"Rescue team? What do you mean 'rescue team'?"
Replica turned grim, Lycaeon could only assume why.
More ragged ponies, more mouths to feed, more rooms to dig and prepare.
"We are trapped out here, we can't leave."
"No, no, no, this can't be right."
"I'm afraid it is."
"It can't be right, you can't be trapped!" Pokon looked stressed.
"They are sending ponies after you! From Lemon!"
Her expression didn't change.
"They are doing what now?"
"They are sending more ponies to help you raise Pineapple!"
"Oh..." still no change, Replica remained passive.
What was she thinking? Didn't she realize the gravity of what he had said?
"We should just tell them not to send anypony else." Corai suggested.
"Yeah... but how?" Replica said.
"It's not like we can communicate with Lemon, if we could, we would have asked for help."
"Right..."
"Pokon, do you know how we could message Lemon? Get them to stop and call back everypony?"
"Wh- look at us! We don't have anything! How do you suppose we would know?"
She nodded.
"Good point..."
"Oh Luna, this is terrible!" Pokon said tiredly, he sat down in the dirt and just shook his head, "They are going to send more ponies out here, and they will just... die!"
"We'll figure something out tomorrow, don't worry. But for now, you need to rest and recover." Splint said.
It wasn't just them who needed rest, they all needed a good nights sleep to reflect on the situation, it had been a long day and they all really just wanted to get some sleep.
Now that Splint mentioned it, Lycaeon felt a numbing sensation of tiredness creep up on him.
"Splint is right you guys. If you don't mind, show them to our rooms." Replica said.
"But wait" PSI stopped before anypony did anything, "We only have six beds!"
Replica gave her a questioning look.
"Yeah? And?"
"Where will we sleep?"
"Guess we'll just have to sleep on the floor tonight."
"On the floor!?"
"They need the beds more than we do."
"Y-yeah you're right. But who'll sleep in the sixth bed then? There are only five of them."
Replica looked annoyed, she didn't have the strength and patience to deal with PSI's plans for the night.
"Way to show concern for yourself, PSI. Know what? You can take the sixth bed, I don't even care, just do whatever."
Then she strode off, leaving the rest of them with the tired newcomers.
Obviously PSI turned to Splint, she had a bed and a private room, all she needed now was the company of Splint and then she would be all set.
But Splint just shook his head.
"Sorry PSI, not tonight."
"But-"
"Hun, now is really not the time." he gave her one quick smile and went off, he was followed by everypony but PSI who was seriously bummed out about being turned down like that.
The newcomers were shown to their rooms and everypony simply settled in for the night.
Everypony pretty much slept in the same room, the room with the sixth bed in it.
That night they all slept by themselves, save for Replica who slept bunched up with her three Sprite-Bots who had taken a strange, almost affectionate liking to her.
The next day was begun by offering the new ponies breakfast in the form of dry brahmin jerky and sewer brew.
There were only two benches for four ponies to share, so they couldn't all eat at the same time.
The leadership however waited for their companions to finish up before sitting down to eat themselves, Lycaeon had insisted on waiting to eat with Replica and Pokon and so had Zebio, the four of them were now sitting in the mess hall trying to stomach the horrible tasting brew and dry meat while Pokon's companions were showed around the burrows and acquainting themselves with the rest of the group.
"So who are you ponies anyway? Why did Lemon send you here?" Replica asked Pokon.
Replica was clearly well rested, she was taking Pokon and their situation much more seriously now.
"Family and close friends." Pokon answered, taking a sip of sewer brew from his cup. He grimaced.
He gently set the cup back down on the stone table using his magic.
"The council of Lemon figured that they had sent enough settler parties away and that all new volunteers should be diverted to help the new settlements."
"Ah, I see..." she nodded thoughtfully.
"There were more than fifty settler parties sent out, I know that, so if we are only getting a few groups, a couple of dozen ponies, then maybe it wont be that big of a problem. We could just pull them in here like we did with you."
Pokon's expression became grim.
"That's the problem. They are not sending 'a few groups'. Pineapple has been given priority back home, they are diverting most of the volunteers to Pineapple and Valleygleamed..."
Her eyes widened in shock.
"EH?! PRIORITY?! Why!?"
"Because of where they are situated. You guys picked the Cloudsdale outskirts, the nutjobs of Valleygleamed settled at the foot of the mountain on which Canterlot is situated, both of these places are ripe with scavenge. It's profitable."
"It's dangerous and reckless! Why the hell would they risk that!?"
"He is right though." Zebio cut in "It IS profitable. So it makes sense that we would be given priority."
"Elaborate." Lycaeon said, wanting more of an explanation.
"Lemon was founded in an area littered with pre-war scavenge, it was thanks to all that scavenge that they could fight off the Steel Rangers and the new Unity at the same time. I am guessing that the council of Lemon expects us to do the same, scavenge high tech weapons and gear from the surface and carve out our stable here with it."
"That doesn't make it any less dangerous. Ponies will still show up here in this ghoul infested hellhole and they might not be as lucky as Pokon and his group." Lycaeon said.
Replica cringed and looked away from Zebio at the words 'ghoul infested hellhole', he didn't know why the mare reacted to those words.
Pokon raised a hoof to divert the attention back to him.
"Whatever you think about it, that's what the council has decided. And with no way to contact them you better begin to prepare for the worst. I refuse to just let you guys ignore the ponies who show up here like we did."
"You mean 'we'."
"Pardon?" Pokon looked at Lycaeon questioning.
"You are stuck here with us now, you are just as much part of our little group as any of the rest of us are." he explained.
"Yeah... I guess we are..." Pokon thought about it.
"Speaking of... what do you want us to do? Do you need any help or anything? I'd hate to be a bother, this wasn't how it was supposed to go, we were bringing extra supplies. We didn't come all the way out here to sit on our hooves..."
"Don't worry, there is plenty you can do to help. I'll show you around and give you the rundown of what we have done after breakfast."
"Okay."
"So Pokon, tell us a bit about your group. You said you had family with you?" Replica wondered, wanting to change the subject and move the conversation on.
"Yeah. Wife and son. Pure Reigncreature, the mare with the sea green hair is my wife, Moss Entrylisten, the stallion with the pale blue coat and stripped mane is my son. Lemon and Fragrance are friends of ours, we have known them for many years now."
"How old is your son?"
"He should be 56 years old now..."
"56? That makes him older than any of us... How long have you been married to Pure?"
"Oh, we were very young when we married. I was 14 years old, she was 15..."
"Oh my. So I am guessing Moss is your oldest child, do you have any more back home or is it just him?" she just kept rolling questions.
Pokon smiled.
"Heh, that's... Moss isn't our oldest kid..."
"He... isn't? So you had kids before that?" Replica gulped, "Before the 'age of consent'?"
"Oh yeah. We sure did." Pokon revealed, almost proudly.
"We already had Keeper Fangswim, my eldest son, when we married. Shortly after we married we had Blanket Trustswamp, my eldest daughter, and after that we had twins, Wing Nurturelizard my second eldest son and White Flower my second eldest daughter..."
"Y-you had 5 children in the span of 4 years?"
"And many more after that."
"How... how many more?"
"I have 14 children."
"14?!"
"Yup."
"And you had all of these with Pure?"
"Sure did."
The expression that formed on Replica's face was priceless.
It was an expression of serious pain and disbelief that spoke magnitudes of how she must have felt about childbirth.
Pokon and Pure's relationship must have been interesting, Pure was apparently a mare that had given birth to 14 foals, of which most were probably unicorns (as both Pokon and Pure were unicorns themselves and likely had a great deal of unicorn genes running in the family) making the births extra painful.
She must have had a remarkable tolerance for pain.
Lycaeon had heard about ponies who were "extra frisky", couples who would end up having a copious amount of children if the conditions allowed them.
But this, Pokon and Pure. That was just excessive.
"14 children seems like a bit much. How is it that you had so many?" Lycaeon asked.
"Oh, heh, well that's... a bit personal." the old man didn't blush, it wasn't something stallions tended to do, it was the mares who always had a more vivid and colorful way of expressing themselves, but he made it clear that he didn't want to go into it.
"I hope you understand."
"Of course, forget I asked."
The four ponies finished their meals in peace and quiet.
Pokon and Lycaeon got up, leaving their plates and cups on the table for now, they would take care of those later, but Replica and Zebio remained seated.
"Replica? 'you coming?" Lycaeon asked.
In part he wanted her to come with him to show Pokon around, and in part he just didn't want to leave her alone with Zebio.
She glanced at Zebio and then back at Lycaeon.
"Eh, you two go on ahead. I need to, um, talk... to Zebio about something."
Lycaeon nodded. It was worth a shot.
"Right. Common Pokon, this way."
The two left the mess hall.
Lycaeon showed Pokon around the burrows, explaining what they had done thus far and what they had in mind, he told him about the well and the entrance they were building.
The tour ended in the general storage room where one of the dogs seemed to be missing, Lycaeon just assumed that it was sleeping somewhere in the back behind some boulder or something.
"Pretty impressive. And you did all this in what, two days?" Pokon asked.
"Oh yeah. Replica and the others did a pretty good job mining the rooms out. It's not much to look at, but well, you know."
"Oh no, it's pretty good for having been dug out in such a short notice, you guys work quickly."
"It's all we really can do down here. We figure we'll be able to rest and take it easy once we have secured ourselves."
"So what is it you need us to do?"
"Just help out in general I guess, but I shouldn't be the one to hand out your assignments or anything, Replica is in charge here, so I guess we should speak to her again about that."
Pokon shrugged.
"Lets go then."
The two stallions were about to leave when they heard a dog whimper in the back of the room, as if it was in serious pain.
They went to investigate and found the missing dog behind a gypsum boulder giving birth.
They stayed until she was done, it didn't take long, she gave birth to two healthy puppies.
It was strange because none of the dogs had seemed to be pregnant, there had been nothing to indicate this.
They left the dog to take care of her newborn pups and went to look for Replica.
Replica was nowhere to be found, and neither was Zebio.
Lycaeon found Corai in the mess hall taking a break from her work sculpting floodgates to be with the dogs.
"Corai, have you seen Replica?" Lycaeon asked.
The young unicorn shrugged.
"Uh, I think she should be in her room. I'm not sure."
The two went to Replica's room.
Before knocking Lycaeon leaned in to try and listen if Replica was in the middle of something, it would be rude to interrupt an important discussion that called for privacy.
But things seemed quiet.
Lycaeon knocked. He heard a thud followed by Replica yelling "In a sec!"
In a moment she appeared by the door, her mane appeared to be messy, even that swirl of hers that stuck out from the back of her head seemed off, as if something had stirred it or tried to push it down. Strange, considering how well kept Replica used to keep her mane.
Zebio wasn't in the room.
"Yeah?"
Lycaeon snapped out of his suspecting train of thought, he could worry about her unkempt mane some other time.
"We need to discuss what you want Pokon and the others to do."
She stared at the two blankly for a moment.
"Right, your assignments, of course. Uh, come in." she invited the two stallions inside.
The three of them remained in there for about an hour.
Pokon told them about his own skills and what he knew his friends and family could do.
His family, that is himself, his wife and his son had apparently all been in the military and had been professional soldiers for most of their lives living in Lemon, but they had all retired several years ago and had become rather rusty.
Lemon and Fragrance were generally civilians in all aspects.
Fragrance had simply been working down in the brahmin pastures, it was the kind of job she had been given because there was simply nothing else for her to do.
Lemon had been a farmer of the more prestigious kind, she had tended to the lemon orchards and the bee hives, Lemon used both of these for added sweet and sourness for its great kitchens, the lemon orchards were especially prized for how insanely rare pure lemons were in the wasteland.
Given their experiences it was decided that Pokon and his family rejoin the military by banding up with PSI and Splint, the younger couple would be training them up to speed again.
Fragrance and Lemon would instead just do general 'civilian' type labors with the rest of the gang, it wouldn't hurt to get an extra two pairs of hooves to help after all.
These decisions were taken into effect immediately after the three left the room, there were no questions asked, everypony were perfectly fine with it and neither Pokon or his two kin had any objections with returning to active duty, soon.
Throughout the day they all worked on a variety of things.
The aqueducts for the wells were smoothed out completely, Lycaeon did a great job teaching the others how to get the rough walls, floors and ceilings nice and smooth (which is interesting considering his past experience as a soapier and creator of fine shampoos and bathing articles over at Lemon), following this the brook was pierced and was, just like Zebio had predicted, filled to the brim with rocks, the water flowed through crevices in the brook, there was no way the ghouls could come inside through the well.
With the wells running they had now secured a steady supply of fresh water for when the disgusting sewer brew and fine rum would run out, everypony appreciated the option of having water for their meals rather than being forced to drink alcohol.
The well water also gave everypony the chance to wash themselves and get the dirt of Pineapple and wasteland grime of former Cloudsdale off their coats and manes, a door was installed in the room containing the well and everypony were given a few minutes of privacy for this purpose.
Replica's office was expanded to make room for a nice overmare's desk.
While lacking a computer the desk soon makes itself useful for her job, what little paper they had brought with them were taken to her office for her to use for whatever.
They also worked on a stable entrance project, Replica became more assertive at this point, her confidence having seemingly swelled after getting her nice little office.
She snatched Zebio's plans off of him, going by what he had had in mind for that tunnel he had dug out she designed an airlock fit for a true stable, Lycaeon played a significant hoof in it's design, he had knowledge on the great doors that protected Lemon in times of emergencies that was completely unexpected of a soap maker.
Heavy doors were prepared, rock mechanisms were finely crafted and more areas were dug out.
Then they took a break from the project and smoothed out the mess hall, which made it look overall cleaner and nicer.
Some ponies are now actually prefering to hang around the mess hall during their breaks to just sitting around wherever, so Corai isn't the only pony sitting around there anymore, she actually has somepony to talk to now during her pauses, it's that much nicer.
To end their long of work the female dog down in the mess hall gives another mysterious and sudden birth, three puppies are born, they are just as healthy as the previous puppies.
The twelve of them hung around all evening discussing and theorizing these two strange births over a barrel of rum.
Some theorized that the wasteland radiation had mutated the dogs breeding rate to impossible levels, others believed it was magical and linked that to unicorn magic.
Then of course, there was Lojack who very bluntly said that the signs of their pregnancies had all been there, the aggressiveness towards each other, their whimpering and so on, she pointed that none of them really liked the dogs in the first place and hadn't cared enough for them to notice that they had been pregnant.
Corai argued that she had been with the dogs in the mess hall quite a bit, but when asked if she had been with both dogs or just the male she admitted that the female had for some reason kept away from her at all times.
Everypony settled for Lojack's explanation and stumbled off to bed, Fragrance and Lemon offered to switch this time around to let some of the others sleep in the beds.
PSI was given a bed again, and this time Splint could do nothing but agree to her 'demands', Replica was offered to sleep in her own room but gave her bed to Corai for the night which she accepted with an unexplained melancholy sadness, and the last bed was given to Lycaeon who everypony felt had done an outstanding job that day with the room smoothing.
Lycaeon crept into the shoddy bed made out of bent metal.
They had no mattresses, no proper covers, all that was covering the frame was a folded sheet and all he had to rest his head on was a dirty greasy looking stained pillow which somepony had brought with him (or her possibly).
But it was better than sleeping on the stone floor, and he was glad that he had been given the bed for the night.
He was very tired and drowsy after all the rum he had drunk and soon fell into a deep slumber.
And so endeth the third day of Pineapple.
The thing I should have done days ago but ended up procrastinating on because of everfree shenanigans and school.
It is roughly, all in all, 4k words or so.
It would be longer, but I shortened some of the more boring parts for this entry.
I know I said that this would be a double, but I lied, clearly.
and get day 4 done tomorrow, but I make no promises.