Another week, another fort update. I've got a few small things to adjust starting with the next playthrough, but I've fixed a bunch of oversights in this save. The save is available here.
New ponies:Virtue's Diary - 27th Hematite, 260
It seems that word really has made it back to Coupledye about our position out here. A few new faces showed up at the gates today. Soldiers, all of them. Two unicorn stallions, Bardiche and Guisarme, who Halberd and Naginata are already showing around the barracks.
The third is a pegasus mare named Saber. She's going to be joining Partisan and the fortress guard. That brings us up to four guardsponies again.
Speaking of the soldiers, I was relieved to get a report from Panacea that the soldiers who were ill from fighting the giant flying monstrosity have recovered and were released today. I'm relaxing a little knowing that they're all back on their hooves at least, and he seems eager enough to get back to work.
Hopefully this is the last we'll see of the underground monsters. The militia captains have organized another excursion into the caverns though. They want to make sure that the upper most caverns are clear though, and I understand their wishes. I just dearly hope that clearing of the caverns doesn't do the harm we're trying to prevent.
3rd Malachite, 260
Today Azurite turned six and so is officially a stallion. His family held a small celebration in the dining hall around lunch time, and this afternoon Azurite got his first chance to lend a hoof at the craftshops doing a number of different things. He really aspires to be a jeweler, but we're short on work and already have Quartz to do the work. Maybe one day we'll find more work for the jewelers.
12th Malachite, 260
Something new and slightly unsettling happened late this afternoon. An enormous simian creature with a single eye approached the town from the south, shouting something in a deep, frightening voice in a language none of us understood.
After it began pounding at the walls though, any doubts of its intentions were gone and the guard went off to try to get it to leave, or worse if they had to. Partisan gave me the report, which was a bit more grisly than I had hoped for.
He and Kat were the first two to respond. While they were taking shots at it, Jaxler came flying and added his own shots to the fight. The beast finally went down, where he and Kat took turns trying to finish it off up close. Partisan put it out of its misery with his last bolt up close.
It seems every season something new shows up to remind us that we're not as safe as we think we are. And yet, I can only imagine what will happen next time we see the rainbow ponies.
24th Malachite, 260
While the militia was prepping to explore the caverns, some of our early warning spells were tripped by another giant beast.
It's becoming increasingly obvious that no matter how many of these we kill, we'll probably never see the end of them. The plan discussed by the captains to secure a part of the cavern network... that's probably the only way we'll ever have safe access to it.
I'm going to start drawing up plans for that soon. Our maps are pretty sparse, unfortunately, so I don't know how much good it's going to do.
11th Galena, 260
I met with the zebra diplomat today, who I'm pleased to say was as pleasant as ever and who left in as good of health as he arrived in. I was afraid the zebras would be hesitant to trade with us after what happened to the rainbow ponies, but thankfully that's not the case. He told me the caravan should be arriving in a week or two. We've already got a lot of things ready to trade.
22nd Galena, 260
Today was pretty busy. Things started off with a bit of a rush when somepony came to trotting through the center of town letting everypony know that Bubbles had been taken by a strange mood. She was busying herself at one of the craftspony shops when I saw her on my way to the trade depot to speak with the zebra merchants.
As has become a bit of a tradition, we traded a lot of Skillet's best food for what we're in short supply of here. We got some exotic drink, a bit of cheese, a fair bit of leather and some wooden items to save on local wood.
While this was all going on, I'm told that a number of badger ponies were caught in the trap system around the mines and the gate. That's when something unsettling hit me. It didn't really bother me. What has happened to me that I don't really care about it? Maybe this stress really is getting to me.
I also set up a stockpile of steel discs for diamond dogs and badger ponies to steal from. Looks like one was taken already, so maybe we'll see diamond dog ambushes and badger pony sieges soon. I can hope anyway.
1st Limestone, 260
I've been planning on doing this for a while now, but we finally started on the new housing for the larger families. Some families here are as large as ten ponies, and that's just too much to keep in the small rooms most ponies live in. We finished the first new home today, and Glaze's family was randomly chosen to be the first to move in.
I'm hoping we can finish them all fairly soon. The children are all growing up so fast now, we're going to need new rooms anyway.
I just hope nopony gets jealous.
6th Limestone, 260
Bubbles finished her project today, which turned out to be one of the strangest things I've seen in my life.
How she fashioned a bunch of bones together into the shape of a whip I'm not entirely sure, but I saw a demonstration and it certainly works. I'm not too sure on what we'll do with it either. For now I'm letting her keep it since she made it. If we find a use for it in the future we'll buy it back off of her.
Detergent also gave birth today to another filly: a little earth pony the family named Autumn. I'm wishing now she'd gotten the new home, but another should be built soon, so hopefully her family will get it. They're going to need it with so many children!
Speaking of children, I saw Panacea earlier today to get a checkup. I've known it for a few months now, but she confirmed I'm pregnant again. I'm due in two or three months by her estimates.
When I first suspected I was pregnant, I was pretty excited, but after what happened at the end of last year, I'm not so sure. This isn't a good time to be bringing children into the world. I admit that I'm still more than a bit frightened about the whole prospect. At least I have Glaive and the rest of my guard to rely on. I really do sleep better at night with them watching me.
I realized that some of my mane has actually fallen out from all of the stress, but that seems to be reversing itself now, thank goodness. Panacea agreed that it was probably just nerves. I think she's getting really worried about me, and I suppose I give her lots of reason to worry. I hate that she's getting upset over me, but I'll be fine.
12th Limestone, 260
It's been a while since Naginata last had a foal, but today she had her sixth foal: a little earth pony colt the family named Espadon. I'm more convinced now than ever that the new housing was a good idea. We may have to build more than we last thought. I'm not sure what the qualifying criteria should be, but maybe four foals? Perhaps it will have to be a case-by-case thing.
In any case, I gave her some time off as usual for when anypony gives birth. We need her to help keep the militia on their hooves, but that doesn't justify forcing her back to work right away. Halberd can keep things together for a little while without her.
28th Limestone, 260
I'm not sure I've ever had quite such a rush of conflicting emotions as I experienced today. I wasn't due to give birth for at least another month, but nature decided that today was the day, and I gave birth a bit preterm. I was extremely worried about it, since I knew that was dangerous for the baby, but as usual Panacea's skill shone and everything went alright. She told me that it was almost certainly all of the stress I've experienced that caused it. Which did little to lift my spirits.
But then I saw her. My little earth pony filly. She looks just like me. I've secretly been wanting another daughter for a long time now, but Harvest Moon and I have been trying to put it off after so much has gone wrong lately. But nature makes up its own mind, and little Serenity came into the world today.
That's the name we gave her. Everything about her is just so calming, and heaven knows I need something to help stay calm these days. She's also a little weak, since she's a month early, but Panacea assures me she'll be okay.
But right now, I'm exhausted, so that's enough writing for today.
12th Sandstone, 260
The last of the new larger housing units was finished today, and Naginata and Marbles moved in with their children. Naginata insisted on being the last to move in, and it actually took some convincing to get her to do so at all. With their new colt though, she reluctantly agreed. I know they'll be happier there, and she has certainly earned it.
Otherwise, we've set up a trap in the second cavern layer to help clear it of any large monsters. I hope we pull it off correctly this time. After what happened last time, I think we learned our lesson.
What could go wrong? Keep reading.
19th Sandstone, 260
We had another small group of migrants arrive today. Two more soldiers, and two civilians. We had a pegasus mare clothier named Quilt, and a unicorn stallion named Silver Tongue, who claims to be a bit of a counselor. That's something I think we can all agree is much needed in Dawnpick.
The soldiers were a unicorn stallion named Voulge, who is joining the militia, and a pegasus mare named Yari who is joining the guard. That puts us up to ten regular militia and five guardsponies. It's still a very small number. I hope more than ever we can somehow arrive at a peaceful arrangement with the rainbow ponies.
28th Timber, 260
I guess it was too much to be hopeful for. That we'd set up the trap without any incident. Almost exactly the same thing went wrong this time. Diamond Shard pierced her way into the caverns from the trap, with the militia and guard standing by.
They failed to seal it up in time, and two monsters broke their way inside. Thank goodness Diamond shard managed to get behind the soldiers.
Bardiche was the first to respond, and caught the brunt of the attack. He held off a giant monstrous lizard by himself until help arrived, but when they got there two of his hooves were crushed and one of his ribs was badly broken. Kukri managed to slay the monster and rescue him just as the second beast made it inside.
Halberd responded immediately and tore the thing apart, hacking it to pieces with his axe despite the fact it was somehow made of what appeared to be solid stone. Several of the militia got caught in clouds of noxious gas from the attacks, but they don't seem to be showing any symptoms.
I'm very worried about Bardiche though. He hasn't been here long at all, and he came to defend us from the rainbow ponies, not monsters underground. Panacea said that his lung hadn't been punctured though, so he's going to be fine. I trust her, but I can't help but worry anyway.
I don't need to start that again... my mane is going to fall out completely if I do.
Yes, I can't get this right. When am I going to remember to set up a burrow or something to get a pony to stand next to the levers before I open up the caverns?
16th Opal, 260
The early warning spells were triggered again by yet another monster in the caverns. We've got a means of dealing with them now at least... but it's going to be an eternal fight. I don't have the will or the strength for it though.
In somewhat related but no less alarming news, Kit and Kat spotted a diamond dog in the moat where we were expanding the walls.
They managed to kill him, but now the moat is... polluted... to put it nicely. At least we have Stiletto and Flux's water purifier to take care of that. In any case, we're going to redouble our efforts to finish fixing the curtain wall with the extra space. We'll need that space for houses one day, but in the mean time I don't want diamond dogs or badger ponies sneaking inside.
Kit and Kat shot him up, reloaded, and shot him up some more. They tore up just about every part of his body before he finally bled to death. You'd think he'd have drowned long before then...
5th Obsidian, 260
We had two ponies grow up today: Brownie Bits and Aurora. The families held a join celebration, which I thought went very nicely. This afternoon Brownie Bits went to go talk to Skillet about helping out with some of the cooking, and Aurora went off to talk with the craftsponies about learning some of their trades.
We're going to have to start finding more work for the children who are growing up. It's getting stretched pretty thin as it is, but we're a small community that wants for little.
2nd Slate, 261
I feel a little safer today, knowing that we finished patching up the curtain wall. We still don't quite need new housing, but we will soon, and I don't want anypony without a home. At least it's keeping the masons busy. We may have to expand the walls again at some point. If we do we may have to find a new way to expand the moat. Nopony got hurt, but I worry about the possibilities if we have to try again.
13th Slate, 261
I spoke with the liaison today, and trade with the home caravan for about the same things as usual. About fifty thousand bits worth of steel and steel arms and armor were sent back home to Coupledye, and we traded for a few smaller things like cloth and hospital supplies for a bit of food.
The thing I was most shocked about though was the liaison telling me that I've been elevated to duchess!
After I spoke with him last year... after that very unpleasant conversation, I feared I'd be relieved of duty rather than promoted, but I'm thankful nonetheless. Maybe I've shown Coupledye that I'm not a complete failure. We haven't seen anything out of the rainbow ponies, which worries me. We normally get a caravan from them by now, and I fear that's bad news.
In any case, things are looking up. No news is good news I suppose.
14th Slate, 261
Want to find out what happens when you turn the Active Invader flag on a unit in Runesmith? Read on!Early morning, on the 14th of Slate, 261“I told you, I want to speak with the countess!” the earth pony mare shouts, slamming a hoof down on the mayor's desk. Longshot frowns and shakes his head.
“And I told you she's busy. You can tell me whatever it is you've got to say.” This was getting nowhere, and the rainbow diplomat was steadily growing more and more furious at him deflecting her away from Virtue. That was only cementing things more solidly in his head that he was doing the right thing. Virtue had been extremely upset for as long as he could remember, and he was going to do everything he could to shield her from this.
The mare glares at him. “I've got nothing to say to
you.” She snorts. “I want to speak to the countess.
She is going to answer for what happened here last year, and nopony else.”
Longshot shakes his head again. “Do I have to go through this a
third time? I've already told you what happened twice. She's just going to say the same thing. It was all a horrible misunderstanding that turned into an even more horrible tragedy.”
“Tragedy?
Tragedy? How many ponies are dead? A dozen? For all I know you murdered them all and you could tell me anything I wanted to hear!”
“What
do you want to hear? Hmm?” he questions, losing the last bits of his patience. He was about two more shouts in his face away from having her removed from Dawnpick. She was about the worst diplomat he'd ever had an opportunity to meet, and if she was just going to shout at them he was going to show her the door. And
not Virtue's.
She stands and slams both hooves on his desk. “I'll give you one more chance to let me speak to her!”
That's it. He'd had enough. He raises a hoof to his door. “Request denied. You've done nothing but antagonize over this entire thing and you're not speaking to anypony else until you calm down. I suggest you leave.”
Whatever he expected her to do, it wasn't what she did. The world spun for a moment as her hoof slams into his jaw, knocking him from his chair. “
That is what I think of you and your town!” she scoffs. “You murder our people and then show this sort of lack of respect?”
Longshot doesn't respond. He simply leaps from his position on the ground and barrels into her, pinning her to the floor. His expression shifts to an angry glare as he considers what he'd like to do to her, but knows he shouldn't. He'd met giant lions with better manners, and they were all in the butcher's shop right now. As his thoughts race, he is launched into the air by her kicking him clear, and he lands heavily on the desk.
The mare lets out a wrathful growl and pulls a dagger from the recesses of her robes. Without another word she leaps upon him and plunges the weapon deep into his belly. Longshot lets out a startled shriek as the blade digs into his stomach, and as she retracts it blood spurts from the deep wound. In desperation he kicks her aside and rolls off the desk. Pain explodes through him again as he lands on his hooves, and he lets out a frightened shout, “Help! Help, somepony!”
He backs away from the maddened mare and dodges another swing of the dagger. The roof was too low to fly away, and he was bleeding all over the place. The pain begins to grow, and he knows he won't be able to fight her off for much longer.
As another blow misses him by a hair, the doors fly open and a striped pegasus mare brandishing a sword gallops in. The next few terror filled seconds seem to go by in a flash of the pegasus' blade, and the last thing he remembers seeing before blacking out was the diplomat's head dropping to the floor and blood fountaining in his face.
They grow up so fast... she's already got her first decapitation.*****************
Virtue's Diary
If I had any hopes of the rainbow pony incident being a thing of the past, they were dashed today. Longshot talked with their diplomat, who arrived without a caravan. Their discussion somehow turned into a fight, and the diplomat drew a weapon and stabbed him.
I'm still beyond words to describe how I feel about that.
I stayed with Longshot for hours though. He told me everything. He even told me that it was his idea to have the diplomat speak with him instead of me because he was so worried about me. I'm touched that he cares so much about me... and I fear if I had spoken with her I'd be dead, not just lying in the hospital like he is.
I was pretty torn up about that of course. Longshot is one of my oldest friends here in Dawnpick. To see him hurt... particularly over me... is heart wrenching. Panacea said that the stab wasn't as bad as it looked, and that he'd be okay. I'm thankful for any silver lining there is to this cloud. I could not ask for better friends than those two.
That's going to make the future that much darker though. War with the rainbow ponies is inevitable now I fear.
Longshot is going to be alright. But I don't know that I will be. I won't be getting any sleep tonight. Or tomorrow, I fear.
Author
Topic: Dawnpick (My Little Fortress) (Read 225551 times)