The Littlehorn Valley Recordings · 11:03am Mar 21st, 2014
art by Sushimytaco
Previously in Beyond Equestria...
Beyond the crenelated walls, the Luna Academy for Young Unicorns was one a beautiful, almost monastic village with cobblestone streets, academic towers, and a central courtyard lined with trees, boxed plants and benches facing towards an open yard with a simple yet elegant crescent moon mosaic.
Now, a soft pink haze drifts over the rubble and across the broken walls, catching the light as the setting sun breaks through thin fissures in the clouds.
Golden_Dream was led into this place, her friends following, by a reaper pony who folded in its wings, wrapping them about it like a black cloak, beckoned towards the school, and hopped down into the cobblestone walkways between the crumbling and Pink-infused structures.
The group became separated from their spectral guide for a while. In their attempts to follow, they came across several audio recordings by a griffin -- once the chaplin of Shatara's Stable -- who had come here years ago in an attempt to make contact with the mysterious entities known as the reapers.
Those who read my blogs are familiar with Beyond Equestria, the Fallout: Equestria tabletop roleplaying campaign that I have been running for a bit over a year now, based on one of the story ideas detailed in my blog The Ones That Stick With Me. In that game, as well as my (now over) Stalliongrad game, I've continued building and developing the lands and history of the world of Fallout: Equestria. (These developments and additions are, of course, only headcanon.)
Most recently, as of the writing of this blog, the group which you met in my Crystal Empire Blues blog entries have made their way to Crescent Moon Canyon, at the edge of the isthmus into the zebra lands. There, in Littlehorn Valley, they have found the ruins of the Luna Academy for Young Unicorns, and have encountered something most rare and terrifying: reapers.
from Pink Eyes by mimezinga:
Warning: SPOILER
“—really, really late and I know I actually have all the time in the universe, but I hate these kinds of anomalies and this one has been going on for two hundred years! I’m beginning to lose my cool, there are a lot of better places I’d like to be rather than here!” A skeleton wearing a black hood was talking in Puppy’s direction, but he seemed to talk to himself more than the foal.
The little filly smiled. That skelly pony was funny, he was talking like those grumpy ponies at the veteran retirement house! “Hi, I’m Puppysmiles! Have you seen my mom?”
“Oh, please! Not that litany again! I’m going to resign, or strike! Or strike and then resign!”
The skeleton pony was interrupted by the giggling filly. “Tee-hee, skelly pony is funny!”
Stopping his monologue, the grim reaper finally noticed that the foal was looking at him. “You... can you see me? Is this some sort of prank? Because if this is a prank I’m going to give up for real, this time...”
Puppy tilted her head. “A prank? I hope not! Last time I made a prank I was spanked ultra hard!”
The pony paused for a long moment before falling down on his haunches, with a ghostly sigh. “At last...”
Puppy trotted near to the weird looking stallion and sniffed his clothes. “Ah, who are you, pretty skelly pony?”
“Me? I’m the Grim Reaper, Death, the Inevitable End, the Black Stallion...” From the foal’s blank stare, the skeleton realized that he was just wasting good words. ”But my colleagues call me Mort. Long story short, I’m the guy that shows the deceased how to reach their afterlife.”
Puppy tilted her head, confused. “So... Have you seen my mom, or not?”
Reapers, or "reaper ponies", were only vaguely mentioned in Fallout: Equestria, but have been utilized in several other tales since.
art by SlashySmiley
Now, I present to you the Littlehorn Valley Recordings: a series of audio logs found in the ruins of Luna's Academy.
(As a special treat, as with the Gaia Valley Recordings, these recordings are also available as readings by the marvelous Scorch Mechanic! 
)
art by Sushimytaco
The first recording that the Beyond Equestria group found was this, discovered by the body of a dead griffin beneath an eerie rune drawn in chalk made from the bones of dead children.
----- OOO -----
(…ungff…) I know I said the last one was the last, but I lied. Need to keep talking. (…huuuuuff…) If I pass out, or fall asleep, I’m dead.
Several of the ponies that I’ve met out here have told me that I need to find my virtue if I hope to survive in the wastes of their former homeland. (…unngh…) Well, I don’t know about a virtue, but I have certainly found my vice. (…uuugh…) Envy is one of the oldest sins, but few can grip a heart like it can. What else but such a severe character flaw could bring me to an end in such a horrid place?
(…hunnnnn…) I’m beginning to regret not having numbered these. My pack… tore open in the fight last night, and my meager remaining belongings, including the recordings before this, were scattered through the buildings and streets as I fled the abominations that wear the faces of children. (…huggf…huggf…) If they are not devoured by the Pink Mist, whatever damned explorer finds them will be hard put to piece them together in any order. It would make for a poor final struggle. Still (…hnnngh…), I would like to be remembered.
My name (…unnnph…) is Bonaparte. I was the chaplain in my Stable – an odd job for a griffin, I know, playing intercessor between the Stable flock and those we believed watched over us. But I was more than naturally adept at the role. Perhaps, if I had been born a pony, it would have been my cutie mark.
(…hunff…) …was that? No. (…hunff…) Anyway…
…the Wasteland has little regard for chaplains, and the Talons little use for a griffin with no skills in fighting. I had no place here and even less power, forced to rely on the expertise of others to survive. And worse, observing that even should I attempt to master a skill, I could not hope to match those about me – griffins who had been training since childhood, ponies whose talents and inherent magic gave them an entirely unfair edge. (…huuuh... huuuh… huunh…) To be mediocre was the best I could hope for.
And I envied them. Enough that I was willing to risk life and feather to come to this accursed place in the vain hope that here I would find a power that could make me their equal. And indeed, I suppose I have. For we are all (…unngh…) equal in the power to perish.
----- OOO -----
The remainder of Bonaparte's recovered audio logs were discovered randomly, but have been put into chronological order for your reading (and listening) pleasure below:
----- OOO -----
I see dead people.
I presume I have always been able to, but that the Stable afforded a dearth of ghosts. I have always felt as if I was somehow connected (in tune, I suppose) with the other side. The supposition certainly facilitated my career in the Stable.
Not as useful, I must say, as the not entirely dissimilar ability of some zebras to see into the realm of the spirits. True ghosts are not only exceptionally rare, but the few that can affect anything on this side of the veil are even moreso. And those that can appear severely disinterested in lending their services to the living. So much so that I have questioned whether doing so is taboo for them (although I find it hard to believe that ghosts can even form a culture)… or perhaps dangerous, although that would require there be something that can harm that which is already dead and departed.
I finally found a ghost – a little filly in the ruins of a farmhouse along the old zebra incursion line – who was willing to provide an answer to my query. One word: reapers.
----- OOO -----
----- OOO -----
If all I am good for is to barter with those beyond this life – those above or below us – then perhaps I can barter for the skills to be a force in this wasted world rather than just a shadow.
Ghosts do not bargain, and unlike the zebras, I cannot touch the world of spirits within the realm of life. But… what if there were spirits in the realm of death? The zebras traffic with spirits of life; could there not be spirits of death as well? Just because the zebras know of no such things does not mean they are not real – perhaps they merely exist in the realm that zebras cannot touch, but that I can? Wouldn’t that be part and partial of their very nature?
I intend to discover if my suspicions are true. And, if so, to make contact. My new obsession is more than fancy; it is grounded in the religion and mythology of every known sentient species. All have their tails of reapers – reaper ponies, reaper zebras… even we have our tales of skeletal guides to the afterlife, dark wings in the final night.
And there is something out there that ghosts are afraid of.
But where to look?
I reason that the most qualified to inform and guide me would be the ghost of a zebra shaman. Who else has touched both worlds as fully? Granted, I have not encountered any such ghost before, but I know where I might look. The Lunar Military established several internment camps for zebra prisoners of war. I have learned that such “social re-adjustment” camps existed in Stalliongrad and in Froggy Bottom Bog… and, supposedly, in the fabled city of the Crystal Empire.
One is considerably closer than the others.
----- OOO -----
----- OOO -----
Out of that swamp! At last, the light guides me true! Never again will I step foot or talon into that wretched, cursed place. And take my words to heart, anyone who hears this: neither should you.
The name Froggy Bottom Bog does not strike terror as does Splendid Valley or The Everfree Forest, much less the sinister reputation that the Ruins of Canterlot once had. But I am convinced that is only because too few have escaped, and those who did failed to survive long enough to spread the warning. (True, there are those who make frequent passage into the bayou. Do. Not. Trust. Them!)
Suffice it to say that feuding tribes of zebra necromancers is far from the only danger to your body and soul that infests the darkest stretch of the Ponytomic. Nor the worst.
Still, I leave the swamp with more than I entered (not counting the wounds which will never heal) – the reapers are real! And it is possible to bargain with them.
----- OOO -----
----- OOO -----
I... <huff huff> I h-had to. <huff huff> T-to kill him. The Enclave scout. I regret it. He was friendly, guided me out of the Pegasus pony’s territory. Even offered me provisions when I was st-starving. But <huff huff> I saw it in his eyes! The moment he learned I was h-headed for Luna’s old <huff huff> academy. H-he was going t-to report… the Enclave would h-have come, <huff huff> would have stopped me!
I-I’m too close. F-fortunately <huff huff>he d-didn’t see it coming. Claws on throat. <huff huff> I-I’m no skilled fighter, but I am a griffin. I can <huff huff> use what those Above have g-given m-me.
<huff huff>
It was fast. But… so m-much blood. Everything’s r-red. <huff huff>
P-pull it together. I’m almost there. What’s one d-death, when the r-reapers will <huff huff> give me the power to d-do something worthwhile. Maybe even c-change the wasteland. L-little s-sacrifices.
----- OOO -----
----- OOO -----
They’re here!
The story tells that when Littlepip first saw the Canterlot ghoul, Lionheart, she mistook him for a reaper pony. Seeing them for myself, I can understand her mistake, and yet the truth of them is so much grander and more terrifying than she imagined.
The journey was perilous, between the Enclave and the cold, but it was worth every struggle. The old zebra’s ghost was right. The ruins of Luna’s old school is crawling with reapers.
----- OOO -----
----- OOO -----
My forays into the ruins have been, by necessity, intense and brief. There is Pink Cloud here – thin, blanketing the scholastic villa like a weak mist – but deadly all the same. I cannot fathom why it lingers. The weapon that killed this place, while terrible, was no megaspell; there is no dragon here to breathe it. The mystery, however, must wait until I can find a sanctuary within the school where I may rest and attempt to communicate with the resident Reapers.
They pay no attention to me, save for the one with the burning hooves, who yesterday followed some distance behind me as I flew out of the Pink Mist, gasping for good air. But it did not follow beyond the academy’s decayed wall. They are not as… homogenous as they first appear. I can now distinguish a few from the others from differences in behavior or physical appearance -- the one whose hooves crackle with fire, the one who turns its wings into a cloak, the one with the shattered horn.
My musings wax poetic. What draws them here? Why haunt these toppled towers and decaying dormitories? Why does death incarnate still trod spectral hooves over cracked cobblestones and crumbling crenelations? So many of the dark, skeletal death-spirits haunt this place where none have lived for centuries. Certainly, Luna’s Academy for Young Unicorns was a place of world-felt tragedy. But with the scope of the war and the wasteland that followed, it is unfathomable that…
…
…
That was close! There are things that dwell and shuffle here other than the Reapers!
----- OOO -----
----- OOO -----
One of them approached me last night, the one with the hooves of flame. (The walls and defenses of my sanctuary meant nothing to it.) It stared into me while I slept, manifesting in my dreams, and we bargained.
Not that I should call it that, for there was little negotiation to be had. They’re offer is terribly straightforward: power for service. I was, it seems, correct in my estimation that the reapers are not a threat – they seem unable to affect the realm of the living directly. That is why they need… emissaries.
If I but accept – let them breathe into my soul, darken a part of it so that it may serve as a conduit of their power – then they will allow me to wield it so long as they can call on me. Even though I am a griffin… as one would expect upon realizing the power comes from something outside myself, and I will merely shape it. Like a canal shapes the water that runs down it.
It is all perfectly logical. Spirits (according to the zebras of Froggy Bottom Bog) house a part of their power and essence in enchanted items, and what are Reapers but a type of spirit? I am shocked that it had never occurred to be before, but why should the Stars Above be the only Ones who can give the gift of necromancy?
When next I sleep, I owe them an answer. But was there ever really a question?
----- OOO -----
----- OOO -----
The task they demand!
They are not subtle, these death-spirits. There is no dance of seduction. No softly whispered enticements, as with the stories of the Stars Above tempting the foolish into damnation with sweet encouragements and concealed costs. With the Reapers, at least, there is no obfuscation.
Still, I do not know if I can kill the children.
All this way. All the cost just to get here, and I hesitate. Even knowing what I know, knowing what they are…
They’re still children.
Oh!
No… no. Master, I was not questioning. I understand!
They are a blight. Trapped souls in need of release. I will give them to you; do not take my power. Please! I will end the children, or I will die trying. I promise you this…!
----- OOO -----
art by Sushimytaco
I have no woerds... Your tales are fascinating.
That.... was pretty damn interesting. Love these little tastes of the world, just make me really want to know the full story. And yet, can piece a lot of it together from just the hints.
So, a good amount of the foals were turned into ghouls by the device... though curious how that works if the ghoulification process is a side effect of Megaspell radiation and that wasn't a megaspell.... Or.. are they talking about the foals like Puppeh, the ones from Canterlot that wandered away and went feral?
Either way, so The Reapers dislike ghouls I'm guessing, and want to use him as a means to kill them, to let their spirits pass on, in exchange for power he wants. Well, deffintly an interesting set up.
And, like he said, straight forward, no hiding, no tricking, just, "Do this for us, we'll do this for you" without any attempts at tricking, rules lawyering, any of the stuff you normally have to worry about with making deals with darker entities. With just the little we know, Reapers come across to me as, somewhere in the middle of Death of Discworld and The Arbiters.
So they don't like, but cant do anything about, ghouls from the sounds of it. While ghosts, they could do something about if they encountered them, hence the ghosts doing their best to stay low and not attract attention. Which given other headcanons, like the RD one, could lead to some interesting scenes. Now I have the image of RD meeting a Reaper that tries to collect her, and just turning around and bucking it's head off before flying away.
But, interesting little addition, not really sure how I feel about it over all, not quite enough detail to really know, but some interesting ideas. Though really want to know what the hell was going on in Froggy Bottom Bog.
1943683 If they hate ghouls, what does that make Blackjack, considering shes died twice (Three times? Four?)
1943765 You'll forget it. everyone does.
What chapter are you up to?
1943758 A lot of things I'm better off not saying. Yeah, not a fan of PH would be a massive understatement.
And not sure that's how they feel, but that's just the impression I get from those recordings.
But kkat, a question for you if you didn't mind? With the littlehorn agent, and its nature, are you suggesting, or viewing it as a necromantic spiritual medium in this? Yes, it kills the living, but in this as your headcannon, as you mention, it seems a kind of veil to the other side that it pierces as well. Am I wrong in arriving to this conclusion? That those whom are drawing upon this, both in canterlot, and in other rare places are not so much ghouls quite accurately, but beings whom are drawing upon the magic of unlife not unlike the reapers?
I ask, in this, as for all the death that occurs, especially among the raiders, they seem almost a natural occurrence, and happening far more than mere coincidence to be anything more than a directed source of power for something, like this. It may seem a paranoid viewing, but there is an odd way to it, that when looked upon with these, that you find a common goal among each of these groups.
1943683 That does beg the question. Are they willing to bend deaths rules to ensure those long ready, or freshly so to ensure those truly ready for the afterlife are taken? Its a slippery slope, but if they are not picky, a follower is very likely few and far between, and valued much more so than those whom deal death so wantonly among the raiders. For it is specific deaths those mediums seek.
what confuses me is what is part of the story of the original, and what isn't.
and how can it be head canon if it was originally your idea to begin with. it would be like lauren faust herself saying "it was my head canon that nightmare moon is actually a cursed luna".
still a lot of it sounds itnereseting. though it leaves me wondering something. what of the rest of the wolrd? the zebra lands and equestria are only two nations. likely there has to be others.
1943872 Well we know there are Griffon lands somewhere, as well as Saddle Arabia. So yeah there are other lands, but, given how bad things would be IRL from that kind of exchange, odds are only the ones furthest from Equestria or Zebrica would be spared from the fallout. So likely better off, but not as well off as they could be.
New Quest Perk: Psychopomp and Circumstance
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Seriously, though, exquisitely creepy. Thank you as always for sharing this additional lore.
Also, I continue to be impressed by your humility in proclaiming these explorations of the wider world of the Equestrian Wasteland no more than headcanon. Your respect for your creation and for others who wish to make use of it is incredible.
1943883 then again one has to wonder how toxic, mtuative magic differs from actual radiation. does it travel far like radiation or does it seep into its surroundings more.
Gee, I wonder who the party ended up fighting, given what they were playing as...
The reapers' aims are morally grey, but then, everything's either gray or glowing green in the Wasteland.
I find myself wondering when Bonaparte lived and died. Late enough to speak of Littlepip, but soon enough to convince himself that the power to change things was still worth killing for.
I get kind of sad, reading and listening to these memory orbs, because it reminds me that there are so many things in the Fo:E universe that I won't be able to read about. Really interesting story here.
1943968
From The Ones That Stick With Me:
1944104 That's when the party finds the recordings. Bonaparte was at some point before that. But after Sunshine and Rainbows.
1944128
Oh, I didn't think about that. Well, I guess there's still a range of around 80 years.
1944128
There's a piece of information Kkat didn't put in this post (as it's not really super relevant to the actual recordings so much as the game itself). Bonaparte was the preacher from Shatara's Stable. The recordings aren't more than a few years old, at most. Likely less than that.
1943683
There's some extenuating circumstances going on in these particular ruins that are motivating the Reapers to do what they're doing here. From what we can tell, this is not normal reaper behavior.
1943790
The Littlehorn Agent is, or is a precursor to, the pink cloud over Canterlot in this story. Complete with all the horrors that entails. Obviously, since FoE itself doesn't specify, it could be whatever in any side-story. But in the context of this game it appears to be the same sort of necromantic gas as was used on Canterlot.
1943872
Anything not actually written in FoE itself is not officially canon to FoE. Even the stuff Kkat writes. It's a deliberate choice because none of that stuff should invalidate any kind of side-story or world building other people do or be considered 'more' or 'less' valid than what others do with the setting. It's just what Kkat imagined for the setting, nothing more.
1944542
That last bit there makes no sense at all. If Kkat declares it canon, then it is. It doesn't matter if it's actually in the original text or the current final form of it. If Kkat declares it otherwise (as is probably the case based on parts of the blog post above), that's one thing, but none of the rest of us have any say in the matter. If Kkat wants to invalidate everyone else's FoE side stories and/or world-building that's too bad for them.
1944939 Ummm, that IS Kkat's stance on these. They are no more canon then anything you'd find in a side fic. If you want to treat them as your headcanon for your stories, feel free. But only those things written in FOE are inarguablely 'canon' and 100% DID happen.
1944946
Sorry, you missed my point and the fact that I acknowledged that particular detail already. Regardless, that is only true because Kkat said so in this case, it's not intrinsically so. Perhaps I argue semantics, but if your favorite mainstream author decided to change the middle of their book to be different or some other such thing and then republished it would replace the previous version/edition and become the official, "correct" one. The original author holds the power in that regard. Kkat could remove things from FOE and they would, in fact, cease to be canon and never have happened.
1944163 It is very good. I enjoyed it in the way I enjoy reading the Game of Throne novels.
1943786 So the point of this message was to.... ?
1945211 You don't need to be smart, but a good memory (or a pen and notepad) is probably a good thing.
1945226 it's not confusing like inception, just long.
VERY long, and very many things happen.
1945236 FOE beats the LoTR page number, and perhaps the word number.
GoT's has FOE beat in the first two books, and there are 7 currently, with another 2 (or 3 if GRRM is lazy) coming.
1944939
Until such a point at which Kkat decides to officiate something as canon, nothing outside the core story is canon. The only thing I know of which Kkat has done so with is Chapter 20.5 which was written by someone else to fit into the story. This includes stuff Kkat herself has written.
It's worth remembering the context in which I posted what I did as well. The question I was responding to was the person not understanding what part of this story is canon and what is not and being confused about how head canon works for a story you created. In short, unless it appeared in the story, it's head canon. The same way that if Lauren Faust posts a comment on Twitter about the way she imagines the MLP:FiM universe working which is never stated or appears in the show, it's head canon regardless of the source.
1945254
When you say LoTR (Lord of The Rings) are you included just the three novels or the silmarillion and other books. I mean granted their separate, but there is a fair chunk of other material Tolkien wrote that you have to consider. LoTR builds on top of his other writings even though you can build it alone. Yes, I suppose FoE does too, but we don't have access to an actual text/manuscript written by Bethesda outlining core details of Fallout Lore do we?
1946679
You don't seem to get what I'm saying so there's not much point to this. YOU don't get to decide what's canon. In any case I disagree on what is head canon at some level. There is a difference in my mind between intentions about story backstory that you had but didn't write into the story proper and thoughts that came later where you speculate not about how it is, but how it could have been.
Since Lauren Faust isn't the writer/developer of MLP:FiM anymore (at the moment?) she doesn't really have any control. Technically everything she wrote/came up with is headcanon of a sort about what MLP could be and it was until Hasbro effectively authorized it. The show is a mess of sorts in this regard, because the ideas were hers originally and so at some level the show can be considered a head canon of her work... one possible way she could have made it. In a way if she says the MLP:FiM works differently than the show puts it then it is canon and show becomes headcanon.
1947094
Ilushia is correct. Nothing that I write post-completion of Fallout: Equestria is to be taken as canon -- it is merely my headcanon. That way, it is not anything that other writers need to worry about conforming to.
1947080 Google the Fallout Bible, it's pretty much all we will get from Black Isle Studios on where it could have gone, and I just meant the trilogy, and the appendices for each book.
I am aware of the Silmarillion, Melkor is best over-villain.
1948581
Cool. Hadn't heard of it. I hadn't played Fallout at all until maybe 2-3 years ago at most, despite having watched some people play Fallout 3 and New Vegas occasionally.
Very nice, and the audio files added just that little bit more, clearly you put more effort into these things than most will.
Damn, these are creepy.
I'm guessing Bonaparte was encountered and fought at some point in this campaign?
1949535 Actually, we pretty much just found his bones on a wall somewhere when we started to look for the recordings because one of the party members is a lorehound. Sounds anti-climatic, but keep in mind this was at the very beginning and we didn't have any expectations on who this guy was from the get-go.
1968209
Makes sense to me.