//------------------------------//
// 116 
// Story: My Little Fortress: Dawnpick 
// by Paaaad 
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Sarissa's Diary - 16 Obsidian, 258

There has been a lot of tension between Indigo and Stiletto lately, which really is no surprise to me. It came to a head today, where Virtue ultimately decided to go with Indigo's decision to punish her for her behavior. Stiletto was fined 600 bits, but what does that mean to a rich girl like her? Virtue might as well have not done anything at all. I'm a bit concerned about the division she is causing in the fort; I do not want Dawnpick to break into two factions. Plus, the gross lifestyle that little harlot leads is certainly no good influence on the lot of us...

23rd Felsite 259

I can't say that I was ever really that fond of Jaxler after finding out about his drinking problem (it reminds me too much of my mother...), but today I found a new reason to think lowly of him. It turns out that he's wanted for thievery, though I can't say for sure what it is that he's stolen. Although he says that he came to Dawnpick to give up that style of life, I can't bring myself to trust him. I really think his room should be searched for any such pilfered goods. Thankfully, I was able to escort Jaxler to a cell without incident.

Partisan was going to demote him for other reasons (which I can agree to), but Jaxler responded by completely resigning and then proceeded to attack him! Partisan and Kat managed to get the better of him and he ended up in the hospital with a head injury. Part of me wants to laugh at the situation; that drunk finally got his flank handed to him for making a bad decision. On the other hand, I feel disgust and disappointment that someone as highly regarded as a guardspony would stoop so low as to attack a fellow guard in anger. I really hope Partisan pursues justice for that foolish action. Maybe this experience will humble him enough to reconsider his ways. 

16 Galena, 259

Another Diamond Dog showed up today, but it was dead by the time I found out about it. Argh, why am I always elsewhere when these situations arise?! I want to get involved in a real fight again! I train so much but my skills are needed so rarely...

Oh, I do have some good news, though. You know that Vitalsight spell that I had been working on for the past few months? I've finally got it to work to a usable degree! Trying to come up with new spells from scratch isn't my forte, it seems; I had to go read some literature on existing spells to overcome some serious impediments to its function. So far, it seems to do what I want it to. When I activate it, my vision is altered so that I'm able to see the blood in living creatures. It's certainly a weird thing to see, especially since everything that isn't blood becomes black and indistinguishable in that mode. A walking circulatory system made of glowing red light can be a creepy thing to see, but I'll get used to it. Anyway, it should be useful in a battle since I'll be able to see areas of high blood flow and therefore the location of vital organs in my enemies. It'll also come in handy when making sure that my opponents really are dead and not just faking it; the blood in a beating heart will betray their deceptive efforts!

19 Limestone, 259

There seems to be a lot of commotion and depression in the fort today. The pony known as Amber had fallen victim to an accident a while back, but she's only gotten worse due to an infection. Many suggest that she will die. Although I don't know her on a personal basis, I do wish her family the best in dealing with this tragic event. I know there is nothing I can do personally, since I'm no medic.

16 Timber, 259

It turns out that Amber has managed to fight off the infection and is going to be just fine. Well, minus a horn, that is. Poor thing. I couldn't imagine losing my own horn, especially as useful as my telekinetic magic is in battle.




The weather was rather good today, with mild temperatures and a clear sky. Sarissa had just completed a personal weaving project and had decided to get a breath of fresh air outside. At any rate, the bright sunlight would help her examine her work more fully. Despite the fact that she was off duty at the moment, she had the compulsive tendency to wear her armor whenever she roamed outdoors. Elegy and her shield were fastened onto the sides of her flanchards in order to free herself to focus on the tourniquet she had just completed. She had chosen to make it out of red fabric to minimize the effect that any blood stains would have on its appearance. The unicorn was rather pleased by how it came out.

Sarissa tucked it away under the plates of her armor, ready to use it whenever the need may arise. Now what would she do? Roam around the grounds of the fort waiting for something interesting to happen? She did that on a fairly regular basis and was often disappointed. Maybe today would be different, but she wasn't hopeful. If nothing came up, perhaps she could go practice her aim by hacking into some dead trees in the apple orchard. Yeah, that sounded like a good plan.

As she considered her options, Sarissa stopped in her tracks. There was some commotion in the distance. Her ears twisted as the mare tried to pick up the nature of the noise, noting the sounds of galloping and yelling from members of the fort. Narrowing her eyes, Sarissa changed direction and trotted in haste towards the source. She could see several ponies running indoors, shouting something about a monster. A monster? "Aw yeah!" the copper pony said under her breath as her pace increased to a gallop. Using her telekinesis, she pulled Elegy from her side and wielded him by the handle from her mouth. She quickly followed the action by unlatching her shield and holding it just in front of her with the emerald glow of her magic.

What kind of creature was this? Where was it likely to be? Was it already on fort grounds? The most logical place to look would be the entrance. She ran at full tilt in the predicted direction, her ears soon being met with the sound of deep-throated roars. Looks like she was right on the money! Sarissa eyed the drawbridge, which was in the process of being raised in order to protect Dawnpick from the threat just outside. It was too late. The beast placed its great weight on the bridge, causing it to slam back down with an echoing thud. The sudden falling of the bridge caused its wooden construction to be cracked down the middle. The damage was further increased as clawed feet dug into its surface.

Now she could plainly see what it was; a large dragon clad in dark violet scales. It was much larger than any pony. Its green eyes darted back and forth as it seemed to consider its option for targets. Excellent! Her pulse began to race as she salivated in anticipation of the battle just ahead of her. Now she'd have the opportunity to test her new Vitalsight spell in real combat. Why don't we see where your weak spots are? Sarissa's horn emanated its characteristic green light as the flowing magic turned her eyes a bright white color. The world faded into blackness, her sight primed to view only the blood content of the dragon's body. She was left speechless; nothing was showing up. She tried it a second time. Still no good. Before she had time to ask herself what was wrong, the reptilian behemoth had made its way over to a nearby marble statue. In a second, the clawed feet of the dragon had shattered it. It next used its massive tail to smash into one of the walls of the trade depot. The unicorns eyes widened for a moment before narrowing in anger. No more time to fool around.

"Hey!" Sarissa mumbled through her occupied mouth as she ran towards her opponent. It seemed to be ignoring her as it had decided to smash yet another statue. That wasn't acceptable. Arriving at the dragon's side, the unicorn gave the monster a wake-up call by plunging her ax into the flesh of its right front foot. It released a deafening cry of pain as lime-colored blood poured from the wound. Green, huh? That was unexpected. The reptile gritted its teeth in a rage as it turned to face the militia pony. This was followed by a rush of brilliant flames that issued in quantity from its now gaping maw. Military instincts kicked in, causing Sarissa to raise her shield as she crouched down behind it. The stream of fire was deflected by the flat face of the metal, scorching the grass around the unicorn.

Looking up from behind her now-smoking shield, she could see that the dragon's grimacing face was mere feet away from her. She acted reflexively, propelling the shield telekinetically towards it with force. It caught the beast in the mouth, causing it to recoil with a grunt of displeasure as one of its teeth was knocked loose from its lower jaw. Despite its size, this monster didn't seem to tolerate pain very well; time to take advantage of this short-coming. Sarissa traded the placement of her shield and her ax, now gripping the protective plate of metal from behind with her teeth and hoisting Elegy with her telekinetic magic. The fighter raised her weapon high into the air, bringing it down just behind the dragon's twisted horns. It sliced through the purplish-black scales at the base of the neck, plunging deeper until it had severed the spinal chord. In response, it fell to the ground as strength left its legs.

A toothy grin began to creep up onto Sarissa's face. Now it was paralyzed...delicious. She released the shield from her jaws, "You chose to attack Dawnpick, a foolish and ultimately fatal decision on your part. Now I will take what is mine!" The little pony magically pulled the green-stained blade from the back of the dragon's neck. Then plunged it in again. Yanked it out a second time, then brought it down once more. She continued to chop at the prone beast's thick neck as if she were a lumberjack attempting to bring down a tree. Her smile stretched from ear to ear as she cackled in sheer joy. Bright green blood flowed and splattered until she finally sliced all the way down through the dragon's windpipe. The head was now severed.

"You'll make a beautiful addition to my collection..." she stated softly to the deceased monster as she rubbed the scales on its forehead with a hoof. Sarissa was snapped from her thoughts as she noticed the flames from the burned grass had begun to spread. Several other ponies were trying to put out the fire. Her eyes widened as she ran to help quell the blaze. The unicorn continually bashed the grass with her shield in an attempt to halt the spread. Eventually, the situation was brought under control. Unfortunately, quite a bit of vegetation had been torched and the stench of gray smoke lingered in the air. There had been a lot of damage done, but at least nopony seemed to have been harmed by this incident. Sarissa felt a bit guilty that she hadn't stopped the dragon before all of this had happened, but at least she'd offer to help rebuild anything that had been damaged.




8th Obsidian, 259

Today was awesome! Well, okay, maybe I shouldn't say awesome, since some bad things did happen. I guess what I meant was that I finally managed to take joy in battle again. A dragon wandered into Dawnpick and I killed the thing by myself! Did you read that?! I KILLED A DRAGON! I didn't even get hurt in the process. Now I can add a dragon skull to my trophy collection, which should look quite impressive if I do say so myself. It's too bad that it managed to destroy some of our property before I reached it, but at least nopony lost their lives.

Something strange also happened today; I found out that my Vitalsight doesn't work on dragons; it was completely invisible in that mode. I know that the thing did have blood, since I managed to spill quite a bit of it. I thought at first that it might have been because the dragon had green blood, but I can't imagine why that would make a difference. That event prompted me to do some experimenting, so I decided to test Vitalsight on a variety of different animals. Ponies always show up just fine, as do cats. Then I tried looking at fish. It didn't work. The same thing happened when I tested it on a wild lizard. Nothing. Can my Vitalsight only see mammal blood? Why is that? I'm going to do some more experimenting and tweaking to see if I can fix this problem. Wish me luck!