Glitterglen

by Khenal

Strike the Earth!

Sitting in a wagon, traveling through the wilderness, rode a depressed looking Unicorn named Charity. At a glance it wasn't hard to see why she might have been depressed; for a unicorn she was quite unattractive, downright ugly in fact. She was broad and fat, her purple eyes stood out in an unnatural way from her boring beige coat, now caked with mud from the jungle. Her hair, a multitude of colors, none of which had any business being nearby each other, was terribly unkempt. However, she, like most unicorns, was convinced of her own perfection. No, her source of pain laid elsewhere, specifically the events of the last few weeks.

Charity had been born into a wealthy noble family in the Town of Tailentranced, the capital of The Shells of Dance. She had lived a very happy life there, as a production manager, determining who did what and when. She was always more comfortable telling others what to do, than doing it herself.

All was good for Charity until one day she was accused of stealing thousands of bits worth of masterwork goods from the treasury. She had pleaded innocent, claimed she had been framed, but the Princess, a Pegasus named Dizesh Hugwax was unimpressed and sentenced her to exile. Her previous status was not totally forgotten however, and she was given a chance to regain her good name. Charity was given a small pile of supplies, and few beasts of burden, and six ponies, convicted of mostly minor crimes, who chose to go with her instead of stay in prison. Together they made up The Vermin of Twilight (a name chosen by the General Dostob Desserttaper) and the 7 of them were tasked with building a thriving colony in the middle of The Failed Jungles.

The Failed Jungles covers nearly a fifth of the entire known world. It is filled to the brim with the most horrific creatures imaginable. To send 7 ponies into here without the benefit of a military escort, right into the center of the forest, was pure suicide.

On the way there Charity had quickly introduced herself to the 6 convicts. Names had come and gone too fast for her to catch but she had noticed one thing. She was the only unicorn. She had gotten that the female earth pony was a carpenter, and the male one a miner. Also, we had a tough looking boy Pegasus, and smaller pretty pegasus with a long braided mane, who apparently had medical training, and another Pegasus whom she new from the capital as one of the Smith's apprentices. She had shown promise, a shame to be sent on such a likely deadly mission.

Looking over the workers she had Charity was concerned by the lack of anyone in the food industry, but was comforted by the fact that their supplies would last them for a while, and that the Princess had promised to send more “workers” to help out soon.

'Surely one will be an earth pony that we can use to raise some crops.'

After days of travel, she had arrived at the spot the princess had commanded. It was hot, and humid. The sound of a stream could be heard nearby, and according to the map the stream was called Bleachedroot the Pranks of Coincidence. The area was thick with plant life, and heavily forested with trees that looked unnatural, it seemed as if the very forest itself was hostile to the presence of the few terrified ponies. Charity decided that they would name the new fortress something happy, something to show that it was a shining point of civilization inside the harsh and unforgiving jungle. And so it was decided that this would be Glitterglen, Strike the Earth!