Chapter 61, 62, and 63 are up! Lets talk about the mutant life in the Wasteland.

So lest talk nasty mutant besties.

In my stories they have sometimes played a minor danger, other times a serous threat, but the main theme is that they are always around, just outside of civilization. From the paradise dragons of the Marewaii islands to the nightstalkers that roam the Equestria wastelands, they are dangers of which take many pony lives a year. As for how this could affect the ponies themselves, I imagine it makes no go zones for said ponies, were no settlement or trade rout will go. Some adventures ponies may investigate such places, as they are sometimes places were lost tech can be found, but simply hunting the beasts for their meat and skins is a good prize alone.

As for the main affect on ponies, I say the violent mutant wildlife would effect trade routs, such as what happened in "V is for Venom" where merchants trying to avoid raiders ended up as food for nightstalkers. The beasts would be unpredictable, considerably aggressive, and how you would die is utterly nightmarish, add in that you're not going to exactly know what is out there at the time, it makes a terrifying threat. Getting venomized by nightstalkers, eaten alive by yao guai, getting shot by bloat sprites, blood drained by giant mosquitos, nipped apart by geckos, so on and so forth. Now add on the face you may not even see them coming, and it can justify why ponies would have so very few trade routs to use.

I imagine that raiders would know this, and it's were the toll boots come from. Most times the raiders do nothing, just camping doing in a safe stretch of road and forcing ponies to give them free stuff, but sometimes they do keep the wildlife from moving in. Simple acts of making a lot of noise, or hunting the smaller wildlife easily deters the bigger more dangerous animals from moving in. Something not lost on merchants, as any road that has had the raiders removed will soon have mutant wildlife move in. It also happens to be that having a few heavily armed dumb guards to intimidate raiders is cheaper then having skilled hunters to keep the animals away. Because of this, merchants and other ponies are far more willing to pay raiders off, then deal with the wiled life, as the raiders may beat you, rob you, even rape you, but in the end your still alive, the wiled life out there will just kill and eat you.

Hot spots for mutant animal activity would be rivers infested with mirlerlurk like monsters, forests and mountains with whatever can hid in there, and former settlements with plenty of hiding spots. The runind cities would generally be safe from monsters, but thats mostly becuse of all the ghouls roaming about, and that it is easier for ponies to actually hunt the bests there. Also long empty stretches of road are generally safe, mainly because you can see them coming and shoot at them.

Overall, the presence of all the mutant animals would add to why Equestria had not recovered in 200 years, as they would further restrict ponies from growing and thriving. Whenever a settlement would grow and their need for recourses and space with it, clashes with the mutant wildlife would happen. If the settlement is not properly armed all the time, and new walls not constructed, tragedy would inevitably happen. it's also possible that unsafe expansion of a settlement could result in the death of a settlements, and once some beasts can gat in, eventual others beasts will follow, and cripple the settlement as necessary ponies will likely be killed off. such things like bramin and other livestock would atracked the predictors, but not just that but rats and other pests will too. Eventually a successful and large settlement would be under constant watch by said mutant animals, by their rivals, and by any raiders looking for easily stuff. In time this would cause a collapse if the settlement has no way to keep ponies from leaving, or keep them from dyeing.

That said, the use of the Gardens of Equestria would change things for the better, clearing up land for not just ponies, but for the wildlife too. With both having more breathing room, clashes between ponies and beasts would drop significantly and settlements could expand with less dangers. Not that clashes would end, but the mutant animals are still animals, and would avoid conflict if they can. this would also open a few more trade routs, mainly because they were no longer covered in chaotic radiation anymore, thus reducing the places raiders can take over and just force ponies to pay them. An overall improvement for a rather shitty place to live, and hope for things to get better.

Comments

[Btf16]

As it's something that gets brought up in Fallout lore that haveing to share space with the mutant life is generally hazardous to Humans, same with a lot of other works of post apocalyptic fiction. I listen to a series called Deathlands and they have issues with the "wild life" all the time.