//------------------------------// // 13: Evil Eyes and Martial Trances // Story: My Little Fortress: Dawnpick // by Paaaad //------------------------------// Virtue's Diary - 25th Moonstone, 254 Not too much has been happening in the past few days, so I had a moment to chat with a few members of the militia and see how things were going. Morale seems to be pretty high lately, especially now that everypony is pretty much covered in a nice set of steel to keep them safe. We have just a few more boots to finish, but after that a set of mail shirts all around and they'll be set. They should be pretty much invulnerable to a thief's dagger with that armor, and hopefully if we do see anything bigger they'll be up for it. Glaive had a few things to say about that though, and I think he's right. We've had a few thieves escape because they couldn't catch up, and even though they're getting used to the weight of the armor, they'll never be able to match the speed of a thief in cloth rags. He also pointed out the fact that we don't have anypony trained to use a crossbow in combat, and I can't fault his logic. Brook might still be alive if we'd had some marksponies in light armor ready to spring into action. The problem is finding suitable recruits. Longshot is an amazing shot with his crossbow, but I'm not sure if he would be willing to join the militia. If he ever comes back up for mayor that's another issue. We have a few ponies around who might be willing, perhaps I should ask for volunteers. Or perhaps I could ask the liaison to send some more recruits. We'll see how it works out. Oh, and I noticed that Halberd gave the shield to Glaive. When I asked the captain about it, he said that Glaive was the one who really earned it. Saving the filly from the thief and being the only pony other than Stiletto who could use it, he was the natural choice. I agree completely, he deserves it. I just hope it helps prevent any more injuries for him. 27th Moonstone, 254 Not two days ago I was speaking with the militia about the thieves, and another shows up. A diamond dog hopped into the trench we were digging for our moat and scared Marbles pretty bad. He came running inside shouting and waving his hooves about a thief, and I didn't even have to do a thing. Halberd and Naginata gathered their ponies and charged off after him, and despite our worries over not being able to catch him, the thief seemed to think it was a good idea to charge inside. I hear Naginata put him down in an extremely painful manner. I'm glad I wasn't there to see it in detail. Naginata's Diary - 27th Moonstone, 254 I'm getting quite tired of these thieves. Well, the badger pony thieves moreso than the diamond dogs, but I'm getting sick of both. Yet another diamond dog showed up today, apparently thinking he'd get the jump on Marbles in our dry moat. His mistake was following Marbles inside, where we met him and gave him what he asked for. I just went for the first target that presented itself, but the rest of my squad seem to have been a bit put off by my tactics. Well, they'll learn soon enough that you don't play with the enemy, and use whatever tactic presents itself. Virtue's Diary - 28th Moonstone, 254 Flux told me today that we're once again out of marble up here near the smelters. I forwarded that to our miners, who went back down to set back to work on the marble deep underground, and they found something a bit worrying. Chic came back up, telling me that the marble is starting to get very warm, almost too hot to touch. I'm not much of a miner, but when I asked Saw Dust about it, he confirmed that we must be digging near a magma pipe of some sort. I immediately told Chic to be very careful and start mining elsewhere. We can't take any chances with that. 13th Opal, 254 The militia was underground today, patrolling some of the paths near the caverns that are still open, and they found a pretty frightening monster down there. Falcata came across a giant eye creature with several arms and an evil look to it. I'm just thankful that it was so slow and cumbersome, the pegasus was untouchable during the fight if the rest of the militia saw it right. None of them had a chance to land a blow before she finished it off. 15th Opal, 254 While I was overseeing the construction of some more roads and bedrooms along the northeast side of the wall, I overheard that the militia found even more of those evil eyes underground today. Falcata got surrounded by them, and from what I hear she fought them off like a mare possessed.*1 She slew several by herself before the rest of the militia arrived to help her out. It didn't end there though. On the way back up to the surface, they came across a large simian monster apparently called a blind cave ogre. The entire militia surrounded the giant creature and brought it down without a single injury to the lot. I'm growing worried though, the holes we're opening up to the caverns are turning up more and more frightening creatures. The steel protecting the militia is doing a fantastic job, but the rest of us don't have that luxury. I just hope an ogre doesn't stumble across Chic or Diamond Shard alone. We really must get the caverns sealed up again. On the surface though, we're making progress on the moat. I've had Flux make some more mechanisms for a few screw pumps that he said we could use to divert the river to our moat. We're uphill of it, so it's going to take some work, but it should help out a lot once it's ready. Oh, and I have to break the news to Arbalest that we're going to have to move his catapult. We'll keep it inside the moat though, I think. Interestingly, Falcata is now an elite wrestler because she kept grappling and bucking the eyes instead of hacking them with her axe. Turns out her axe was forbidden for some reason. Had to unforbid half of the militia's axes. What's up with that? I've heard this happens when they get embedded in enemies, maybe I should pay closer attention. 17th Opal, 254 Golden Grains was the next pony to be taken by a mood. One moment she was working the fields and the next she was trotting off toward the workshops. We'll see what she ends up claiming, I hope it isn't something we can't provide for her. 24th Opal, 254 The miners were down in the marble quarry again today, gathering up plenty of the stone for making more steel. At some point they heard the flapping of giant wings and some strange noises in general. I worry if some of the monsters down there might have returned, but we haven't seen a thing of them yet. I'll send the militia and some masons down immediately to check out the breaches into the caverns. We should seal them up right now, before it's too late. The happy pegasus scooted along the floor of the damp, dark cavern, her red mane and pristine white coat a stark contrast to the muted browns and greys of the subterranean environment. Although most ponies would find the insidious, brooding caves filled with potentially horrifying monsters a rather unpleasant place, to Falcata anywhere was better than the tiny expanse of cloth and wood she'd been confined to for far too long. And besides, it was more exciting than anything! The feel of the damp, loamy moss beneath her hooves, the cooling breeze of the cavern winds (how was there wind down here anyway?), the eerie shining light giving a suitable air of myst- Shining light. What? She skidded to a halt, gripping her axe even more firmly, and focused on the offending anomaly. The offending anomaly, upon closer inspection, was a great big eyeball, about two feet in diameter, with little arms sprouting out of it holding it firmly onto the cavern wall. Noticing her gaze, it winked menacingly at her. Or did it blink? If it only had one eye, was it blinking or winking? Such thoughts passed through Falcata's mind for barely a second, as the eyeball decided to interrupt her by launching itself straight at her, all four arms scrabbling and clawing at the air in anticipation of landing on her face. Falcata nimbly sidestepped, watching as the eyeball failed to correct its course. smack It impacted with the wall, deflating in a disappointed sort of way, before picking itself up and menacingly advancing again towards the axepony. No two-eyes-four-legs-shiny-grey-plating creature thing was going to make a fool out of it! Several minutes later, the eye creature lay dead in several different pieces, strewn at random across the cave floor. Falcata was very, very pleased; finally she'd managed to put an end to something without getting some sort of horrible injury, and it turns out that her armour was light enough to let her dodge, weave and juke her way around enemy attacks as much as she usually did! Smiling, she turned on her hoof and trotted away, leaving the now-sightless eyeball to rot. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- squelch The axe sliced cleanly through the giant mushroom, its majestic cap tumbling to the ground after being severed from its stout, thick stalk. Falcata was on guard duty again, and had nothing better to do than practice on the local plant life. She poked the mushroom gingerly with her hoof, stumbling backwards as it poofed out a cloud of blue spores. "Mmmmblrggh," she spouted in a muffled sort of voice, flapping her wings to clear the air. "Bleurgh, disg- oh." In this case, "oh" referred to a large group of evil eyes, quite like the one she'd put down two days ago, arranged neatly around the wall in front of her, all blinking (winking?) at her in the same malefic manner. "HELP!" she managed to shout, before the pack of aberrant monsters leapt at her, the combined white light shining from their eyes seeming to slow the passage of time even as she readied her axe to defend herself. Her foes, although numerous, seemed to be moving through treacle as she avoided their clumsy, inaccurate swings. As if in some kind of trance, she put a hoof straight through one, turning to duck under the attack of another as it burst like an overfilled waterskin. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The rest of the militia hustled round the corner, hurrying towards where they'd heard Falcata's cry for aid. As they rounded a great pillar of stone, fifteen feet high and just as wide, they came across ten or so of the eye-creatures Falcata had been telling them all about, all fleeing from an area further down the passage, from where they could hear somepony shouting various rude and unfriendly things concerning the eyeballs and their parentage. After dispatching the unfortunate creatures with almost mechanical efficiency, and, worryingly, recovering a pony-forged iron axe from one, the militia finally galloped further down the passage, finding a frantic, furious, crimson and cream pegasus surrounded by several exploded, maimed, and otherwise not-alive-anymore eye creatures. She looked up, eyes wild, and almost immediately seemed to calm down, her wings folding up again and her mane deflating from its poofed-up, wild state. "Did I win?" she ventured, smiling. "And, uh, anypony seen my axe? I think one of them might have, uh...taken it. Not that it, uh, well, yeah." She finished, blushing slightly and scraping her hoof across the ground awkwardly at the sight of some of the shocked faces among the militia. Not bad for the hospital's most frequent visitor! Flux' Journal Moonstone 27 Work continues on the new gate and the militia continues to show their dedication to all of us here. Marbles was working on the moat when a diamond dog thief startled him. The cheeky thief actually chased after him inside the walls where the militia was waiting. Specifically, Naginata was waiting for it. I don't speak diamond dog, but I think the meaning was clear form the context. Very likely something along the lines of "OH SISTERS, THIS PONY BIT ME IN THE EYE! WHY IS IT SHAKING ME BY MY POOR EYE, AAAGGHHH! I am slain, blar." Naginata is definitely not a pony to get mad, wow. Opal 15 Definitely need to work on something to secure the caverns. Falcata has been having fun with some of the nasty critters down there, but I'd still like to have something in place to defend the ponies hauling the marble and other components for steel. Maybe some cage traps? If we can tame any of those creatures, we might get some good beasts of war, or maybe just some new meat. Or maybe... *The rest of the page is various scribbles of what might possibly be trap designs.* Glyphs journal 8 I haven't written here for a while, I've been busy with my training, but something happened earlier that I just had to record. I am always amazed when I watch Captain Naginata fight, but this time, it was almost... scary. A diamond dog thief decided it would be a good idea to chase one of the ponies who was working in the moat right into the middle of the fort. I... I didn't even know you could shake something around by the eye like that. Maybe... maybe I will ask Naginata for some extra lessons, I need a whole lot of work before I can even hope to be good enough to fight beside her. Partisan looked at his request form carefully before he decided to take it to Halberd. The recent Diamond Dog thief had reminded him of something he had overheard and spent some time thinking about, and thus he prepared a form to ask for permission to train with a range weapon rather than a melee weapon like he had been doing before. The idea of removing his new protective metal shell did not sound pleasing but, if he could minimize the number of ponies that would visit the hospital, he owed it to all of Dawnpick to do so. Before he had the chance to even start looking for him, though. Partisan heard the distinguishable call of arms. He mindlessly darted toward his weapon and out the training area, fearing that it might be a case of life and death for somepony. Several days later: Partisan felt the rush of battle pouring through his veins after the huge fight with the eyes and that big-eye-less-cave-monkey-thing. The eyes were a mere measly warm up, but the monkey gave him some close calls. It actually built up his appreciation of the tin can he was wearing. That ape punched imprints into the cavern floor. If he had been wearing leather armor and had been hit, it would not have been its blue blood that he would have to wash out his mane. The thought made him shudder and look forward to the day he could take on something like that on his own. 'Maybe he should write up a request form for a spear.' he thought happily. 'They are perfect for piercing in-' His thoughts were broken by the sudden realization that he had forgotten something very important. With all the speed he could muster, he flew through the fort looking for where he left the form, but just could not manage to locate it. Glaive's Journal 25th Moonstone, 254 I had my chat with Virtue. It seems that she's considering my advise about forming a crossbow squad. That's good to hear, it'll be nice knowing we'll have some more ponies watching our backs, should the badger scum decide to step up their attacks. In happier news the Captain gave ME The Touch of Leaves, said I deserved it for saving that foal awhile back. I don't know if I'd say I really deserved it, but I'm one of the few Unicorns in the guard who COULD use it, so I accepted the honor gladly. Now that I've had my hooves on it, I can tell it's very light, but strong. It won't be much for bashing, but it should stop just about any blow, and it's weight (or lack there of) should make it easier to get into position. I need to get some practice in with it before a real fight breaks out. Maybe Glyphs wants to spar, he could use the practice too. 27th Moonstone, 254 We had a few more thieves recently. Captain Naginata actually bit one in the face and shook it around. It was an impressive display of strength. Although I can't help but feel that another strike with her weapon would have dispatched the thing faster. 15th Opal, 254 Falcata ran into a group of these large single eyed critters in the caverns. She called out but she managed to kill or wound all of them before we arrived. That Falcata, she's really something else. Not someone I'd want to piss off. But she could be a very useful friend. I'll invite her out for drinks later, to "celebrate". After, the Eye's business we ran into an Ogre on the way back. We surrounded it and took it down with little trouble. Jaxler's diary well I’ve been here a long time but until now I found no reason to wright down my daily events, but now that part 1 of my plan is done I’m quite content with my future and see reason to wright down my events. I’ve successfully integrated into this fort, not a single person has even wondered why such a pony walked for miles to such a place, the probably thought up reasons like "he was looking for a land of promise" or "a new life" or "the king forced him to come" but no I came here to... Phase 2 is already happening I’m getting drafted into the ranged squad, its perfect I’m on my way. I’m ready to start killing again. I'm ready to fight, all I need to do is make my way up to the highly esteemed rank of squad leader. All I need to do is wait, my policy is that the last person to join a battle is the first man to walk out. All I need to do is find a way to dispose of my problem leader. Man these ponies they dig and they dig. they refuse to think about stuff like PROFIT. I read somewhere that if there is magnetite then there is platinum, why don't we take it from this land and make it our own, and become the richest ponies in the whole continent, of course money gives me us power in which case I can skip to phase 4 POWER. but soon... oh so soon... I rise up