//------------------------------// // 28: Murphy's Law // Story: My Little Fortress: Dawnpick // by Paaaad //------------------------------// Virtue's Diary - 17th Felsite, 256 Hickory gave birth in the wee hours of the morning to an earth pony filly she named Sheer Delight. I hate to admit that I've been a bit preoccupied thinking about a foal of my own the last few weeks. I don't think Harvest Moon is quite ready for that, so I haven't been pressuring him, but I think he'll turn around soon. I've seen the way he looks at the foals playing around the settlement. 21st Felsite, 256 We had a couple of thieves show up today. Flux's trap design for the gate worked fantastically, I must admit. The militia was standing at the gate just in case, headed by none other than Glyph himself, but they were hardly needed. Partisan, Jaxler and Storm Cloud put the thieves out of their misery with a few bolts after they stumbled onto the weapon traps. 5th Hematite, 256 It's been a while since we had anypony come under one of those strange moods, but Willow was the victim today. She stumbled off to a craftshop with an otherworldly look in her eyes and started fetching random things. So far all of these strange moods have turned out alright, I'm sure she'll be fine. 14th Hematite, 256 Willow finished what she was working on today, an exquisite piccolo. She says that she actually knows a bit about music, but hasn't played a piccolo in decades. I hope she takes to it, we could always use more to keep everypony's spirits up, and I think some music now and again would be a great addition to our community. We also put some more work into the fishing pier, and I hope Ocean Breeze will be back to fishing within the next few months. She has to have been bored out of her mind all this time, having nothing much to do. 7th Malachite, 256 We've had a fair bit going on lately actually. First off, Ocean Breeze gave birth again around dinner time today to a unicorn filly the family named Chestnut. Her coat matched the name, and she was a cute little filly. Still no luck winning Harvest Moon over, and I think he might have a point about us waiting a bit for any children. We'll get there one day. Otherwise, we've started working on some new housing. We've got enough for everypony already, but it never hurts to be ready for the future. I think we'll construct maybe an extra ten or so homes for now. Oh, and since we've finally got rooms for everypony, we started back on the church. It should be done before too much longer. Grapple has been quite patient about this, although I'm not sure how everypony feels about diverting our resources there, but without the housing crunch it's not such a big deal. 1st Galena, 256 It came to my attention that we've been accumulating a lot of junk here in Dawnpick, so I had Flux design a garbage compactor. We tested it out today, and managed to crush a lot of garbage. We'll probably be using it periodically to crush junk from now on, and I've warned everypony, especially the children about how dangerous it is. I hope they've all listened. The other news today is that the ballista trap has been completed and we're planning on giving it a shot soon. Pun intended. Oh, but before we try that, I'm glad to report that the fishing pier is finished! We can finally get Ocean Breeze back to fishing up whatever is in the brook to the south. We haven't had any fish or turtle in ages, and I'm sure adding that back to our diet should raise spirits a bit. 17th Galena, 256 I feel absolutely sick right now. We tried the trap in the upper caverns today, and we all but got everypony killed. Chic breached the caverns as the lever was pulled to rais the drawbridge so we could arm the trap. The timing couldn't have been worse. Two of the monsters surged inside as she breached the cavern. I didn't witness the battle, thank goodness, but I've got Halberd, Naginata and Partisan's word to go by and it must have been a horrific sight. Falcata was badly wounded. I saw Glaive and Wool carrying her out of the mines, blood running from cuts on her throat and rents in her smashed hoof. She's alive, but Panacea and Wool are tending to her now. I feel awful for her. This is the second time she's come close to death trying to defend us, and all because the trap wasn't executed right. I should have been there to oversee it. I'm going to check up on her right away. I hope she's alright. I won't be able to take it if she doesn't make it. Naginata's Diary - 17th Galena The battle in the mines was horrifying, and I don't put that lightly. I am absolutely astonished that we all walked away with our lives. Something went wrong with the timing, and two of the monsters managed to break in before we could safely seal it off again. Chic ran for her life, which was a smart move. Then it was up to us to hold out against the monsters. The first, a giant insect of some horrific variety set upon Falcata, who stood her ground admirably. She struck at it several times before it grabbed her by the throat with its massive maw and tried to strangle the life from her. Then Glaive rushed to her rescue, hacking and tearing at the monster with his axe with a ferocity I don't think I've ever seen from him, and for that matter just about anypony. It fell to his axe, and Falcata collapsed to the ground, smashing a hoof in the process. None of my squad even got to engage. Glaive crushed that monster by himself, and Halberd destroyed the other on his own. We were prepared to fight anything else that dared show itself, but thankfully the bridge closed off the caverns and we managed to get Falcata back to the surface before she bled too much. As if that wasn't enough, we ran into a number of gremlins on the way out, no doubt set on fiddling with the levers. We dispatched them quickly. Virtue's Diary - 27th Galena, 256 I was relieved to hear from Panacea this morning that Falcata is going to be fine. She got a few cuts on her throat, but they weren't that deep. Her hoof is going to take some time to heal, but she's going to be perfectly fine. I'm just so happy that nopony was killed, and that she's going to be alright. At least now the trap is ready to be used properly next time. Let's hope her suffering hasn't been in vain. A zebra caravan also arrived this morning. They didn't have all that much that we needed, but I bought some food and drink from them from a lot of the stuff the thieves left behind. Speaking of the thieves, two more showed up with the caravan, but the traps and militia dispatched them quickly and without incident. After the badger pony thieves though, we had a diamond dog thief show up who actually managed to get inside. The caravan guard chased him off, but Jaxler managed to put a bolt between his shoulders and end his misery after they beat him into submission. 4th Limestone, 256 We had another diamond dog thief show up today, who nearly scared me to death. I was helping Panacea move some water to the well from the moat, and I stumbled right into him. Jaxler was nearby and ran him off, thank goodness. I must say, we've had our differences in the past, but Jaxler showed me today that he's taking his job seriously and isn't going to let any past misunderstandings get in the way of it. Other than that, I'm happy to say that Falcata left the hospital today. Her hoof is healing quickly, and Panacea says she'll be back to work in no time. I told all of the militia and the guard to take a little time off though. They've all earned it. We shouldn't be expecting any attacks soon, but I think I'll have the gate raised to be sure. Once they've all had some time to recover I'll ask them to resume their normal schedules. Ponies usually come in all the colours of the rainbow, from shades of deepest sapphire to muted tones of dusty brown. Hundreds of feet underground, though, a group of ponies were all one particular colour; the silvery metallic gleam of the steel armour they all wore, save for Partisan's squad of marksponies, who were bedecked in light leather to help them stay mobile. Dawnpick's militia were bunched tightly in the narrow corridor leading to the caverns, crammed into the confined space as a line of defense should the ballista trap fail to work as planned. Spirits were running low; the clanking and clinking of ponies quaking in their armour was constant, although the noise was almost drowned out by the horrific, monstrous howls which had been echoing from behind the hastily-constructed wall sectioning the caverns off from the settlement. The soft thrum of unicorn and alicorn magic holding shields aloft added a bass hum to the symphony of uncertainty and fear. Falcata stood with the rest of Halberd's squad, which was positioned at the front of the three squads. Hopefully, she thought, they wouldn't be needed at all. Virtue had spent months, years even, poring over the plans for the trap that was laid today, and while she didn't pretend to understand anything about ballistics and timings and exactly how Chic was going to break down the wall without being ripped apart by horrors from the deep, she had faith in the grey pony's strategy. Personally, she didn't envy Chic, and watched with admiration as the untrained, civilian mining mare had steeled herself and went up the tunnel to break the seal. Of all the ponies out here today, the bravery of that miner was something else. Falcata hoped fervently she'd be all ri- A scream cut through her thoughts like a knife, accompanied by the sound of crumbling stone, rocks falling, hooves galloping and the constant howling increasing sharply in volume. Time seemed to freeze as the full reality of what the cacophony of noises meant hit her like a punch in the gut, and before she knew it she found herself airborne, a silvery blur speeding down the torchlit corridor towards the noise. Falcata assumed the rest of the militia was already following her; the air rushing past combined with the clamour up ahead made it impossible to hear the thunderous roar of the militia at full charge. Recklessly, she shot around the corner like a bolt from a crossbow, only to find herself face to face with two of the most abhorrent creatures she'd ever seen in her life. To her right, she saw Chic escaping through a side passage, too small for the beasts to follow. The pegasus barely had time to register a feeling of relief before the closer of the two creatures, a huge chitinous insect with eyes like flaming coals, charged her, knocking her out of the air and shrieking a terrible cry of triumph. Falcata had had enough crash landings in her lifetime to roll with the impact, however, and took advantage of her new position underneath the massive creature by taking a mighty swing at its soft underbelly. The axe wedged itself inside the immense insect with a satisfying squelch, but the wound was barely even a scratch to a monster so vast. It released another fearsome squeal, bellowing its pain and rage as it tried to extricate the shiny stinging thing that had somehow ended up underneath it. She swung her weapon several more times at it, each time leaving similar wounds in its hide, before the fiend finally met with success. The pegasus suddenly found a jaw clenching around her throat, and she had only begun to try and wriggle free before she was swung round and slammed into the cavern wall. Desperately she scrabbled at the monstrosity's face with her forehooves, trying to loosen its implacable grip as it choked the life out of her. The more she fought, the more the blackness already swimming around the edges of her vision grew and grew, and the weaker her struggles became. The creature's eyes seemed to blaze brighter as it effortlessly strangled her against the wall, its alien gaze filling her with an indescribable fear. Her struggles at least ceased, her vision now almost utterly obscured. The tiny part of her still functioning normally resolved that if she somehow came out of this alive, she was never running ahead into engagements again, assuming she remembered. Ever. As Falcata felt her consciousness slipping away, she was dimly aware of her own name being yelled from some place far, far away. Abruptly, she felt the sensation of falling through the endless darkness she now saw, before a tremendous impact with something hard and unforgiving knocked her out cold at last. Flux' Journal, Felsite 21 Wow, I did not expect my traps to be that... efficient? Messy? Both? At least they seem to be keeping the thieves out, which means that the militia doesn't have to risk their lives as much. Hematite 5 Willow decided she had to build something and took over a craft shop. All these weird inspirations to make things, it's so strange. I suppose I'm not one to talk, though. Maybe Willow will make something better than my splint. Hematite 14 Willow finished her project! It's a piccolo unlike any I've ever seen. I didn't know they could be made from stone, or that spikes could be made from leather, but she managed both. I wonder if anypony'd let me play it. Hematite 20 Virtue came to me and asked for me to design a trash compactor. I didn't know we had that much junk, but I said I'd try. I have a few ideas on how to generate the force needed...*Several different simple designs follow, using a variety of methods for crushing garbage.* Galena 1 Tested the trash compactor today, to great success! Needless to say, it's very dangerous to be inside it, so we've put up tons of warnings about staying out and how to make sure nopony is inside when it's activated. Speaking of dangerous things, the trap in the cavern for those big things is almost complete! The timing for breaching the cavern will probably be tricky, but the theory looks very sound. Jaxler’s journal 21st Felsite, 256 More thieves showed up today. Flux’s traps are really demented effective. They eviscerated one of the thieves, disemboweled the other and the last one was missing his leg. Me, Storm Cloud and Partisan ended up acting as the cleanup crew and put them out of their misery. I still don't know why these thieves don't learn that they are only gonna die if they come here. 1st Galena, 256 The ballista is finished. With that in mind I can only assume that we are gonna go into the caverns soon. I guess we’ll see how effective the plan that Partisan thought up is. I should probably hold off on drinking heavily until after we breach the caves. 17th Galena, 256 DAMNIT. The plan failed. Falcata about had her windpipe crushed by one of those abominations. I bucking can't believe we suffered a casualty, the plan wasn't supposed to allow for casualties. Where the hell did we screw up. I was in the room when we made the plan all those months ago so why didn't I see the possibility for error. 18th Galena, 256 My head hurts right now, I’m currently writing from what appears to be the pier. I woke up around five minutes ago. From what I can gather, My crossbow is up in a tree, there appears to be a barrel in the water near me, and I have a gash in my left hoof (I don’t know how I got it). It’s about noon and should have been on patrol about three hours ago but I think I’m just not going to show up for work today. I still feel like crap after yesterday. 27th Galena, 256 We had some thieves show up today. The militia killed most of them but one diamond dog thought it would be smart to rob the caravan that’s in town right now. The poor guy got caught and ran off, so I chased him down and put a bolt in his back. I felt like taking out some bottled up rage on the guy and started bashing his head in with my crossbow when the caravan guard showed up and finished him off. 4th Limestone, 256 Panacea let Falcata out of the hospital today, so I guess she isn't too bucked up after the accident. I also had to save Virtue today. Some thief snuck up on her and I was nearby. So I shot a few bolts at the thief and he ran off, so I guess nothing out of the ordinary happened today. Glaive's Journal Sitting outside the Hospital as I write this. The captain says it's important to debrief asap after a battle, while the details are still fresh. We where preparing the trap for the monster's from the depths, but when our miner took out the last bit of the wall. We were caught by surprise, apparently his digging had attracted the attention of the monsters and they broke through before it was clear. Falcata rushed into the fray to protect them. The rest of us tried to follow, but we aren't as fast as her. She struck one of the titans a good couple of times, but it's exoskeleton protected it well. Then it grabbed Falcata by the throat, and began to try and crush it. She tried to fight it, but I think she blacked out from lack of air. When I saw what it was doing to her, I lost control. I don't remember the details of the fight after that. All I could see was red. When I regained my sanity, I was standing over the remains of one of the beasts while the rest of the army where near the other, I saw Falcata injured there on the ground, and I helped get her to the hospital. One of her hooves is mangled, and her neck is visibly cut, though the external bleeding is minor. I wanted to stay with her, but Pancea insisted I give her some room to work. I can't believe that I gave in to my anger like that though. That hasn't happened since Balisong died. I thought I'd learned to control myself better than that by now. Father and Grandfather always taught me, "Don't get angry. Getting angry will get you dead." I guess I got lucky this time.