"...So as you see here," Sparks said and pointed at a diagram with her pen, "On the second column we have the budgeted and estimated food requirements for a calculated six hundred ponies. With the money we have been given by the crown for the project, after using what's needed for the rest of the expeditionary supplies. Assuming six hundred ponies and on average three ponies per tent as the average amount of tools and other supplies, I estimate that the food will last about three months."
"Is gathering of supplies from the jungle taken into account?" I asked and frowned down at the paper, trying to follow her numbers. I'm not dumb, okay, I'm just not a number pony. And she was using a lot of numbers.
...Okay, so I'm a bit dumb.
Sparks shook her head, "No, because that's difficult to calculate as supplies are unknown. Besides, ponies need more than fruit and grazing."
"Speak for yourself," I said and nibbled at a quarter apple, "Thestrals will be fine after conversion."
"Which will take time and maybe, maybe if you're right about dietary requirements, will make it possible," Sparks said seriously, "And I'm not convinced. You have those teeth for a reason and it's not for eating grapes. I suspect thestrals are naturally omnivores and that may cause a problem with nutrition in the long term if not handled."
I glanced down at the apple, "Yeah, I guess..."
"And even if that's not the case, six hundred ponies eat a lot of food. A lot. A pony needs on average fifteen hundred calories a day, more if they are working. Depending on the food, that's between a half and one point five kilograms. Times that six hundred and..."
I stared at her, "Oh buck."
"Exactly. Which means that we will need transports for that food and other supplies, which means hiring more ponies to move it even if some thestrals are strong enough to pull wagons from a train stop which means being able to afford less food and..."
I rubbed my eyes with my hoof, "Bottomline it for me, Sparks."
"At the estimated burn rate, the colony would be out of food within a month unless we can in that time gather enough from the environment to keep us fed or get additional supply deliveries. Even with the railway passing through the jungle, nowhere near it is very suitable for a village that we know of. Not in easy transport distance at least without wagons."
Groaning, I let my head fall until I rested it against the table. I felt like screaming or something similar because why is nothing ever easy or smooth or gaaaah!
"It's not as bad as it seems," she said and poked me with her wing, "Keep in mind that these are pessimistic worst case numbers. Most likely we will be able to gather significant amounts from the environment itself, maybe even all until we get the farms up and going."
"...And maybe something big will eat us before it becomes a problem," I grumbled against the wooden table, "Damn it, Sparks. I'm an author, not a ruler!"
"Seems to me like you're both," she answered as she looked at me with a small smile, giving my ear a quick nuzzle.
I sighed and pulled back again, looking down at the paper, "So... worst case, we'll run out in a month. What if I add my money to it?"
"Wouldn't help, maybe get us another two weeks," Sparks said and showed another paper, "I already did the math, I knew you would offer," she explained at my questioning look.
"Ah," I said and shifted my wings, "So, we're stuck at finding a way to get enough supplies or... beg Sunshine for more."
Sparks nodded and took a sip from her glass of water, "Pretty much."
"You know," I said after a moment, "I am really glad you and Midnight are helping with this or I'd be completely lost. This is not what I'm good at and you two are. I wouldn't even know where to start with this, buck I can't even organize my own economy, I have a pony for that! I don't even know how much I own!"
I kind of stopped paying attention when it came to 'enough'.
Sparks smiled and flicked her ear, "It's interesting and so different from anything else I done before," she said before she frowned, "It's going to be so odd from being away from my friends for so long, but I think it's worth if for what you are trying to do here, Page,” she said, her wing brushing across mine.
"I hope so," I admitted and stretched my wings for a moment, looking out towards the snow outside the window. Here it was nice and warm though, the fireplace in Sparks and Midnights living room crackled happily in the corner.
"Okay," I finally said and nodded, looking at her, "What can we cut? We need to lengthen that runway, we need some room for mistakes and accidents because they happen. Do we have any fresh fruit for example?"
Sparks looked through a stack of papers before she nodded, "Yes, we are budgeted for six hundred kilos of apple, fiv-"
"Buck all of that, toss it all," I said, "Use the money for oaths and hay, rice. Things that's light and dry. We need calories, not vitamins. Any fruit can be gathered on site."
Sparks slowly nodded, "Yeah, that makes sense, that'd give us..."
"Wait with the calculations, let's see what more we can cut first. It'll be boring, but ponies won't go hungry."
She nodded thoughtfully, "The calculations were based on a nutritionally optimal diet. If we can acquire supplements on site, then it-"
The door opened and Sunset trotted inside, her saddlebags heavy with groceries and she kicked the door closed behind her, "How's it going you two?" she asked, "Still working on it?"
"Sunset!" I whined, "Your marefriend is making me feel stupid."
"You are stupid," Sunset teased and moved up to kiss my cheek, "We love you anyway," and then she repeated the performance with Sparks.
I glowered at her, "You're awfully cheery today. What's up?"
Sunset smiled and then put her bags down and jumped up next to me, cuddling close as she leaned against my side, "I saw Midnight and Tempest while I was out, they're going out to a restaurant tonight. They were sharing a scarf, it was absolutely adorable!"
"We're not teasing them about it!" Sparks told her firmly across me, "I know how I...she... we can get if we're uncertain about those kinds of things!"
"Speaking of those kinds of things," Sunset said and looked at me with a smile, "You're staying tonight, right?"
I nodded, "Yeah, I don't particularly want to turn into a ponycicle on the way back to the castle and it's already getting dark," I said before I frowned and touched my horn to hers gently, "Not sure how fun either of us will be today though, there is just so much we need to get done," before giving Twilight a small nuzzle.
Sparks made a sound of agreement, "There is," she said, "But... nothing says we can't relocate this to in front of the fireplace after dinner? Maybe with some wine?"
"Awesome," Sunset said and leaned around to give her a nuzzle, "And speaking of dinner, I should get it started. How do you two feel about something with oats?"
I sighed, "I like them just fine now, but I suspect not so much in six months," earning myself a curious look from the unicorn.
Potatoes.
I will not elaborate further.
You should get the reference.
Awww
At least they aren't going up into the mountains... last thing Equestria needs is the reenactment of the Donner Party.
Starches will be a way to keep them going as long as no pony is diabetic. As Page said they can hunt up fruit and work with them to find a source of protein.
10522533
It is a common misconception that potatoes are poisonous for horses, the truth is they tend to choke on them and if they were smart enough to chew them up potatoes are like 90% as good as alfalfa hay for horse nutrition and store much better with some effort.
So yes you are right that they should be included, they are super easy to grow and provide almost everything a tiny horse needs to survive.
There is one EASY Solution to ALL their financial Problems on this. HEMP! Just bring a large bag of hemp Seeds and scatter them around. Hemp Grows Practically ANYWHERE and doesn't really need much help. The plants grow fast from what I know. You can use it to make food, rope, fabrics, oils and more.Many things needed for this venture can easily be acquired from one single plant. Sure they'd still need some of the stuff to start out until the Hemp Plants are ready to be harvested. Hell, the could send somepony out well before they start and sow the seeds in the chosen area and by the time they do get there, they would have plenty of it for all their needs.
When you add alcohol to calculations and discussion, you play with fire
It also depends on the wine
Wow, I was pessimistic before, but even then I thought they'd be able to get enough supplies to last them a long while.
This is another... not quite problem, but something that could be useful to know ahead of time. They should send some scouts out to the site to see what is and isn't available and what to plan for. Does it have large quantities of fruit and whatnot growing there? What about predators? Fresh water? Is the land farmable? Need more information.
That there's a train running through the jungle is great news for them. Having their town on the rail line would be a huge boon, since it'd help ponies get to and from the colony and help ease the transportation burden immensely. Now why aren't they acquiring land closer to the tracks so they can utilize it to its fullest potential? It sounds like nobody else wants the land down there, so I can't imagine there'd be issues trying to acquire it. I really think they're trying to rush this project and making a lot of mistakes in the process.
As far as i know jungle biome is not particularly suited for grain cultures, rice is an option
And those big brains should come up with export goods because this town cannot be self-sufficient
I’m gonna keep posting this whenever Page ships get more fuel.
Aw Spuds, here we have another problem, whose solution is food!.... I'm hungry now
10522533
I mean at least these ponies are on their home planet in their home dimension...excluding Blank Page.
...what about Chrysalis? She might not have as much money as Sunbutt but she does have some resources. You already promised Chrysalis that you'll accompany them on a diplomatic trip to an unrelated hive and there IS a changeling hive in that jungle. Go and ask the Changeling Queen to start negotiations with the Jungle Hive rather than the planned griffin territory one. Page will have to deal with the Jungle Hive eventually to protect his people...might as well get that taken care of too.
If Page can get a good 50-100 changelings to at least temporally come along, he will have a boosted work force without much impact on the food supply since they feed on emotions.
Whether Page believes it or not, he does have SOME connections and he needs to be doing more networking to get this village to truly work!
“Well Sunset says we can always resort to Cannibalism.”
“That’s not what I meant, when I said that.”
She said with a blush.
10522553
The Martian.
idjit
Water, Food & Moral are the biggest problem one has to keep running or one will not successful pull ones project trough. May there Journey be smooth running because they already have the odds very harshly stacked again em...
Changelings life on Emotions and water mainly or? Would they be the perfect workforce? Guardian and... Caretakers? ... ... ... Mares and Stallion will need stress release and Changelings top class love/lust
10522533
Beware the tubers. Beware!
10522814
If the Changelings take the caretaker, Guard, food hunting/ collection place in the Village Chrysalis will have a growing population Center as feeding grounds of thankful ponys. WIN-WIN
10522814
Yes, but does he have the brain power to do or say anything with queenie
10522657
Another thing page could do and could be done at a later date, tell sunbutt and moonbutt about cars and transports, We humans have made a fuck ton from cars to space shuttles
10522974
They had enough to take over Canterlot. If not for Chrysalis excluding the impossible 1% failure chance every X-Com Player fears... They would rule Equestria in the main show...
Seriously 99% vs. 1 % ... Plotarmor sucks
10522998
The hell did you get that from? I was refering to page getting queenie to give him changelings to help not, That
10522974
Probably not. If anything, our Queen Tsundere will most likely corner Page and force him to take the "help" with extra strings attached.
10522533
That's for poor soil, they're going to be in the jungle so start with rice, pivot to corn in stages then back to rice once space, rather than ponypower, becomes the limit.
10522657
From the text it sounds like there is no good settlement site along the rail line. This isn't too shocking, it could easily be using a narrow river valley as the route.
10523204
Tropical Jungles are (generally) very poor soil. (bu very high nutrient turn-over)
You have a fertile top layer, but all it takes is one bare season and a rainfall, and there's no nutrients left in it.
You'd be better off with fruit trees, fruiting vines, and other edibles suitable to grow in the jungle. (It's what the Maya did in some areas)
Rice-paddies? maybe. Corn or Grain? Not so much.
Though they'd both require you to remove the jungle, the nature of rice paddies (periods under flood) might make them viable.
10523204
I say potatoes because you can get a large amount of them relatively quickly and they are easy to store (See Ireland’s preferred way of storing potatoes before the famine).
It may be a Thestral colony, but you're likely to see other tribes in relatively short order. Most thestrals aren't from all-thestral families, likely have special someponies that aren't thestrals, and so on. And that would actually expand the colony population a bit if tolerant ponies follow their newly-decursed fellows.
Which isn't a bad thing- part of it is giving thestrals a place to be themselves, but Equestrian tribes in the end are about being part of the greater herd of ponydom. A lack of non-thestrals might lead to backlash along racial lines for what happened to them before.
10523237
10523281
I was doing a different referential take, with RimWorld. In that, you have four food crops that each have their own advantages:
Potatoes, which are insensitive to soil quality.
Rice, which grows quickly, (and has the best output per tile in all but the worst soils).
Corn, which has large yields.
Strawberries, which do not need to be cooked to be safe to eat.
Of course, they all have disadvantages:
Potatoes don't benefit from rich soil.
Rice takes a lot of work.
Corn has a very long growth time¹.
Strawberries have a minimum skill requirement and not a great yield.
When you look at those, you can see why "rice first, then switch to corn," is a common strategy for feeding a colony. Manpower tends to be the main limitation but it's rare that there is enough foraging and game to stretch your food long enough to get a corn crop in.
Jungle biomes in RimWorld also tend to have enough normal and rich soil that you don't need to use poor soil the way you do in arid biomes.
1: This becomes an advantage once you have a decent food reserve, as it reduces the amount of time your pawns have to spend farming.
Having lived off ration packs I know the necessity for variety, eating the same thing every day wears on the mind. Hopefully they can scrounge other things from the jungle, something as simple as fresh fruit or vegetables goes a long way.
10523039
True, but if you'll recall, your original question was "did Page have the brainpower to ask"....
Given Page's current displays of brainpower of late, it's a valid concern that he might very well get the war between the changelings and ponies reignited.
10523528
this is my original question and what I meant is will page ever and/or even realize that he could ask queenie (our queen, of the green hive under pony city) or her daughter for changelings to help.
this is kinda random, I did not mention anything of the jungle hive, Xcom, Canterlot or 'They' ruling Equestria or anything, just a question if Page will have the common sense to ask for a little help, even if it's part of a plan to make contact with the hive while he's there
10523614
Honestly, Page has enough problems on his plate as it is. He doesn't need to add "dealing with changelings" to the pile.
Worse, suppose this colony is made up mostly of changelings and bat ponies. Many ponies (particularly in Canterlot) would probably come to view it as a colony of rejects, a dumping grounds for creatures that don't have a place in the rest of Equestrian society. Even though it was false, that'd be yet another stigma they'd have to overcome. That's part of why I'm so opposed to the idea of a colony of majority bat ponies, it's incredibly bad optics.
Page: "Everypony, bat ponies are real and they're nice and just like everypony else."
Random Pony: "Then why are you dragging them, and only them, all off to the middle of nowhere to start their own town?"
Page: "It's for their own good, cause some ponies were mean to me when I pretended to be one in Canterlot, the most extreme place to try something like that."
10523648
Never said how many, I said help and yes I can see that he doesn't need more problems, my question was will He get changeling help, there doesn't need to be alot or any
10523614
I understand the comment/question wrong i guess? I interpret it you second guess Changelings general Intelligence not Pages.
That why i say they pulled the Canterlot attack without a putch in the main story and if not for plot armor wouldnt be defeated by a love powered ex machina shield to repel what already inside...
8 Months later...
AT THE FORTRESS OF PAGEITUDE, in Page's bedroom
"Page, there's something weird going on."
"What midnight?"
"Well the workponies have been reporting work getting done ahead of schedule."
"Thats a good thing right?"
"No, like they've left for the night, come back and their work is done."
"Huh..."
"Also there's been fruit gathered and I've got a whole list of strange occurrences. this could be a major security problem."
".....hold on," Page douses the light and after a moment notices the pair of glowing eyes on the ceiling. "Amber"
"Yes my lord?"
"Did chrissy send a contingent of changelings with us?"
"......"
Suddenly a second much bigger pair of eyes open
"Skitter!"
"Sorry!"
"How many more are there!?"
Suddenly the entire ceiling becomes filled with glowing eyes.
"WHY IS THERE A WHOLE HIVE IN MY BEDROOM!"
"its where the food is at sir."
10522657
Sending scouts ahead to find a suitable place for a colony, and determine the local hazards and such, is a good move. I had kinda hoped they had already done that as soon as they got more into making plans to colonize.
As for the train bit...
I take this to mean that any location close to the railway can't support the size of their colony for the lack of water, food, or topography
10524000
probably lack of suitable terrain, though quietly having the railhead extended for "Future development" reasons might be prudent, there's nothing better for supporting far flung settlement than a rail connection, just look at how quickly the US west developed once the rail was connected up
10523991
That's got a big laugh outta me.
10523991
Page be like:
Page future brood Waifu will be like:
Oh I'm sure there's some Apples among the thestrals, just ask the family for some help
Fair
If she is right about the omnivorous nature of thestrals then she's forgetting one obvious dietary fact: they'll need meat. They could hunt for their calories. Plenty of big meaty things out in that jungle. But since they have equestrian upbringing that might be a cultural problem.
10522814
Exactly! 2023... Still waiting for it to happen
10522553
Plus the are great for many dishes and things like salt can make them quite different in taste.
I hope they don't forget ketchup...
10522557
Simpel yet genius! Especially with farming gifted Earthponys this will be very very effective
10522862
There is a beyond awesome story on Fimfiction about mlp x Martian. I can highly recommend it.
10522974
Easy sale pitch for both, Chrysalis can expend population, influence and maybe Blank Page can pay up front with a larve or 30
10523145
Rent a Ling, win a Hive
10523515
True in general, though there are some individuals that can eat certain foods day in and out and never get tired of it.
I can drink some teas like mint all day and never get tired of the taste.
10523528
The cuddling war, the must Snuggelbugs intensiv war about the best nuzzling position in history
10523614
I think I remember Page helping assimilate the Jungle Hive, most likely there isn't one left there.
The Hive of Pinser was malnutrition plaged from day one it seemed.
10523648
I think ever place could need a colony of Snuggelbugs
10523735
Skitter thriving near Blank Page might get a Royal sister for who ever volunteered for the jungle village project
10523991
That is genius ...
That should be canonical to this story ... 👍
11625365
One problem the Thestral have is a lack of their own culture, over time that should change.
I vote for Changeling Snuggelbugs piles ever third night ♡
10524127
Tourism and military survivel training should be fine later as well.
Reminds me of a funny story where my father collected beyond a military training area mushrooms because noone else did it.
Imagen a 11 year old me translating between my father and a company of in the underbrush hidden British company training on Germany why we where running through the Forrest right into a simulated battle in action.
That one I will always remember with a facepalm...
Also the shit they literally produce will be funny to manage, I doubt they can use it as fertilizer.
Wonder if they used it to throw at dinosaurs to make them growing weariness about the shit throwing Ponies
Dawww, that... cute?
They better pack spices and ketchup, lots of ketchup...
Page should accept the fact that he will be a Jack-of-All-Trades in the future...
11670011
i.imgflip.com/7fs6sh.jpg
i.pinimg.com/originals/1d/ab/b2/1dabb25c645161f596f0a70f1b715bae.jpg
Welcome to the jungle, we've got
fun and gamesketchup.11853497
Later...
Page, to the 4th wall: I am going to dip this potato in some crushed Vicodin pain potion, and there is nopony who can stop me. *proceeds to dip a slice of said potato in said pain potion, then eat it* It has been 7 days since we ran out of ketchup.
11860665
I loved "The Martian"! I'm gonna have to science the 💩 out of this. Poop potatoes for everybody! (Horse manure is supposed to make better compost than cow manure.)
The Maretian has been on my "Read Later" list for a long time...
(Edit: Well, I thought it was there. It is now.)