Prologue: By the end of which you will become acquainted with the town.
Harvest finds herself in a box. A very dark box, but also a very comfortable one at the same time. It's not warm or damp in the box so she makes a guess that she's isn't buried alive. Despite this relief another question comes to her: "Where am I?" Last she remembered was taking a little cat nap in the wreckage of a sky chariot. She hears muffled conversation on the outside of her box. And on top of the box she can hear the occasional "CLIP!" and "CLOP!".
Eavesdrop.
Listen in.
She hears bit of the conversation outside
"Sir, what is in the box."
"Just a corpse! Nothing more, nothing less. Please do go home. A graveyard is not a place for a filly like you!"
"Why not sir.----et me see inside. Pretty please."
Ask the supposed pony for help. A mare cannot live her life in a box.
Invite the voices to box-based coitus. Shlick.
She tries to call out for help but whoever those ponies are it seems they're too engrossed in their conversation to notice her cries. Her hooves are cramped and pressed together, she can barely move them. This box, whatever it is, obviously wasn't designed for a mare her size.
Cry over being bulky and how no colt will ever love you because of it. Women are really into crying and other emotion.
Hey that's not nice! Harvest is only a little more muscly. Definitely not as big as some of the other mares in town. Or her friend Lovin' Spoonful. Plus this box REALLY is small. She doubts a cute slender mare would fit either...
Try to shift weight around to move the box.
After some effort and grunting she gets herself in a more comfortable position. Her hind legs are now pressing on-top of the box, a little light is let into the box and for a moment something shiny flashes in the box.
INVESTIGATE SHINY.
Eat the shiny.
Pick up that shiny, as long as we've had our tetanus shot lately. Wouldn't want to catch something nasty.
Attempt to insert shiny in crotch.
Harvest picks it up in curiosity. It's coated in something, and it's tastes like iron. Blech, not going to eat that. A few more rays of light reveal that it's a bloody dagger, further solidifying her resolve to not eat it. She regrets using her mouth to pick it up.
"Fucking Unicorns..."
Investigate shiny thing. If it's nothing important, call for help.
Attack the box with your forehooves.
"HELLO?" she calls out. "SOMEPONY HELP ME!" Harvest bangs on the lid violently, but there's somepony stepping on it. And whoever it is he or she weighs a fuck ton, she can barely lift the lid a few inches.
"Huh. Who is it. Are you hiding things from me." The other pony seems to sound very...uninterested.
"No no no! Of course not? Why would I lie to you! I never lie! I'll never lie! Now please please do go home." The one on top seems to be TOO interested. It almost sounds like he/she is actively trying to sound suspicious.
Use the dagger to cut a hole in the wood or stab whoever's standing on the box.
Start to cut your way out of the box with old Mistah Dagger. When we get our face out scream "HEREEEE'S HARVEST!"
Get the knife ready. I think we've been enslaved and are about to be presented like a surprise gift.
Use the new-found dagger christened 'Shiny' to cut a whole through the wood.
"YEOWCH!"
Shiny seemed to have hit its mark. The pony jumps off the box, knocking it over sending Harvest tumbling out.
"HHEEERRRRE'S--oufh--HAARVVEE-what." In front of her there's a whole...flock of ponies with both wings and horns...She remembers hearing of these ponies before, definitely saw a few posters of the Princesses throughout her life. And a pony who was from the "Flowers of Pock Lips" told her about them once. But the fact her mother smacked the pony in the face and dragged Harvest off made her think he was bullshitting.
The Alicorns, as she remember them being called, were all crowed around her, forming a massive circle several layers. They wore bird masks, made of various material, cardboard, scrap electronics, one looked all too real like it was made out of real beaks. A few sat perched on telephone poles like birds or on strange statues made of rubble that resembled trees.
"NO! NOW MY PLAN WILL BE RUINED!" The Alicorn behind her says, still a bit exaggerated, she was sporting a fashionable tuxedo. Before Harvest could properly react she drew a revolver and shot the other voice-- another alicorn in a dress -- seemingly killing her instantly. The Alicorn tries to shoot Harvest but it seems her gun is out of ammo.
Shiny is still in her mouth.
CHEESE IT!
FONDUE IT!
Running doesn't seem like a very likely option. The rows upon rows of Bird-Alicorns are very tightly packed. They sit Flank by flank. She's not sure she could push her way past them quick enough.
Gibber to yourself.
Commune in their natural language: CAW CAW CAW CAW CAW CAW.
Harvest tries to talk, but something along the lines of: "CAWCAWCAWHOOTHOOTHOTTTT." comes out. She's also distracted by the over abundance of feathers around her.
Quickly! Stick the knife between your thighs and attempt to PELVIC THRUST out of the situation!
These alicorns don't have their heads on straight. Threaten the lead alicorn with our knife, she just might think we're a threat.
She ponies up and stops talking, taking a step closer with Shiny. Trying to look intimidating as best as she can. It's a bit hard with the knife in her mouth. "By the princesses almighty! You're still alive? No matter now...I'll finish you off again!" Harvest is covered in blood to the point where she's nearly all red.
Convince her that the gun failed to kill us for a reason. Divine intervention. We're needed alive.
"That gun didn't kill me for a reason! Deevey---DehVyn---The Goddess saved me!"
All the Alicorns in the audience stand up and starting to mumble among themselves. Even the one in the suit starts to give Harvest weird looks. A blue one materializes before her and whispers into her ear "Please do not mention the Goddess or anything Unity related. Thank you and goodbye." before disappearing again. After some more commotion all the Bird Alicorns sit back down and return to watching the events before them. Harvest suddenly realizes that the commotion would've been the perfect time to escape.
"...Well...The Goddess is dead now...That means you got no pony to save you now!" She draws a dagger from her suit with her levitation, one that looks an awful lot like Shiny but less bloody. Only less.
Accuse her of being a homosexual and ready Shiny for duel.
Tell her we're an expert in the way of the Knife (capital K is important), and that she will not be able to hold her own against us. Offer negotiations.
"Uh, Faggot! I'm an expert with a Knife! You cannot best me! Back down now and we can negotiate this!" Harvest feels like she did pretty good intimidating. But it seems like it wasn't enough.
"Only thing I want to negotiate is your funeral arrangements!" The Alicorns lunges forward and begins trying to slash her with the knife. Harvest is doing surprisingly well evading or blocking her blows, but the increased range of her levitation makes any sort of counter attacking a complicated affair.
Retreat and buck one of the boxes at her.
Retreat back, and attempt to find something to throw at the Alicorn as a distraction.
She baits the Alicorn back to the box, which turns out to be a coffin of some sorts. She leaps over it and bucks it at the Tuxedo Alicorn but there's some problems. First off, despite being a solid wood coffin her buck goes straight through it which not only doesn't give the desired result, but it causes her to trip. Lastly, the Alicorn flies over the coffin with ease. The Alicorn begins to descend upon Harvest, knife pointed toward her face.
Roll like one of those barrels you've heard so much about.
She Barrelrolls out of the way. The Alicorn seems kinda oblivious to this, and stabs the ground where Harvest was.
Her range is also her weakness. Retreat so she feels the need to extend her tk range, then run past that range while she's swinging and give her a good buck while she's fumbling with adjusting.
You've already established that you know where best to buck ponies.
Harvest take this opportunity to retreat as far as she can, all the way to the 'audience'. The Alicorn takes the bait hook and center, extending her knife out for a slash which you easily avoid. Now, her mom only told her one area to buck Colts, but she gave her 3 areas to hit mares: The face, the stomach, or their crotch. She goes with the latter and loops around the Alicorn quickly to buck her square in her gigantic butt. The Alicorn obviously wasn't expecting this and fumbles before tripping on a rock and landing on her face. The Alicorn audience giggles a bit at this turn of events. She's trying to recover and go for the dagger again though, but Harvest is very very close to her with Shiny still her in mouth.
Abuse her crotch with Shiny. The handle, or the blade.
Grab both daggers. Proclaim yourself the winner.
Slash 'GH' onto her buttcheeks!
Stab her in the nearest leg a few times, then go kick her dagger out of range. Demand her full attention.
Lots of sick and malicious thoughts fill her mind as she approaches her prey. GH grabs the other knife first of course though. But before Good Harvest can do anything else the Alicorn lunges upon her! And falls onto her blades by accident. All the way to the hilt. Blood squirts out of her chests and Harvest screams wordlessly, backing away as she totters about, grunting and coughing out blood. After a few seconds which felt like minutes of struggling she finally collapses on the ground, her groans turn to sighs, her flailing turns to twitching. Her eyes spasm rapidly. But soon she stops moving.
The audience is silent...
Then they stand up and begin to stomp and applause! Cheers and "Encore! Encore!" is heard. Their bird masks hide their expressions but it's obvious that a few are perhaps shedding tears at the performance.
"What the fuck is going on?"
Inquire, using expletives, as to what events are taking place currently.
"Pardon me, dear audience, but what in the bally FUCKING HELL is occurring?"
A good question. But over the roar of the crowd it's drowned out and goes unanswered.
Try not to cry over the fact that you just took the life of a living thing, destroyed all it's hopes and dream, brought pain and misery into the heart of it's loved ones, and forever tainted your immortal soul with your sin.
Yeah...well about that...The 'dead' Alicorns stand up. Both of them. They're still covered in blood but the 'daggers' fall out of the Tuxedo Alicorn stomach. They take a stand next to Harvest and bow, lifting her up with a hug. The Audience seems to really be cheering for the Bloodymare in the coffin the most.
Wave to the audience. What more can we do? Accept the bouquet of flowers that are sure to come.
Seriously start panicking. This is too much shit for one day.
She tries to be a good sport, playing along, smiling and waving. But the stress and the confusion catches up to her. First they start as small droplets of tears, but soon enough Harvest is full on bawling her butt off. This is not a good day, she's hungry, she's tired, her hooves hurt, she's covered in fake blood, and all she wants is to go home and take her haul into town.
"WHAT IS GOING ON!?" A middle aged mare forces her way through the still applauding audience "GIRLS! GIRLS! WHO IS THIS MARE AND WHY DID YOU KIDNAP HER?"
Pleadingly inquire with big, round, teary eyes.
Refuse to stop crying, these ponies brought it on themselves.
Her tears do not stop flowing. "Wha-What?" The Middle aged mare looks at the 'actors' who give sheepish grins.
"B-But no one else would fit in the coffin! It's a big part of the play! An-And she agreed to do it!" the one in the tuxedo says.
"I-I talk in m-my sleep." Harvest says between sobs. The middle aged mare keeps giving the alicorns a look. A look that would probably make a cockatrice feel sorry about it's actions. The Alicorns end up bursting into tears as well. The audience look at each other in confusion, wondering whether this is part of the play.
"Shh Shh it's okay." The mare gives Harvest a hug. Her blue mane is really soft, and it smells...nice.
Ask her what's going on. Don't think about how nice this feels.
"What's going on!" said Harvest
"Oh well...It's not a short story I can say that. But the jist of it is that these Alicorns are putting on a play for those Alicorns wearing bird masks. If I remember correctly I think it was a play of an undertaker who doubled as a murderer. Throughout the play he tried to keep his double life away from his wife. But as you can see." She points to the sobbing alicorn in the dress, who still has a gunshot wound "That did not work out. In the end one of his victims came back to life and killed him. I guess they couldn't find a coffin big enough for one of them, so they approached you." said the old mare.
"But I was asleep when they did. I think I understand now..." Harvest hugs back. Totally not thinking too hard about it. Totally not thinking about how warm the mare's body is against her own...
"I'm sorry about all this..." she checks some fancy device on her hoof "Oh look at that, it's 1 am. You must be exhausted after all this. You can stay in my home for a few hours if you wish. I do not know which town you're from so it could be either a long or short walk."
Ask her what her town's name is, maybe you'll recognize it. Leave out your own town's name, for now.
"Where? What town do you live in?" Harvest let's go of the older mare regrettably.
"Town? Oh, well I haven't come up with a good name for it..." she points to the Bird Alicorns "Why don't you ask them if they named themselves? Last I remember they were called 'Camp A'." Seems like she's a loner. The mare leads her through the crowd, with the sobbing actors tailing you.
"The Alicorn with the dress...that wound is fake right?"
"Oh no no." The one in the Tuxedo chokes out "It's real. Don't worry. Only plinking rounds."
Ask her why she hasn't gotten out of Dodge yet. Is she a prisoner?
"So are you these Alicorn's slave?" says Harvest "Why are you here?"
"Somepony has to prevent these overgrown and powerful kids in check. Hell, before I used to get payed for doing it. Of course when all my other Co-Workers up and left they stranded me as well." says the mare. After a bit of walking Harvest and the mare come to a shack. Lot's of Alicorns with Bird Masks are flying about, some stand vigil in the middle of the way like statues, others stand on top of the roof swishing their tails back and forth. Harvest notices now that every single alicorn that is wearing a bird mask is blue, while all the others who aren't are either purple or green. The mare stops right before the door and turns around with a smile "So, how about we start with a proper introduction. My name is Rust. What's yours?"
"Good Harvest"
"Nice name...So is there anything else you want to know?"
What's up with the masks?
And follow up question, IF I TAKE THEM OFF, WILL THEY DIE?
"What's with the masks? They're really creepy..." Harvest notices that the ones on the roof are all gawking at her. At least they've been staring at her for a while now.
"Oh, they don't mean anything by it!" Rust gives them the same stare and the roof Alicorns turn away. Seems like it has less of an effect on them than the one without masks. "They just really really really don't like it when other ponies look at their faces. Kept complaining that they prefer to have no identity 'like the old days'. So for arts and crafts one day I made let them make masks. They all chose the same thing. As for why birds...your guess is as good as mine."
So what's a mare gotta do to get a hot dicking around here.
Harvest doesn't ask this out right. But she does get a bit curious.
"...So are there any male Alicorns?" Rust doesn't seem to get the hint. Luckily.
"You mean ever? Yeah, back in the NCR they some how made a couple of them. Freaky zebra magic or something. Here? No, all of them are female."
Rant about the perversion of the divine by scientists is what sent us over the abyss in the first place.
"What do you mean 'make' male Alicorns? Aren't they supposed to be gods that move the sun and moon and help old stallions get it up?" Rust seems surprised by Harvest's question but suddenly she let's out an 'oh'.
"You don't know anything about Alicorns do you?" Harvest scrunches in frustration. Sure that's true...but that doesn't give her the right to make her feel stupid for not knowing something!
INT check failed!
Joke how it must be boring for them, then ask what they do for fun.
"Sooo, no stallions around? It must get mighty boring around here. What do they do to amuse themselves?" Rust's eyes light up and she begins to pull a giant notebook out of her bags.
"Ooh ooh. Weeellll first thing today is that at 7:35 AM we're going to have breakfast, more MRE's but I also found just enough sparkle cola's lying around to spice it up a bit! Next at 8:20 we're going on a little hike around the steppes of this place to stretch out their joints and get some fresh irradiated air in their lungs. Then at 9:00 sharp we're going to finish up our "Rubble Tree Projects" and at 9:45 we'll have an award ceremony for the prettiest one! Oooh and after that..."
Wow, she's really into organizing. Must have a special talent for it. Try to check out her cutie mark. Discreetly.
It's fairly easy for Harvest to check out her flank what with her going off on a tangent. Rust has a cutie mark of blue notebook in a black circle. Tad strange but it's not like she has a cooler one anyway.
say you want to watch them work on the rubble trees
"Can I watch the Alicorns make those Trees?" she asks
"Oh, well of course! But don't you want to check up on your family or friends back home first? They're going to be mighty worried."
Inquire exactly where we are. Mark on a map if possible.
"Do you know where your place is exactly then?"
"Hmmm...Can't say. I got a general idea of this area but I don't have a map of the area...Do you?" Harvest does of course. Now the problem is that her artistic ability is a bit...sub-par. Rust leads her into her house and shows her a blackboard to draw on. She has a single bed and a few commodities: a stove, a locker with a busted locked, coat hanger with an outfit consisting of a white lab coat atop of a dirty white blouse, a desk and lots of planners and a healthy amount of star stickers, a few guns lazily tossed around, some empty water bottles, and a sleeping bag stashed near the bed which you assume you'll sleep on if you decide to spend the night. She wipes the black board that had some weird diagram on it.
Devo - Sugar Mountain = Crazy Horse - ??? = Rust Never Sleeps. Possible Fathers:
Harvest tries damn hard to create a map. But after a few minutes of frustration makes something a bit abstract. "Hmm...I think we're..." Rust takes a piece of red chalk and marks a spot "Right here."
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