Along the shores of Baltimare Harbor, in the halls of old 33 Hoebuck, our heroes have discovered a dark secret. What started as a mundane mission to stop illegal immigrant smuggling has uncovered something far more horrific - a cult from Griffonia. The party has successfully challenged and defeated many of the cultists and hired criminals, but in the process, has nearly died themselves. Now, low on health, they must both recover and put an end to the evils in 33 Hoebuck once and for all - before it puts an end to them first.
Way up north, in the Iron Range of Whinnysota, the ponies their inquire into exact who or what is damaging so many machines. Investigating and following leads, they may unveil the faults and problems of the Haysabi Iron Mine, and gain favor with Changeling authorities.
Damn it, I missed 123,000
1760 replies and 24 files omitted.
>>123551He doesn't go far, keeping the tracks within eyesight so he can head back, but he makes note that he can make this work to his advantage later. After some exploring, he walks back to the tracks.
>>123552Spark walks away from the trees, which sway with the north wind, and back towards the pit. Off in the distance a power shovel picks up rock and ore, and places it into the bed of a waiting truck. More processed ore falls into a now-different hopper
>>123553He walks along the track away from the train and workers, seeing where it may lead.
>>123554The track goes two ways. Towards the ore processing mill, and in the direction of town, though it splits and goes around town to the west, as Blackwood is up on the hill, and the tracks go around it. It always stays by the forest, though with a clearing separating them. In this section it is on the other side of the road which follows alongside the pit
>>123555Checked.
I suppose next I will see about the town, and how far it is from the tracks. Perhaps this will come in handy.
>>123556Past where the tracks and road seperate, the track becomes a double track, goes on for a quarter mile or so, and there is a small train station, or at least a small building with an elevated wooden platform and a red tile roof next to the track. This is at the bottom of the hill Blackwood is partly built overtop of.
>>123557He sneaks to the building. Are there ponies in view?
>>123558Through a window in another room is one stallion, he looks like a railway attendant, who is not paying attention
>>123559Hmm....
Anything around the building of note?
>>123560In the train station? Not particularly. An inside section has a room with an attendant - aforementioned stallion - and a waiting room with some chairs. There are posters on the wall. One is a poster of a pony couple eating cotton candy on a Ferris Wheel, with the words in big red letters overtop - "Whinnyapolis State Fair - August 28 - September 8". This Poster is faded, and Partly covered over by a new, blacker themed poster of the close up of a Changeling Queen's Muzzle merging to look out over many Changelings, in uniform and not, standing at attention, who are placed above many ponies standing and dressed in varieties of mundane clothing. At the very top is "Chrysalis, Queen Mother Over All".
On the other side of the room is a poster of a streamlined Diesel Train travelling over a rocky bank, through wheat fields to the left, a lake over to the right, with a forest and a lone wolf visible over in the background. The text is "Ponytown Northern Railway - Serving Whinnysota"
>>123561He shrugs and goes for some conversation with the pony.
“Hi there.”
>>123562He pops up, like he's startled
"Oh"
He looks back to Spark. He's an elder unicorn of an approximately brownish color with an orange tinge
"Hi there. Didn't see you walking in. You looking to buy a ticket?"
>>123563“How much?”
I got no clue how many bits I have left.
>>123564"Where you lookin' to go? It's 10 bits into Whinnyapolis. 30 bits into Crystal City."
>>123566Brie has just collected a very large set of explosives from the mine after talking to Zu Lang. Spark should be there to meet up with
>>123567Alright then. Brie returns to the cart with,... lots of explosives, and I would emote a spring in his step to boot.
>>123568Brie finds himself followed in light step by another drone, also wearing what appears to be an officer's hat, with a black and white coat.
Opening the door to the cart, some miner ponies stop their work to watch him as he loads it in. So too do Seb and Fun seem impressed, or perhaps concerned, by the quantity of explosives
>>123569Brie busies himself rigging up the 3 charges (2 at 2/9 capacity and 1 at 5/9 capacity). "There! This should leave a hole." he says with a bit of satisfaction. He then looks for Sparks, as he's the only party member Brie hasn't checked in with. And the Lings, but they're not gonna want anything to do with this mission (not that Sparks is likely to either, but we'll see).
>>123570Seb and Fun have been following Brie, and watch him rigging up the explosives. Kerr and Wesley are with Onyx, presumably close by
>>123571So like,... the bombs will only go off if they're lit right? They're not made with nitro-glycerine, are they? Does Brie know? I don't wanna be that guy from Lost.
>>123572Don't worry, the nitroglycerin in the dynamite is mixed with dolomite. It can still "sweat" and cause headaches if you hold it, but only fire, high temperatures, and adequate electric shocks will cause it to go off
>>123565“I’ll take one for Whinnyapolis.”
>>123575I’m finishing this scene, then I will
>>123576"Alright." He looks down
"Ten bits" He looks back up
"Now you have to have an official Hegemony passport to travel on the rail"
>>123577“Ah. That was the other thing I wanted to talk to you about. Mine has expired and I need to get it renewed. Where is the best place to get that done?”
>>123578"Go to the office of Changeling police in town. The old police station, right across from the mining office, which is the biggest building up on the hill. Go down the road leading back in town and take a left. You can't miss it."
\r
>>123579“Thanks.”
Spark heads out, but back to the pit.
>>123580Spark soon enough stumbles upon Brie packing....
something into a cart
>>123570 >>123568 >>123581"Ah Spark, how are you? Lovely day isn't it? The perfect sort of weather to blow things up with don't you think?"
>>123581Oh no.
>>123568“Umm.. hey there Brie. What are you up to?”
>>123583"Well, it seems that a number of these insurgents are hiding somewhere in the forest, and a protracted campaign of pressing them and vying for position sounds far too troublesome. I figured," and as he says this he presents the finished bombs "We could just strategically bomb the shit out of them!" ^_^
>>123584“Hmmm.....”
Spark ponders for a moment.
“Not bad. I would love to hear more of this plan.”
>>123585"Well there's not much to it at the moment. It involves me and either Seb or Fun flying in to gather recon, and then where we go from there depends on what we find. We might bomb them from the air, we might infiltrate a bit and make a more tactical strike,... it really depends."
>>123588“I interrogated a prisoner and might have an idea of what to do next. Not a great one, but an idea.”
>>123588"Technically, the plan could work with me flying in solo, but one never knows what one will find." He sighs. "This would have been so much easier if they had foal-napped somepony like I had hoped."
>>123589"Oh? Oh! There's a prisoner! That's marvelous! What did he say? Is he still alive? Has he been tortured? CAN he be tortured?"
>>123591“He has been tortured, but gave me all I need to know just by asking. However...”
Spark looks around.
“I might need more privacy to tell you the details.”
>>123592"I like the sound of this!" Brie looks around to find a secluded spot to converse.
>>123593>>123592>>123591There does indeed seem to be somecreature not far behind in probable listening range. It's the middle officer - the one Spark met before. He stands still and silent, though with an occasionally wobbly right foreleg. He stands there as the ponies go around to the other side of the cart, or perhaps deeper into the pit mine to talk in relative privacy
>>123594Looking at the officer, Brie the looks at Spark with a deadpan expression. "I'm gathering we should do this in the cart."
:3>>123592 >>123594>>123595“Well, I found out the answer to the trouble, though not as satisfying as I had hoped. Turns out all of the issues that have been going on have been accidents due to parties or drunkenness. So even if we executed suspects, the problems will only manifest again. The lost ponies died swimming while intoxicated. The wounds the changelings had were celebratory gunfire gone wrong. The damaged equipment, just fooling around while out of their senses. Apparently both changelings and ponies in this area get wasted and party hard, which is allowed because the changelings think this will help morale.”
“So... we have a bit of a problem. There is no target we can hit that would stop this from happening. And even if we could crack down on it, which the commanders don’t believe is the truth, hence the torture while he was saying it, then productivity will grind down anyway. That said, I do have a plan...”
>>123596"Alright, I'm listening," Brie says, trying to not be disappointed at the idea that doesn't need to be explosions.
>>123597“I’ll need you to blow up the bombs rather close by in the forest to get everyone’s attention. Then, I’ll make an illusion of a monster, make him appear to smash something with a little more explosive, then make him vanish in the forest again. That will make them all believe that operations must cease here and they will move in actual troops to hunt through the forest.”
>>123598"So, you want to trick the lot of them into thinking there is a threat that requires full military support, so that the cause of the lack of productivity is revealed without us having to be the bearers of bad news?" Brie thinks for a moment. "You're sure this pony was sufficiently and thoroughly tortured?"
>>123599“Well, he might have been able to take a bit more if you did it right, but he seemed pretty drained of much of his will to live.”
>>123600"Under what circumstances were this pone captured?"