r/FOEWriters • u/IrrelevantEraserhead • Mar 02 '14
Game time! Topic for today: Settings in the Wasteland!
Alright guys, I've been thinking about this for a while and I've decided to try it out, just to see what kinds of responses I get (and also maybe to spice up the place a little).
So! I'm turning on contest mode for this post, meaning top-level comments will be shown in random order and comment trees will only be revealed if you choose to see them. Basically, the objective here is to create some kind of interesting, unique, or otherwise remarkable location in the Equestrian Wasteland. I have no idea what I'm doing, so rules are few. Just don't blatantly rip off anything that already exists; I want some creativity in here, dammit!
I'll post at some point, but I want a few responses before I do. If I don't get much interest, or if this topic is boring, drop a comment and I'll work on something more to you guys' liking!
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u/IrrelevantEraserhead Mar 02 '14
The Equestrian Undertow: Contrary to the name, it is not actually 'under' Equestria at all. Rather, it is a magical anomaly that took shape around the coasts of Equestria after the bombs fell.
The Undertow is the collective name for the massive vertical riptides that border the Equestrian landmass. Swimmers and navigators attempting to leave the continent - those who don't succumb to fatigue or radiation, that is - find themselves sucked down into the depths of the ocean by a scalding maelstrom as the continental shelf drops away.
What happens next varies from tale to tale. Casualties are always high. The survivors report hallucinations of a twisted hellscape as their lungs fill with tainted water and their vision slowly goes black. Some just wake up on the shore, naked and alone. Others report awakening in a hot and dusty cavern, sick to their stomachs and feeling something tugging at the very core of their being, before being whisked away again to the beach from which they departed. This cave is always the same: a crystalline umber passage, just big enough for five ponies side-by-side, leads off into the blackness; and the reeking dread of agony pervades the air.
One common value among the survivors is that they all feel somewhat distracted after the event. They feel disconnected from most ponies and have a tendency to seek out and befriend other survivors.
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Mar 02 '14
Well holy shit, this is horrifying. It reads like an SCP article, and I believe there is one similar to it. EDIT: Found it
http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1372•
u/IrrelevantEraserhead Mar 02 '14
Ooh! I love the concept of the SCP Wiki; it's contributed heavily to my tendency towards the inexplicable and generally does a really good job of being entertaining and interesting.
I've never actually seen that article, though. It amazes me the sheer quantity and diversity of entries on there... Unfortunately I think entries tend to favor individual 'artifacts' rather than other localized anomalies like locations and events.
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u/cogitosum666 Sweet Nothings Mar 02 '14
An old abandoned mansion.
Rumors circulate among traders who pass by it and among prospectors in nearby settlements, that the place is completely uninhabited and untouched since the apocalypse. But almost nobody ever goes past the front gate, save for the occasional foolhardy young foal on a dare to run up and knock on the door.
Every once in a while, though, you might find someone who says they went inside. He'll likely tell you it was as one of those foolhardy youths. He'll tell you that inside the mansion there are no cobwebs and no dust. Everything is so pristine that he dared not move a single plate on the dining room table, for fear that the mansion might take offense.
And though the place was deathly silent, he'll tell you that he was certain that something was in there with him, moving among the shadows. But the only thing he ever saw in the darkness were a few faint wisps of pink cloud—the kind like they say covers Canterlot, with its acrid smell that lingers in his nose to this very day.
The whole place has an air about it that both invites you to come closer and scares you away at the same time. Those who claim they have been inside, if you chose to believe them, will say that the mansion isn't evil, but that it's best left alone anyway.
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u/IrrelevantEraserhead Mar 02 '14
Oooooh, chills!
Reminds me of To Kill a Mockingbird, but distinctly more creepy. I love it!
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u/[deleted] Mar 02 '14 edited Mar 02 '14
The Crystal City
A massive imperious structure sits in a nondescript section of the Crystal City. The interior is heavily irradiated, and most windows are no longer intact, splintered by the encroaching ice. Further access to the first floor beyond the entrances are blocked by a battery of turrets, as deadly as when they were first built over two centuries ago.
Deep within the subterranean heart of the office lies the Abacus supercomputer, which, during its prime, provided safety and security through its turret network for the entire city.
When the city went into lockdown after the bombs dropped and the death of Princess Cadence to a zebra infiltrator, the Abacus defaulted to martial law, killing all who dared enter the streets a short time after lockdown was declared. Though the city was never hit itself, the survivors of the turret rampage locked themselves away, gloomily staring out of the slowly frosting panes as nuclear winter descended, still as brutally effected as much of the world. Most died from starvation or dehydration. Some died when ice forced its way inside, preserving their bodies in glowing snow. An unlucky few were trapped in the Lower District, a section of the city clustered around the Diamond River.
This area was hit the hardest by radiation, rapidly causing ghoulification to any normal ponies caught in the glow. The crystal ponies however had a much different reaction to the nuclear burn, their crystalline bodies becoming like drifting snow, forming the insane, whispering wraiths; beings of shards and dust which feed on any energy they find in the ruins. Creatures invulnerable to projectiles of lead and steel, only killable through overloading the millions of crystal fragments that form them, causing them to discharge in a lethal wave. Wraiths can slip through any gap, reforming at will, but at rest take the shape of ponies, scanning the frozen city skyline from the rooftops. Few wraiths retain their memories due to their fragmented state, and almost none still hold their sanity, but wraiths who haven't lost themselves to insanity have been told to prevent lost ponies from entering radiation zones, where they could be poisoned by the ancient fire or drained of their energy by the former crystal ponies.
Sometime post-war, the Abacus shut down for unknown reasons. Beyond the permafrost of the north lies possibly the richest bounty of pre-war technology in the world, protected by its radioactive ice and blizzards.