Crater Lake

[Moxie]

Crater Lake

This very large, deep, and beautifully clear water lake was formed by a small asteroid hitting the earth thousands of years ago. Kicking up an abundance of once buried mountain minerals, this lake's sandy shores often bare assorted fragments of quartz, cobalt, and titanium.

The moist soil here is rich with nutrients and offers a great place for refugees to attempt to sow foreign seeds to grow and renew food supplies. However, every refugee knows to be cautious with how they plant and to try to make it seem as natural as possible, or hide the more noticeable gardens under the cover of the treeline surrounding the lake. A passing enemy would easily spot a pony-made garden if too exposed, and we don't need foes snooping about!


Unique Area Resources:

Fresh Water - carried back to camp in clumps of moss or pottery containers (not ideal, but does the trick).

Daffodils - Food

Carrots - Food

Crab Apples - Food, and the skin is used for red pigment for paint 

Fish -  Food for the meat eaters of the camp

Sassafras - Roots are used to make Root Beer in camp

Mullein - Used to temper asthma and relieve severe chest/sinus congestion

Yarrow - This herb can be crushed and applied to wounds to clottorize blood quickly. If eaten, it causes ponies to vomit, but can be key in saving their lives if they have ingested poisonous mushrooms or berries.

Sand - processed to create glass and mirrors for the cavern lighting system

Quartz, Cobalt, Titanium - used for crafting weapons, armor, or for construction materials.

[Tarascha Terastari]

[Enter Tarascha from OurTown, Main Street]

After having left OurTown, Tarascha had fled blindly towards the other side of Equestria, trying to escape from the horrific things that happened back there. Using his years of knowledge and traveling, he had taken all the shortcuts he could, avoiding settlements and cities as much as possible. He didn't know if anypony was actually looking for him or if he was just being paranoid but better save than sorry! At this point, he had reached the forests that grew around the Smokey Mountians, hoping close to nopony would take the paths in that area.

Panting heavily, he shoved some branches aside and looked over the scene that appeared in front of him. A big lake, plants everywhere around him and the mountians in the background. "Good enough for me..."

He forced himself to the edge of the lake before planting his rump firmly on the ground, leaning forward to drink some of the water right from the lake. Afterwards he let out a painful groan and began to scan the area around him for anything suspicious or dangerous that could surprise him if he was distracted.

[Citizens In Equestria]

The area around the earth pony surely did not give off a threatening vibe. In fact, it was very peaceful at the lake at the moment, as the calming sounds of nature surrounded Tara. But that didn't mean he was alone of course. Several ducks and other birds were swimming out on the lake, paying little mind to the pony at the shore, while other animals were dwelling beneath and up in the trees, keeping themselves out of sight. However, one sudden sound seemed to taint this aura of peace and quiet.

The sound was rather quiet, but was different enough from the other sounds near the lake to be easy heard, and came a bit from the side from where Tara was, from near the shore. The sound itself was akin to a low chatter that sprang out occasionally, a hurt undertone in it.

[Tarascha Terastari]

At first, Tara had tried to ignore the sound and gift himself with a long deserved moment of peace. But when it just wouldn't go away or stop, he finally let out a tired sigh and focused back on the matter at hoof. He then began to mumble to himself. "Weird sound. What could that be? No idea. Dangerous? Possbily. Try to find out what it was? Right away."

Once he was done with this bad habbit, he made an effort in locating the source of the sound, crouching lower while moving towards his goal at a slow but steady pace. He kept an eye out for any potential noisemakers on the ground such as dry leaves or branches and expertly avoided them on his short journey.

[Citizens In Equestria]

The source of the sound would be rather easy to find as it made no attempt to conceal itself. Lying in the tall grass that surrounded some parts of the lakes, was a beaver, a rather common animal to be found near the lake. There was however rather obviously something wrong with him, as he only lay there an whimpered, letting out the occasional hurt, low chatter that drawn the attention of the earth pony.

[Tarascha Terastari]

"...beaver...huh." After looking around the area some more, he decided that this animal was in no condition to endager him and raised up again, stopping his semi-painful crouch walk. He sniffed the air once while stepping up right next to the beaver, looking down at the suffering animal.

[Citizens In Equestria]

The beaver was distracted momentarily as Tara approached and tried to get up and run away from the much larger pony, but he can't even manage to get back up on his paws, letting out a hurt whimper before falling down onto the ground. The source of his pain, and the reason he so quickly fell, was his leg, which Tara would see was obviously hurt, it looking as it had been crunched.

[Tarascha Terastari]

Tara watched the sad display and couldn't drown the slow feeling of empathy that made its way into his brain as he looked at the crunched leg. For the first time in a few days, Tara reached up to his hood, slowly pulling it down his neck to reveal his face to the beaver. He tried his best to give the beaver a trustworthy smile, which was pretty hard considering he had several scratching marks on his right cheek and jaw.

"You aren't alone with that, buddy. I know how that feels."

[Citizens In Equestria]

The beaver lets out a weak but frightened squeal and again tries to move away from the pony, but to no avail. He remains where he is and, seemingly accepting his fate, looks at Tara with fearful eyes, his chest rather quickly heaving and lowering in stressful breaths.

[Tarascha Terastari]

Tara simply tilted his head a little and considered his options. A few seconds later, he slowly reached out a hoof towards the beaver, frowning slightly. "Listen here, bud. This is not nice for either of us. But either you let me help you and take a little pain during that or I'm going to leave you here to die and that is not a good thing."

He stopped his hoof just inches away from the beavers face and waited for any kind of reaction.

[Citizens In Equestria]

The beaver continued to stare at Tara, his eyes still filled with fear, though this was probably more due because of his hurting leg rather than any behaviour coming from the earth pony in front of him. He merely lay there and whimpered, staring in fear at Tara's hoof and waiting for when he was bout to be touched... but when this failed to happen, he did begin to look at the hoof on front of his face with less fear than before.

[Tarascha Terastari]

Unmoving, Tara stayed in that awkward position, trying to show the beaver that he wasn't going to treat him like prey. "Come on...I can't just let you die on your own here."

The earth pony wriggled his hoof slightly, not really knowing how to deal with animals in these situations. If he had just known how to use his earth pony magic better, this wouldn't have been a problem.

[Citizens In Equestria]

The beaver continued to remain cautious, but seemed to grow a little calmer with each passing moment of the big pony not attacking. After a little while, he even dared to carefully sniff at the outstretched hoof, seemingly deciding that maybe this wasn't a threat after all.

[Tarascha Terastari]

The earth pony tried the grin from before again and spoke up in a gentle voice...or at least he thought it was gentle. "Say...mister beaver guy, is there anything I could do to help you? Are you hungry or thirsty?"

Tara knew that the beaver probably didnt even understood what he said but it was worth a try anyway. Maybe lady luck favoured him today and he will somehow think of a way to help the beaver.

[Citizens In Equestria]

The beaver looked at Tara as he was being spoken to, his black eyes no longer filled with fear, but still with much pain in them. He let's out a low chatter in reply to the pony, though what this meant was a mystery.

[Tarascha Terastari]

Tarascha scrunched slightly at the low chatter of the beaver, trying to understand what he could possibly have said. He then pointed his hoof at the beavers crunched leg and inspected it some more, hoping to find any clue about how to help.

[Citizens In Equestria]

The leg of the beaver was, as it has already been stated, crunched, it lying there limp and unusable. It looks as if something have might have been dropped on it, crushing the bones and rendering it unusable. There was however no blood, as the skin had not been pierced or something of the like. It sure would look painful, as evident by the beavers whining and pained chattering, and it would probably not be easy to fix.

[Tarascha Terastari]

"Damn...not much that I could do." Tara frowned and shook his head. His little knowledge of first aid and the plants of the Equestrias wild side wouldn't be of much use here. Suddenly, a thought came to his head. It was kinda crazy and not that helpful but better than nothing.

"Hey, listen. I can't help you right now. But I can take you with me and find someone that can help you. But for that I need you-" He pointed at the beaver with his hoof, "-to get in here." Tara then pointed at his lowered hood that formed a large enough pouch for the beaver to rest in at the earth ponies neck.

[Citizens In Equestria]

The beaver stared at the earth pony for a few moments, his look very hard to decipher. When he finally does something, he starts to move in the direction of the earth pony only to stop almost immediately, a wince escaping the beaver as a shiver of pain goes through him.

[Tarascha Terastari]

Without waiting any longer, Tara gently picked the beaver up by its neck like a cat would do to her newborn. He lifted the hurt animal up to his pulled down hood and placed it there gently, trying to be as careful as possible to not hurt the beaver more than he needed to. "Come on. You're a big guy. You got this."

[Citizens In Equestria]

The beaver, in spite of the encouraging words, couldn't help but whimper as he was being lifted up and carried over to Tara's hood, it rather clearly still hurting in spite of the earth pony's gentle treatment. But when he finally lay still once more, he rather quickly curled up against the neck of the pony, getting as comfortable as he possibly could.

[Tarascha Terastari]

Tara silently began to trot towards the edge of the lake again, back to the position he had been before the beaver had caught his attention. He would be able to supply the beaver with food and water until he found somepony that could help him. But actually finding somepony...that might be hard so far out in the Equestrian landside. Anyway, he would not abandon the beaver just like that! With that thought, he sat down at the waters edge and looked over the lake.

[Moxie]

[Enter Moxie from Celestia's Gate]

Moxie hugged the tops of the trees as she guided her patrol across the mountain side. Already, the air was feeling a little less thin as they dropped in altitude, and she had to pop her ears several times before she glimpsed the lake not far ahead of them. They would do a sweep around it's south side, she decided as she continued listening to the others.

[Pumpkin Vine]

[Enter Pumpkin Vine.]

Sweeping through towards the lake and high pine tops, the amazon smiled at the lovely sight to see. Watching the young mare fly through the air, it had felt like an eternity since she saw the leader's daughter actually smile. While she kept herself hidden on agenda's and personal knowledge of the campers, Pumpkin had always wanted to make sure she knew who she was up against if the need arose. This pony, she was a special one. With a heart as pure as gold, her soul was innocent and needed to be well protected. Understanding their leader's over protective bearings on the poor young adult, in time hopefully they would both find common ground to walk on. Remembering Flux's last question and seeing him in view, she spoke as they slowed down to watch overhead for some time.

"Before the war, I used to live in a forest such as this one. Van Hoover was the name. It was amazon territory and we were pretty proud of it. Perfect soil for growing pumpkins, we harvested these vegetables and traded them to Equestrian farmers for fresh fruits and other vegetables that we just could not produce. The princesses left us alone to our little tribe, and it was a peaceful time.. When the war begun, it had not reached us for some time. Not knowing what was going on in our deserted forest land and feeling the winds of change, being their leader, I took off from my tribe to find out what was going on in the world. Originally heading to see the Princesses themselves, I was stopped short when I saw local villages between the war zone. I helped out the best that I could. Rushing back to warn my tribe, it seemed there was more at hoof here. Something wanted me to be lead away from them. When I returned... My entire amazon tribe was slaughtered. 200 warrior mare's, butchered. My wife.. or what was left of her, was in pieces. We were allies to the old Princesses, and we were brought down because of it. After that, I fought my way to this camp. Unknowingly of course. Genesee took me in, and that's the end of it. I have been here ever since. Training our members so that hopefully, it doesn't happen again."

Pumpkin Vine had not changed her calm and composed vocal cords throughout her entire story, keeping things unemotional and real as she finally managed to finish. Not quite used to speaking so freely to strangers, if they were ever to learn more about what happened, it was wise to tell them the truth. She was older yes, but it surely did not mean she wasn't a pony with feelings. Since that day, she swore to do everything in her power to defend the innocent the best she could.

[Tarascha Terastari]

Tarascha was still sitting at the edge of the lake, staring over the waters. Of course he had no idea of the pegasi that were slowly comming closer and would spot him at some point so his hood was still lowered with the beaver being able to rest in it like in a soft, gentle bed. The pony had to go somewhere soon with the beaver. That he knew. Else, the leg of the beaver might never heal the right way and he would be easy prey for any hunter comming across his way.

Tara turned his head to take a quick glance out of the corner of his eye to make sure the beaver was still there and alive. Otherwise, if the beaver was indeed gone or, well "gone" then this would have been one hour of awkwardness involving talking to himself instead of the animal.

[Flux]

[Enter Flux from Celestia's gate]

Flux listened to Pumpkin's tale as they descended down the mountain, his brow furrowing as she revealed what had happened to her home. When she finished speaking he flew in silence for a few respectful moments. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said softly but with enough volume to be heard while they were flying. "No one deserves to lose their family; I wouldn't wish that on even the Queen's forces." As a pony who'd spent so much of his life physically alone, Flux knew that being by yourself was okay, and it was by no means the same thing as being lonely. He'd been able to keep communication between himself and his own family up until about a year ago, and the simple knowledge that his mother and sister were out there was enough for him. He was glad that the Amazon had been able to find a new family; it certainly couldn't replace what she'd lost, but doing so protected a pony from the overwhelming weight of truly being alone. The stallion held respect for her as a fighter and could draw certain conclusions about her from the way she carried herself and interacted with others, but hearing her narration made that respect grow. She also was trying to better the future, and as far as Flux was concerned that was a noble goal.

The air shifted the further down they flew, and Flux felt the familiar weight of air that was slightly heavier as his wings sliced through it. There was a slight breeze caused by the warmer air above the lake's water that pulled slightly at his feathers as they got closer to it, and as he watched the forest seemed to become more...inviting. His eyes scanned through the brush and trees below them, watching for...well, anything. He thought as he flew about the information that he'd been presented with, and the seed that had taken root in his mind seemed to tell him that he should get to know both these mares better if it was to work.

[Citizens In Equestria]

A pair of small, dark and beady eyes would meet Tara's glance a tired and slightly pained look in them but clearly alive. A low chatter came from the animal in what seemed like an answer of sorts in the language of beavers. It quietens however, suddenly becoming weary, as if something had alerted him...

[Moxie]

Moxie's heart broke to hear Pumpkin's tale in her own words. The mare had seen such terrible things, gone through more than one mare should ever have to bare. Moxie had lost her companion and her home.... but Pumpkin had lost her home and entire family, everypony she had ever held dear. She couldn't even imagine... How lonely Pumpkin must have felt, how she might still feel... Moxie's heart swelled with respect and love for the mare that had come to them and had been brave enough to start over. She only hoped she could somehow fill a small part of what she had lost. Celestia knows Pumpkin, Flux, and many other campers had already began to heal her own holes in her heart.

As they flew, Moxie's eyes automatically darted about unconsciously. She had flown this route countless times before and it had become easy to fall into autopilot. However, a sign of foreign movement below quickly snapped her back into her duties. Along the edge of the lake was a figure, cloaked, but head revealed along with a golden flowing mane. Moxie's ears angled and her body tensed as she alerted the others. "We have an intruder.... Though it doesn't seem like they feel the need to stay hidden. Stay close. We're going in." She pointed to the strange figure still a ways ahead. It was a good sign to see the trespasser unafraid to be seen. Then again, it wasn't unheard of to be used as a trap.... Not but a year ago, a patrol squad had approached a lone figure only to be jumped from the cover of the trees by the strange pony's associates, looking to loot defenseless refugees out in the wilds. Unfortunately for them, camp ponies were trained in defense, and put up enough of a fight to put the threat to rest...

Moxie turned the patrol towards the threat, begining to descend quietly while using the tree tops to cover their presence until the last moment possible...

[Tarascha Terastari]

Said figure at the edge of the lake gently lifted the beaver out of his cloaks hood and held him out in front of him, having gotten a little uneasy as the beaver had suddenly got more quiet in the middle of his chatter. "What's wrong? Are you hungry? Or maybe thirsty? Maybe it's the pain and you will pass out from it soon...I certainly know how that feels."

Tara gently turned the beaver around in his hooves, making sure to inflict as little pain as possible on the little animal while searching for any additional wounds. Even if it was just a beaver he had met only a few hours ago, he still couldn't help but feel connected to him. Being found alone with a crippled leg somewhere in the wild, suffering from great pain and expecting everything living to kill you. Exactly what he had to survive through in order to be there today.

He thought back to the time where the zebra shaman had found and cared for him and his leg, trying to heal and fix him as good as possible. Karma had weird ways to work. Maybe it was his time to return the favour and rescue the life of something that could have easily been him five years ago.

[Flux]

Flux certainly didn't mean to cut Pumpkin's time in the limelight short, but his attention was instantly stolen at Moxie's alert. He dropped the short distance to fly at a height where he could use the treetops for cover and if needed, drop down into the forest for further concealment. He took care to be conscious of the flaps of his wings, flying silently so as not to alert this stranger of their presence. He tipped a few feathers and drifted a little closer to the veteran scout.

"What should we do?" he asked her quietly. The stallion didn't think a fight was going to help anything, and would probably ruin the whole reason they were out here.