Imagination

She was happy they all made it back, now seeming a lot more relaxed. As they passed along loot, she just made small talk with Sprite. "Yup! We go out into the city, and sometimes outside like we did today, and just look for stuff that might be good to trade! It's how we stay alive here at Chapel!" It was then she found an old necklace in one of the saddlebags, taking a good look at it. But it was swiped away by one of the other Crusaders. "AW!" she protested, but the filly who took it just shook her head. "Godfather said we can't take this stuff, it's all gotta go. We're running low on food" Who's Godfather? The older colt from before spoke up through the crowd "Yeah, sorry Poppy! Next time!" Pop kicked the ground a bit in frustration, but soon got over it and went back to work. That was a pretty necklace. Oh well. "Anyway, yeah, that's what we do! We used to fight off bandit raids too, but they stopped coming around recently. Too bad, it was fun sometimes! But scary, you know?"

She just squeezed her tight eventually letting her go and rubbing her eyes, putting on a smile. "I'm sorry, I just get worried when I can't find my friends... After doing this kind of stuff for awhile, you come to expect the worst..." They didn't have much time to enjoy their reunion, the leader calling out once they had all their bags full. "Come on, lets go!" At that, Pop Rocks took Sprite by the hoof once again to follow the Crusaders as they ran off back through the ruins. Pop made sure that Sprite stay close at all times, not wanting her to take a wrong turn anywhere and lose the group. Eventually, they all made it back to Chapel, the majority of them out of breath from having to double-back from the scavenge site. All the other citizens of Chapel seemed happy they were back, and other Crusaders coming by to take the loot.

When Sprite was spotted, Pop immediately ran over and hugged her tight, the other filly just seeming happy that Sprite was okay. Of course she cared this much about her! She loved all her friends! But Sprite was different. Pop found her in the rubble, gained her trust, and made her feel welcome! She always wanted the opportunity to do that for somepony, just like the Crusaders did when her parents went on The Journey. She felt responsible for the filly, and wanted to make sure she was safe and happy. Because unhappy foals all by themselves was no good at all! "Thank Celestia, I thought you might've accidently got caught in the fighting!" While Pop and Sprite were having their moment, the other filly took the watch for them.

After a couple minutes of exchanging gunfire and explosions, the little battle was over! The raiders were all gone, some bodies in better condition than others. The leader called out for a quick status report, everypony calling out and saying they were okay. "Alright, good job, guys! Lets grab what we can and split before more show up! Pop Rocks, you still have watch!" He shouted before they returned to their previous task with gusto, just packing whatever they could find into their bags, not bothering to look over its value or condition. Though Pop and the other filly seemed to have a much bigger focus than keeping watch. Now Pop really did have tears in her eyes, calling out for her little friend in a panic. "Sprite?! Sprite, where are you?!" she was looking all over where they were hiding before, the other filly calling Sprite's name and searching as well. Oh, they hoped she hadn't got caught in the crossfire, or ran back into the city! It was even more dangerous in Hoofington, especially if you didn't know backroutes, hiding places, and you were by yourself!

It seemed the Crusaders were planning an ambush, ol' no-name whispering and pointing to different foals, drawing a diagram of the attack. A couple of foals with rifles went off in one direction, while pop and one other pony that took a grenade from her saddlebag went in another direction. What was going on? Did they forget about Sprite? Pops sure didn't. She kept looking around even as their leader was explaining the plan, looking impossibly worried... almost to the point of tears! But she knew she had a job to do, and if she didn't, others could die! Everypony got into position. After a few minutes, the ponies with the rifles starting firing at the Raiders, who cried out in surprise and tried to take cover behind the cart. At that point, Pops and the other filly started sending grenades their way, doin some killin' and flushing them out from hiding. At that point, the other three who were at the original rally point popped up and started shooting. Wee, ambush! Bullets and booms and shouting all over the fine place!

She just gave the filly another hug. "Well, alright. Maybe after watching us all play, you can try!" Letting go of her, it was back to business. Watchin' that road. But, being the social butterfly she was, she wasn't going to pass up small talk. "The ball's not that smelly. It just smells funny" she felt like she needed to clarify, keeping her gaze down the road. "Though my first cloak went missing around the time we made it so we could play. I totally know Spark Plug took it cuz he does that all the time and hides my stuff. Priest thinks he picks on me because he likes me, but that doesn't make any sense! Why would you be a total butt-head to somepony you like? And why would I like him back? Boys are gross. And I have better things to do than be all mushy with a coltfriend, you know? But either way he's all-" She felt silent, ears perking as she spotted some silhouettes coming down the road. She couldn't quite make out what they were from the distance, but they were closing in. Probably to check on the wreckage. "Hey! Hey! Everypony take cover! Somepony's comin'!" she warned the others, who took a look down the road and quickly went to the rubble where Pops and Sprite were, huddling up and taking cover. A few minutes later, a few raiders turned up, smoking and joking with eachother as they went up to the caravan. "I TOLD yous the stuff was still here!" "Yeah yeah, whateva. Just grab this junk and lets git outta here, this stupid town gives me a rash"

She tried to explain it as best she could. "Well, the book says you're supposed to have eleven on each side of the ball and stuff, but sometimes the other foals are total butts and don't want to play, so we have to put less players on the lines sometimes, and if we have an odd number somepony has to be the designated quarterback, the pony who throws the ball. If we have more than 22, then they can totally be substitutes! If somepony gets tired or hurt, then they can swap!" There certainly seemed to be enough foals to have a full lineup in Chapel... But hey, some ponies were just 'butts' as she put it, and didn't want to play!

Pops was glad to hear that she hoped she could stay. That meant she could! Or even she would! The excited little filly started happily explaining hoofball, grinning from ear-to-ear. "Oh, Hoofball is awesome! We found a pre-war rule book about it on one of our scavving runs! Pretty much, whoever gets the ball as to run with it, or pass it, but they can pass a certain line if they're going to pass it, and the defending team has to tackle the pony with the ball before they reach the goal! And there's a lot of rules about what you can and can't do, but it's mostly 'don't be a jerk' kind of stuff!" After a short pause, she continued after remembering something! "OH! Since we don't know what hoofballs look like, we made our own! It's a big ball made of old clothes we found. It smells kinda funny, but you don't really think about it when you're playing cuz you're having SO MUCH FU-" "Keep it down!" berated Nameless from the cart again.

She was alittle disappointed when Sprite turned down her offer. "But... explosions..." The stern talking-to made her jump a bit, looking back to the colt. "Sorry!" she shouted out to the older one who will eventually have a name. But she say Sprite still had the helmet on. Before the little filly could have a chance to take it off again, Pop gave her a big ol' hug. "I like you, Sprite! I'm glad we found you out in the ruins. I really hope you stay, it would be so much fun!" She didn't know why but she really liked this little filly. She had plenty of good friends in the Crusaders but by Celestia this one was different! "Hey, after this you wanna play hoofball? I can get a game together with some of the other foals! Do you know how to play?" Hoofball? Ponies still played that? Did they have an actual ball or were they just tossing an old ball of cloth or something?

The filly was giggling too hard to try and force her to keep the launcher. "Okay, okay... But keep the helmet on, you look so cute!" She did! It was even bigger on Sprite than it was on Pop. Just seeing it wobble about like that made her giggle. Not mocking, of course. She would never make fun of anypony for being cute. Unless they didn't want to be cute, in which she'd mock them all the time. Then again, she didn't like being called cute... In fact she didn't like being called little either, so did that make her a hypocrite? Huh. "Maybe I'll teach you how to use it later when we're not doing stuff. Come on, it'll be fun! Blowing stuff up is so cool! The launcher goes 'foomph!' and then the grenade is all 'PKWOCH!' and then the target is in a bunch of pieces, and then-" The older colt spoke up, poking his head out from behind the cargo "Are you done, Poppy?! Pay attention to the road!"

Pop felt like being a good chum. So what did she do? Well, first she took off her helmet and put it on Sprite, turning on the little lamp! Pop had nice mane! ... Well, it was probably nicer when she didn't have helmet mane. Afterward, she held out her grenade launcher to Sprite with a big grin on her face. "Here! Now you don't have to feel left out! I'll even show you how to use it if you wanna! It'll be fun!" What was out here to blow up? And didn't they want to not draw attention? Explosions would do just that, wouldn't they? But... Who can say no to explosions? Right?

Dude, we're not that dumb, we could figure it out!

I would go into detail about the accomplishment I'm most pleased about, but it would be inappropriate. We'll just say I made a certain below-the-waist shot in Sniper Elite V2 in the 'Assassinate Hitler' DLC. On Sniper Elite difficulty. EDIT: No, I don't think it'll ever happen again xD

After checking their gear, they were off! It was a group of five of them, all armed with fairly light weapons and only their cloaks for armor... Well, except for Pop, who had her Grenade launcher, but that probably wasn't something that was usually needed in the tight confines of the ruins around Hoofington. Surprisingly enough, they ran into little trouble. A radscorpion that had scuttled into the ruins for shelter, but that was taken care of so quickly it wasn't even all that interesting. Pop, pop, dead. They knew enough backroutes and hiding spots that they could easily avoid staying out int he open and avoid raider patrols. But, at long last, they came to the open road. Everything was dead, the brahmin and two ponies in leather armor. The bags on the brahmin seemed to still have things in them! "Alright... Watch out for traps. Pops, you stay with the new kid and watch our backs, let us know if anypony's coming..." With an enthusiastic salute, Pop Rocks just grinned at Sprite. "This could be neat! Who knows what these ponies were carrying?" She seemed to handle a sight like this quite casually... Maybe she had just seen it so much she was desensitized?

Well not really, but pretty close. Today was the last day of classes, so get to sleep and laze about and stuff from now on. ALSO I had ham. That's always something. But most importantly, I learned I can finally go to a thing I always wanted to go to! Turns out I'm not busy on the date for the thing that I want to go to, but it's on a weekend! So then thing I want to go to can be got to! In other news, drilling and construction continues right outside my dorm window. Ruining my soda and knocking over my books...

First blog entry... First blog entry... Well, to be entirely honest, I started this because I was bored out of what's left of my mind and figured 'why not?'. I dunno what to talk about. I guess my old Tumblr doesn't feel right to post thoughts at, and having an ask topic in the spam area seemed impersonal... So yeah, here it is! To be perfectly honest, I wasn't a fan of blogs when I first traversed this vile wonderland that is the internet. Just seemed like an outlet for angsty teenagers to post fake death threats, post rage about the most obscure things ever, and tell a handful of people about how bad their day was. With that in mind, I want to make a blog that won't totally bum people out and fill their faces with sadness. I got something interesting to say, I'll say it! An appropriate story to tell, I'll tell it! An interesting question to answer? Sure, why not? I get bored a lot. But how one takes care of boredom really depends on the situation, doesn't it? I can always find ways to entertain myself. Some more childish than others, but still. Growing up is for adults. Like last week I drew an Eggman face on my desk during an unnecessarily long lecture. Was still there today. That was awesome. Yup.

Pop usually acted this friendly, but even moreso with newer foals! More often than not they needed to feel welcome. She certainly did when she was left in Chapel for her first day. What a day that was... but she recalls fondly how everypony was there for her, so ready to take her in and so accepting and understanding of what had happened. While her parents didn't go through The Journey, she was still alone and needed a place to go. So Chapel took her! Better than the other accommodations she could've found out there... The ground, a slave pen, a mutant's stomach... When Sprite said she was ready, Pop Rocks went on and hopped out of her seat, grinning with glee. "Alright! Lets go!" she trotted off toward the direction the bigger colt went, and after a few minutes of walking, it seemed there was already a party gathering to go. Seems there would be six of them, including Pop and Sprite. The bigger colt was talking, seeming to take charge. "The caravan was hit last night. Explains the gunshots, anyway. It's a little ways outside the city limits, so we gotta be careful... Just stay close to eachother and don't do anything stupid"

Sorry for the wait guys! Really sorry D: [colour=#282828]1: Grid would talk about:[/colour] [colour=#282828]-What the Enclave is like, both as a soldier and a citizen[/colour] [colour=#282828]-About his time in the wasteland (the things he enjoys, even!)[/colour] [colour=#282828]-War stories[/colour] [colour=#282828]-Why he's not above the cloudcover with the rest of the majority of what's left of the Enclave[/colour] [colour=#282828]2: He wouldn't give a straight answer to what the 'tactical mistake' was that lost him his squad and his wing.[/colour] [colour=#282828]3: Everypony present. Oh, the griffons too.[/colour] [colour=#282828]4: He would ask Raven if she was a Ranger[/colour] [colour=#282828]He would ask Snow what exactly the Enclave did to make her hate them so[/colour] [colour=#282828]He would ask Arik about his little group[/colour] [colour=#282828]He would ask Slip how he and Snow got acquainted[/colour] [colour=#282828]He would ask Brute where he learned to fight[/colour]

Pop went face first into her food. Not because she ate that way, more because she felt like being silly. You could still taste the rads! "Yeah, this place is great! I love it here! Well... It's not the best place every in the whole wide wasteland, I bet, but it's pretty close!" Numnumnum. But then a larger colt, who seemed to be older than most, sat next to Pop Rocks, watching her eat... like a pig. "You're such a child... Hey, Patches and I found a caravan outside the city, must've been hit the other day. Wanna see if the raiders left anything good behind later?" The filly just picked her head up, messy face locked in a grin. "Do I! We can go when we're finished eating!" The other colt just shook his head. "Naw, we can't let it sit, or else somepony else might get it and we miss out. We're leaving in ten minutes" he informed the two before walking off. Pop just shrugged. "Welp, better eat quick if you wanna come. We Crusaders go on scavving runs all the time! That's how we met, if you remember! You should! It was today!" Wiping off her muzzle, she'd wait for her friend to either eat her food, or just say if she didn't want to go. That was fine. Nopony in the Crusaders could ever force somepony to go scavenging if they didn't want to.

Priest seemed to have heard, but he wasn't at all troubled by it. "Pop, why don't you take our new friend to get some food?" The filly gladly obliged, taking her by the hoof once again! "Come on, Sprite! I'll show you where we all eat and stuff!" Once out of earshot, Pop whispers to her "The food stinks, but what can you do?". Would regular food stem the tide? Probably not, but only one way to find out. Eventually they got to what appeared to be a canteen of sorts, a pony handing out food, for those who paid. Pop was more than happy to cover for Sprite, even grinning as she put caps down! "Two of whatever you have that isn't terrible!" The pony just scoffed and gave them each a plate of pre-war mac and cheese. Eh. At least it isn't Salisbury asparagus.

"Of course your friend can stay... Assuming she has nowhere else to go". He gave Pop a knowing look, who just smiled innocently. "I didn't just drag her here! Not this time! Nope! She told me!" Somehow that seemed to be good enough for the stallion. "Alright then. Sprite, you're very welcome to stay with us as long as you like. The Crusaders here are very friendly and welcoming, so I'm sure you'll make plenty of friends. Little Pop Rocks seems to have taken a great liking to you. "I'm Priest" He held out a hoof for the new filly after introducing himself on his own. Could ponies really be this nice? Despite all the war and death and chaos and not-niceness of the wasteland? Would they STAY this nice if they knew her secret? A lot of questions, though getting the answers may come at great risk.

Ruby was hesitant at first about running onto an already moving treadmill. Wasn't that dangerous or something? And her mommy might get mad if she did anything dangerous. Like make apples explode or attempt to put out a fire. Magic is awesome! Oh, yeah, the treadmill. Hesitant or not, her coltfriend didn't seem to be giving her much choice. At first there was a flailing of limbs as she had to suddenly keep up with the other moving foals, but she got the hang of it! Soon she was running along with the rest of them! For the moment, she even completely forgot what this thing was for! She just thought it was fun! The hornet's ankles, or however the saying went! [colour=#ee82ee]"Hehehe! HAHAHA! This is fun!"[/colour] she squealed to Reno, making sure to stick close, but not too close. Tripping ponies up on the treadmill would probably launch them a fair distance. As funny as that would be to see, it would probably hurt!

Pop Rocks practically pulled her off the couch with excitement. "Alright! Let's go!" As Sprite was forcefully escorted toward where 'The Reverend' resided, she would get to see Chapel in its glory! Though it just looked like any wasteland town. Improvised buildings, raggedy ponies wandering about... Though a LOT more foals than usual, and all of them had that Crusaders patch somewhere on their clothing. Most of them stuck to a maroon cloak. There were also ghouls and zebras along with the ponies... And they all seemed to be getting along fine! A tolerant town? Probably not toward Changelings. Why would it be, right? But then they came to black-furred unicorn, seemed busy at the moment, talking with some other pony. Pop just sat down on the spot with an adorable little grin. Nudging her new friend, she just went 'That's him'. When he was finished and the other pony wandered off, he seemed happy to see the both of them! Quite happy indeed! "Hello, Pop Rocks! I take it everypony got back safe if you're smiling so much. Who's your new friend?" he asked with genuine interest. The little filly just put an arm around Sprite and held her close. "We found her while we were out scavving! Her name is Sprite and she's super nice and stuff! Can she stay here?!"

Pop shoved the blurry pony standing next to her, everypony coming into focus not long after. "SEE?! I told you she was okay!" "Alright, alright! You don't have to hit me, jeese..." Pop went up and hugged her new friend, seeming quite please she was conscious. "Hey there, Sprite! You took a pretty nasty tumble or something! But you're okay now! We're in Chapel! Isn't that great?!" Of course the other Crusaders, many of them, were just watching and gossiping amongst themselves. So many eyes, staring, so many words being said. Her disguise was still good, right? Did they know? Would they want to play or something? Has Priest met her yet?" "When you're ready, we can go meet the Reverend!" Guess not.