Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion

[Moodyman90]

Could be that MDW isn't an Enclave only thing. Maybe more widespread since they're more civilized and more prone to regular crimes, or the ones on the ground aren't as well known.

Would be interesting to find out if a few MDWs were Dashites though. I mean, obviously there's been more than one over the centuries, and more than one at any point in time.

[O. Hinds]

@Icy Shake re Lucent:
Ah, thanks.

And Hinds... keep being striped.

Hah! Well, I'm not terribly worried about them washing off...

[Vergil]

My thoughts on this particular chapter:

Go on...

[RoboRed]

Well, shoot. I forgot to write down stuff while reading this time around. Guess I'll have to work on reading.

But I'd like to start by saying "wow". I'm loving the world building here. You weren't kidding when you said they'd officially left the wasteland. This world of the Enclave? Amazing.

And one great thing about them leaving the wasteland into a new area: you get a whole lot of leeway to write what you want. You've got stuff not touched by regular FoE canon that you can shape. And boy, have you shaped it. I'm probably gonna reread this chapter a few times when I find the time to get the architecture and such clearly stuck in my mind.

Spoiler:

I expect a lot of action in these next chapters. That ending demands it.

On another note, I keep needing to remind myself that it's sunny and daytime in Thunderhead. Dunno why, but I keep picturing the sky as dark and foreboding.

@Icy Shake RE:Lucent: I saw what you did there, and I lol'd.

You know, IF the Mare-Do-Well shtick is actually, like you said, a common effort between a group of ponies to steer the Enclave in a certain direction ; this raises an interesting parallel with what originally happened between Rainbow Dash and Mare-Do-Well, instead that here it could be the ponies behind MDW's answer to the Dashites.

I don't know if I make sense ?

I like this idea.

[Technowolf]

Guys, I've got a crazy theory.  A while ago Kipper said that Somber told him that it was Boo, not Blackjack who was the Maiden of the Stars.  While this could be either (or both) of the joking, it got me thinking.  One of the lines in the zebra prophecy was that the Maiden would "be of flesh and steel" (or something like that).  What if the reason that Boo's so different than other blanks is that somepony (Dawn? Goldenblood or whoever is in Black Pony Mtn.?) put a cybernetic implant in Boo's brain, raising her intelligence or giving her some basic instincts or something like that?  It would explain why she doesn't look any different than other blanks, even to Sanguine (who was more into biological augmentation than mechanical).

[Harmony Ltd.]

A red-striped zony, maybe ?

[StoneSlinger88]

She's a zebra whose stripes were dyed/tattooed red.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Well, at least this chapter, she's explicitly referred to as "earth pony mare"

So she need to look the part in the eyes of ponies.


Question :

Once you get rid of the stripes, do we know what kind of anatomical differences there might be between earth ponies and zebra in FoE ? I'm referring here to things that might give clues to an external observer.

The first thing that comes to mind is that the tail look different. But apart from that, I don't know.

Edit : also, the manes I think may look kind of different, if Zecora is any indication.

[O. Hinds]

Different skull shape, I think. My avatar doesn't actually reflect this, as I didn't at the time know that the pony creator had a zebra head function (I'm still somewhat annoyed by the inaccuracy, but, since it doesn't look too bad, I've not thought it worth changing). Zebras IRL also have stiffer manes and tails, but it's not clear to what extent this is reflected in FoE. Oh, and these are just surface things; I assume that there are differences less easy to notice.

[Moodyman90]

I'm drawing a blank here, but don't zebras have actual hooves in the show rather than what ponies have? Thinner legs as well?

[Derpmind]

Question!
Is Rampage an earth pony or a red-striped zebra?

Rampage is the God of War.

So I think I'm going to try and re-read the chapter and take notes, because as usual there's way too much everything for me to summarize. Meanwhile my reverse-causality inference calculator kinda didn't find much on the first pass, though that's mostly because there's a high chance that Valve is going to announce Half-Life 3 soon.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Well, on the side of "less evident thing", there's the (fact ?) that Zebra express what innate magic they have (which if we go with your headcanon is pretty close to nothing) in a different way than Earth Ponies.

So I guess even if you had a perfectly disguised zebra infiltrator disguised as a pony, a simple magic "sniff" could be enough to detect that something is amiss, be it that their magical signature is different, or that they don't have one at all.


... And I realize this might be more suited to the headcanon thread.

[Harmony Ltd.]

I'm drawing a blank here, but don't zebras have actual hooves in the show rather than what ponies have? Thinner legs as well?

If we go with the image of Zecora linked in my message above your own, I think this may be the case, yeah. Though to know if in the world of FoE it's a noticeable difference or if it's just a graphic design decision on the part of Studio B when they searched a way for Zecora to look different from ponies, I have no idea.

[Harmony Ltd.]

I didn't even remember that piece of information.

I guess that's what happen when the source material (FoE + PH) is more than 1.6 million words long :D


And man the sheer scale of that just hit me over the head like a sack of brick, thinking back about it. My hat to you Somber. That's some stamina you have there.

[Harmony Ltd.]

To be fair, it has been a year and a half since I read the original FoE, and I haven't re-read it since.

[Harmony Ltd.]

I guess you're better at remembering trivia than me, then :D

[O. Hinds]

Well, on the side of "less evident thing", there's the (fact ?) that Zebra express what innate magic they have (which if we go with your headcanon is pretty close to nothing) in a different way than Earth Ponies.

So I guess even if you had a perfectly disguised zebra infiltrator disguised as a pony, a simple magic "sniff" could be enough to detect that something is amiss, be it that their magical signature is different, or that they don't have one at all.


... And I realize this might be more suited to the headcanon thread.

Zebra are immune to mental manipulation, too. I don't know how this carries over to zonies, though.
...that or their souls are fundamentally different from that of ponies that the goddess simply can't sense them.
It was never explained in FoE, but here we have Shujaa part of an entirely different choir of souls that includes ponies, something the goddess didn't think could happen... at least insofar as integrating them into her own choir.

I don't think that it was being immune to mental manipulation in general so much as being immune to the Goddess's pony-specific mental manipulation.

[Derpmind]

So after a hard day's night of killing zombies, a few of us in the steam group had probably the best idea ever: Karaoke Night! We'll all make a list of songs for each other to sing, figure out a good day+time, and hop in the teamspeak server for a couple hours of epic fun.

The more suggestions for songs, the better! And don't forget to give recommendations for when would be a good time to try this.

If you don't have a microphone, don't worry. Everyone's invited, the server has a chat box, and a couple of us can actually sing.

[CD]

After reading the whole chapter, I am impressed by the ending. It really feels like what's been missing from Horizons for a while. Having the situation fall apart all around Blackjack with no friends there to back her up against the cruelty of the wasteland. Now how is she supposed to stop the oncoming massacre? Some days you just can't get rid of a bio-bomb.

[Moodyman90]

I still want Wastelander! to be an actual show. Of the whole fandom, there has got to be a few people who can animate that has to try to create the opening in the least.

On to more serious matters...

Chapter 60 Spoilers and Speculations:

[Scienza]

Just read the last chapter...


Wastelander!


I can't stop laughing.

Though...

Chapter 60 Spoilers:

[StoneSlinger88]

After reading the whole chapter, I am impressed by the ending. It really feels like what's been missing from Horizons for a while. Having the situation fall apart all around Blackjack with no friends there to back her up against the cruelty of the wasteland. Now how is she supposed to stop the oncoming massacre? Some days you just can't get rid of a bio-bomb.

Ha! Adam West Batman quote!

[Scienza]

Finished the chapter!
Is there seriously only five chapters left to the story? Seems like there's too many loose ends to wrap up in that time, personally. Is there gonna be a couple epilogue stories?

And even if there aren't any, I'm sure that the rabid fanbase will quickly devolve into side stories and headcanon.

I may die if they don't.

[Moodyman90]

20 bits we get something along the lines of "the final chapter is looking like it's going to be the final 3 chapter..."

[Scienza]

20 bits we get something along the lines of "the final chapter is looking like it's going to be the final 3 chapter..."

"...It turns out that there's another villain with a complex and emotional backstory and understandable motivations that needs to be wrapped up. Also, Blackjack died again and is now 132% Boo."

[Moodyman90]

Nothing that complicated, just the story and action will grow like it usually does.

[Downloaded Skill]

Who said there were only 5 chapters left? That is no where near enough time to tie up all the loose ends in the detail they deserve. If PH has a rushed, unsatisfying FoE ending it would be an absolute tragedy. I mean we've lost people who didn't like long stories a long time ago, why bother with brevity now?

[Scienza]

Who said there were only 5 chapters left? That is no where near enough time to tie up all the loose ends in the detail they deserve. If PH has a rushed, unsatisfying FoE ending it would be an absolute tragedy. I mean we've lost people who didn't like long stories a long time ago, why bother with brevity now?

Somber mentioned at the end of the chapter that there were probably only about five chapters left, give or take an epilogue or two. It's mostly because he wants to get on with his life and do other projects (which is kinda understandable).

Still, I'll be sad to see this fic end. It's been such a constant part of my life that I'll have to find some other source of colorful pastel equine drama.

[TalixZero]

So I started rereading Pink Eyes and I just

This was just like that horror story where the super nice robot goes boing and starts hurting ponies!

[O. Hinds]

I hope that Thunderhead will post the link be finished in 1-2 chapters, the core in 2-3, and the story in 5. Then done... hard to imagine.

Well, firstly (actually, firstly, I'm pretty sure that the "post the link" thing is a typo, but I try not to edit author's notes too much), I expect that, whatever estimate Somber gives, the actual number of chapters will be more than that. Secondly, I believe that that five is just for the stuff after the Core (the details of the stuff not being specified for reasons of spoiler prevention), putting the total estimate at 8-10 chapters.

[Sponsored content]