Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion

[Boing]

I liked chapter 64 quite a lot. Awesome job on it Somber.

I've always wanted to write what I thought as I read through it, like some here do, so why not try this chapter? Never done it before so it'll probably suck.

Anyways...


If I remember right, 63 ended with Rampage diving at Blackjack only to bounce off her, landing in a heap on the floor. The attempted tackle barely phasing "Two Tonne Tessie".

Spoiler:

[Silver136]

Spoiler:

While this is true, as far as I know he never demonstrated an ability to control Flux after it was drained from him, it merely carries his inherently chaotic nature.  The real drastic changes to Boo did only start to occur after Discord was freed.

Well its not really something we can verify. To be fair, its entirely possible he can control Flux in some way. However, he's been trapped in a star metal prison for over 200 years so we never get to really see...

[SilentCarto]

Spike watched us with amusement, waiting for Calamity to dry himself before answering.  “Well, that’s when the ponies of Ponyville would clean up the winter so that spring could start properly.”  As he looked at us, I could see it dawning on him that none of us had the slightest clue what he was talking about.  Two of us were from Stables and had never experienced a winter.  Calamity had been an outcast long enough to have been through a few, but only wild winters that wrapped themselves up on their own.  The pegasi had long stopped aiding the passing of the seasons.

Huh. Okay, thanks. Just wondering, since BJ has been out of the stable for, what, five months now? But then Equestria seems to have an extended spring/summer and attenuated autumn/winter. Or at least that's how it goes in the show.

[SilentCarto]

I wonder what happened that I have absolutely no idea who Peppermint is...

When Twist surfaced in Ch. 34, she was desperate to know if Peppermint was hurt. While she's not named, I strongly suspect that Peppermint is the person that lived with Twist and Shujaa in Ch. 50, which Shujaa thought Twist should say goodbye to but also jokingly referred to as a "feral beast".

Given that we saw Twist's skeleton in Miramare Crater, I suspect that Rampage's body is Peppermint and that Peppermint herself was some kind of cross-clone between Twist and Shujaa. This explains why Rampage has Twist's hair but Shujaa's stripes, why she reverts to a filly of a specific age after disintegration, and why she has no memory prior to waking up in Miramare Crater with the Phoenix Talisman in her chest.

[SilentCarto]

Oh, and is Steel Rain's fancy new silver armour really armour? Just six days ago he was near death, with his only salvation being Cognitum.

Well, he told her "no augments," and she seemed to agree. I suspect the armor is kind of a mobile hospital bed, possibly related to the MP-47/A Prototype Medic Power Armor.

The scream was in every bit of myself, and even the song in my chest wasn’t enough to drown it out completely.

So it seems to be a good thing, but I really can't place the cause of it.

It's related to the vision.

And another comes, one with a song like that within the traveler, fighting the scream without and fostering the song within, and she raises me to her lips and… bites me…

The "song within" is likely why she's immune to Enervation.

[Meleagridis]

Silly Zebra Story about Recent Characters:

“You were supposed to die two centuries ago, but Goldenblood spirited you away.  You should have died when Blackjack freed you, but you hitched along in that empty vessel.”  The Legate pointed a hoof at the mare.  “It’s time for you to die, Discord!”

Lego confirmed pre-war AND parley to a plot to bump Disco off?  Looks like Goldie did some good after all, keeping him out of the way.

I think he’s just confirmed to have come from Canterlot. 200 years prior to this conversation, Discord would have been getting a Pink Bath if Golden hadn’t spirited him away.

Rampage saying Moon Dust is made with a tiny bit of actual moonstone makes me wonder if that's how Snips made the temporary talismans to get into the prison, with condensed Moon Dust...

Ooh, wonderful idea!  In the absence of better information, I'm going to headcanon this.

Would the Starkatteri that he jacked the technique from have access to starmetal?

Oh, and is Steel Rain's fancy new silver armour really armour? Just six days ago he was near death, with his only salvation being Cognitum.

Well, he told her "no augments," and she seemed to agree. I suspect the armor is kind of a mobile hospital bed, possibly related to the MP-47/A Prototype Medic Power Armor.

MPA: "Listen up, you little puke! You are now wearing MP-47/A Prototype Medic Power Armor! You take care of me, and I'll take care of you."
SR: "Did my armour just... speak?"

MPA: "Consorting with a stripe! Why I aughta rip you a new one! Take me off this instant and download me into the nearest Gutsy-class soldier so I can kick your ass!"
SR: "No. She is going to be very... helpful in the upcoming turmoil.
MPA: "I'd rather be disassembled than work with a stripe sympathizing, Goddess damned self satisfied pink coated-"
SR: "And she's not even a zebra."
MPA: "Oh that's okay then."

MPA: "Broken leg detected! ...Too bad we're out of Med-X."
SR: "Nnnng... yes, well, maybe if you hadn't used every syringe we had in the span of five minutes- urk!"
MPA: "Heh."

MPA: "Sweet Celestia! Look at how many eyes that thing has!"
SR: "I'm more concerned about the mouths- AUGH! My leg!"
MPA: "Pansy! Take a shot of Vitamin M and keep running!"
SR: "You said we were out of-"
MPA: "I say a lot of things, and if you ever want to hear more you are going to MOVE YOUR ASS! Watch the flank, hostile tendrils at seven o'clock!"

[FeatherDust]

Surely that couldn't have been Goldie's intent, though. I mean, how do you accidentally crash the Moon into the Earth? I took "went too far" to mean it's supposed to go blam, not BLAM.

The way he said it made me think he meant that he started the super weapon search with the intent to save the good guys, but got Eater influenced during the search and wound up designing a planet-smasher under an insane mindset.

“You were supposed to die two centuries ago, but Goldenblood spirited you away.  You should have died when Blackjack freed you, but you hitched along in that empty vessel.”  The Legate pointed a hoof at the mare.  “It’s time for you to die, Discord!”

Lego confirmed pre-war AND parley to a plot to bump Disco off?  Looks like Goldie did some good after all, keeping him out of the way.

No, Legate didn't explicitly say he was the one who should have killed Discord back then, he just said Disco should have died twice. I read that with the implication "But now it's my turn, and that means you're proper f***ed."

That said, Discord did call him "eternal one", so confirmation that the Legate is the immortal warrior from zebra legend. Nice to have that out in the open and unspoilered at last...

[Scienza]

The scream was in every bit of myself, and even the song in my chest wasn’t enough to drown it out completely.

So it seems to be a good thing, but I really can't place the cause of it.

It's related to the vision.

And another comes, one with a song like that within the traveler, fighting the scream without and fostering the song within, and she raises me to her lips and… bites me…

The "song within" is likely why she's immune to Enervation.

I'm getting huge Choir vibes off of it. Since that was the first link connecting moonstone and starmetal, it would seem that it's related.

I think that Silver Stripe stuck a chunk of starmetal into BJ's upgrades.

[O. Hinds]

Silly Zebra Story about Recent Characters:

“You were supposed to die two centuries ago, but Goldenblood spirited you away.  You should have died when Blackjack freed you, but you hitched along in that empty vessel.”  The Legate pointed a hoof at the mare.  “It’s time for you to die, Discord!”

Lego confirmed pre-war AND parley to a plot to bump Disco off?  Looks like Goldie did some good after all, keeping him out of the way.

I think he’s just confirmed to have come from Canterlot. 200 years prior to this conversation, Discord would have been getting a Pink Bath if Golden hadn’t spirited him away.

Rampage saying Moon Dust is made with a tiny bit of actual moonstone makes me wonder if that's how Snips made the temporary talismans to get into the prison, with condensed Moon Dust...

Ooh, wonderful idea!  In the absence of better information, I'm going to headcanon this.

Would the Starkatteri that he jacked the technique from have access to starmetal?

Oh, and is Steel Rain's fancy new silver armour really armour? Just six days ago he was near death, with his only salvation being Cognitum.

Well, he told her "no augments," and she seemed to agree. I suspect the armor is kind of a mobile hospital bed, possibly related to the MP-47/A Prototype Medic Power Armor.

MPA: "Listen up, you little puke! You are now wearing MP-47/A Prototype Medic Power Armor! You take care of me, and I'll take care of you."
SR: "Did my armour just... speak?"

MPA: "Consorting with a stripe! Why I aughta rip you a new one! Take me off this instant and download me into the nearest Gutsy-class soldier so I can kick your ass!"
SR: "No. She is going to be very... helpful in the upcoming turmoil.
MPA: "I'd rather be disassembled than work with a stripe sympathizing, Goddess damned self satisfied pink coated-"
SR: "And she's not even a zebra."
MPA: "Oh that's okay then."

MPA: "Broken leg detected! ...Too bad we're out of Med-X."
SR: "Nnnng... yes, well, maybe if you hadn't used every syringe we had in the span of five minutes- urk!"
MPA: "Heh."

MPA: "Sweet Celestia! Look at how many eyes that thing has!"
SR: "I'm more concerned about the mouths- AUGH! My leg!"
MPA: "Pansy! Take a shot of Vitamin M and keep running!"
SR: "You said we were out of-"
MPA: "I say a lot of things, and if you ever want to hear more you are going to MOVE YOUR ASS! Watch the flank, hostile tendrils at seven o'clock!"

:D

[SilentCarto]

Silly Zebra Story about Recent Characters:

Hehe! Very cute!

MPA: "Pansy! Take a shot of Vitamin M and keep running!"
SR: "You said we were out of-"
MPA: "I say a lot of things, and if you ever want to hear more you are going to MOVE YOUR ASS! Watch the flank, hostile tendrils at seven o'clock!"

Umm... Vitamin M is Motrin (ibuprofen), not Morphine.

Military life is fairly physical, so it tends to involve a lot of untreatable injuries like strains, sprains, bumps, bruises, and overextensions. As such, military doctors tend to prescribe heavy doses of conventional analgesics for generic aches and pains to see if they will heal on their own. And, of course, most other treatments also call for painkillers of some sort, so...

I'm getting huge Choir vibes off of it. Since that was the first link connecting moonstone and starmetal, it would seem that it's related.

I think that Silver Stripe stuck a chunk of starmetal into BJ's upgrades.

I don't think I understand what you're proposing. Why do you think the passage was describing anything other than tremendous external Enervation exposure?

[Silver136]

If I were a gambler, I'd wager on her immunity being from Discord. He can clearly shield Boo (who might not usually be affected anyway, lacking a soul and thus subject more to the corpse preservation effect rather than the liquified pony one) and himself from it, even when severely weakened. Discord's Kiss was identified as an actual perk, so it had to of done something.

That makes sense, except that I believe Blackjack was mentioned as to having enervationumity before that. If I'm remembering correctly, it was mentioned in both Brimstones Fall, and Flank. I'm probably wrong though, my memory is extremely selective.

[SilentCarto]

That makes sense, except that I believe Blackjack was mentioned as to having enervationumity before that. If I'm remembering correctly, it was mentioned in both Brimstones Fall, and Flank. I'm probably wrong though, my memory is extremely selective.

Wellll... cyberization made her resistant, but she was still materially affected by it. The immunity seems to have cropped up gradually over time; immediately after being kissed, "my chest began to burn painfully" from the Enervation in the tunnels beneath Hippocratic. BJ said,
It hurt, but it was a distant hurt, and instead of passing out I felt a faint ringing in my ears.

A day and several chapters later, at Yellow River,
I look the opportunity to wash the blood off my face. It didn’t seem to come off though, no matter how much I scrubbed. Then I noticed the mirror; there was a nick below my horn that kept bleeding. It was taking its sweet time healing, but with all the Enervation in the room…

The kiss doesn't seem to have had a noticeable effect on her Enervation vulnerability. I tend to think her increasing immunity is more related to her pulling herself together after her long night and the stint at Happyhorn -- making her a better conduit for Harmony.

[SilentCarto]

Could it be a combination of all three? I really don't think just being "harmonious" would be enough to not get melted nine times out of ten.

You say "just" like being the chosen champion of the stars is no big deal.

I'm not saying anyone could resist Enervation that way, but I also think that just being the chosen of the stars is not enough. The stars gave her a pitcher, but it's her responsibility to fill it.

That's what I think, anyway.

[Scienza]

I think that Silver Stripe stuck a chunk of starmetal into BJ's upgrades.

...so, what, you think starmetal would protect against starmetal? Even if it was powered, all it would do is create MORE enervation, not cancel it out. Enervation is all the exact same frequency of magic, resonating with the EoS, so it never does anything except bolster itself.

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure where I was going with that. It made sense when I posted it.  

The "song within" business is really Choir-y though.

I felt… it felt like my insides were moving! Like my tainted guts were trying to crawl right out my throat! I fought for one moment and then puked on the inside of my helmet. It wasn’t bad compared to what followed at the other end.

And worst of all, I wanted to join that scream. It scratched at my throat.

There's a connection there. It's the first time that we encounter moonstone or flux in its pure form (not as taint exposure), and certainly the first time we seem how they interact with starmetal.

[SilentCarto]

The "song within" business is really Choir-y though.

The Choir's "song" was still just screaming, no matter what they called it. In every one of BJ's out-of-hp experiences, "songs" and "singing" have referred solely to the power of Harmony. And don't forget:

And another comes, one with a song like that within the traveler, fighting the scream without and fostering the song within, and she raises me to her lips and… bites me…

I mean, unless you're suggesting that Marigold's "song within" was the same as Nightmare Moon "bearing the scream"...

[Guest]

Are you implying that screaming isn't the most beautiful form of singing, Silent?  

Anyway, I think it's all just to do with varying frequencies of magic and... stuff and things. Varying notes = varying frequencies and whatnot. With pony magic being across a wide spectrum and working best when harmonious and stuff, I guess.

[The Truth]

I've made an account just to post this.

Enervation is a magic which specifically targets life and the soul.

Blackjack's increased immunity to enervation is caused by the separation of her body and soul. Blackjack became partially immune to enervation after her first death and only became fully immune after Snips cast his spell on her in Hightower. Boo is immune to enervation because she is an artificial construction and never had a soul in the first place.

This also contributed to the late Goddess's weakness to enervation, as she was a collective of many souls.

I thought this had been heavily enough hinted toward, but it appears otherwise.

[Stringtheory]

I've made an account just to post this.

Enervation is a magic which specifically targets life and the soul.

Blackjack's increased immunity to enervation is caused by the separation of her body and soul. Blackjack became partially immune to enervation after her first death and only became fully immune after Snips cast his spell on her in Hightower. Boo is immune to enervation because she is an artificial construction and never had a soul in the first place.

This also contributed to the late Goddess's weakness to enervation, as she was a collective of many souls.

I thought this had been heavily enough hinted toward, but it appears otherwise.

Huh, I don't think that theory's actually been posted, though it's highly likely that I could be wrong. It sounds very plausible though! Anyway, welcome! Hope you stick around with the rest of us mad people!

[Icy Shake]

I've made an account just to post this.

Enervation is a magic which specifically targets life and the soul.

Blackjack's increased immunity to enervation is caused by the separation of her body and soul. Blackjack became partially immune to enervation after her first death and only became fully immune after Snips cast his spell on her in Hightower. Boo is immune to enervation because she is an artificial construction and never had a soul in the first place.

This also contributed to the late Goddess's weakness to enervation, as she was a collective of many souls.

I thought this had been heavily enough hinted toward, but it appears otherwise.

Huh, I don't think that theory's actually been posted, though it's highly likely that I could be wrong. It sounds very plausible though! Anyway, welcome! Hope you stick around with the rest of us mad people!

Really? It has to have come up at some point. In any case, I'm in full agreement, and have thought that this was implicit since at least Snips.

Anyway, Truth, welcome to the forum, should you choose to stick around!

[Stringtheory]

Really? It has to have come up at some point.

I can barely remember any of the theories which get floated around here, mainly because I have nothing meaningful to contribute to them.   Like I said, it's highly likely that someone's already brought it up and I simply don't remember. Or that like you said, it's so obvious it's implicit by now.

[Derpmind]

Hey, before you all go agreeing or whatever, let me finish this post where I'm gonna argue that that's completely wrong and stuff please.

[Stringtheory]

Hey, before you all go agreeing or whatever, let me finish this post where I'm gonna argue that that's completely wrong and stuff please.

ThisShouldBeGood.jpg

[Guest]

Ooh, is someone gonna bring up Descartes' animal spirits? I love when that happens.

[Derpmind]

I've made an account just to post this.

Enervation is a magic which specifically targets life and the soul.

Blackjack's increased immunity to enervation is caused by the separation of her body and soul. Blackjack became partially immune to enervation after her first death and only became fully immune after Snips cast his spell on her in Hightower. Boo is immune to enervation because she is an artificial construction and never had a soul in the first place.

This also contributed to the late Goddess's weakness to enervation, as she was a collective of many souls.

I thought this had been heavily enough hinted toward, but it appears otherwise.

Yeah, well, that's just like, your opinion man.

Enervation is the magical effect of the EoS's power to make any and all magic resonate at its singular wavelength. Its effects on life is usually deadly, (sometimes it twists life into seriously messed up monsters,) and we know that it sucks souls of the dead straight into it. If Blackjack's soul was separated from her body, then what would keep her soul from being sucked out?

We've seen two ways to counter Enervation. Moonstone is a direct counter to the EoS's super-complicated spell/song, but there's also Harmony. We've seen throughout the story ponies working together in harmony resists the effects of Enervation, especially in some settlements around the hoof. Chapel is extremely close to the core but it's also completely Enervation free. Harmony is also what the stars used to defeat the EoS a bazillion years ago. Basically, Friendship (and similar stuff) is Magic, and it's too magically magic with all the souls singing with each other for Enervation to break up easily.

I think that throughout the story, Blackjack has been slowly building up Harmony within herself. Some combination of being blessed by the stars, working so hard to redeem herself, helping so many ponies and helping ponies work together, and begin pregnant (the latest chapter has the moonstone talking about the building song inside BJ, so it might just be mostly being pregnant) has built her up to the point where she's practically immune. Basically, I think it's the absolute opposite of what you're saying.

Boo is not a soulless anything. Even if you believe she was little more than an animal when we first met her, being at the level of an animal would qualify her for having a soul in this ~verse. Before Discord was freed, Boo even went so far as to save BJ's life. Her protection from Enervation is as simple as having Discord inhabiting her body. We know that flux was used in the silver bullets to separate moonstone and starmetal, so Discord can easily resist Enervation just fine. Also, she's too cute and loving and calling her soulless is cruel, you meaniepants.

The Goddesses weakness to Enervation is simple: She had many souls connected within her, but they were all marching to her one tone. Absolutely no Harmony in any part of her except Lacunae, and the Goddesses tune wasn't anything near the smothering, all-consuming power of the EoS.

I think the story's been hopeful throughout everything, and at the end doom and gloom will be defeated.

Inspirational heavy mahogany (pirate) music.

[SilentCarto]

I've made an account just to post this.

Enervation is a magic which specifically targets life and the soul.

Blackjack's increased immunity to enervation is caused by the separation of her body and soul. Blackjack became partially immune to enervation after her first death and only became fully immune after Snips cast his spell on her in Hightower. Boo is immune to enervation because she is an artificial construction and never had a soul in the first place.

This also contributed to the late Goddess's weakness to enervation, as she was a collective of many souls.

I thought this had been heavily enough hinted toward, but it appears otherwise.

Well... except that we have direct evidence of what it's like to be de-souled.

From Ch. 50:
Then the pheonix talisman came into view along with a torrent of blood.  The knife tumbled from her hooves as she screamed and tore it from her own flesh.  The pain vanished, replaced by a terrible numbness.

And Snips says in Ch. 49:
“So, when the curse went off, I was able to pull you back and put you in your body,” he said with a nervous smile.

So since BJ isn't experiencing that numbness and isn't... well... dead, her soul must still be where it's supposed to be.

Ooh, is someone gonna bring up Descartes' animal spirits? I love when that happens.

I prefer distilled spirits.   

I think that throughout the story, Blackjack has been slowly building up Harmony within herself. Some combination of being blessed by the stars, working so hard to redeem herself, helping so many ponies and helping ponies work together, and begin pregnant (the latest chapter has the moonstone talking about the building song inside BJ, so it might just be mostly being pregnant) has built her up to the point where she's practically immune. Basically, I think it's the absolute opposite of what you're saying.

Well said.

Inspirational heavy mahogany (pirate) music.

I'll see your Dread Pirates and raise you a Mighty Pirate!

[O. Hinds]

I've made an account just to post this.

Enervation is a magic which specifically targets life and the soul.

Blackjack's increased immunity to enervation is caused by the separation of her body and soul. Blackjack became partially immune to enervation after her first death and only became fully immune after Snips cast his spell on her in Hightower. Boo is immune to enervation because she is an artificial construction and never had a soul in the first place.

This also contributed to the late Goddess's weakness to enervation, as she was a collective of many souls.

I thought this had been heavily enough hinted toward, but it appears otherwise.

Welcome to the forum!

[Scienza]

I've made an account just to post this.

Welcome!

On an unrelated note, did the zebra mystic blow powdered moonstone into Big Daddy's eyes?

“He fed me some crock about the Hoof being surrounded by evil spirits and that they were drawn here by a great and terrible wrong. Figured he was talking about the Core. Then he blew some glowing sand in my eyes and said it would give me the sight of the sun. The old kook took off after that.” He took a deep breath. “I don’t know exactly what he did... being I don’t have a horn on my noggin... but ever since then, I’ve been able to look at ponies and see them for who they really are. It’s how I know Sanguine’s a crooked snake who’s going to kill me someday. And it’s how I know the Reapers will be good in Brutus’s hooves when he does.”

[O. Hinds]

Hm, interesting idea.

[SilentCarto]

On an unrelated note, did the zebra mystic blow powdered moonstone into Big Daddy's eyes?

“He fed me some crock about the Hoof being surrounded by evil spirits and that they were drawn here by a great and terrible wrong.  Figured he was talking about the Core.  Then he blew some glowing sand in my eyes and said it would give me the sight of the sun.  The old kook took off after that.”  He took a deep breath.  “I don’t know exactly what he did... being I don’t have a horn on my noggin... but ever since then, I’ve been able to look at ponies and see them for who they really are.  It’s how I know Sanguine’s a crooked snake who’s going to kill me someday.  And it’s how I know the Reapers will be good in Brutus’s hooves when he does.”

Huh. Interesting theory. But, given zebra alchemy, it could just as easily be a "conventional" magical compound. Or an alchemical compound that involves moonstone, who knows?

I wonder how Sanguine's going to manage to off Big Daddy now... or was that more prediction than prophecy?

[Scienza]

I wonder how Sanguine's going to manage to off Big Daddy now... or was that more prediction than prophecy?

Maybe it's more long-term, like one of the things he worked on at Hippocratic will end up offing the Big D. Exploding PB&J perhaps?

[Sponsored content]