Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion

[Retl]

17:12 (Get_Bonus) P-21's Pipbuck. Did he lose it after the memory orb accident? What happened to it?
17:12 (NitoKa) It turned into a ballon
17:12 (Get_Bonus) BEST
17:12 (Get_Bonus) 10/10 would squeak erry time

Seriously though, what happened to it? I completely forgot.

I got him settled in detainment and then walked to get the shit-water off my face.  Better, but the smell still lingered.  Normal procedure involved a search, but I reckoned I’d searched him well enough dealing with his injured knee.  I then used my security key to remove his PipBuck.  A quick download of his files and I set it on the desk.  Then I got the marker, levitated it to his flank, and with a magical zap gave him his last dot under his cutie mark.  Now there wasn’t anything else to do but wait for the morning shift.

*nuzzles Retl lightly*

Oooh, there we go. Perfect. Thanks for the quote, Ryx! *Inifinisquishyhug.*

[SilentCarto]

Because SOMEPONY obviously used the dragon balls

The spritebot was silent for a long moment.

"The what now?" Watcher asked flatly.

[Vinylshadow]

When FiM uses the Elements of Harmony to bring a pony back to life, that's when I'll protest

I'll bet you anything SOMEONE at the studio tossed the idea around...

Pretty sure there's a fanfic or two out there

[Scienza]

When FiM uses the Elements of Harmony to bring a pony back to life, that's when I'll protest

I'll bet you anything SOMEONE at the studio tossed the idea around...

Pretty sure there's a fanfic or two out there

Eh, I think having a non-villain dying is well beyond where Hasbro is willing to go.

But then again, maybe that would mean that we'd actually see Applejack's parents.

[Vinylshadow]

I think the only mlp villain that was actually killed was Sombra

I'm amazed Granny Smith hasn't kicked the bucket or hay bale, or whatever dead is in FiM, but we're getting away from Horizons again


....the idea of a giant moon missile hitting Equestria and wiping it out really sounds like Nightmare Moon's wet dream

However (I think) she still wants ponies around to appreciate her, so it'd be a double-edged blade

[Retl]

....the idea of a giant moon missile hitting Equestria and wiping it out really sounds like Nightmare Moon's wet dream

And now I imagine she's actually trying to make love to the moon while everypony on the planet watches. She simply forgot about the part where the collision destroys everythingever.

[Vinylshadow]

I did not need that mental image, but thanks anyway

[Vinylshadow]

Blackjack would probably be desperate to try anything to get her baby back

[FeatherDust]

As I said, Blackjack is the 1% that somehow by laws of Discord is compatible

MAAAAAAAGIC

Do you really think it would be a satisfying narrative resolution?  To have the narrative go to lengths to explain why this plan won't work, and then go "Welp, screw all that, we're doin' it anyway!" and it works?

In Dragonball Z or Naruto, maybe.  In Gurren Lagann, sure.

In Fallout?  Hell no.

The whole point of explaining that blanks aren't viable surrogates was to ratchet up the tension and remove the easy answer.

Blackjack would probably be desperate to try anything to get her baby back

Yes, clearly.  Being desperate to get back her baby does not include acts that are virtually guaranteed to kill it.  Being desperate does not mean she becomes insane.

[Vinylshadow]

Yeah yeah

Well, worst case scenario, she kills Cogjack and makes more happy funtimes with P-21 and Glory

We'll just have to wait and see

Watch pregnancy urges be Cogjack's downfall

wild emotional mood swings, nausea...even though I doubt pony pregnancies are anything like human pregnancies

[Exodus Hero]

As I said, Blackjack is the 1% that somehow by laws of Discord is compatible

MAAAAAAAGIC

Do you really think it would be a satisfying narrative resolution?  To have the narrative go to lengths to explain why this plan won't work, and then go "Welp, screw all that, we're doin' it anyway!" and it works?

In Dragonball Z or Naruto, maybe.  In Gurren Lagann, sure.

In Fallout?  Hell no.

The whole point of explaining that blanks aren't viable surrogates was to ratchet up the tension and remove the easy answer.

Blackjack would probably be desperate to try anything to get her baby back

Yes, clearly.  Being desperate to get back her baby does not include acts that are virtually guaranteed to kill it.  Being desperate does not mean she becomes insane.

Well this is all assuming Cogs is telling the truth, although she would have no reason to lie, I believe she is an unreliable source of information. If anything, I think Glory would probably do a physical on Blackjack to see if she can, in fact, carry the child to term if at all.

[Guest]

Does she have to? Glory or more importantly the Collegiate* has been in posession of part of that tree for at least three months.

I thinks it's reasonable they'd have understanding of what it's capable of at this point. Could be wrong here but I'm thinking it's within the realm of posibility that Glory could just confirm or deny what Cogs already told BJ. And as you said she doesn't have a reason to lie, Cogs has been  shown to be unwilling to use the baby as leverage. Besides didn't Cogs have access to the Chimera files? Didn't BJ unlock them?

*That is where the pegasus and all their science-y stuff went right?

[Silver136]

Wasn't the Collegiate one of the places Cogs hit? I can't remember.

[FeatherDust]

Well this is all assuming Cogs is telling the truth, although she would have no reason to lie, I believe she is an unreliable source of information.

Could be wrong here but I'm thinking it's within the realm of posibility that Glory could just confirm or deny what Cogs already told BJ.

It's possible but again -- my opinion, it would be poor storytelling to go to lengths to explain why the easy answer can't happen and then have it happen anyway.

Wasn't the Collegiate one of the places Cogs hit? I can't remember.

Yes, a few of the medical school buildings were hit but we don't know how much actual damage it did.  One of them appears to have been burned down, a second lost its roof, and a third had its facade torn off.

[Guest]

No, I don't think BJ can carry the baby. I just meant I think it's a waste of time to get a second confirmation for what we already know.

[Vinylshadow]

Wonder if whatever Cogs has planned needs a 'sacrifice'

Kinda like how the SPP needs a pony for it to work

Open tube, insert fetus...

Boy, I can see the flamewars already

TO THE FALLOUT SHELTERS

[Scienza]

You know, I wonder whether a mechanical surrogate could be viable (sort of like the stasis tube that Psycho got sealed in).

[Guest]

The stasis tube didn't bring Psychoshy's fetus to term. If it did than BJ would have killed forty ancient ponies in the Fluttershy medical center instead of forty foals. Nothing ages inside the stasis tubes.

Sanguine clearly did something to age Physchoshy so she could survive outside of the womb, unfortunately he's not exactly in a state to inform BJ or anybody else of what that process was.

[Scienza]

I don't mean specifically stasis tubes, but something similar in terms of tech. A relatively safe in which a fetus could develop. Alternately, maybe a modification of the artificial womb/bud things that Chimera used to grow blanks from Discord juice into horse form. Hell, you could probably just plop the babbeh into stasis, wait until all the shit has gone down, then plop it back into Blackjack.

Mainly I'm just saying that they're in the Core, there's an unimaginable of mind-blowingly advanced medical tech lying around, so presumably there'd be something at the very least in prototype form.

[Guest]

I guess, but if it doesn't have a good reason for existing (It might, I don't remember every detail of the story. Just making an observation.) than the solution might as well be BJ running into her long lost twin sister. Highly unlikely and BS even for BJ.

[Scienza]

Presumably, it would just be a fusion of Silver Stripe's pickle tube, healing talismans, and maybe some form of the surrogacy spell.

I mean, if you really go into reasons for its existence, Blackjack did have two flash-grown clones made over the course of the fic. Clones gotta grow in something.

[Guest]

They grew off the tree? Like the blanks? And Glory's wing?  Right?

[Guest]

Also just one clone. Cogs said she recovered that one and regrew it's face when she grabbed Sanguine.

[Scienza]

Well, IIRC, they grew in horse-colored buds on the tree, presumably serving the purpose of an artificial womb of sorts.

I can also see Glory jury-rigging something using the tech in the Fluttershy Medical Clinic, which would be a very nice full-circle conclusion for the place. Blackjack's most defining moment coming back at the very end.

[Guest]

I think the buds formed with a clone, I'm pretty sure not a 100% that the buds were not always hanging from the tree. I guess they were, but only because it seemed to be endlessly producing blanks.

It's possible, but if that was the case why does the surrogacy spell exist in the first place? That seems like a much easier solution all around.

[Scienza]

Well, the surrogacy spell would presumably have been in development when Twilight used it. Remember that there are at least a good 1-6 years between Tarot's transfer and the apocalypse. I don't think the MoP would be satisfied with such a limited version of the technique.

[Guest]

I'm just not sure the technology supports something like that.

The stasis pods freeze whoever is placed inside them indefinitely.

What the foal needs is an eviroment that not only allows time to pass so that it can grow, but also provides it with the sustenance and hormones for it to develop properly.

What I'm saying is I think what you're proposing may actually be more difficult then trying to build a machine from scratch. What's exactly is being utilized from the pods in the modification? The container that actually physically holds the patient?

Edit: Because I'm not very good at being clear. I mean the glass sphere or cylinder (I don't remember the shape.) that holds the patient. Not any of the stuff that keeps what's inside in it's "frozen" state.


There is an easier more gruesome solution.

Recapture Cogs. Remove the armor plating from BJ's old belly and reorganize the life support systems so they no longer impede the womb's growth and seal it off with another BJ clone's skin. Also probably remove her legs and chain her up somewhere.

[Derpmind]

Last, I think you've reached your Grimdark quota for today. That was disgusting.   

[Silver136]

I dunno. Seems like a valid plan to me. I think part of my agreeing though is that I really hate Cogs. Still it seems like that a thing that could be done. After all Scotch has pulled off BJ's leg before, and I'm sure Glory and Scotch working together could disassemble and reassemble Cogs into a baby birthing system.

[Scienza]

...I think turning a sentient being into a nightmarish birthing machine would be gleefully diving beyond Blackjack's moral event horizon. It'd be a horrific inversion of Stable 99 and just all around irredeemably fucked up. Cogs is a monster, but she doesn't deserve to be turned into a breeder like in the Blackverse.

From a practical standpoint, I'm still not certain that even with reorganization, Blackjack's cyborg body would be able to support a developing fetus. When she was a cyborg, she had vastly different nutritional requirements from an unmodified pony, and especially so for a pregnant pony, and so I feel like her systems wouldn't properly allocate or provide the resources the foal needs to develop. It'd be sort of like how a pregnant woman's body cannibalizes calcium from her bones to support the fetus, but in reverse.

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