Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion

[Scienza]

Yeah, especially when you consider what happens after the apocalypse. Applejack is probably gone...

What do you mean, "probably"? She was buried in the orchard in Stable 2.

I meant as far as Dash could know. If she followed AJ's trail, it would lead to an impenetrable steel door. The fate of the other stables wouldn't bode well either.

Also, AJ and Steelhooves are still cousins, which is never addressed or dealt with. In the original Fo:E, that status was mostly just implied conjecture since their names both start with Apple, but in PH, it's like actually canon. Big Mac and Applesnack's first interaction directly states that they know of each other through a shared Apple relative, and IIRC they both attended an Apple family reunion together. Is that just normal earth pony protocol?

Keeping in mind that Pinkie is also AJ's "cousin" (maybe). It doesn't mean first cousin. The Apple family is extremely large, and being related to them is kind of like being a blood relation to Genghis Khan (which is the case for 1 in 200 Europeans.) 

True, but they're close enough to exactly know their relation with one another. Maybe they're not close enough to be dangerous, but they're certainly close enough to be weird.

Relatively functional-ish. The kid would be mostly intact. 75% of the original limbs is still an acceptable average.

...Hired Gun? Is that you?

That isn't my name anymore.

[Icy Shake]

Has Blackjack ever been violent due to drunkenness, rather than just somewhat less inhibited in her methods while drunk? I can't really think of any. Far as I could tell, even while fighting, she was more of a fun drunk than a violent or abusive one.

As for STDs, maybe if she gets her old body back, but I doubt it even granting some other things for the cloned body (though I guess Cognitum could have infected it out of spite or something), since carrying over infectious diseases to new tissue seems like a pretty bad feature for an organ factory to have. On a larger level, I've been convinced for some time that there just aren't STDs in Fallout Equestria, because there's no good reason for them not to have come up, in conversation as a lower bound, in Project Horizons at the very least.

She's a brutally effective killing machine while drunk. She does tend to lean towards fun drunk, but she has enough buttons that it could be really bad if one of them gets inadvertently pushed when she isn't fully in control of herself. Also, a propensity towards burying her feels in booze isn't that good of an idea in a vast wasteland of powerful feels.

As for the STDs, you're right that they probably would have been mentioned earlier, but its possible that the gang just doesn't know about recent wasteland diseases. They've all been part of isolated populations (except Rampage, but as far as I can tell, she's just immune to most diseases in general), and so they'd probably be missing some crucial information (why worry about other forms of protection when you've got your implant and you know that everypony in the Stable already got screened?), as well be more vulnerable to all diseases as well as STDs, Blackjack is also just so far beyond the baseline that what would normally constitute a worrying anomaly or a definitive symptom is just par for the course.

On triggers and reduced inhibitions, point taken, but still bear in mind they're still potential problems while sober. As to her being "a brutally effective killing machine while drunk" [or that one time she swallowed a medicine cabinet], that's a distinction from her sober . . . how, exactly?   

More seriously, while I agree with you on the point of surface STDs, the Enclave, while and isolated population, never had a screening process for entry, so at the least I'd expect Glory, as a medical technician and researcher, to be aware of the issue and the possibility of their continued existence on the surface. Considering her knowledge of what Stable 99 was and the possibility of protocol failures, not to mention being very aware (and unreasonably jealous) of Blackjack's fling with a prostitute, I think it should have come up if it was a potential issue. Add to that Scotch.

With a side trip into a tragic story of unrequited love, don't forget.

I don't think I can ever forget.

Nor should we forget the assertion that Blackjack was addicted to alcohol and/or various other things. Which I'll dredge up to say I don't think there was ever any particularly strong indication that Blackjack was addicted to anything: while she was pretty dependent on drugs leading up to her first visit to Flank, that was primarily due to other issues, such as severe physical trauma and the side effects of other drugs. Since then, she's cold-turkeyed chems and alcohol with no apparent difficulty. There's no question she's a binge drinker, and she was arguably misusing or overusing chems early on, but while she may have been Fallout-addicted in the case of some combination of chems, I don't think there's anything to indicate she suffered from a physical or mental need for chems or alcohol beyond, in the case of chems, the necessity of working against the other problems she was already facing, and perhaps—to a lesser extent—counteracting the chems' lows.

Also, AJ and Steelhooves are still cousins, which is never addressed or dealt with. In the original Fo:E, that status was mostly just implied conjecture since their names both start with Apple, but in PH, it's like actually canon. Big Mac and Applesnack's first interaction directly states that they know of each other through a shared Apple relative, and IIRC they both attended an Apple family reunion together. Is that just normal earth pony protocol?

Keeping in mind that Pinkie is also AJ's "cousin" (maybe). It doesn't mean first cousin. The Apple family is extremely large, and being related to them is kind of like being a blood relation to Genghis Khan (which is the case for 1 in 200 Europeans.)

True, but they're close enough to exactly know their relation with one another. Maybe they're not close enough to be dangerous, but they're certainly close enough to be weird.

I don't know. I don't think there was anything to indicate that they were particularly close, and if you're from the kind of family that keeps deep and detailed records, then the definition of "cousin" can be pretty expansive: think, for example, of people who can trace lineage back through, say, the Plymouth settlement and through several generations prior in England. Or, for that matter, most aristocracies. On which note, it's probably less weird than what was going on with, for instance, the English aristocracy or the House of Habsburg.

[Scienza]

Those were all excellent points.

@Drunkjack
She sings and smiles. That's like 90% more traumatizing.

@EwDidThatComeOutOfYouJack
You're right in that the Enclave wouldn't have had widespread screenings, but Glory would be familiar with pre-war diseases rather than the nightmarish rad-herpes that would have developed after two hundred years of crazy sex and radiation. Decontamination protocol (you don't come back) would have ensured that even if rogue pegasi were flying down and doing the nasty with dirtsiders, they wouldn't be spreading it to the Enclave. Also, I bet that a lot of the nastier STDs were weeded out, since there would almost certainly have been screening of those who wanted approval to reproduce.

@BlackJaddict 
She was never physically dependent on any of the drugs, but she was in a dangerous position. BJ was at the point where she believed that she wasn't capable of doing what she had to without the chems (especially Fixer). Combine that with the way she abuses the hell out of alcohol and you end up with something that isn't actually addiction but more like a high inclination towards addiction. She's not a Dash-head huffing brahmin dung, but who knows what she'll do to her new liver.

@TheAppleEquivalentOfTheHapsburgLip
Mayhaps. I think the part that weirds me out the most is that their names rhyme, honestly.


Oh, and because I've been really hard on Blackjack, I'd like to reiterate that I still really like her. Queen Whiskey is a badass queen.

[Guest]

Well it could be that if BJ does have a disease it just wasn't all that relevant. Her cooch itching occasionally doesn't really add to the story, though if something like that were going on when she went cyber alicorn it's hard for to believe that wouldn't  be mentioned. It would be one of the only physical ticks she had that made her feel like a pony.

I find it hard to believe STDs though would die off entirely. Maybe it's one of those things the reader doesn't really need to know about so it's gone unsaid, like the ponies using the bathroom.

[Icy Shake]

Well it could be that if BJ does have a disease it just wasn't all that relevant. Her cooch itching occasionally doesn't really add to the story, though if something like that were going on when she went cyber alicorn it's hard for to believe that wouldn't  be mentioned. It would be one of the only physical ticks she had that made her feel like a pony.

I find it hard to believe STDs though would die off entirely. Maybe it's one of those things the reader doesn't really need to know about so it's gone unsaid, like the ponies using the bathroom.

1. PH doesn't entirely skip over ponies using the bathroom: Blackjack has at least a few times, even if these weren't exactly put in the level of detail Somber gives to other things, plus there was the memorable instance of the one raider she I believe beat to death behind Pony Joe's while or just after he had [ew—that one did get a bit of the scenery porn treatment, I think].
2. I'm not saying that there couldn't be any; it's just that I find it takes, for me personally, less suspension of disbelief to think that they are not and never have been something that existed than to think up the things necessary for it to never come up, particularly with Glory involved.
3. Great, now you've got me thinking What if all the times Blackjack's mane itched, it was actually her crotch from some VD that was clueing her in to what was going on in order to better enable its spread?

[Guest]

I've been convinced for some time that there just aren't STDs in Fallout Equestria, because there's no good reason for them not to have come up, in conversation as a lower bound, in Project Horizons at the very least.

But you said Fallout Equestria. Kinda implies you're referring to that story in particular. To my memory using the bathroom came up once in that story, but generally was skipped over. But truthfully STDs did appear in that story.

One of the filly guards contemplated raping pip on her way in and mentioned something about itching when he decided not to. I think. Maybe I'm thinking of that raider couple further in.

[Icy Shake]

I've been convinced for some time that there just aren't STDs in Fallout Equestria, because there's no good reason for them not to have come up, in conversation as a lower bound, in Project Horizons at the very least.

But you said Fallout Equestria. Kinda implies you're referring to that story in particular. To my memory using the bathroom came up once in that story, but generally was skipped over. But truthfully STDs did appear in that story.

One of the filly guards contemplated raping pip on her way in and mentioned something about itching when he decided not to. I think. Maybe I'm thinking of that raider couple further in.

Hm. Forgot that bit.

[O. Hinds]

Nah, that was just parasites from the filthy straw, not an STD.

[O. Hinds]

This bit seems to sum it up, though they're mentioned elsewhere:

The guard mare shot him a look and then gave a cruel laugh.  “Oh please, do it!  Hell, here, let me help hold her down!”  She gave her companion an evil smirk, “Fifteen minutes of fun… if that… and you’ll be scratching at the haybugs biting your sheath for a week!”

I felt suddenly thankful for the infested hay.

[O. Hinds]

By the way, I'm quite pleased by how much conversation here has picked up recently!

[Guest]

Ah. Oops. I guess I remembered it wrong. Though the female guard specifically says the haybugs would bite his privates, so I guess maybe you could see my confusion.

[SilentCarto]

3. Great, now you've got me thinking What if all the times Blackjack's mane itched, it was actually her crotch from some VD that was clueing her in to what was going on in order to better enable its spread?

Aaaaand now you've got me pondering the implications of an STD that grants clairvoyance.

...

  

[Vergil]

All I know is Scienza gets +10 Respect for the Hapsburg reference...and my phone gets -10 for trying to autocorrect that.

[Icy Shake]

Nah, that was just parasites from the filthy straw, not an STD.

This bit seems to sum it up, though they're mentioned elsewhere:

The guard mare shot him a look and then gave a cruel laugh.  “Oh please, do it!  Hell, here, let me help hold her down!”  She gave her companion an evil smirk, “Fifteen minutes of fun… if that… and you’ll be scratching at the haybugs biting your sheath for a week!”

I felt suddenly thankful for the infested hay.

And that's probably why I forgot it.

3. Great, now you've got me thinking What if all the times Blackjack's mane itched, it was actually her crotch from some VD that was clueing her in to what was going on in order to better enable its spread?

Aaaaand now you've got me pondering the implications of an STD that grants clairvoyance.

...

  

It could be an unusual manifestation of neurosyphilis, and the super-precognition a variant of the Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction caused by the PTM overdose killing off a large number of the bacteria, interacting with the PTMs' ordinary effect.   

As to the Habsburgs, it isn't pretty, but I still think it's not as bad as Queen Victoria's not-quite–Maximillian I–like marriage efforts saddling half the royal families of Europe with hemophilia.

[Shady]

Yay I finally made it to the end of the thread, probably took me longer than the actual chapter.Going from starmetal theories to candy colour post-apocalyptic horse reproduction in a few posts really takes down the pages per hour.

About references, I do think they add something to the story but you have to be careful with them not to use them too often. More like an Easter egg that you wouldn't even notice if you didn't now what was being referenced to.
For example I liked the Dr. Who reference in FOE, too bad I can't find it back to show here.

Edit: How could I forget about this one by Somer?  

Spoiler:

[Derpmind]

Also, Blackjack might have pony STDs.

Well, maybe before, but I imagine that cyberization would have killed those.  And now, of course, she has a completely new body that… probably hasn't ever had sex.

And then BJ had sex:

[Scienza]

Also, Blackjack might have pony STDs.

Well, maybe before, but I imagine that cyberization would have killed those.  And now, of course, she has a completely new body that… probably hasn't ever had sex.

And then BJ had sex:

Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons

By Somber

Chapter 69: Hugs

“And that's how babies are made!"

[Borsuq]

Also, Blackjack might have pony STDs.

Well, maybe before, but I imagine that cyberization would have killed those.  And now, of course, she has a completely new body that… probably hasn't ever had sex.

And then BJ had sex:

Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons

By Somber

Chapter 69: Hugs

“And that's how babies are made!"

[Derpmind]

Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons

By Somber

Chapter 69: Hugs

“And that's how babies are made!"

I once read a fic (of unfortunate low quality) where the lesbian couple was given magical protection... something... (I don't remember the description) because if they were too loving while they had sex then they would both get pregnant. Which is how one of the two was conceived, since you see her parents were Twilight and Trixie... Like I said, it was very unfortunate that the writing quality was too low for me because the premise was totally crazy fanfiction.

Anyways, the lesson here is that care bears are, like, totally evil.

[O. Hinds]

3. Great, now you've got me thinking What if all the times Blackjack's mane itched, it was actually her crotch from some VD that was clueing her in to what was going on in order to better enable its spread?

Aaaaand now you've got me pondering the implications of an STD that grants clairvoyance.

…I did too, actually.

I once read a fic (of unfortunate low quality) where the lesbian couple was given magical protection... something... (I don't remember the description) because if they were too loving while they had sex then they would both get pregnant. Which is how one of the two was conceived, since you see her parents were Twilight and Trixie... Like I said, it was very unfortunate that the writing quality was too low for me because the premise was totally crazy fanfiction.

The Winningverse also has sufficient love allowing lesbian couples to reproduce; Rainbow Dash, in that universe, is the result of such a union.

[Vinylshadow]

Now I think I've heard everything...

"Hey, you [lesbian couples] can get pregnant if you both love each other very much and both want a baby"

[O. Hinds]

It's also mentioned in Gathering Shadows 9 that Bright Charger used it. Though we're getting a bit offtopic now.

[Vinylshadow]

So, where do we set up our tents and picket signs for the next chapter?

[Guest]

Yeah, you guys had a repeated problem of people putting their "tents" in the hub page and were unable to add a link to the new chapter as a result.

[SilentCarto]

Yeah, you guys had a repeated problem of people putting their "tents" in the hub page and were unable to add a link to the new chapter as a result.

"Occupy Hub Page".   

[Somber]

Hermaphrodity spell....

Not that I've ever used such a thing... outside of certain clop fics... involving Rarity...

[O. Hinds]

...Now how did this enter conversation? :D

[Icy Shake]

Hermaphrodity spell....

Not that I've ever used such a thing... outside of certain clop fics... involving Rarity...

  The very nerve!

Coming from somebody else I might have said that's a better fit for the NSFW Request Thread.   
Not that there's anything wrong with that.   

...Now how did this enter conversation?  :D

Well you see, when a mare and a mare . . . though I guess it could also apply to a stallion and a stallion or even a stallion and a mare
. . . love each other very much . . . or are attracted to each other . . . or engage in certain commercial transactions . . . or are just kind of bored . . . or intoxicated . . . you know what, going into all the reasons would take all day. Anyway, when some combination of two or more ponies don't have quite the right equipment for whatever they're looking for at the time . . .
What were we talking about again?

[Scienza]

Eye tentacle penises.

[RoboRed]

Eye tentacle penises.

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