Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion

[Scootayay]

It depends. You'd be right if you were talking about an object belonging to several gardens -- "The gardens' sprinkler system".
However, according to the Chicago Manual of Style, "the possessive of a title or name is formed by adding 's" under all circumstances. So even though "Gardens" happens to be plural, an object belonging to the single entity of Happyhorn Gardens is Happyhorn Gardens's.

Well now, that's a bit of a tricky one.  The word "gardens" is plural, of course, and so ought to have the possessive form "gardens'" (at least in this style).  "Happyhorn Gardens", however, is singular.  I think that the current version is the correct one, though I'm not sure.  Icy Shake, your thoughts?
Ah, or SilentCarto!  Thanks!  I was not in fact previously familiar with that particular rule.

Right, thanks. I checked and that is applied very consistently throughout the story, so it's correct as it is.

[Scootayay]

I had posted on Reddit in the 77 thread so that it wouldn't cause a ruckus but, since you asked so nicely:

Only a short reply because it's late.

No:

[JadedPony]

I had posted on Reddit in the 77 thread so that it wouldn't cause a ruckus but, since you asked so nicely:

Only a short reply because it's late.

No:

RE: No. :

[SilentCarto]

You mean she lived her ENTIRE ADULT LIFE not knowing what her special talent was?

Yes. Absolutely.

And also no.

In the intro to chapter 15, she failed to provide a clear explanation of her talent, which is why I started theorizing about her repressing her understanding of her talent due to the trauma of Hatches' death. If we assume that the Dealer was indeed a hallucination originating in BJ's mind, then his explanation of her talent is probably accurate. And, honestly, if you secretly knew that your purpose in life was to have others take bullets intended for you, wouldn't you latch on to someone else's assumption that it was merely to win at any cost?

[WavemasterRyx]

Ah, I've not seen that!  Tha--
[sees length]
...Aaaand I don't know when I'm going to see it.  Looks interesting, though, and I'm glad you mentioned it in case a good time does come up soon.  Thanks.  :)

You're welcome, sir.  I do hope you enjoy it when you do get a chance and feel like listening to it.  I still need to find a good time to check it out myself.

Yeah.  I mean, even with magic to make them work, while they might make nice art pieces or novelties... how are they more practical than the alternatives for actual combat use?  One can come up with justifications (which is, as I said, probably easier with quadrupeds than with bipeds), but it still seems to me that they're probably a significantly suboptimal design in most cases.

I've been thinking about this a bit, sir, and now I'm starting to really question the purposes of giant robots too, heh...  I still think they're cool and all, but yeah, pretty much there isn't anything they could do significantly better than a similarly advanced tank or airship, other than interacting with things in a human / equine fashion... which said things would need to have been constructed larger than normal specifically for that purpose in the first place...

Well... Silver was a mare...

Maybe I got the name wrong. Who was the stallion who kept complaining about losing his junk when he got cyberized?
Anyway, it was just a joke, poking fun at Transformers 2.

Ah, actually I was thinking of Silver Stripe.  The guy ended up going by Steel (had to look it up), Silver and Cobalt were his friends.  Not to copy Hinds' answer, but I actually haven't seen any of the Transformers movies, heh.  But yeah, I stand by my case that balls are a terrible cost-investment for cyberization; if you want functionality, go with an internal storage tank.

Also, while I'm here, I suppose...

Pythia and Blackjack memorial, kinda:

[O. Hinds]

@JadedPony:
I say, now; critique, even harsh critique, is one thing, but I see no need here for such personal insults. I see several places in your posts about which I could attempt a discussion with you, but frankly, I am not by your behavior convinced that such discourse would be productive.

Right, thanks. I checked and that is applied very consistently throughout the story, so it's correct as it is.

No problem. :)

You're welcome, sir. I do hope you enjoy it when you do get a chance and feel like listening to it. I still need to find a good time to check it out myself.

Good luck. :)

I've been thinking about this a bit, sir, and now I'm starting to really question the purposes of giant robots too, heh... I still think they're cool and all, but yeah, pretty much there isn't anything they could do significantly better than a similarly advanced tank or airship, other than interacting with things in a human / equine fashion... which said things would need to have been constructed larger than normal specifically for that purpose in the first place...

Hm... Oh, here's an interesting idea, actually: a post-scarcity society where one of the most popular sports involves giant humanoid robots that, thanks to the whole post-scarcity thing, have had so many resources and super-advanced (and possibly conveniently unspecified) technology thrown into them that they're actually pretty practical to us. Impractical to develop to that point? Far easier and just as good or better options available? Oh yes! But hey, it's a post-scarcity society, and the designers thought that this would be a really cool idea.
Then, though, the Whateveroids invade, the Ultramaguffin breaks, and the society stops being post-scarcity right when it could really use a non-scarce supply of materiel. We've been peaceful for millennia! We have no war machines, just the odd museum piece and a bunch of old designs we can't build without the Ultramaguffin! And what are we going to do for soldiers?!
Hey, though, we've got all of these giant humanoid robots sitting around, and the games have been called on account of rain (of alien death rays)...
And I am very surprised that I've thought of this. Eh. [shrugs]
But yeah, pretty silly unless one sets up a scenario, like that, specifically for them. :)

But yeah, I stand by my case that balls are a terrible cost-investment for cyberization; if you want functionality, go with an internal storage tank.

Good point. I mean, you'd still need a production system if you wanted to use the thing (without having to refill from outside), but the whole thing could be mounted internally with either a cooling system or a more high-temperature-tolerant design. Well, assuming there's room, of course.
I suppose that some people might care about having testicles for cosmetic or personal body image reasons, but it would probably be better to only worry about making them cosmetically sufficient, rather than making them both look/feel right and operate as functional reproductive organs.
Hm, and now I'm wondering if a cyberpony could have an on-the-fly gamete cell gene resequencer built in... my mind appears to be going to some strange and creative places tonight.

Also, while I'm here, I suppose...

Pythia and Blackjack memorial, kinda:

Nice. :)
And you put the PipBuck on the right (or, rather, the left :)) leg, nicely; it's rather a pity to see otherwise good pieces of fanart with it on the right leg instead of the right one.
...I think perhaps I may be a bit low on sleep. If you didn't follow that, it's supposed to be on her left foreleg, which it is here, so good. :)

[JadedPony]

You mean she lived her ENTIRE ADULT LIFE not knowing what her special talent was?

Yes. Absolutely.

And also no.

In the intro to chapter 15, she failed to provide a clear explanation of her talent, which is why I started theorizing about her repressing her understanding of her talent due to the trauma of Hatches' death. If we assume that the Dealer was indeed a hallucination originating in BJ's mind, then his explanation of her talent is probably accurate. And, honestly, if you secretly knew that your purpose in life was to have others take bullets intended for you, wouldn't you latch on to someone else's assumption that it was merely to win at any cost?

Letting other people die for you isn't a talent. A talent is something you do. It isn't a thing that just happens around you passively. Having her special talent being everyone else dying instead of her by dumb luck flies in the face of every interpretation of how cutie marks work, ever. Also, if it hatches death got her out of getting in trouble then wouldn't it be something other than cards as her mark? It just makes no sense. Again, it's Somber trying to be "super-edgy" when there was no need for it and it just needlessly complicated things.

If her special talent was somehow having the dumb luck to have other people die in her place, why did she die three times? It makes no sense. She caught more shots to the face than most porn actresses. It's bullshit and if it was true it was shit writing to throw it in at the last chapter and never explore it. Just like it was shit writing to throw in "the wasteland is sentient" and never explore that. Everything Somber has written since the trip to the space center where glory pre-died for no damn good reason, has been one stupid, needlessly dramatic mistake after another.

Somber killed off or removed all the best characters and left us with nothing but a whiny, manic depressive, marry sue, cyber-alicorn Blackjack that did not learn a God damn thing from any of the previous chapters. She was the same pretentious twat she's been since chapter one. She went through all that character development and in the end it all just went poof and her personality just turned off.

Everything since the space center has been shit. Killing off the characters, turning the whole story into a emo, self-flagellation, marathon of ruining everything good about the story arch in order to make Somber's personal OC into the female pony version of Superman just so Blackjack can still find shit to whine about.

Glory didn't need to die at all. P-21 didn't need to die at all. There was no point in any of it and if she knew her special talent was getting ponies killed in her place, why would she bring her friends with her to the moon where they could die in her place? Is she a sociopath? Does she just want to be alone for the rest of her life? No, it was Somber, trying to get rid of every interesting character in the story so that he could focus on Blackjack.

The problem with that is without her friends, all Blackjack ever was in a whiny, pathetic cunt who can't open a door without it being a huge emotional drama. Without her friends to even her out, Blackjack is a wreck no one wants to be around.

[WavemasterRyx]

Hm...  Oh, here's an interesting idea, actually: a post-scarcity society where one of the most popular sports involves giant humanoid robots that, thanks to the whole post-scarcity thing, have had so many resources and super-advanced (and possibly conveniently unspecified) technology thrown into them that they're actually pretty practical to us.  Impractical to develop to that point?  Far easier and just as good or better options available?  Oh yes!  But hey, it's a post-scarcity society, and the designers thought that this would be a really cool idea.
Then, though, the Whateveroids invade, the Ultramaguffin breaks, and the society stops being post-scarcity right when it could really use a non-scarce supply of materiel.  We've been peaceful for millennia!  We have no war machines, just the odd museum piece and a bunch of old designs we can't build without the Ultramaguffin!  And what are we going to do for soldiers?!
Hey, though, we've got all of these giant humanoid robots sitting around, and the games have been called on account of rain (of alien death rays)...
And I am very surprised that I've thought of this.  Eh.  [shrugs]
But yeah, pretty silly unless one sets up a scenario, like that, specifically for them.  :)

Good point.  I mean, you'd still need a production system if you wanted to use the thing (without having to refill from outside), but the whole thing could be mounted internally with either a cooling system or a more high-temperature-tolerant design.  Well, assuming there's room, of course.
I suppose that some people might care about having testicles for cosmetic or personal body image reasons, but it would probably be better to only worry about making them cosmetically sufficient, rather than making them both look/feel right and operate as functional reproductive organs.
Hm, and now I'm wondering if a cyberpony could have an on-the-fly gamete cell gene resequencer built in... my mind appears to be going to some strange and creative places tonight.

Strange and creative places are nice, I think. *smiles*

I like your giant robot idea, sir, it sounds like it could reasonably make a pretty entertaining story.  And yes, obviously there wouldn't be room inside a normal pony body for the gallon tank I was picturing in my head (for whatever reason).  Of course, having a tank you can fill from outside does add possibilities... but some kind of generation talisman would be much more practical.  Having a gene resequencer built into it would certainly take quite the feat of magic, but I wouldn't rule it out at all as a potential area of arcane research.

Nice.  :)
And you put the PipBuck on the right (or, rather, the left :)) leg, nicely; it's rather a pity to see otherwise good pieces of fanart with it on the right leg instead of the right one.
...I think perhaps I may be a bit low on sleep.  If you didn't follow that, it's supposed to be on her left foreleg, which it is here, so good.  :)

Thank you, sir, I'm glad you like them.  Actually I had put it on the wrong leg initially, but was lucky enough for once to realize so in time to fix it easily, heh.

I do hope you'll be able to get something to help you make it through the day, sir, or if it's the other way, that you'll be able to get some rest soon.

[O. Hinds]

Strange and creative places are nice, I think. *smiles*

:)

Thank you, sir, I'm glad you like them. Actually I had put it on the wrong leg initially, but was lucky enough for once to realize so in time to fix it easily, heh.

Aye. Confusion about who wears their PipBucks on what leg does seem to be a bit widespread...

I do hope you'll be able to get something to help you make it through the day, sir, or if it's the other way, that you'll be able to get some rest soon.

Eh, I'll be fine, but thanks. :)

[O. Hinds]

@Ryx:
And I just finished the video. :)

[SilentCarto]

Ah, actually I was thinking of Silver Stripe.  The guy ended up going by Steel (had to look it up), Silver and Cobalt were his friends.

Ah, that's the one. Thanks.

Not to copy Hinds' answer, but I actually haven't seen any of the Transformers movies, heh.  But yeah, I stand by my case that balls are a terrible cost-investment for cyberization; if you want functionality, go with an internal storage tank.

OK, so... in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, there's a giant (well... gianter-than-usual) transformer called Devastator. At one point, John Turturro finds himself under Devastator, and we get this lovely scene:



It's funny because they're wrecking balls.

[SilentCarto]

Pythia and Blackjack memorial, kinda

Nice art, even if I'm not sure I "get" the BJ pic. Pythia is cute as ever, naturally.

And you put the PipBuck on the right (or, rather, the left :)) leg, nicely; it's rather a pity to see otherwise good pieces of fanart with it on the right leg instead of the right one.

Well, but someone did put it on Blankjack's wrong -- that is to say, right -- leg. Must have been some Ranger, because anypony who grew up in a stable would know which leg it goes on.

On a side note: Do you supposed the chunk of soul that Cogs sliced off of BJ to get her cutie mark snapped back to the blank along with her memories, or did it die with Luna? I'm leaning toward the latter, which would probably be mostly for the best.

[WavemasterRyx]

Aye.  Confusion about who wears their PipBucks on what leg does seem to be a bit widespread...

Eh, I'll be fine, but thanks.  :)

Well, in my defense, brain damage.  I was actually going to leave it off entirely because "she was a statue and didn't need it", but then I reconsidered, since it is... a fairly important thing.  Maybe someone needs to make one of those "old timey educational videos" about PipBucks?

And you're welcome, sir, I do hope so.  I'm glad you were able to finish the video too, I hope it was enjoyable.

Ah, actually I was thinking of Silver Stripe.  The guy ended up going by Steel (had to look it up), Silver and Cobalt were his friends.

Ah, that's the one. Thanks.

OK, so... in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, there's a giant (well... gianter-than-usual) transformer called Devastator. At one point, John Turturro finds himself under Devastator, and we get this lovely scene:

It's funny because they're wrecking balls.

He's certainly a pony that needs some love.

Ah... I see, heh.  I wonder how many times it took him to say that line without laughing.  It's really far too early in the morning for me to be trying to figure out the reasoning behind why a giant robot would want to represent his genitalia in such a fashion though.

Nice art, even if I'm not sure I "get" the BJ pic. Pythia is cute as ever, naturally.

Well, there isn't too much to it to "get", I'm not that deep of a pony, heh...

short explanation:

[MSCA]

3. No, I suppose it's not that easy to guess. Would you mind to reveal this secret?

Spoiler:

Seriously?  I ask because I would be thrilled to see that name in the story.

[Icy Shake]

So I finished watching the 77+E discussion video today. Some good stuff there. So some thoughts on that.
I'm not a huge fan of Blackjack's cutie mark talent as "victory," even of the form "victory with a cost/sacrifice." It's obviously better than victory-full-stop, but death is much cleaner and doesn't get into weird cases like "Cognitum won because Tom was launched, even though the outcome she wanted to use the launch of Tom to cause to come about didn't happen." Also, I'd like to imagine that in the deciding round between Hatches and Blackjack to see who would leave first, Hatches was dealt Ace-Queen of spades. So kind of like the ideas of Hatches being her sister or that having been Hatches's cutie mark.
I loved the part where Somber said one objection to making Whisper Magic was that then he'd have to make Blackjack Generosity. Also, I'll note I don't think anything in the epilogue absolutely precludes that, but I could certainly be wrong on that. Anyway, I don't have the same issue with there needing to be an earth pony Element, given that there wasn't a batpony in the current set or an alicorn for S1/S2. But I still don't see Charity as filling that role.
I'd personally say Blackjack need not be as easily killable as was discussed there, since I could easily see the stars' deals being the kind she can't just renege on by dying.

And I'll restate some questions from earlier with some updates:
Did Blackjack get her cutie mark back during the epilogue? If so, was it brought back by her soul affecting the clone body, possibly while she was still in the coma, or did she need to do something to earn it again? If not, does she do anything to hide the fact she's an adult blank flank?
Obviously various starmetals have some different properties. Presumably the sword doesn't do the Enervation thing, and stuff made out of EoS starmetal doesn't inspire you to violence and domination. Are there any characteristics common to substances from many or most stars? Update: The sword does react with moonstone, right? But why? I get why EoS starmetal does, thematically. His has the one frequency magical spectrum at the Enervation note, moonstone is broad-spectrum life/spirit magic fundamentally opposed to that. But is there a similar reason why other starmetals, including that of the sword, would do so?
I tended to find Homage more tolerable in PH than FoE. Is that just because of different circumstances, like not needing to focus on the relationship between her and Littlepip, or did you perceive yourself as writing her differently in some way, for instance due to development we never really got to see in FoE from after she got separated permanently from Littlepip after Cauterize started? Did you do anything like that with other FoE characters (not counting, for instance, Lionheart, who didn't really have a character in FoE)?
Did anything need to be done about the Enervation rings and EoS starmetal generally, or are they inert without the Eater to send captured souls to? Or somewhere in between, like maintaining some of the nice properties (strength, malleability/being shaped by magic/thought/vibration) and creating Enervation when under power, but not capturing souls?
Update: What would you have liked to have done with the Zodiacs? Who should they have ended up being to Blackjack? Would it just be like in the epilogue?
Both Boo and Morningstar ended up being less menacing than originally intended. Was there anyone who ended up more so, or did this only go in that direction? Did that sort of thing happen with anyone else?
You said that in many respects Littlepip might have been able to solve a lot of PH pretty easily if she'd been the one there instead of Blackjack. Do you think that there was anything that made all this something that required Blackjack and her friends/people very like them, or is it something that could have been done by a generic heroes/hero + friends group with very different characteristics?

[O. Hinds]

Well, but someone did put it on Blankjack's wrong -- that is to say, right -- leg. Must have been some Ranger, because anypony who grew up in a stable would know which leg it goes on.

Hah, yes; even someone in-universe got it wrong! I didn't notice that aspect of the scene before. :)

On a side note: Do you supposed the chunk of soul that Cogs sliced off of BJ to get her cutie mark snapped back to the blank along with her memories, or did it die with Luna? I'm leaning toward the latter, which would probably be mostly for the best.

That I'm afraid I do not know.

@swicked:
Interesting idea.

Maybe someone needs to make one of those "old timey educational videos" about PipBucks?

Well, there is that bit in the opening of the Book of LittlePip.

I'm glad you were able to finish the video too, I hope it was enjoyable.

Aye, thanks. :)

[O. Hinds]

Okay, bit of an announcement: Somber has decided to go ahead without further revisions. Chapters that have had copies go up on FIMFiction may be considered locked, and corrections to them are to be not accepted. Sorry about this, but, well... I do understand that we need a definitive version at some point, the perfect is the enemy of the good, etc. Thank you all again for the help you've been in the past. :)

[Valikdu]

Also, I want to show my appreciation for the music choice during the Legate fight scene in 77 there. Feuer Frei was the track, correct?

I'm curious about this too.

Well, it fits! And it even has a much calmer, more melodious song (Mutter) as the next track in the album.

A thought somber, it was cute how you managed to get yourself in there. ;)

Notice how he's NOT a secret agent who participates in a car/helicopter chase with explosions.

Where else did we see such a nice and unobtrusive author's cameo? I can only remember the one from Galactica (although frak everything else about that one'e ending).

Now that it's over. I need to apologize for getting Glory's hair wrong all those years ago the first time I drew her, causing her hair to be drawn wrong in almost all fan art ever since.

NO FORGIVENESS. ONLY TICKLES NOW.

Liberty Prime?

Oh, was that a reference? Sorry, still never played Fo3.

Well, you're not really missing much...

[DotRook]

Star metal being something special is actually rather odd. In our reality, anything other than Hydrogen is made inside stars up to Iron and Nickel with heavier elements made in Supernova explosions or colliding stars. Stars that fuse metals are also theorized to exist. In our reality, everything except Hydrogen and helium is star metal.

[DotRook]

That's just semnatics though. I imagine more broadly applied Star metal is just loosely applied term for extra terrestrial material with exotic ( likely magical ) properties.

[DotRook]

Of course there are a handful of elements we've created here on earth that don't form naturally, but they're very unstable. We might be close though to creating stable super heavy elements but I'm just rambling now.~

[O. Hinds]

Well, you're not really missing much...

Thanks.

[SilentCarto]

It's really far too early in the morning for me to be trying to figure out the reasoning behind why a giant robot would want to represent his genitalia in such a fashion though.

Because Michael. Goddamn. Bay.

Basically... it's just supposed to be the memorial from inside the church at Chapel.
Except that I went with the vertical / carbonite approach because I thought it looked more dramatic than having her on her back from the side.

Ohhhhhhh. Okay. I get it now. Thanks!

[FeatherDust]

So it was implied that Whisper is pregnant with her second when she guess to see Fluttershy. Who's the father, then? (Not that I'd expect Psychoshy to go celibate after Stygius died, but...)

[O. Hinds]

That member of the band she looked back at at the time, as I recall.

[FeatherDust]

That member of the band she looked back at at the time, as I recall.

...oh, hah, I see. That just went over my head, I guess.

[O. Hinds]

No problem. :)

[SilentCarto]

Of course there are a handful of elements we've created here on earth that don't form naturally, but they're very unstable. We might be close though to creating stable super heavy elements but I'm just rambling now.~

Physics rambling:

[Icy Shake]

@Icy Shake
Something I wanted to say regarding the idea of Blackjack as Generosity.
*snip*

I see where you're coming from, and it's certainly something to consider. But there are a couple things about my personal interpretation of the situation that make me see it differently. First and most important, while Blackjack greatly gives of herself/sacrifices herself to help others, that's not what I've tended to interpret as her key "gift." Rather, I see her generosity most manifest her forgiveness and mercy, or at least the attempts at them. And there I don't think the same arguments against apply as well, because we saw so many times that she wished she could simply bear to play out her part as executioner, or not feel compassion and sympathy for the people who she's fighting against. How no matter how much she hates someone, it just never seems to stick once she gets a little bit of context. (Kind of makes me think a bit of Ender Wiggin, actually. Not quite the same, but related.) Hell, with Lighthooves she was trying as hard as she could to give him a way out. Also worthwhile to note on this point is that it's an important point of differentiation between Blackjack and Littlepip, for anyone who took Littlepip's self-assessment seriously, or took it further to simply say that she had bigger problems.

Also, I see the Elements as not only something that the Bearers represent/do themselves, but also what they value, believe in, or need. Twilight was, especially pre-retcon, seriously lacking friendship at the start of the show. Pinkie isn't only about laughter/optimism for herself, but spreading it, and goes nuts or turns into a complete asshole when she's rebuffed. Rarity's beliefs about how ponies worked generally in her "key" episode, or Blueblood in particular in "The Best Night Ever." Dash in "Mysterious Mare Do Well" can't bear it when it seems the town is turning its back on her (and as "What's Eating Rainbow Dash?" explores, if I remember correctly, how it probably didn't help that it was her best friends sticking the knife in). And there, Blackjack values forgiveness and second chances very, very highly, to the degree that it's what she's built her whole life around, and in one case tried to end it in part because of her offer of a second chance for 99 ended in failure and its death. To me, two of the simple, simple things she's built her life around, "Do better" and "Security saves ponies" are fundamentally aspects of generosity. The first directly via the forgiveness/mercy vector, the second as a side note to that in that she generally doesn't live on some kind of basis that Security saves some ponies, or the ponies who deserve it, or those who really want to be saved, it saves everypony, and not just ponies, either.

Anyway, for more (and how it could also apply to Magic), see here from two years ago.

And now that Whisper's Magic, I just love the idea of her pulling rank on Blackjack.

As for the purely logistical things, I don't see them as things that have to be problems. GoE, for instance, didn't really do much to the blanks or alicorns, and within PH itself Discord made a big point of chaos not being evil, order not good, and I could see that being extended to some forms/derivatives of chaos/Discord himself not actually being inconsistent with Harmony. As for there not being any earth ponies, I do not care and as far as I'm aware never cared. There wasn't an alicorn or batpony among the S1-S2 group of Bearers, after all. For that matter, no griffins, zebras, serpents, dragons, donkeys/mules, cows, or draconequi, either.

[Derpmind]

For whatever it counts, I don't think Blackjack's 'special talent' is death. She thinks it's death, and she's repressing and struggling with that thought the entire story. It's the Wasteland, Ponies die all the time, but every time a death was even somewhat connected to Blackjack, she blamed herself. But Blackjack didn't directly kill Hatches.

“First one to leave always gets picked up by security.  The others had won, and it was either going to be me or her leaving first.  Getting picked up after curfew was three days locked in rehabilitation cells, or flogging.  So Hatches and I had one more round to see who’d leave first.  I lost.”
   “Oh?”
   “Yeah.  Then I was such a whiny baby about it that she agreed to leave first anyway.  Nice about it, though.  Claimed she had to pee,”

What Blackjack did was, even though she'd lost fairly and the punishment was severe, she made Hatches sympathize with her enough to take the flogging/jailtime in Blackjack's place. Then, unrelated to anything Blackjack did, the hatch malfunctioned. Blackjack thinks her cutie mark is related to that death, but it's just as possible it was what came right before it. I think Blackjack's special talent is whining.

Don't say it doesn't make sense. Blackjack's been making her allies, enemies, and us the readers sympathize with her plights for the entire story. She's just that good at it. And don't say it isn't related to her cutie mark: To Blackjack, her first victory in Blackjack was only possible because of her special talent. At the end of the day, the one thing that all the desolation and loss and pain couldn't get to, the one pony the wasteland couldn't quite break was Blackjack. It's just who Blackjack is: She was already broken.

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