Re: [GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion

[Cptadder]

Yes, but I imagine that Snips's price is quite high. Sure, he could have made a fortune, Blackjack found him in the Mortuary; for one reason or another, he didn't want to, it seems. And, while he may have sold a few others over the decades, I'd imagine that their owners aren't talking about them. Would you tell the Wasteland "I have with me an incredibly rare talisman that allows me to pretty much ignore Enervation and thus get with little opposition some of the best salvage out there"? Snips might also not want it known so that powerful individuals don't seek him out for his knowledge.

That's what third parties were invented for, fences, traders and the like. But I'll buy that a Ghoul (Can't think of the word) who never ages and needs little might be content to sit, letting the days bleed into each other because knowing one is immortal but kill able means you can outlive most threats and Snipes might have been content to sit in that bar for another two hundred years were EC-1101 not to literally fall into his lap.

If you're the GM, it might not end that badly for the players. One time, the GM of a game I'm in was rather tired and out of it… and we were able to convince an NPC to give us, for free, three prototype military stealth attack/transport ornithopters.

Ahh D&D, the stories I can tell, the stories any long term D&D player can tell about what parties can get up to and what they can cause to themselves sin simple short sighted thinking greed driven thinking.

Other than the fact that Xanthe is a zebra, is there any difference between her and Glory?

Glory has a drive, a purpose a goal, a general sense of goodness an innocence, an ability.
And a dream for tomorrow

[Cptadder]

She does now.
Try and remember her when Blackjack first met her.

She was going to save the wasteland, she still had a dream and still had hope. I'll forgive her for forgetting being stuck under a cabinet dieing of dehydration. I know the feeling of knowing without question that at this time... that this day... that I was going to die. I know that feeling and the only thing that matters is the present, the past and the future become unimportant in the simple struggle for survival.

[NoodleNugget]

@stealth suit, I thought it was zebra inspired, not zebra made. what point would a stealth suit be if they already have cloaks that do the same job, only better(actual invisibility) just seems a little redundant.

@magic
white Cats & equipment
EVERY COLOR Legendary dragons
G/B/W Ghave

@glory vs xanthe, like Cptadder said, "Glory has a drive, a purpose a goal, a general sense of goodness an innocence, an ability.
And a dream for tomorrow" Glory's whole purpose of coming down to the surface was because she had a goal to do better. Xanthe is just sort of at the wrong place at the wrong time, Glory also developed really quickly. also I see her whole "cursed" rant is going to get annoying pretty quickly.

[NoodleNugget]

Xanthe wanted to save the wasteland from the star maiden. I haven't read the whole chapter, and have a crap memory, but I could swear she intended to do other good as well. Her decision to save Boing and risk her life are proof enough of that. They both had hopes of making the world a better place, even if Xanthe's was misguided.

Well... heck, both of theirs was misguided, but Glory's was less violent, at least.

She's a craftsmare. remember when rampage asked what she did? Remember when she gave instructions on how to deal with a missile? the battlefield doesnt exactly seem like a place for a craftsmare to want to go. Skills would go to waste.

[Cptadder]

She does now.
Try and remember her when Blackjack first met her.

She was going to save the wasteland, she still had a dream and still had hope. I'll forgive her for forgetting being stuck under a cabinet dieing of dehydration. I know the feeling of knowing without question that at this time... that this day... that I was going to die. I know that feeling and the only thing that matters is the present, the past and the future become unimportant in the simple struggle for survival.

Xanthe wanted to save the wasteland from the star maiden. I haven't read the whole chapter, and have a crap memory, but I could swear she intended to do other good as well. Her decision to save Boing and risk her life are proof enough of that. They both had hopes of making the world a better place, even if Xanthe's was misguided.

Well... heck, both of theirs was misguided, but Glory's was less violent, at least.

Xanthe had no dream or hope, she had an idea at best. She wanted to stop the Star Maiden but she has nothing like the drive of Glory. She had no plan, she had nothing like Glory's planning ability or drive. Xanthe wakes up decides to stop the Star Maiden and hopes for the best. Meanwhile Glory is active in her goal, she has plans and steps and unlike Xanthe she knows each one of her actions is aimed to meet her goal.

[NoodleNugget]

Do you suppose she's going to die? Maybe somber's keeping her annoying so that she DOESN'T go the way of Glory and turn from someone suit to be killed into someone that stays around for the long haul.

hahaha no. I doubt she's going to die any time soon, if at all(during the story) If only just to spite her. "Oh the starmaiden has cursed me, Doom Doom!!! I should die!" *every single bullet misses* "..."

[Aonee]

By the by, when did it no longer become required for Blackjack to fit all of a piece of metal into her mouth to eat it? She mostly just licked that glass/plastic a couple chapters back and nibbled on her armor plates.

I want someone to put a gun in her face, for her to kiss or lick the barrel, and for it to melt closed without the bad guy noticing :P

That feeling you get when you're about to kill a mare and she eats your gun...

[Aonee]

By the by, when did it no longer become required for Blackjack to fit all of a piece of metal into her mouth to eat it? She mostly just licked that glass/plastic a couple chapters back and nibbled on her armor plates.

I want someone to put a gun in her face, for her to kiss or lick the barrel, and for it to melt closed without the bad guy noticing :P

That feeling you get when you're about to kill a mare and she eats your gun...

No no no, when Blackjack first was shown to have this ability and we started talking about her taking a bite of a gun somber came on and was all "No! Something something something it has to all fit in her mouth."
So she's not going to take a bite of a gun. I think.
That or I've been juked. :what:

What if the gun was designed to be concealable, so it is small enough to fir in her mouth?

[NoodleNugget]

Just did a quick little read. Xanthe was there looking for rampage with the other zebras when blackjack came stumbling along. she wasn't out to kill blackjack or she would have. instead she had a bullet scrape her hip and she peed herself.

[Aonee]

Maybe after it's been emptied of ammo.
She knows better than to chug down live rounds :P

"Dude what happened?"
"I don't know man, but apparently just eating my gun wasn't enough, because next thing I know she's spraying bullets out of her mouth!"

[Cptadder]

Maybe after it's been emptied of ammo.
She knows better than to chug down live rounds :P

Oh really?
Think about who your talking about again... Blackjack
Not a smart Pony Blackjack

Besides eating rounds is quite safe assuming you eat the bullet first and dump the powder, long as your not biting into the igniter your okay. Assuming you can eat brass to begin with.

[Icy Shake]

Okay, let's give this a shot.

Spoiler:

Overall, great chapter. I liked the reveals regarding Rampage, and I think that the MoI stuff rings true. Obviously, I'm running with the feeling of WTF Blackjack, but at least she seems to be thinking about how she is acting a little bit. Really, the Silver Spoon move just doesn't feel like something she would normally do, and I hope this sort of thing won't become a pattern.

The action in the second half was good; I loved the smooze, and it really did a good job at seeming a credible threat even against a crazily overpowered party. That it was a sort of elemental force was nice, since there are plenty of schemers and plots already. The attack of the soul jars was set up wonderfully; I really liked Cerberus's role in setting it off. The bit with the sword was good--the ability to harm soul jars fits perfectly, but I wasn't thinking "BJ, why aren't you using the pointy stick made out of soul-eating metal" the whole fight.

As for the stealth suit: I never played NV, so I don't have very strong feelings coming in. I do think that it could be a nice way of developing Xanthe. In some ways, it feels like the perfect match; both were zebras separated from their kind, cursed, but it seems with different ways of dealing with it. I'm a little surprised the suit was playing so nicely with everypony, given who it must have been before the operation.

Anyway. Thank you Somber, editors. If this is what happens when a chapter ends up ~25% longer than you intend, I think you need have no worries on that front. I felt the pacing was good, with no scenes dragging, all while hitting the points you needed to. There's a reason I've stuck with this for nearly a million words, and it sure isn't because there's extraneous fluff.

[O. Hinds]

‘Risk
your life… risk your friends lives… come and get me… and then I’ll send you
somewhere even more dangerous.’


“Friends” needs an apostrophe.

Should
probably be “ghouls’ snapping fangs.”

Ah, thank you.

I'm a little surprised the suit was playing so nicely with everypony, given who it must have been before the operation.

I think that it makes sense, actually. Unlike the maximum security prisoners or ordinary ponies in the other objects, the suit was a highly skilled spy. That means intelligence and quick thinking, and versatility, among other things. Given the choice between hanging around the prison for another X centuries or helping and following these very interesting people who've just wandered in (and even if the suit doesn't recognize Snips, it must know that getting into these storage rooms would require certain pieces of information…), it seems natural that the suit would decide to go with them and see what happened. Besides, if things go wrong, what's going to happen to it? The only weapon it knows of that could hurt it is in the hooves of one of the ponies it just allied itself with.

[Snowy Flanks]

Hello everypony im kinda new here. Names Snowy. Anyway am I the only pony convinced that mr. Sheard is actually ghoulifide snips

[Icy Shake]

I'm a little surprised the suit was playing so nicely with everypony, given who it must have been before the operation.

I think that it makes sense, actually. Unlike the maximum security prisoners or ordinary ponies in the other objects, the suit was a highly skilled spy. That means intelligence and quick thinking, and versatility, among other things. Given the choice between hanging around the prison for another X centuries or helping and following these very interesting people who've just wandered in (and even if the suit doesn't recognize Snips, it must know that getting into these storage rooms would require certain pieces of information…), it seems natural that the suit would decide to go with them and see what happened. Besides, if things go wrong, what's going to happen to it? The only weapon it knows of that could hurt it is in the hooves of one of the ponies it just allied itself with.

Ah, I see where you're coming from now. I guess I was stuck in the holdover grudge mode from the Meatlocker part of the chapter. Incidentally, I may never be able to watch Disney's Aladdin without thinking of Carpet much differently; since I had never played NV, that's what I thought of when it appeared. Looking back, I don't think it's hard to see why. Even the personality seems similar, but with it being so early in the stealth suit's tenure in the story it's probably just me writing what I want/expect to see on a blank slate.

[Ketchup]

Hello everypony im kinda new here. Names Snowy. Anyway am I the only pony convinced that mr. Sheard is actually ghoulifide snips

Welcome! And I think this is the general consensus on Shears.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

Snowy, youve jumped the wagon a little late I'd say, but you're completely aboard


Welcome to the partay!

gonna make you feel alright

[SilentCarto]

Chapter 46 Comments:

Chapter 46 Editing:

[SilentCarto]

Starkatteri anti-Enervation talismans? Kinda out of left field for those, interesting they were gun shells but the question is why they don't sell to every Hoofington visitor if they are in such a common item as a bullet shell, implies they were produced recently.

It sounds like they have a limited lifespan, that they can only absorb so much enervation before they're expended. It's not an eternal get-out-of-enervation-free card. I wouldn't be surprised to see the talismans decaying as they absorb the enervation. And they certainly require Black Book knowledge to create, so it's not like just anyone can do it.

[O. Hinds]

The healing magic was closing the injuries in his wings surprisingly quickly.
Interesting... is that because they're now completely protected against the Enervation?

Actually, it's because bat wing membranes are some of the fastest-healing tissues in nature. Bronode has quite a wealth of such knowledge.

@errorspotting:
Ah, thank you; I've made a note of them so that I can correct them once I can get into the chapter.

Starkatteri anti-Enervation talismans? Kinda out of left field for those, interesting they were gun shells but the question is why they don't sell to every Hoofington visitor if they are in such a common item as a bullet shell, implies they were produced recently.

It sounds like they have a limited lifespan, that they can only absorb so much enervation before they're expended. It's not an eternal get-out-of-enervation-free card. I wouldn't be surprised to see the talismans decaying as they absorb the enervation. And they certainly require Black Book knowledge to create, so it's not like just anyone can do it.

...Oh dear. Now I'm wondering just how those talismans work... and what's in them...

[Cptadder]

...Oh dear. Now I'm wondering just how those talismans work... and what's in them...

Fuck, Anti-enervation talismans how do they work?
What goes in them, what are they made of, what do they taste like?

[NoodleNugget]

the enervation talismans probably have a set capacity to how much they can absorb. Since they only have value in the hoofington region their circulation would stay within the hoofington region(if they were to be sold). I bring that up because I would assume enervation is blanketed over the hoofington region, kinda like radiation, so there is probably a constant supply even if it is minute. that being said it would probably be absorbed by the talismans on a fairly regular basis. So the talismans probably deteriorate fairly regularly over time.
I would assume the talismans Shears has were most likely recently created, because if not, they are putting faith in a bullet that would probably go to better use shooting themselves in the head with because by the time they would be of any use they would probably be used up. I dunno, that's how I see it.

[SilentCarto]

The suits explode when the wearer is 'removed'. I assume this is a safety mechanism such that if said wearer was ever discovered (it is an infiltration suit after all), that the wearer could could simply ditch the suit in a sort of suicide bomber attempt. This would probably function the same if the wearer died whilst wearing the suit, in a sort of 'dead man's hand' style. However, having the soul remain in the suit seems to prevent it from detonating, as the wearer would still be considered 'alive' by the suit.

You're assuming that "self-destruct" is the same as "explode". Every other piece of Zebra equipment with that functionality that we've seen -- at least one sword and two stealth cloaks -- simply cracked its gem and lost its enchantment, becoming mundane.

Anyway, you're correct... being a soul jar, it should be indestructable and therefore immune to its own self-destruct.

“Ugh… remind me not to eat soap next time I’m looking to get drunk,” Yeah, I don't understand that. Why was she eating soap. That doesn't get you drunk. Or does it? I'm not testing this out.

Because her healing talisman "heals" the "poison" she's trying to get drunk on. So she has to add something way worse to keep it busy while she enjoys being drunk.

The healing magic was closing the injuries in his wings surprisingly quickly.
Interesting... is that because they're now completely protected against the Enervation?

Actually, it's because bat wing membranes are some of the fastest-healing tissues in nature. Bronode has quite a wealth of such knowledge.

Oh. Okay.

...Oh dear. Now I'm wondering just how those talismans work... and what's in them...

Eww. Good point... if you have to kill someone every time you want to make one, that would tend to limit its usefulness, too.

[Kippershy]

Thanks Jermy, I was starting to get really low since there was more talk about the suit than the chapter. Just need to learn to be more patient. In any case...

Putting the zebra soul in the stealth suit basically tricked the self destruct system into believing it hadn't been removed. Then Rarity tried to alter it and make it more user friendly, with minimal success.

Not trying to upset you further or be mean here - but of course it was going to come up.
I'm glad I managed to get it right (soul inside the suit stops it from exploding) but without a clear explanation within the chapter of why the suit didn't blow up (apart from 'we didn't remove her') you're going to get people bring it up if the suit is empty.

Thank you for clearing it up for us - and once again, as I said in my review, brilliant chapter.

[NoodleNugget]

...Oh dear. Now I'm wondering just how those talismans work... and what's in them...

Eww. Good point... if you have to kill someone every time you want to make one, that would tend to limit its usefulness, too.

You dont have to kill others, you just have to S̷̨̼͚̫̻̐̑ͬ͐̋͟Ẻ̼̫̰̙̿ͦ͜L̨̺̥̼̍́̂̉̚Ļ͇̯̰̏ͭͦ̅ͯ̿̈́
̹̗̝͚͎͕̗̥͚̾̉̑͌͆͟Y̢̡̙̠̘̗̳̬̼ͫ̏͋̏͂͗O̺̙̰͎̺͔͔̫ͧ͢Û̧̱̻͉̣̲̪̿ͯͤͪ̓̔R̓̇ͧ͂̇͏̫̣̬̻̗̥̘
̴̳̲̾͗̀S̮̬̓̊͊̇͑̆͋̉̀̚Ò͌̈̓̊ͮ͏̖̺͖̦̺̞̱̤̗U͔͈̙̒͌L̮̂ͦ̓ͨ̒͑

[O. Hinds]

Where is Shears? He's at the bottom with them, then he's at the top, but no one took him there.
Unless it's to be assumed that after he started sitting on Cerberus' head to get across the walkway above the goop monster he just never got off, even after going through a door.

I've heard back from Somber, and this has now been corrected. Shears is now being carried by Sygius and Psychoshy.

[Jeremyrush]

I've heard back from Somber, and this has now been corrected. Shears is now being carried by Sygius and Psychoshy.

Okay, cool.
I don't know why, exactly, I picked up on it, but as I was reading I noticed he wasn't brought up and in my head I was going "Blackjack! You forgot Shears! Go back before the ooze gets him!"
And then he was at the top and all cool, making me do this face: :what:

So yeah, yay corrections.

Speaking of corrections, it's always weird whenever a chapter gets released ~1am my time. Typically I get tired and fall asleep at ~3 so it means I end up reading half a chapter and then the other half in the morning. This chapter was a similar case.

Someone said they went and brought Silver Spoon. I don't recall it happening like that. I remember them finding Spoony in the tunnels. Did they? I had just woken up so I probably derped and misread a few paragraphs.

[RandomBlank]

...and I'm tardy on reading PH again. At least I'm near the end of my own fanfic.

[Jeremyrush]

I've heard back from Somber, and this has now been corrected. Shears is now being carried by Sygius and Psychoshy.

Okay, cool.
I don't know why, exactly, I picked up on it, but as I was reading I noticed he wasn't brought up and in my head I was going "Blackjack! You forgot Shears! Go back before the ooze gets him!"
And then he was at the top and all cool, making me do this face: :what:

So yeah, yay corrections.

Speaking of corrections, it's always weird whenever a chapter gets released ~1am my time. Typically I get tired and fall asleep at ~3 so it means I end up reading half a chapter and then the other half in the morning. This chapter was a similar case.

Someone said they went and brought Silver Spoon. I don't recall it happening like that. I remember them finding Spoony in the tunnels. Did they? I had just woken up so I probably derped and misread a few paragraphs.

Silver spoon was at the boneyard. Like she was in chapter 2 or 3.
Blackjack had to go and get her.

See, I didn't even know. I'm really bad with things like that. For about two chapters I thought Xenith in FOE had wings.

[WavemasterRyx]

Hah... oh man... I probably shouldn't have stayed up so late when I needed to be awake for D&D in a few hours... but taking time to read PH is always worth it.
My party will be fine, it isn't like I'll get them all horribly killed... probably.

If you're the GM, it might not end that badly for the players. One time, the GM of a game I'm in was rather tired and out of it… and we were able to convince an NPC to give us, for free, three prototype military stealth attack/transport ornithopters.

Oh no, I'm one of the adventurers heh. Fortunately we had 2 new people join today, and they had fairly power-gamed characters (that the GM helped them make, since they're fairly new to the game), so my character's damage wasn't really required. I did save their asses from a cluster of minions with a bottle of alchemist fire though - and then threw another bottle of alchemist fire blindly over a boulder and hit two of my allies and one enemy. Oh, and I got blackmail (typed that "blackjack", twice...) material for our group's cleric.
In all, it was probably one of the better sessions we've had recently.

Ahh D&D, the stories I can tell, the stories any
long term D&D player can tell about what parties can get up to and
what they can cause to themselves sin simple short sighted thinking
greed driven thinking.

So many stories, and the best ones didn't even have to do with the actual gameplay half the time, like when the cheese was sassing us...

...and I'm tardy on reading PH again. At least I'm near the end of my own fanfic.

Good luck with your story, sir, I hope it turns out well.

And, I'm hardly one in a position to call anyone out on being tardy... Oh the days when I just wrote a paragraph or two for my commentaries instead of 4-5 pages...
Anyways, I'm trying my best, but I still don't think I'll be able to get my commentary finished until tomorrow. My deepest apologies, Somber.

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