[GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion

And find the an IF-88 Ironpony. Its got to happen

I'd laugh if Blackjack's on the rocket, getting ready for launch, looks out the window and sees an IF-88 just lying there...

I think she'd scream all the way to the moon

We would know if Blackjack secretly had the power to control the moon and didn't know it because all the previous night and day the moon would have been going up and down and up and down and up and down pausing only to tremble in the sky from time to time or roll in place before moving side to side and side to side and side to side. 

Everypony would be talking about that whacky moon.

Surely she couldn't do a worse job than Twilight?

Although knowing BJ, she'd probably ram the moon into the planet

oops

Now I've got a hilarious image of Cogs freaking out thinking Horizons fired early while Blackjack and co. struggle to turn the moon back around.

Make it an Omake (alternative scene?) after the story is finished

If she can control the moon, then she could just keep it from ever reaching the right position and orientation to have Tom hit Hoofington, or indeed Equus. Wouldn't that stick in Cog's craw?

JadedPony wrote:So too should he not have been punished to the full extent of the law and beyond for what he did. He didn't understand what he did was wrong. It was wrong, but it wasn't like normal rape. He was an idiot, not a monster. Then when everyone saw him as a monster they treated him like one until he became one.

I think you're not following the part where "no means no". Nothing else is relevant. Twist told him to buzz off, and that is the final word.

Your argument about his mental capacity falls apart when you consider his life. Doof's not so handicapped that they didn't hand him a machine gun and send him into combat. He's not so handicapped that he couldn't take orders and, in fact, thrive in one of the most elite squads in the Equestrian Army. He's on the low end of the bell curve, sure, but he is by no means so bad that he couldn't understand what he was doing. There are reasons he did what he did, but no excuses.

I'm not saying Doof is completely unsympathetic. He certainly didn't deserve to get butchered and stuffed into a metal body for SCIENCE. He didn't deserve to exist in a state of constant agony unless he took enough drugs to kill an elephant. But for his original crime and the punishment that came from it, I have zero sympathy.

Vinylshadow wrote:...So Blackjack is a direct blood-relative of Luna...somehow?

No, she's descended from Tarot, daughter of the Bearer of Magic, who traveled to the Moon in utero and "had stars in her eyes". And now, if my guess is right, she has also come into possession of Luna's talent, which involves an intimate bond to a force that is so inimical to starmetal that they annihilate on contact.

swicked wrote:

Last wrote:Personally I don't think that makes him anymore sympathetic than someone who had their bank account cleared out by a Nigerian prince.

Brass is still a huge bitch, but I don't think that makes Deus any less responsible.

I'm honestly not sure how retarded he is.
If he was on the level Lenny (Of Mice and Men), I think that might be debatable.
(I would figure everyone's been made to read the book, but basically, the guy really, REALLY liked to pet soft things, he would just often pet them too hard, and one time he saw this one woman and her hair was so soft...)
I don't think we get many clips of him interacting with ponies before he was upgraded, after which it's pretty clear he got some kind of intelligence boost.

Yeah, he's dim, but most of the time he doesn't come across as that extreme. Unfortunately, I thought that the one place he seemed furthest from normal was the orb in which he raped Twist, which on my first reading had me wonder why he was in, yes, what was basically a special forces squad rather than, at minimum, the rank and file. Likely it's in part because the perspective meant the focus was really, completely on him the whole time, rather than him generally doing and saying fewer and less interesting things than the others. On subsequent readings, though, I probably wouldn't have put it as quite so pronounced, but still quite a bit more noticeable than his other segments.
And you're right, he doesn't have many segments before his incarceration. The only ones I can think of offhand, not counting the sexual assault itself, are in combat, the original meeting of the Marauders, and the party where Pinkie spotted the bomb and got her first taste of Twist's mints, and where Doof showed a somewhat uncomfortable amount of feelings of entitlement to and resentment towards women. He was probably involved with the time they heard the prophesy/the pact was made, but I don't remember him as standing out as particularly involved in it.

@SC: On his regular punishment, I have some degree of sympathy or indignation just on the basis that, given what we know about the management and some of the practices of Hightower, even leaving aside the super-science, the prison might not have passed Eighth Amendment muster given a liberal-minded judge. But at least it wasn't Yellow River.

"Goddesses, Blackjack, what'd you do?!"

"I don't know, I don't know!! Turn it around its gonna hit us!!"

"What do you mean turn it around?! You moved it in the first place, how did you do that?!"

"I don't know, I said I don't know!!!"

Knee-jerk reaction

Kinda like how Rainbow's Sonic Rainboom caused Twi's Magic to go haywire

The idea of BJ being able to control the moon frightens me

I do believe I've already made a Majora's Mask reference

Drunken Rampage Through The Wasteland:

Silver136 wrote:"Goddesses, Blackjack, what'd you do?!"

"I don't know, I don't know!! Turn it around its gonna hit us!!"

"What do you mean turn it around?! You moved it in the first place, how did you do that?!"

"I don't know, I said I don't know!!!"

Hee hee! Oh god, it's like playing Kerbal Space Program with chopsticks.

*imagines the moon slowly falling towards Equus, or whatever the planet is called, with Blackjack's face imprinted on its surface*

...and ya'll thought The Mare in the Moon was scary?

She's got nothing on Blackjack piloting the moon while drunk off her plot

I'd ask how a pony would use chopsticks, then I remembered Unicorns have magic, Pegasi have wings and Earth ponies...well...they're screwed

Nah, man, they got that super earth pony magic.

Oh hey, new chapter of Broken Accords

I've only seen a few authors explain how pony magic works, and my favorite has this one

Foal of the Forest: Chapter Seven:

Closest thing I can compare it to is the Chakra network from Naruto or Chi from A:TLA

Super Late Reply Theater 3000!

O. Hinds wrote:What's the term for someone from Hoofington, I wonder?  Hoofingtonite?

Taking the cue from other -ton places in the real world, I'd say it's "Hoofingtonian", just like someone from Washington is Washingtonian.

Chapter 69 wrote:“The Society is instituting reforms for the serfs that work our plantations, thanks in part to this mare’s generosity and compassion.”
...
“Never before have the Steel Rangers encountered such selfless generosity! It is a testament to–”

Is Somber angling for BJ to be the Bearer of Generosity? I'm not sure I buy that, but then, I tend to think of Generosity in a very physical sense while 'giving of yourself' and that sort of thing falls more under Kindness.

Icy Shake wrote:But now of course I'm expecting that Blackjack finally having an answer to Rampage's "Who am I" will play a key role in bringing her back around, and maybe even being willing to live on.

Ooh, that's true! Though when you said "Who am I" my immediate reaction was "24601!"

SilentCarto wrote:

O. Hinds wrote:What's the term for someone from Hoofington, I wonder?  Hoofingtonite?

Taking the cue from other -ton places in the real world, I'd say it's "Hoofingtonian", just like someone from Washington is Washingtonian.

Coming from someone who lives in a place named like that, I've never heard or used the term before, so I don't think it matters. It'd be easier to say "someone from Hoofington" or "people from Hoofington" in my mind.

Vinylshadow wrote:Oh hey, new chapter of Broken Accords

I've only seen a few authors explain how pony magic works, and my favorite has this one

Foal of the Forest:

Closest thing I can compare it to is the Chakra network from Naruto or Chi from A:TLA

If you like that sort of thing and haven't checked her out, you might like Estee's stuff, much of which is included in the Triptych continuum glossary.

SilentCarto wrote:Super Late Reply Theater 3000!

O. Hinds wrote:What's the term for someone from Hoofington, I wonder?  Hoofingtonite?

Taking the cue from other -ton places in the real world, I'd say it's "Hoofingtonian", just like someone from Washington is Washingtonian.

Chapter 69 wrote:“The Society is instituting reforms for the serfs that work our plantations, thanks in part to this mare’s generosity and compassion.”
...
“Never before have the Steel Rangers encountered such selfless generosity!  It is a testament to–”

Is Somber angling for BJ to be the Bearer of Generosity? I'm not sure I buy that, but then, I tend to think of Generosity in a very physical sense while 'giving of yourself' and that sort of thing falls more under Kindness.

Icy Shake wrote:But now of course I'm expecting that Blackjack finally having an answer to Rampage's "Who am I" will play a key role in bringing her back around, and maybe even being willing to live on.

Ooh, that's true! Though when you said "Who am I" my immediate reaction was "24601!"

On the first: I think so too, but from a different base case!
Second: Well, you probably know my opinion generally, but hey, no reason Blackjack couldn't pick up the slack on Kindness too, given my less-than-awestruck impression of how Velvet Remedy embodies the Element.
Third: But it was Blackjack who took the Silver Spoon!

Ah, good, something else to turn my brain to mush in nightly readings

I'll read it after I watch The Winter Soldier tonight

*also snags "Fluttershy gets replaced by a Sherman Tank" because it sounds really stupid*

...and now I've started creating my Elements of Harmony

Icy Shake wrote:But now of course I'm expecting that Blackjack finally having an answer to Rampage's "Who am I" will play a key role in bringing her back around, and maybe even being willing to live on.

Pretty sure Rampage is deadmeat. Her soul jar is keeping Twist, Shujaa, Barbwire, Doctor... Octopus (?) and everyone else that used it in Limbo. She needs to die. Eventually. The best she could hope for is someone to remove it without killing her and then live however many years a pony can live. She'd probably do rather well without souls jumping in at random intervals to take control of her. With the 200+ years she's lived I'd imagine she could hang on for another 50.

Disregard that If I'm misunderstanding how the phoenix talisman works. My assumption is that it sucks whoever has it placed inside them's soul in. I have a vague memory of the talisman originally not being as powerful as it is now. That would explain it, I'm just not sure if I'm pulling stuff out my butt.

I do remember that in the original FO:E that it's pretty clearly stated that if you have a soul jar you can't pass on. But other than that no idea if I'm making stuff up.

In the main FOE story, Kindness=Velvet, Loyalty=Calamity, Honesty=Omage/DJ-Pon3, Laughter=Derpy but there was no Magic. Generosity could well be the Cap-monger Charity or Bottlecap (I'm guessing Charity) if Blackjack is going to be anything, she is in the running for the element of Magic. After all, Twilight's Unicorn magic wasn't all that great when she first found the elements, it was just her understanding of friendship that let her unlock them.

Re: Rampage. 

I really don't want her to die. I mean she's had one of the shittiest lives imaginable, she more than anyone else deserves a happy ending. She just needs to pull herself together. Accept all of her parts and make them a whole. 

It's too bad all the real necromancers are dead. Could have just shoved each soul into a blank body and left Rampage in her own flesh.

Snails is still alive last I remember.

SilentCarto wrote:Is Somber angling for BJ to be the Bearer of Generosity? I'm not sure I buy that, but then, I tend to think of Generosity in a very physical sense while 'giving of yourself' and that sort of thing falls more under Kindness.

Eh, I'm still thinking of Charity for Generosity. I don't know what Somber's plans on the matter are, though (and obviously couldn't say if I did).

I obtained a particular CD recently, and found that this song pretty effectively summarizes part of chapter 69

For the off change that it could ruin your life  :

All the cool kids still buy CDs right?   

I thought BJ was Generosity because she gives so much of herself up and expects nothing in return except to do better? Makes more sense then magic to me, anyway.

Littlepip was the same way though

She gave a lot to make the wasteland and more or less sacrificed any future she had be sealing herself in the SPP

Although the "Ten Years Later" makes it sound like she comes out sometimes for sexytimes with Homage...

I don't think she comes out for sexy times as much as Homage goes in using the crusader system and has hyper-real virtual sex with Lilpip and Celestia. I'll bet Celestia likes that big Tom that Homage keeps for birthdays.

I like to think of myself as constructive chaos. I like to help inspire people to new heights of all time lows ;) 

That's what Discord, Celestia, Luna and the Caesar all did wrong, they tried to force their own version of chaos or order on everyone but if you force your vision of chaos on the world it becomes order. The key to good chaos is inspiring everyone to follow their own vision. 

No one vision can rule, by embracing many voices, many flavors of chaos, we create a balance. People must work together to achieve their similar visions, order will foster itself through the need of the people creating chaos. It's all about letting balance happen instead of trying to enforce chaos or order. 

That is why I would make the best Alicorn Princess.