[GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion

Am I the only one who thinks Blackjack is still a descendant of Twilight and Macintosh? I mean, when she tried to activate the door, she touched it with her cyber-hoof, not a organic part of her body.

For that matter, considering Twilight, wouldn't it probably require some sort of magic to open?

Just a thought.

Kippershy wrote:As for the drugs

I've never seen the point of using drugs personally; I don't have serious depressive issues and I get the same interesting mental states with a couple days of sleep dep without any cost or risk whatsoever (plus then I get several extra hours to do whatever I want). Besides, I have way too much to do to spend much time out of what passes for my mind; if I ever find myself with enough free time that I manage to run out of things I need to read and watch, and maybe I'll get around to screwing with my brain chemistry for fresh lulz.


But the general policy toward drugs is idiotic. Alcohol and tobacco are among the worst, but they're legal so everybody treats them like nothing and you end up with alcoholics ruining their lives, DUIs killing thousands, and kids addicted hard to cigarettes before they can drive, resulting in all manner of long term issues. Meanwhile things like marijuana and mushrooms, that are safe as long as you're not an idiot and have real benefits to some people, are put in the same category as crack because they're all equally illegal. And education-wise... any law abiding educator isn't allowed to tell you anything or doesn't want to bother, anybody on the other side is probably trying to sell you something or worse, get you hooked for later, so most people doing drugs have no idea what they're doing. Thank god for the internet.

I have no problem with people using drugs in a way that doesn't hurt anybody, though I have had to step in at times when somebody's about to do something stupid, like drink 'till they puke or try to drive after half a pan of special brownies (it helps that apparently I look like Jesus to stoned people). And anyone who takes something that they don't know how it works is asking for a Darwin award.

Incidentally, being the only sober one in the room is occasionally more fun than the drugs could possibly be.

Kippershy wrote:I also know... well, no, I don't know my limit in terms of dosage but I'm always experimenting with it - though I always make sure I do it in places that affect no-one else.

good/bad?

You should probably be with somebody you trust whenever you experiment if possible; if everything goes to hell they can induce vomiting or shove you in a cold shower or something (make sure they know what you're taking and have read up on effects and treatments), or call an ambulance if you need one. It'll affect your friends a lot more if you manage to screw yourself up permanently than if you let them see you high a few times.

Ice Crystal wrote:

Kippershy wrote:
Where the hell do you work or live that requires random drug tests?

I'm a medic in the Army.

You keep getting more awesome. I'm not sure it's allowed.

Yeah, good reason to stay very sober, at least while working. It's unfortunate that typical drug tests have no idea about your mental state, and just check if you've had the following list of chemicals in the last month.

Meleagridis wrote:I firmly believe that every slow or unobservant reader should have a crew of government sponsored comment threads to expand on what would have been a drastically reduced reading experience. This here is another reason I like this place.

Yes. So many things here that would seem like random ass-pulls if we weren't following properly. But then you look at the details and at a minimum you see how the author planned it all from the start and foreshadowed beautifully. And when you don't see it coming, you think back over all the clues and you should have seen it and Somber's a magnificent bastard of a writer...

ScytoHarmony wrote:Am I the only one who thinks Blackjack is still a descendant of Twilight and Macintosh? I mean, when she tried to activate the door, she touched it with her cyber-hoof, not a organic part of her body.

For that matter, considering Twilight, wouldn't it probably require some sort of magic to open?

Just a thought.

I believe that at least half a dozen people have stated such beliefs within the last day.

Sindri wrote:

ScytoHarmony wrote:Am I the only one who thinks Blackjack is still a descendant of Twilight and Macintosh? I mean, when she tried to activate the door, she touched it with her cyber-hoof, not a organic part of her body.

For that matter, considering Twilight, wouldn't it probably require some sort of magic to open?

Just a thought.

I believe that at least half a dozen people have stated such beliefs within the last day.

Yes, well, I was too busy being too lazy to actually go back and read the bajillion pages I've missed.

Ice Crystal wrote:

Kippershy wrote:
Where the hell do you work or live that requires random drug tests?

I'm a medic in the Army.

Is there any possible way you could get more awesome?! I would just like to say thank you for everything you do.

Sindri wrote:

Kippershy wrote:As for the drugs

I've never seen the point of using drugs personally; I don't have serious depressive issues and I get the same interesting mental states with a couple days of sleep dep without any cost or risk whatsoever (plus then I get several extra hours to do whatever I want). Besides, I have way too much to do to spend much time out of what passes for my mind; if I ever find myself with enough free time that I manage to run out of things I need to read and watch, and maybe I'll get around to screwing with my brain chemistry for fresh lulz.


But the general policy toward drugs is idiotic. Alcohol and tobacco are among the worst, but they're legal so everybody treats them like nothing and you end up with alcoholics ruining their lives, DUIs killing thousands, and kids addicted hard to cigarettes before they can drive, resulting in all manner of long term issues. Meanwhile things like marijuana and mushrooms, that are safe as long as you're not an idiot and have real benefits to some people, are put in the same category as crack because they're all equally illegal. And education-wise... any law abiding educator isn't allowed to tell you anything or doesn't want to bother, anybody on the other side is probably trying to sell you something or worse, get you hooked for later, so most people doing drugs have no idea what they're doing. Thank god for the internet.

I have no problem with people using drugs in a way that doesn't hurt anybody, though I have had to step in at times when somebody's about to do something stupid, like drink 'till they puke or try to drive after half a pan of special brownies (it helps that apparently I look like Jesus to stoned people). And anyone who takes something that they don't know how it works is asking for a Darwin award.

Incidentally, being the only sober one in the room is occasionally more fun than the drugs could possibly be.

Kippershy wrote:I also know... well, no, I don't know my limit in terms of dosage but I'm always experimenting with it - though I always make sure I do it in places that affect no-one else.

good/bad?

You should probably be with somebody you trust whenever you experiment if possible; if everything goes to hell they can induce vomiting or shove you in a cold shower or something (make sure they know what you're taking and have read up on effects and treatments), or call an ambulance if you need one. It'll affect your friends a lot more if you manage to screw yourself up permanently than if you let them see you high a few times.

True, that realistically whenever I up the dosage by the large amounts I like to do so by (I went from doing 10g to 15, 15 to 30, now 30 to 45) - I should in theory have someone acting as a safeguard to help me if needed.
Though at the same time I've always been level headed while out of it (as strange as that sounds) and I've always been able to avoid stupid choices.

I have one time considered what it'd be like to fly, but then immediately told myself that I was not a bird, did not have powers of flight (even if it felt like I did) and that I would only fall.
That's exactly how I'm like when drunk too - I keep my sense of what's downright stupid and what's okay about me.


...which is something I somewhat lack when sober, seeing as I have no trouble with a car going at 30mph with the intention of hitting me on purpose.





edit: forgot to mention the first part.
True, being the only sober one can be just as interesting if the drugged up people say what they're seeing/hearing/feeling.
though it's nothing like experiencing it first hand, even still.

As for the whole legal/illegal part - I fucking love you for that - not because I didn't see it that way before (I did) but because you see it that way - the way it really should be seen.
Cannabis can be okay in moderation but is still dangerous in a lot of ways.
Alcohol is easy to become an addict to because its legal and therefore seen as okay.
Tobacco is simply stupid.
Mushrooms are good when used by people with knowledge and who aren't afraid - in moderation.
Cocaine, heroin, meth - all that can suck my dick because its stupid as fuck.

This is post number 3213 of Project Horizons discussion on the Cloudsville forums.

Kippershy wrote:I fucking love you for that

See, this is why we need a Chrys emoticon.

Kippershy wrote:

In that case, keep up the good work.
I respect the army - I know a lot of people don't, but personally I do. I respect field medics more-so, though you don't state if you're frontline or field hospital (which would still be in risk of incoming fire).

So yeah. good reason.

Sindri wrote:
You keep getting more awesome. I'm not sure it's allowed.

Yeah, good reason to stay very sober, at least while working. It's unfortunate that typical drug tests have no idea about your mental state, and just check if you've had the following list of chemicals in the last month.

guarddogjr wrote:
Is there any possible way you could get more awesome?! I would just like to say thank you for everything you do.

Thanks for the support guys.
I'm not that awesome...

Ice Crystal wrote:
Thanks for the support guys.
I'm not that awesome...

LIES! You downplay yourself too much. Continue being awesome!

Ice Crystal wrote:
Thanks for the support guys.
I'm not that awesome...

*hugz*

A medic in the US Army(I assume?), an administrator on a pony forum?

Where are you deployed? Or are you Reserve?

Meleagridis wrote:Why does Redheart hate Garnet? The conversation was in chapter 7, I think. They used to be close friends.

It's Cheerilee that Redheart had a falling-out with.

Sindri wrote:But the general policy toward drugs is idiotic. Alcohol and tobacco are among the worst, but they're legal so everybody treats them like nothing...

I don't see how you can assert that alcohol and tobacco are worse than most street drugs.

I'll agree with Kipper that tobacco is stupid. Its pharmacological effects are pretty minimal except for addiction. WHY. It tends to encourage constant usage, yes, but its negative effects are all limited to the user, not to those around him (and don't give me any of that BS about second-hand smoke.) Point being, if cannabis was as easily available, I think you'd see a similar level of all the health problems related to sucking on burning leaves. If you go through a dime bag of weed in a week rather than a carton of cigs, of course you'll see less health effects. (I hope those amounts are reasonable, because I pulled them out of my plot -- I've never used any illegal drug, nor cigarettes.)

Alcohol is really one of the safest drugs, though. It's a naturally occuring chemical, produced by your own body in tiny quantities, and your body is therefore very good at handling it. The psychological effects are limited to impaired judgement and attention and loss of coordination (as opposed to, say, completely altering your perception of reality), and it's self-regulating -- you'll generally throw up and/or pass out before you consume toxic amounts, unless you're doing something really stupid. It's dangerous to drive while drunk, of course, but again, the same could be said of a lot of illegal drugs too. Alcohol use is merely far more widespread, and the "illegal" part of using illegal drugs tends to make people use them in private rather than somewhere they'd need to drive home from.

That said, I agree with your thesis statement wholeheartedly. I'm all for people being responsible for their own actions. If they choose to impair themselves with any chemical, then actions caused by that impairment are also their choice.

ketchup504 wrote:A medic in the US Army(I assume?), an administrator on a pony forum?

Where are you deployed? Or are you Reserve?

I'm reserve, but I just got back from deployment about a month ago.

Ice Crystal wrote:Thanks for the support guys.
I'm not that awesome...

"If it walks like it's awesome, talks like it's awesome, and quacks like it's awesome, then it is awesome. You're awesome, Ice Crystal." -Sun Tzu (paraphrased)

ScytoHarmony wrote:
Yes, well, I was too busy being too lazy to actually go back and read the bajillion pages I've missed.

If the topic of BJ's ancestry is interesting to you, I'd really recommend going through the last two pages. They cover pretty much every ongoing theory and make some new ones.

SilentCarto wrote:

Meleagridis wrote:Why does Redheart hate Garnet? The conversation was in chapter 7, I think. They used to be close friends.

It's Cheerilee that Redheart had a falling-out with.

I point back to my inattentiveness. It does mean that Garnet and someone who knew someone who knew about the kid were in the same room, but that in itself means nothing... as far as I can tell.

Meleagridis wrote: I point back to my inattentiveness. It does mean that Garnet and someone who knew someone who knew about the kid were in the same room, but that in itself means nothing... as far as I can tell.

Yeah, but it doesn't really have to. Once Marigold's memory was orbed, it became available to anyone who had access. It was found in Star House -- under her own bed? -- but Marigold was the only unicorn involved in the surrogacy procedure, and I doubt she could cast the spell herself. That means, at the very least, someone had to extract it. Someone who would then know the secret...

P.S. Trying out a new avatar.

SilentCarto wrote:I don't see how you can assert that alcohol and tobacco are worse than most street drugs.

Given equal treatment and availability, they would by no means be as bad as most hard drugs. But they do more damage than pretty much all the others combined.


Lethality? Compare the number of people killed by, say, heroin overdose to those murdered by drunk drivers. Lives ruined? Serious alcoholism may not be a dramatic as your average crack whore story, but it destroys a person's ability to function just the same and happens much more often... but it's typically ignored because, as you say, alcohol is really one of the safest drugs. And I can't even tell you how many people I know had one or both parents who were wonderful, loving people- on the rare occasions they were sober. If alcohol were treated as an addictive, mind-altering substance it would be perfectly safe. But most people refuse to even acknowledge that it's a drug.
(again, I have no problem with people using drugs as long as they're smart about it; please don't take this as some anti-alcohol crusade)

Meanwhile, cigarettes have no purpose but to be addictive, and they do it very well. Tobacco companies have been working for decades to perfect their product, in order to bring in the most customers and sell the most to each. If somebody smoked as much marijuana as the average smoker does tobacco, of course they'd have a problem. But when you smoke marijuana, you get high, and then you stop smoking because you're already high and the only thing that changes after that point is you have less left when you come down. When somebody smokes a cigarette, they need to smoke another soon. There are many, many people who've used pot their whole lives and never had any lung problems, but I've never known someone to smoke for more than a decade that I couldn't spot by how they breathe. By the end of a smoker's first pack, their brain has been altered to compel them to destroy themselves. And we treat this as perfectly normal.

Sindri wrote:Given equal treatment and availability, they would by no means be as bad as most hard drugs. But they do more damage than pretty much all the others combined.

Well, that's the point. You have to compare them on a per-capita basis for your comparison to mean anything at all. Might as well declare that driving is more dangerous than getting shot, because so many more people die in car accidents than from gunshot wounds.

SilentCarto wrote:You have to compare them on a per-capita basis for your comparison to mean anything at all. Might as well declare that driving is more dangerous than getting shot, because so many more people die in car accidents than from gunshot wounds.

My argument means exactly what I said it means. A person is so much more likely to use alcohol and/or tobacco than "hard" drugs that [chance of using alcohol]*[chance of alcohol destroying your life if used] > [chance of using hard drugs]*[chance of hard drugs destroying your life if used]. You're more likely to kill someone because you were drunk than because you were on PCP, you're more likely to fall to alcoholism than cocaine addiction, etc.


I'm not saying that getting shot is safer than getting hit by a car, I'm saying that most people worry about dying from a bullet but don't even bother to look both ways before crossing the street. And that's stupid.

I don't like stupid.

Pardon me while I complain about things I can't understand.

On the topic of memory orbs... They're the one thing that I just don't understand. If my memory hasn't failed me, I believe Kkat said that memory orbs were introduced as a pony version of recordings. But then we also have recordings. We have logs and messages and whatnot. The fundamental nature of memory orbs has gotten on my nerves since the beginning... it is a little easier to understand when one remembers that LittlePip was supposed to be the only protagonist in post-war Equestria, I guess. But the memory orb seems like it has become an inextricable aspect of FOE adventure... and one that most of the wasteland population is cut off from without a rare pre-war device. Even with it, isn't there a size requirement? Do brahmin just have to guess? All fine and dandy if you aren't really delving into the past, but it seems like every bit of intrigue in the past worth knowing came in an orb. What do the non-unicorns unravelling ancient have to do? Mutate a horn?

SilentCarto wrote:P.S. Trying out a new avatar.

That was my favourite piece of pony fanwork in quite a while. Whole hearted approval over here.

Meleagridis wrote:On the topic of memory orbs...

Well, from an in-'verse logical standpoint they make a lot of sense; it records everything seen, heard, or (physically) felt by a person, giving you a more accurate, detailed, and unbiased record than a simple audio or visual log. You'd want an orb of everything really important if you had the resources to get one. And an orb is also created whenever a memory is removed from a person, so anything that was wiped from a mind in the present is going to end up stored for the future. Between those, you're likely to get orbs of a lot of the important events, at least around people with clout.


I don't think that they're a required part of a Fo:E story though, any more than an author would be required to use a video recording when audio or text would work just as well. And if you do need to use one for a non-unicorn, IIRC Kattlarv's rpg includes a relatively common pre-war device that allows other equines to read orbs, so there's definite precedent (if not in the biggest stories, since 'Pip and BJ are unicorns).

It does bother me a bit that every orb we see seems to be relevant to the plot. I guess we could pass that off as stellar intervention in Blackjack's case, maybe, but shouldn't there be a dozen orbs of baby showers and hoofball games (or sex tapes) for every one that unlocks the secrets of the Hoof? I mean, if you were picking up video recordings scattered across the ruins of your city, how many of them could you honestly expect to be relevant to some ancient secret conspiracy in the highest levels of government?

Sindri wrote:

Meleagridis wrote:On the topic of memory orbs...

Well, from an in-'verse logical standpoint they make a lot of sense; it records everything seen, heard, or (physically) felt by a person, giving you a more accurate, detailed, and unbiased record than a simple audio or visual log. You'd want an orb of everything really important if you had the resources to get one. And an orb is also created whenever a memory is removed from a person, so anything that was wiped from a mind in the present is going to end up stored for the future. Between those, you're likely to get orbs of a lot of the important events, at least around people with clout.


I don't think that they're a required part of a Fo:E story though, any more than an author would be required to use a video recording when audio or text would work just as well. And if you do need to use one for a non-unicorn, IIRC Kattlarv's rpg includes a relatively common pre-war device that allows other equines to read orbs, so there's definite precedent (if not in the biggest stories, since 'Pip and BJ are unicorns).

It does bother me a bit that every orb we see seems to be relevant to the plot. I guess we could pass that off as stellar intervention in Blackjack's case, maybe, but shouldn't there be a dozen orbs of baby showers and hoofball games (or sex tapes) for every one that unlocks the secrets of the Hoof? I mean, if you were picking up video recordings scattered across the ruins of your city, how many of them could you honestly expect to be relevant to some ancient secret conspiracy in the highest levels of government?

Unless it was put there by a some unknown party for people to see, like that golden orb that Blackjack found a while back that Dealer didn't want her to see. /conspiracy

O. Hinds wrote:

OneMoreDaySK wrote:I really wish I had that problem again so I could help. So you've done the .ini edits, as well as the d3d9.dll fix, right?

Wait... There are two FALLOUT.ini files: one in the game folders, and one wherever the saved games go. Have you tried editing the one in the saved games? Also, how big is your d3d9.dll file? There was one I tried that was huge and didn't work, then I got a smaller one, which worked.

I've tried editing both and I've tried deleting both, editing the Fallout_default.ini, and running the launcher to create new ones. No luck.

The d3d9 that I'm using at the moment is only 106 KB.

Oh yah, ok. So try this:

4. If that didn't work, right click your fallout 3 shortcut
5. Look for "fallout.ini" or fallout_default.ini" Click on one of them.
6. Press "Ctrl+F" and type in: SMainMenuMovieIntro=
7. Delete: SMainMenuMovieIntro= , SIntroSequence=, sIntroMovie=Fallout INTRO Vsk.bik
8. Save and Exit "fallout.ini" or "fallout_default.ini"
9. Go to "data" in your fallout 3 folder, then videos.
10. Find "Fallout INTRO Vsk.bik"
11. Delete, or drag and drop somewhere besides anything Fallout 3 (ex: Desktop)
12. Play Fallout 3!

Part 1 of 2
First off a repost of my comments from the now dead Comment thread 3 over at EQ daily

I had to post a comment because I've reached the end of Chapter 44 as
well as just about finished off comment thread two, counting the
original comment thread plus thread 1, and thread two that's 14,000
posts and reactions I've read with 1437 odd posts to read. I did the
same thing when I was reading Khat's Fallout Equestria but there I only
had to read what 8000 odd comments? A quick moment to mention in no real
order swicked, Fuzzy, Kim, silentcarto, Fuzzy Porcupine Paws,
JeremyRush, and last winner of the most interesting comments award
Sindri.

Also like to give a shoutout to the fanriffic artists
Mech and WavemasterRyx plus the proof readers O. Hinds... and the other
one (Sorry but only O. Hinds had interesting little behinds the scenes
comments so which made me eager when I saw one of his comments)

And
I'd like to take a brief moment of silence for the roughly 300 comments
that Blogger ate in these four threads, we will never see their like
again (Second monitor and note pad, for all your internet posting needs)
and last a special moment of hate for swicked not because of anything
said but because of the Avatar which is just close enough to Sombers to
get me confused as who's writing which post, after a few hundred
comments some of which are pages long in length I tend to skim right
past the name and ID people by Avatars and I always had to squint trying
to tell the difference between swicked and Somber.

Finally
before getting in my general thoughts of this story over all just a few
notes, one I've just finished off forty four this morning as I was
reading a chapter then reading all the comments to get caught up except
when forty one rolled around I had to rush to the end because I had to
know if Littlepip had set the bomb off in story yet. I got into this
story only because I got the recommendation from Sindri over on the FoE
comment thread to stick with the story until Chapter six. I came in late
enough (Just a month ago) I never saw the original chapter 1 which
judging by the comments about the first chapter 1 would have never
caught my interest but Chapter Six did and once I hit six I had to keep
going to know how things end up. That's a huge motivator for in my own
life, once something catches my interest I have to know how it all turns
out. This story however nearly lost me twice however once while
reading, one was Chapter 11 when it fades to black and P-21 and Glory
are gone, that greatly annoyed me but I was saved by Drunken Blackjack
brawling to keep going. The second time was thirty three because at the
time, having known rape victims have seen two of them take their own
lives it seemed way to pat the way Blackjack just forgave them and sent
them on their way. In my thirty odd years on this planet having seen the
worst and best of people, I don't believe I've ever met anyone who
could have spoken up and told her friends to let them go not out of fear
but out of pity and forgiveness. To this day reading the comments it's
one of three instances of author fiat where it does not strike me as in
character for anyone to use a comic book analogy but frigging Batman. No
matter how many innocents die, no matter how much chaos occurs or how
many times the Joker escapes Arkham asylum Bats will never kill him or
for that matter take the time to build his own private Joker prison.
Blackjack was taking on that same mentality. At least geld the bastards
before they go Blackjack!

But I kept going, and you know why?
Lacunae
Not
because she's my favorite charter but because in the back of my mind
since she joined up during Chapter 19 she has grabbed my attention as a
giant Chekhov gun. Each chapter... each day brings us closer to the
point at which the Goddess meets her end. Every page we get closer to
the point when her Unity is shattered but more than that it's not
sudden, there's a time when the Goddess spends seeing her old self
growing increasingly upset before suddenly she realizes Littlepip is
freaking out because... you know big giant bomb. And in that space of
time she saves her children as best she can.

So what's going to
happen to Lacunae? I've been waiting twenty five chapters to find out.
Considering the pacing it looks like we will have about six more
chapters to go.

Somber, I may question your choices at times,
find fault in sections of your writing or the actions of a charterer or
two but know that at the end of the day I eager to see each new update,
each new view the pages bring.

And I can't wait to see how it all turns out.

(Part 2 in thirty minutes)

Part 2 of 2

You know when being someone who likes reading comments is a problem?
When a story has 5000+5000+5000+342+990+990+990+255 (Only 255 as of time of writing this post) comments to read. That's 18,567 comments. Assuming every comment was Twitter length (Which thank you very much OAC some of them were not) that's 2,877,885 characters. You begin to grasp the fun of having known nothing about Project Horizons so you read 15,000 comments over the month of May get to the end and see oh look Chapter 44 just dropped but I've only got 339 more comments to read in the last comment thread on EQ... oh wait it looks like the comment thread moved so lets see Cloudsville huh, how many comments here, oh just about a thousand... wait no that threads locked so where is the current... okay here's one it's on page 30 here, I'm going to be busy this week so I'll read it next week easy, only a thousand and change comments.

So I get back and find not one nine hundred and ninety thread new locked thread but two....
But Can't stop me now because I frigging made it to this section and now to do what I've been waiting to do for a month
Rampant speculation and off the wall theories on what's going to happen next.

Or to be more exact, I have an excellent idea on what Project Horizon is all about... And why everyone on EC-1101's list had to die.
Part 3?

OneMoreDaySK wrote:

4. If that didn't work, right click your fallout 3 shortcut
5. Look for "fallout.ini" or fallout_default.ini" Click on one of them.
6. Press "Ctrl+F" and type in: SMainMenuMovieIntro=
7. Delete: SMainMenuMovieIntro= , SIntroSequence=, sIntroMovie=Fallout INTRO Vsk.bik
8. Save and Exit "fallout.ini" or "fallout_default.ini"
9. Go to "data" in your fallout 3 folder, then videos.
10. Find "Fallout INTRO Vsk.bik"
11. Delete, or drag and drop somewhere besides anything Fallout 3 (ex: Desktop)
12. Play Fallout 3!

I actually found and tried that solution myself yesterday. No good. Thank you for the advice, though.

I've heard back from the person who made the wrapper I'm using, and they suggested a tweak that I'm not sure how to do but that they think might work. Once I either figure out how to do it or hear back from them in more detail, I'm hopeful that I might make progress.

They also reassured me, based on their own graphics setup and experience, that I ought to not need to worry about damage so long as I keep my graphics on low.

Cptadder wrote:Also like to give a shoutout to the fanriffic artists
Mech and WavemasterRyx plus the proof readers O. Hinds... and the other
one (Sorry but only O. Hinds had interesting little behinds the scenes
comments so which made me eager when I saw one of his comments)

Oh, thank you. I do try.

I've been pondering the Manehattan and, more broadly, Four Stars standard monorail system. What do you think of this? (I was slightly concerned that Equestria might not have pneumatic tire technology, but then I remembered: it's Four Stars running the thing. They could just borrow tech from the Zebras.)

Okay with all of that out of the way let me gather the "Great Project Horizon's speculation theories"

Theory 1
Project Horizon is a super weapon

There are roughly seventeen theories I've read about PH that all fall under this grouping. Project Horizons is a superweapon of some kind.

Evidence For:
We have four main reasons to think that PH is a superweapon. One Trueblood is terrified of it activating, he all but has a full freakout in the Arena after Blackjack tells him that EC-1101 is gone. If PH was in any way just a benign or helpful secret Project we should not expect Trueblood to react like that to the news it was going off (He knew that if EC-1101 was lost it auto triggered). Second we have the simple evidence that the majority of the other projects were all based around either winning the war or surviving it, granted that evidence applies both ways but I throw it in here because every single Project to date has been prime example of mad scientist thinking rather than rational scientific exploration. To go on a slight tangent what I mean by that, it's one thing to try to bring the dead back to life, it's quite another thing to start with your dead wife or a hulking brute made up of a dozen corpses stitched together rather than say... a bunny rabbit first. Sure it's not as impressive but if things go wrong... hey rabbits are easier to put down than your ex-wife or Frankenstein. Back on topic we have evidence in the form of the Moonstone which has been mentioned together before with Project Horizons at least twice by my memory. And the only thing we know about Moonstone is the fact that it can be used to create a bloody Anti-matter/Matter annihilation reaction between itself and any bits of the Eater you poke it with. That's something incredibly dangerous, sure it's not as powerful as a real AM/M reaction (Fun fact if what Blackjack tried in Chapter 44 had been real AM/M the reaction range would have been in the ten kiloton range, IE two thirds a Hiroshima and she was standing on the other side of the door from THAT). Last reason to think PH is a weapon is it's autofire mechanize, IE it automaticly goes off if everyone on EC-1101's list is dead, this implies that it's set to trigger if the entire government dies which implies a deadman switch of sorts. If so that's not something you generally set to make sunshine and rainbows, that something you set to say "If I'm going down I'm taking you with me!"


Evidence Against:
The main piece of evidence against PH being a superweapon is the existence of Project Redoubt, it's not Gardens of Equestria, Goldy put together both PH and the Gardens why duplicate his own work but then why make PH if Redoubt as it sounds like were some sort of super stables? Redoubt does not make sense of PH is the megaspell to drop the Moon directly onto the Eater of Souls for one giant bang and a purging of Hoofington. You could not do that and hope for an intact planet afterwords. And then there is the name itself, Project Horizons which does not fit a mega spell to end it all.

Theory 2
Project Horizon is a MOON stable

Three theories for this I've read

Evidence For:
The name of Project Horizons refers to a US Government Program to do exactly that (Well a base not a stable) but if Goldy is planning for the end of the world and he has rocket ships and magic teleportation why not build a base on the moon just in case the world goes to hell. It's certainty an attractive prospect if one can build something like that in secret. As well again from the name prospective, why title your story after something that actually existed if you don't intend to use it?

Evidence Against:
The problem with Moon Base Horizon is the fact aside from the name we have literally nothing else to go on. We've not heard about large amounts of people being vanished to the moon base before the bombs fell (Unless the Moon base is maintained by an army of Boo's, while adorable I don't see it not breaking down in two hundred years). As well the kinds of large scale requisitions and things going missing when one builds a hidden moon base have not been touched on.

Theory 2
Project Horizon is an X

I've read all told about forty theories in 18,000+ comments and lots of them fall into the grouping of totally WAG level guesses that Project Horizon is everything from a Generation Ship to a Time Machine to an out and out Star-gate. The problem with all of these theories is lack of evidence both for and against. These kind of theories can be fun, for example Battlefield Bad Company 2 has a pretty good start and introduces what sounds like an interesting plot point, the Japanese are on a remote island working on their own Manhattan project but with something other than nukes. Since the demo cut out early and the game was still a month from launch the Internet came up with all sorts of theories about what the Japanese could be working on in the game. By far the best (As in most entertaining) theory that the Japanese were working on Godzilla, yes a World War 2 shooter where the Japanese have harnessed Godzilla to fight on their side. This was an amazing fun idea that sad to say did not pan out (Stupid wanky EMP weapons instead). But that's what these theories devolve to.

For example the little readout in Chapter Forty-Five mentions Flux capacitor batteries therefor Project Horizon must be a Delorean based time machine. As amazing as that would be there as much evidence for time machine as there is for giant Pinky Pie shaped Mecha running off Spiral Energy.

These theories have no support, but then they have nothing against them either.

SilentCarto wrote:Well, SOMEONE extracted Marigold's memory of the event!

SilentCarto wrote:Once Marigold's memory was orbed, it
became available to anyone who had access. It was found in Star House --
under her own bed? -- but Marigold was the only unicorn involved in the
surrogacy procedure, and I doubt she could cast the spell herself. That
means, at the very least, someone had to extract it. Someone who would
then know the secret...

I don't know if the person doing an extraction even can view the memories as they go, but we know they can choose not to. When Lifebloom was extracting Pip's memories before her Black Book mission, he didn't view them -- remember he's the one who went back later to look at orb number whichever (and then expunged his own memories of the viewing, because SQUICK), which he would not have needed to do if he'd been watching the memories first-hand during extraction.

SilentCarto wrote:The Lake Macintosh orb took place right before he
left for the peace talks where he was killed. They clearly made up at
some point after he found out who Maripony really was.

You're right. I think I had my mental timeline a little out of whack there. Sorry.

ScytoHarmony wrote:I mean, when she tried to activate
the door, she touched it with her cyber-hoof, not a organic part of her
body.

For that matter, considering Twilight, wouldn't it probably require some sort of magic to open?

That's one theory, but she used a hoof to open the door to the study later, which probably was also locked to Twilight. The suspicion is that the "go fetch the book from that room" thing was a ruse, Lifebloom and Homage checking privately after intentionally fouling the public test.

I don't think it's magic or anything about BJ herself -- as I said, it's very likely that Homage didn't want that door opened (or at least didn't want it opened in the presence of the rest of the Twilight Society). Either she fears what the TwiSci would do with whatever's back there (maybe she has an idea of what it is), or she knows that they'd never willingly let Twilight's only surviving heir leave the tower.