Care to help make Applejack's gun? · 4:56am Mar 12th, 2013
Here's the thing. I love putting an absurd amount of effort into the little details when I make a setting. That sort of detail was one of my favourite things about Fallouts 3 and New Vegas: you could find unique weapons that had their own little stories, and I'm looking at doing the same for Applejack. I've decided that she's going to dust off her father's old revolver, and I need to figure out what kind of revolver it is. My choices boil down to .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, and .45-70.
.357 Magnum is the standard Noire caliber. It's a manageable firearm prevalent in the time period. .44 Magnum actually came a little later, but this is Pony Noire, so I can fiddle with the chronology of revolver caliber development. It's got a lot of history behind it, and I could throw in Dirty Harry references, because Clint Eastwood is awesome. Lastly, the .45-70, the caliber I'm actually leaning towards. It's an older caliber lever-action rifle caliber that was also put in very scary revolvers. It would emphasize Applejack's western flair, it would be a reasonable caliber for her father to own, it would require the trademark Apple fortitude to wield, and it's absurdly powerful. I'm not exaggerating here. They've got some .45-70 revolvers that pump out 2700 Joules from a 14 inch barrel, and the caliber is 140 years old this year. The first production revolver caliber to exceed that consistently came out in 2005.
Also, it needs a name. What do you guys think? It's stock will be made of apple wood, if that changes anything.
.45-70 Oh Baby!
.44 The Lucky Punk
.357 Golden Delicious
'Kicks McGee'.
910989>>910958 Both excellent suggestions, thank you!
.45-70 ,Li'l Macintosh
.45-70, definitely. She needs to bring that southern flair to help her clean up the big city, show all those big city-types how the South deals with corruption and crime.
As for the name? I'll get back to you...
Oh, yes, go with the .45-70. The descriptive possibilities of just drawing this thing can lead to endless funMissing with this weapon is still fun, as things disintegrate around the target. "Beware, Y'all, mah gun is larger than mah brain!". The biggest draw back? If you don't exercise restraint you could get so into your descriptions that your prose turns purple.
If you are going with wood grips do you want a design burned onto the handle?
I'm not gun-savvy enough to have a properly informed opinion, but from a story-telling standpoint, the .45-70 sounds fun and very Apple-ish.
Just don't call it Little Mac.
911424 Fear not, sir, there's no risk of that. It wouldn't make sense from a storytelling perspective, given that her dad would have named it that before either of them were born.
911357 That's one of the things I love about the .45-70. It's such a BFG that I can still throw in Dirty Harry moments. "Y'all are sure you want to do this? I've got my Pappy's gun, and it's chambered for .45-70. Stick a rifle round in a revolver, and it does funny things. Even if I miss, one of you are probably going to the hospital." If the handle's engraved with anything, it will be one of her parents' cutie marks. The way I'm imagining earth ponies designing revolvers is a wooden cylinder in which they can stick their hoof with a metal plate on the bottom.The wood on the front extends up a bit past the knee, and this is where the revolver is mounted. A bite plate extends from the side of the revolver, and that's the trigger. That way, the pony can bring up one leg, eye the sights comfortably and bite the handle to fire. It'd be kind of hard to burn a design on a round surface, but there might be some engraving on the metal base plate.
Also, I loved you first Quizzical story and am looking forward to reading the next ones when I have time. So I might have fanboyed a little when I realized who you were.
911196 Very much agreed, that's exactly what I'm going for. I look forward to your suggestion!
45-70 seems like the way to go. Applejack is not a pony that messes around, so if she's using a gun she wants a caliber that will end whatever it hits. 44 would work for that, but it seems more like something a big city cop like Dirty Harry would use, whereas Applejack is anything but a big city pony. Only name I can really think of is maybe "Old Fashioned" or something that emphasizes that she does things the tried and true way, but I have not actually read the first chapter yet (I'm waiting for it to be complete, otherwise I'll forget important details in between chapters).
I might have to back "Kicks McGee" as a name, actually. That one's excellent.
911517 How about Cider Press, often referred to as The Old Cider Press? "I've got a 45 caliber cider press strapped to my hoof, and I know how to use it!"
He named his Daughter after whiskey. I think "Last Call" is an appropriate name, possibly with a backstory to boot.
911713 Oh my God I love it. It's definitely between Last Call and Cider Press, now.
911116 You can't just steal from Fallout Equestria. Okay, I suppose you can. I guess it could actually kind of make sense chronologically...
911849 I agree with you, sir. Referencing Fallout Equestria can actually be detrimental to your chances of getting a story of EQD. The first time I submitted this story, I was calling the Platinum Council the Enclave because I am a huge Fallout fan and I felt it was appropriate given the ethnic overtones of the group. The prereader felt it would cause confusion, though, so I changed it. I would also like to make my own stories behind the unique firearms I'll be placing in the story, and referencing Kkat's wonderful piece of fiction would limit my ability to do so.
912033 Well, damn. Meh. I thought the more references the better, but I'll go on the bandwagon and go with nemryn's suggestion.
912378 Believe me, were I not intending to submit this to EQD, I would be cramming it full of references. Remember the Mask reference in Wiggle? I love doing that. EQD can be pretty damn nitpicky, so I have to be careful which works I reference. As of now, I plan on working in several Clint Eastwood references as well as others that few, if any, people will get. Clean Cut is a bit of a shout-out to the writer of Lackadaisy and his character Mordechai Heller.
911500
Hey! Sorry it took so long, but here is my idea:
I love it when cowboys would name their guns something besides a name. Not Bessy, Nelly, or something. So, find a term that describes Applejack's goals, what she is trying to accomplish, what is driving her. Retribution, Peace, Harmony, Justice. Just be careful not to make it too cheesy.
Or, failing that, 911713 should be the winner. Last Call is pretty badass
912919 Ooh, I like this idea. It was Applejack's dad's, originally, so giving it a name like that could go a long way to fleshing out his character. I think I might call it Peacemaker, since I can reference firearm history and develop her dad's personality at the same time.
913137
I like it! Peace is won through the barrel of a gun. This is my official vote!
Setting AJ up with an elephant gun, eh? Me gusta. I was going to suggest something like Lawbringer or Unforgiven. But I dunno, Last Call is a pretty damn awesome name, and so is Peacemaker! I'd probably vote for Peacemaker though, with Unforgiven as my second choice.
913994 I will refrain from delivering a lecture on the history of firearm cartridges (believe me, it's taking me a considerable amount of will to do so), and will instead simply give you a link to a caliber that is qualifies as an elephant gun caliber, the .577 Nitro express. The .45-70 round is a powerful rifle round, but it doesn't quite qualify as an elephant gun caliber. At least not in its original incarnation as a black powder round. Modern handloads fired from rifles like the Ruger No. 1 can reliably take down some African Big Game, but you couldn't pay me to take on an elephant with it. [/end lecture
]
More on topic, thank you for bringing up Unforgiven. I may have to work in a reference, now that you've mentioned it.
913137 I am not opposed to this.
914083 Whoa dude, the elephant gun thing was just a bad RE4 reference. But anyways, I'm just glad to contribute. Hope to see the next chapter soon!
917072
Lol, sorry about that. I'm to gun history like Rarity is to haute couture, so I can go off on a tangent pretty quickly. Both my brothers and my roommates could probably tell you more than they would prefer to know about the development of revolver cartridges Between 1873 and today, and that's just a drop in the barrel.
Ooh ooh ooh! Or you could name the .45-70 Yer Majesty. Maybe Applejack's father was a top notch crime fighter, who was given the revolver by the Sun Goddess herself for preventing a life-threatening disaster! Or not, that's cool too...