The chronicles of Project Horizons : chapter 9

This chapter went back to being extremely similar in Fallout:Equestria at least in parts and I really don't like it. From plans that makes no sense, to Blackjack defeating with dumb luck one of the most terrifying foe yet while trusting without a shred of logic obvious shady people. Why are his group listening to her for crying out loud ? They risk life and limbs for her and yet there's no one to tell her that...

Let's go.

The scene in the school is both something I like and something I don't like. What I like is the growing alchemy between Morning Glory and the rather cheeky side that BlackJack is showcasing that distract a bit from her usual pity party. It's nice to see people interact and show a bit of a reason to be together albeit superficial. What I don't like is this scene is, among other things, the apparition of Lancer, the zebra who is a member of the Remnants, a faction of zebras who are still fighting the war like some old japanese imperialist who didn't get the memo that World War II had ended. Why don't I like this scene ? Because, aside from BlackJack being her usual "I'm a badass", she is going to ask him for help... and trust him to cover her back during fights.

I can't even... The guy is actively hostile, he is a zebra (someone that Blackjack was raised to recognized as the enemy and the sole responsible of Equestria going to shit), and he is part of a faction that she doesn't even want to learn more about ? She literally get told by one of the Crusader that he is not someone to trust and what does BlackJack and seemingly everyone with a dysfunctional brain do ? Trust the invisible super sniper-assassin whose motivations, goals or even allegiance are unknown. For fuck sake, I can try to perhaps to understand why BlackJack the self-called idiot would perhaps trust him... if I really stretched it.

She literally is ignoring an advice from a Crusader and doesn't have a fallback plan if he was to betray them. Why is she the leader again ? Because god damn, she only has her skill with guns and blind idealism to try to makeup for her incredible stupidity. But this scene isn't finished because the plan of BJ to infiltrate the Pecos is incredibly dumb... like incredibly so. So you're going to send BJ, the Stable Mare, with a Pipbuck around her hoof hidden in a boot that must look like a bloated bladder, glowing amber eyes barely hidden behind conspicuous sunglasses (in the middle of the fucking night) and don't get me started on sending her when all know her vague description.

Why aren't anyone pointing out how stupid a plan it is ? Because yes, of course she'll fortunately save the life of a Pecos who will help her out of gratitude despite putting her own life in danger even after she learned who she is and she wants to do. On a side note, I find very strange that "Stable ponies" are so common that Dusty Trail could recognize one with something as vague "Stable Ponies always ask questions." In FO:E, there was only three Stable ponies in the Wasteland : Red Eye, Pip and Velvet (if we don't count the ghouls stuck in Canterlot) So it was far from being common so allow me to cock my eyebrow. Similarly a zebra faction in FO:E when we barely saw two in the original fiction ? PH is more and more doing its own thing it seems.

As for the rest, BJ killed two guards with her shotgun after sparing an asshole a scene before, well her good intentions lasted a whole chapter and a half. Huzzah ? It's such a "Blink and you'll miss it moment" too that if I wasn't paying attention, I would have not even cared. At least killing Gorgon was inevitable.

Ah, Gorgon the Reaper, the similarly impossible to defeat being. A creature that can turn ponies to stone and fly. A battle-hardened creature with an imprenetable hide and a strength to match. Surely such a foe would need careful preparations, coordination and bravado to vanquish it, right ? Like the mutated dragon last chapter. Well no. What we got was a travesty of a fight and a series of incomprehensible events. First, why would BJ assume that Gorgon who have glowing eyes just like hers can't see in the dark ? It's the exact opposite deduction one would make from seeing that. Of course, it works.

Then we have the "Turn the Pipbuck into stone and you lose the data " trick. I'm sorry but what ? Since when does petrification turns anything but the body of the pony into stone and even then, BlackJack knows that some things aren't into stone because she literally bumped into Lancer that was still hidden by his, still intact, cloak while he was a statue. If I, the reader, knows this, Gorgon knows it too. This plan shouldn't have fucking worked and even then what was to say in the unlikely possibility that it did turn it into stone along with hers. Couldn't he just have kept her as a statue and reversed the spell when he would see fit ? Perhaps after calling Sanguine in ?

Am I just supposed to say "Yeah, he was a bit dumb and surprised, this battle-hardened monster of a Reaper just was a touch stupid and didn't know a bluff when he saw one nor did he know his own fucking power it seemed. Also, that's really a side note in comparison to the rest but... BJ was able, with her puny magic, to maintain a powerful as hell Reaper ? Excuse me but BJ is either as strong as a foal magically or she isn't. You can't just say that she's a poor little thing and then allow her to use magic to counter such a strong being. I only ask for some consistency here. She's looking more and more like Pip with the ever powerful magic and the fact that she kills every foe she meets in her first encounter, Deus excepted.

Also, Gorgon died and all the statue came back to life ? Well, I do prefer FO:E's cockatrices then where the cockatrice responsible for the petrification needed to undo her own spell. Here, it feels very video-game like but then again, it was to be expected. The author wouldn't have killed P-21 and Lancer so early in the story.

Finally... Lancer's betrayal was fucking obvious. It's as surprising as seeing a kid touching fire and being burned. The fact that BJ still trusted him enough to fight alongside his pals and to protect her back is quite impressive in stupidity. The author is really pushing it in terms of believability.

Closing thoughts : Less of that please. Can we try getting to Sanguine soon ? The plot has yet to actually start going somewhere. It feels like FO:E and going from place to place without a connecting thread.