The chronicles of Project Horizons : chapter 19

Chapter 19. I never thought I would be in a position where I would have to defend FO:E on principles because of how someone use it to further their scenario. It's poetic in a way but I'm not happy about it. When you write a fiction that works at the same time than the original, you need to respect what has been said factually : you can fill the gaps but I am really against a fiction just deciding to change facts for the sake of their narrative... and it doesn't even respect its own rules too. Yep, PH started to show some actual cracks, heavy ones at that.

Let's go.

So the first thing that made me raise my proverbial eyebrow was when BJ started to react strongly to Rampage having killed a foal, visibly not of her own volition. I find it quaint that BJ of all people doesn't understand that some things simply happens without the person in question being inherently evil. She did kill 40 "foals" after all and I don't see her putting a bullet in her own brain. A bit of leniency would be appreciated but then again, it seems that killing foals is a crime that trumps all of them. We'll talk about Rampage later and my god, I think this character is Somber's innermost desire for edginess comes to life but I'll elaborate on that when we get to it. In the same scene, BJ just... kisses Priest. I actually feel torn about this : on one hand, if it had happened earlier with P-21 or even Prince Splendid, it could have been a way to show how much she was raised to consider stallions to basically have no rights ; on the other hand, I don't like it because I have the impression is really try harding to make up for lost characterization and is a bit jarring.

Too late, Somber. You missed your window for the endoctrination, move on.

The next scene actually confused me a lot. If you're following my blogposts, you would know that I thought Maripony was Twilight and I still believe it is but the photos we see in this scene actually show a Marigold, looking exactly like Maripony, next to Twilight and AJ for a space program (more on that in a minute.) It is obvious that Marigold and Maripony, while looking the same are not the same person and the fiction really tries to say that Twilight and Marigold looks alike. However, I don't... understand how my theory would hold with the fact that Marigold was the first mare on the Moon and the victim of a scandal. First, it would make no sense for Big Mac to not know who Marigold is if it was during or after the Space Program but if it was before... does that mean Twilight impersonated Marigold while she was alive ? How would that work with Marigold becoming world famous since I assume that Twilight was using this disguise to avoid being recognised as the Ministry Mare of Arcane Sciences ?

My gut feeling tells me it's Twilight but perhaps I'm mistaken and it's... a sister to Marigold ? Even though, she exactly looks like her and the same comments about Big Mac not recognizing her would be strange ? Moving on, I have no answer for this but I have a few comments on the Space Program.

What the fuck is Project Horizons doing ? On one hand, it tries to make the war more believable by explaining how things exploded but... he continues to spend state money for something as stupid as a Space Program to raise morale ? More than nine years into the war, a total war at this point, the Ministries funded a Space Program ? What the fuck is going on ? Yes, the cold war did have a Space Race but you know what there wasn't during the Cold war ? An open and total war.

And with what kind of energy does this rocket works ? Because I am pretty sure it would solve the energy crisis during the war. Then again, perhaps there will be more informations later. I'll wait to see if that Space Program makes sense because for me, it's something that could not have happened with a war economy. Besides, is there more super-famous event that happens in PH that never were mentionned in FO:E ? Pip found newspaper clips that talks about the energy crisis but none about the first mare on the moon ? Convenient. You see that's why being so close to FO:E makes both stories look worse : one wants to do its own thing but at the same time actively strains the idea that it's in the same timeline.

As for the memory orb, Goldenblood is the one behind Pinkie Pie's going full secret police and some drug makes her Pinkie Sense see into the future. I personally don't like it. It's too brutal. Pinkie went from "Let's have fun, morale is up" to "The world is doomed ! I need to create a secret police like Goldenblood says even though I know for a fact that he is going to harm ponies and is visibly a shady character." Also, I am not a find of this characterization of Pinkie who makes her look like she's just an hyperactive idiot. I would have loved to see the war takes its toll on her gradually rather than make her change with the flip of a drug switch. Yes, we learn that Goldenblood is visibly someone who is pulling the strings behind the shadows in order to destroy the nobility that fell into decadence, or were decadent to begin with, but it's too quick to show him as a kind of master manipulator, next thing I'll know and he actually saw the future and just tries to recreate the steps that lead to it.

Now for the character of Lacunae (which means empty in latin, so deep), I really am confused by her. So Hoofington has the same effect than Canterlot for the alicorns and she's a nice alicorn that tries to actually talk with BJ instead of killing her when that was all the alicorns in FO:E did ? Hell, why did she think that BJ wasn't right for Unity ? Since when does an alicorn decides that on her own when all that the Goddess wanted was to fill the world with alicorns and actually cures the fact that they couldn't reproduce ? Is this just another : don't question it, PH is doing its thing ?

So we have a new secretive character that BJ will essentially trust to accompany them even though she did that with Lancer and we know what happened. BJ is just picking up all the leftovers of the Wasteland and is just waiting for something bad to happen with them and then she'll cry that she is not a smart pony. A line that should be buried in the ground because it really, really feels like a poor excuse for "Why does BJ do stupid things even when she knows they are stupid and has previous experience to back it up ?" It's to create drama and the end of this chapter will only confirms that. Surprisingly though, for a chapter that introduce a new character, this character is basically absent of it for half the chapter.

Now, before going to the next scene, I need to address something :

Should I be listening for a clue from DJ Pon3? Maybe I should try and find out how to repair my PipBuck? Virgo Zodiac said she studied them, but I had no idea how to find her or if it would be safe to contact her.

This quote encapsulate an issue I had with the Pipbuck being fried. Why is BJ so casual about it ? For all she knows, her main tool for wandering in the Wasteland has disappeared (which I would argue should make her very, very worried since she relied on it so much) and... EC-1101, the very reason for her "quest" is gone ! She barely cares at all about it when it's something so central to the story and her character as well. Why is it treated like she read the script and knew that by the end she would get a brand new one ? This should be the only thing in her mind right now but she barely considers it. I don't understand this part and the fact that she just so happen to have... Well, let's wait for now. The scene is stupid enough already.

So next scene, P-21 bought to one of the fillies of Chapel... A barding that is a combat police armor, the very same that Pip got back in Canterlot and which was essentially the most powerful gear she found back then. They just bought that. Chapter 19 of 78 and she bought an armor that was strong enough to block four shots of an Ultra-Sentinel machine magical gun. Well, nevermind, it's not like she needs armor to plough through hordes of enemies anyway.

The scene with Glory, however, is a bit more interesting since it is always nice to see a character try to evolve and wants to be useful, trying to compensate for their own weaknesses. However, it is important to improve while being aware of your strengths and the whole discussion is really nice between BJ and Glory. Then... Glory kissed BJ. I know it was supposed to be obvious since a friend of mine did point out to me that there was something in her attitude that was clearly telling but I guess I simply... didn't see them as being a romantic couple. BJ doesn't really reciprocate her feelings but I have to say that Glory falling in love with BJ seems more like desperation than true love and while I'm not sure about this evolution, I am open to see where this will lead since Glory, despite going full emo as Fallen Glory, is still the most interesting character of this fiction.

The memory orb that follows shows Project Chimera. I have to put a stop to the mind of Somber for a second because even as a shady project it makes absolutely nosense. It's a cartoon-level of villainy, from the doctor talking like some kind of mad scientist from the experience itself, nothing in this Project approved by Fluttershy makes sense. Project Chimera is a project that is meant to fuse a pony with a monster like a cocatrix to create a super monster soldier. The memory orb shows the creation of Gorgon (which implies that the monster BJ killed was 200+ years old) from the dying body of Stonewing, essentially fusing both their bodies and soul to create this super soldier.

Nothing in this plan makes sense. Sure, you created you super elite monster from a soldier you declared dead and are now going to use it in warfare ? Because that's sure to not raise any sort of question, right ? The fact that Fluttershy of all ponies accepted such a project, the naive Fluttershy that was so dumb she gave the nukes to the zebras was okay with a secret monster project that can't have any applicability ? I hope this Project was before she gave the nukes by the way because if not, it'll raise a whole lot more questions. Also, it seems that the Spike Ministry so to speak was behind all the conspiracies for now. Why do they do what they do ? I don't know but I sure hope it's for more substantial thing than "I'm evil, look I made a monster". Especially since it gets really hard to believe Spike saying "Ponies didn't know anything about war" if there are Projects like this one in the works.

Then we arrive at the Stable Tec HQ since it's pretty apparent that it's the same building that Pip was in Fillydelphia down to the presentation of Stables and Pipbucks. It is possible that it still is in Hoofington but I honestly doubt that Stable-Tec would have two HQ in the same country and it really seemed to be the office of the CMC that BJ steps into. Unless that PH wants to tell us, again, that actually everything happened in the Hoof and not Fillydelphia ? For now, let's explore both solutions : if it's Fillydelphia HQ, then it's impossible since the HQ is a warzone between the Steel Rangers and Red Eye slavers. If it's a new HQ in the Hoof then, it could make sense but then again it really makes FO:E's story more and more irrelevant.

In this HQ (wherever it is), BJ talks to a copy of Applebloom (Applebot) who is clearly her spirit inside a Crusader Maneframe as was described by FO:E. However, that is not possible since there are three Crusader Maneframes and Pip met all three and never did she meet Applebloom (one was in Stable 29, one in the SPP and one in the Garden of Equestria). So for this to make sense, what do we have ?

1) It's a new Crusader Maneframe. However, three were said to have been created so that would break that rule.
2) It's not a new Crusader Maneframe but just the spirit-data of Applebloom who moved from whichever Maneframe she was in to come into this robot. Strange that Pip never met her in that case and it seems quite strange that she chose the Hoof instead of Fillydelphia and that's with accepting that a spirit-data can move like that to begin with.
3) It's not even linked to a Crusader Maneframe and is just something very close to it but totally not the same thing... which would be quite odd to be honest since the similitude are so strong.

From there, it's clear that the only plausible choice is number 2 and it takes a lot of personal interpretation to make it work. In any case, we learn that this place actually... have a lot of Pipbuck to spare.

What ?

How has this place not been ransacked by now ? Pip and BJ destroyed the entire Wasteland with that tool ! And there are no security system nor guards since she was attacked by Aries Zodiac (which I won't even talk about in this blogpost since those Zodiac are all one-note opponents barely worthy of a mention). My god this place is dumb.

So BJ learns that fortunately, the lightning just fried the interface and not the data (it's a very selective lightning) and so she can transfer the data into another Pipbuck and there, there is a huge contradiction. Beyond just the extreme convenience that BJ meets one of the CMC in spirit-data form and that she can transfer data into a brand new Pipbuck, weren't we told that EC-1101 couldn't be copied once it was etched into a Pipbuck matrix ? So why does this rule not intervene here ? What was the point of this rule to begin with ? In any case, that's a glaring contradiction unless of course moving a whole magic matric is easy for plot-convenient Applebot.

We learn that the hell that Stable 99 was, was of the ponies own making. I suppose it's a change that occured after the male revolution ? In any case, it wasn't the CMC's design to have them treat males like pieces of furniture. A nice touch since this was never clear in the original, especially when some Stables had some things as strange as "Let's change the sex of the leaders and promote masculinity and see what happens."

More importantly we finally learn what's the point of EC-1101 and... it's a master key. Well, it's a spell that gives a master key to whomever is supposed to get the lead in case of the Princess dying and it was a coincidence that it stopped in Stable 99. However , this sentence here is quite strange to me :

“Correct, none of the Ministry Mares had offspring, and the likelihood of locating the descendants of the military or judicial branches is minuscule. The spell might recognize a ghoul, but I’m skeptical.

None of the Ministry Mares had offspring ? While my little theory on Twilight being Maripony is just a theory, AJ being pregnant was canon at the time of writing this story so I assume it's only because AB never knew that ? Even though she's able to check data in many a terminal. Hm, it's too obvious not to be on purpose. I'll see where this offspring thing is going to lead us. We also learn that Luna stopped all the different Projects like Chimera to bear fruits (which really makes me wonder how the fuck was Fluttershy still in command of her Ministry with Luna knowing about Chimera). It's an interesting plot point and I'm sure it'll be interesting to see what it leads to.

Now... Rampage. I will rename Rampage, Edge McEdgy from now on because her cutie mark is so over-the-top grimdark, it's actually funny. It's a bit sad because McEdgy has actually an interesting story with how she fell in love with Priest but her nature made her kill a foal without her being none the wiser. I won't talk in details of random slaver #345 funeral since she wasn't enough of a character for me to care about her death nor the tearful song that was played. What I will talk about however is that McEdgy did kill Thorn, the random slaver's daughter.

It was supposed to be a mercy kill but Somber being Somber, he couldn't just snap her neck. No. He needed to make her head pop like some kind of balloons for the gory aspect of death. On this note the chapter ends with BJ looking at the filly-killing zebra.

Closing thoughts : THE PLOT IS ADVANCING ! FUCKING FINALLY. Now, let us try to keep the momentum and go towards Sanguine, if you please ?