The chronicles of Project Horizons : chapter 40

And so I reach the halfway point in terms of chapters. This chapter is not a bad one, hell I would even go as far that it allows for a bit of a reconciliation between me and certain characters. I don't think they are god awful (except BJ and GB, they can burn) but I always was disappointed in P-21 never adressing the death of his lover more than in passing. Glory also disappointed me in just being BJ's supporter and not much else. This chapter makes them have some real personality and some character moments. A little bit of good to cleanse the palate so to speak.

Let's go !

Glory's breakdown related to being Rainbow Dash is actually far better than I gave it credit for. Yes, I still think that it was a little bit too "convenient" that the curse gave her wing back but at the very least we are given some real interesting thoughts on Glory rejecting what she looks like and what she fears to become. Hell even BJ cheering her up makes for something quite heartwarming even if, of course, it's a bit too easy for BJ to know to deal with every and all possible traumas but then again, I won't fault the writing for that. We even learn how Glory got her cutie mark, something I really think we should have known earlier but whose execution here is quite relevant. The scene was well done and it deserves to be pointed out as such.

However, I am far less of a fan of BJ lecturing Twilight for letting Discord be tortured and used by Goldenblood. BJ is really not the kind of person that should attack Twilight for being cruel. Yes, Discord didn't deserve to be used and tortured for 200 years but it wasn't Twilight's fault that he was put there and it wasn't her fault Luna and Celestia both decided to hide the fact that he had been hidden there. She knows this because I know it. The informations I have is the informations she has. It's uncalled for and BJ blind idealism might cause a lot of issues down the road. Then again, the... argument between the two was logical. I don't like the scene because it's BJ lecturing the wrong person but it's not a badly made scene.

Next scene, an alarm rings and we learn that Scotch is possibly going to die because the Stasis pod has been open and three syringes of Med-X have been lost ! Here we see a Glory I want to see more of, panicked but still acting like a doctor should and that made me smile a bit. Then BJ realizes that P-21 is behind the alarm and the theft of syringes and then an interesting scene starts.

Essentially, P-21 is a wreck that got addicted to Med-X way back in Stable 99 when the Overmare sodomized him brutally. His own powerlessness and insecurities made him use more and more Med-X to be in a state of lethargy when he couldn't kill himself. It's a powerful scene and while it doesn't really reveal anything new, it seems to be the set-up for a first step out of the pit of depression and I thought I should praise what is a genuinely nice moment which, for once, is not about BJ angsting. However, I'm still not... comfortable with how pushy BJ is with P-21 accepting to be Scotch's father. This kind of thing needs to be done with care. He is clearly mentally unstable and he... put the life of his daughter in danger, almost tried to kill her by tampering with her stasis pod. Clearly the guy can't be a father if he can't take care of himself.

Then we have BJ training to do other types of spell since now she could do magic. I am still unsure about what BJ is trying to do since I distinctly remember that, even if it didn't execute it well, FO:E stated that a unicorn only knew a few spells related to your destiny/cutie mark with telekinesis being the general purpose one. I was fine with the telekinetic bullet since she's clearly a killer but... light and more ? I sincerely hope it's not an excuse to make BJ become a fucking... archmage because she's Twilight Sparkle's descendant. Oh and we also learn that aiming with perfect precision is an earth pony perk like the unicorn's magic. Why not ? That's not a huge issue and it can be interesting to see what's done with it.

“Not always,” I said, feeling myself… wait, was I blushing?

“Thank goodness,” he replied as he closed his eyes. “You know… after Priest… when you were on your bed like that… I have to admit, a part of me was relieved.”

“Relieved I screwed up?” I asked with a frown.

“Relieved you could mess up. …Following you hasn’t been easy at all, but it’s been a heck of a show. You’re so… good. You are. You try so hard to be good that...”

I'm not a fan of this passage for two reasons. One, it's almost a word for word copy of the thing Steelhooves said to Pip after Arbu (chapter 35) and... it makes the same mistake of glorifying Blackjack as this kind of beautiful messiah. Even if I have to admit that the reply of BJ is interesting.

I rose to my hooves, and Boo raised her head in alarm. “Damn it… do you want to know why I keep going? It’s because, if I actually stop for two seconds to think about things, I want to blow my head off. I’m not a good pony. I’m a pony trying to make up for all the fucked-up things I’ve done! What I did in and to 99. What I did to those foals. What I did to you. The fact I’m probably going to need an oil change before I have my period. That I have a crazy ghost pony living in my PipBuck who comes and goes as he pleases. I only keep going because I’ll die if I don’t. Not because I’m good.” I sighed and looked away. “I’ll drag myself forward into a meat grinder because it’s less painful than thinking about what I’ve done. I can give second chances… because after my mistakes… I’d want a few hundred myself.”

Here, we clearly say that people are mistaking the self-righteousness and self-serving decisions of BJ for nobility and purity of heart. As such, BJ only really cares about herself and how her decisions affect her instead of others. It's an interesting outlook on the character and one could say it makes her more realistic but the reverse of the medal is that... I really don't want this hypocritical, egotistical mass murderer to pass judgements on people and situations if she knows that her interest is more about proving herself that she's somehow more than she is. I suppose the easy counter could be that the consequences trumps the intention but the fiction directly states that the intention trumps the consequence... So I'm not sure. Is BJ a better character for admitting that ? Yes. Is she a better hero ? Not at all. Will that self-realization makes her evolve in how she deals with situation, making this chapter an important one ? I want it to. Somber, prove me that you can at least make BJ a character I want to see succeed DESPITE her faults.

Then we have another nice scene with Glory discussing the state of Scotch Tape and BJ. It's a nice character moment that doesn't really explain where they found the metal to reinforce all her bones and spine but at least we have a nice character moment. I think I should just accept that BJ is a terminator and that she'll live with it with relative ease. Keep in mind that it has been only a couple of days, a week at most, since she got back on her feet in this new body.

I'm not interested in talking about the Dealer because his ideology is basically : "You should do nothing, have no conviction and let yourself be conquered because War isn't worth it." It's a childish ideology to think that letting things happen without acting is reasonable and conceivable. The Dealer who had some mystery to him is now acting like a petulant child. The only thing interesting is that apparently something is putting things in place for BJ so that she can find two new golden memory orbs (yes because only GoldenBlood has colored memory orbs, he is that much of an attention whore.) There's this statement that apparently, something made things move all at once and while I'm curious I'm also... quite scared of it for it can really become dumb.

As for the Memory orb, we learn a bit more about the Star Metal and... the Star Gods possibly being aliens which is an understandable framing for a scientist since they don't believe in Star Gods but I really don't want the "Star God" to be an alien. It's a personal thing but very few stories successfully mix SF and fantasy. In other notes, we learn that Horse is a... pervert that created a Sweetie Bot that I'm 99.9% sure is a sexbot since it calls him Master and Horse wants to fuck Sweetie Belle.

Also, it seems that Scootaloo hates GB with a passion. Nice going, Scootaloo. Except you should have dealt with him earlier. And our GB seems to need the Mane 6 for something. Mystery upon Mystery.

We finish the chapter with a nice scene where Scotch might be dead but actually will survive, P-21 makes his confession. It's a turning point for his character, please let that change their group dynamic ! Capitalize on your accomplishments. Hmm ? The stuff about removing Luna and the Mane 6 from power ? I'm sure GB wanted to destroy the monarchy if they were to win the war, nothing to add. Even if I'm still skeptical about how you intended to remove Luna from office exactly, that's not really how a monarchy works.

Closing thoughts : YES ! A good chapter with only minor issues ! Take all of my yes !