Sincerely, Rarity.” [i/]

the / should be before the i

6440471 thank you so much

A swell done chapter man, awesome job on this!

Sincerely, Rarity.” [i/]

After this, everything is in Italics, good lort almighty.

Man oh man, lots of reveal in this, and Blackjack, good god I love her so much xD
Rampage too, she's fuckin great!

Good job!

6440474
no problem

“Maaaaagic,” Rampage taunted as she trotted past us towards the store.

I can tell Rampage is the new funny mare.

I loaded Cupcake’s revolver and carefully moved into the Robronco retail store.

Least they picked this thing back up.

So Caprice sold Blackjack out then planned to keep her drugged up and locked in the stable so she couldn't "take over" Flank? Everyone seems to assume the worst of BJ and it ends up screwing up everything and leaving bitterness.

You know the worse part of the wasteland? More than anything else? The fact that it steals your hope. Blackjack can't even hope to be happy anymore...

vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/deusex/images/a/ad/Bgfbxfg.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20121213114703&path-prefix=en

Oh hey, didn't see you there ya mean bastard, we were looking for Caprice.

Man, I was actually kind of liking Caprice...

"It’ll take a lot more than this to make you quit, Tia.”

NOOOOO YOU CAN'T SAY THAT Not when I know what happened to make her quit

I wonder how Rampage got to be regenerative... she's got to be the most OP Reaper of them all if she can't die!

leaned further and further out as I waved my hoof at him. “How much is your head worth, huh?” And with that I was refamiliarized with the concept of balance as the legless bathtub overturned and sent me sloshing across the crumbling asphalt. The mares by the parking garage just stared in shock.
“I have a very very valuable head,” I muttered to the sky.

#justblackjackmoments

Rampage is like a psychopathic, equestrian Captain Jack Harkness (Doctor Who)

6574743 this I'd my first time reading this, so this is pure speculation, but I'm guessing it has something to do with the pink cloud, from canterlot, now that we know some kind of pink stuff emerges when she regenerates

For coal and pride and fear you sacrificed this?

How does Blackjack know this, anyways? I remember the cause of the war was a fairly big revelation in the original story, but Blackjack somehow knows it already.

Otherwise, a great chapter. Caprice's deception hits pretty hard.

6684176 Back in chapter 14, there was a line from Glory about Equestria's dependence on zebra coal; Glory almost certainly knew long before coming groundside, and could have said even more about it at some point offscreen. Also, it could just be something she managed to pick up in school despite sleeping through 2/3s of her lectures; there were indications they covered and she remembered at least some big-picture military and government history.

The big thing, though, is that there isn't much in-universe reason for it to be a major reveal, especially given the combination of Stable-Tec not being big fans of the M.o.I. and the customization between different stables, which, as vanilla FoE demonstrated, extended to school curricula. Out of universe, making it a big deal for everyone who finds out in every story would be kind of tedious, especially given the near 100% chance it's not a reveal for the reader.

Otherwise . . . yeah, could well have been a slip-up.

Okay, so this is supposedly where everything goes to shit. :V Let's see how bad an idea this is.

Good next chapter, anyway. I'm glad BJ finally got laid (heh, or did she?) and I'm sad she doesn't get a waifu to come home to. :V I guess I understand what I want for her now. So glad I was right about Caprice, though. :D

P-21 got a good moment. I'm less enthused by Glory's new emo name, but I'm sure she'll get over herself eventually. And Rampage finally gets some backstory. For all that it's your standard amnesia gambit, I'm pleased to see that she at least has emotions; that bit with the filly was good, too. I don't think she's a good character yet, but at least I don't mind having her around now. The Pinkie and Octavia arcs seem a little more promising than the Big Macintosh arc, too. Onward!

6741678 I wasn't expecting you back on this so soon. I guess that pretty much eliminates any chance that I'd catch up to you. Oh well.

On the going to shit, I'd say there are two major camps on that. The first is more about the story becoming an emotional black hole and gore-filled shock-fest. There the tipping point could hit in the next few chapters, but I'm guessing is based more on things starting towards the end of chapter 21 or the start of 22. The other goes to shit perspective, I think, has a readily identifiable immediate break at the 33/34 border, where the story changes considerably.

On a happier note, this is a nice rest-and-recuperation break after being on the run so long. And I like how it shows the cast interacting with a community on a semi-sustained basis, and in a more normal way than just coming in and blowing stuff up before leaving after the quest stuff that brought them there is over. A shame it didn't work out better for them, of course.

On Caprice, I thought she was fun, and on the surface a great personality for playing off of Blackjack, but what's always stuck with me was the last couple lines of dialog between her and Blackjack. I'm sure it's a commonly used exchange, but I thought the story built up to it well in terms of justifying the immediate motivation, why Caprice actually would like playing it out, and just how unnecessary it all was (for all that her getting the wrong impression was understandable).

Good luck!

6661009 Afraid you're way off there, as you'll eventually see.

But don't worry, there is a lot more to Rampages story than even she knows. And honestly I think it's one of the better character development arcs of the whole story.

I suppose there are some advantages to reading this before the original... sometimes not knowing has its perks.

That said, even easily guessing who Caprice was via comments and whatnot... she was affable. Almost enough to make Blackjack's immediate rejection of her after the reveal seem like sour grapes. But then again, she wouldn't be Blackjack if she didn't still have that "i am not smart" bit of naivete.

I'm going to call her hallusination Old Wasteland. I see Old Wasteland as a father figure to blackjack the father she never had. The wasteland has its own persona and so does her imagenary dad. I think they mixed together to create Old Wasteland

7653204 Lol.

well BlackJack, looks like ya finally got a chance to speak to Caprice in the flesh. i wonder if the character regrets finding out? i know i personally would at least a little for sure, but it was bound to happen eventually. also, Caprice was how he and the others had found out? wow. i must admit, if i was in her shoes i would have probably more or less done the same. it is all she had after all and she didnt want it taken from her.

When I’d visited the clinic, Scalpel had just given me a look that said ‘This isn’t chem withdrawal, this is taint eating your heart. STOP HELPING IT,’ and tossed me out on the street. She was very good at giving looks like that.

HAHAHA Throwing her out of the clinic

“There was one a few years back, a real high profile case. Deadshot Calamity.

Plz more FOE references.

I loved the twist in this chapter, I'd never thought that the bartender would be Caprice. But it makes so much sense for Caprice to be fearful for BJ. I thought that BJ actually had someone loving her. (Like a Homage) She also seems really nice, it's just sad to think how the wasteland just fucks over nice people. Like Frisk, that guy looked nice until he fucking raped the ex-slaver. And how fucked up Rampage actually is. This chapter is like a goddamn rollercoaster. Can't wait to read moreeeee!

17 chapters down 60 to go.

If all this is what can happen in the first fifth or the story, i face the rest with trepidation.

So the barpony was Caprice.
Totally called it.

“But I am NOT a fucking executioner,”

Mercy

AHHHHH DAMN!

Mr. Horse!? Is that file a platinum chip!?

All these assassination mysteries!

WHO IS RAMPAGE!? What did she find in that place where no living thing can go!?

I LOVE THIS STORY!!!

P-21’s bright blue glare cut back over his shoulder at Rampage, promising explosive retribution.

I do NOT blame him. Taking a wild guess at what was in her stomach, but I wouldn't have hesitated to empty by bag of explosives and pull ALL the pins.

“What?” I insisted.

Not a smart pony.

Luna laughed. “Not for all the sugar cubes in Equestria. Besides, I know you’re not serious. It’ll take a lot more than this to make you quit, Tia.”

Wow, just take my heart and stomp all over it why don't you?

Rampage lacked face, throat, and apparently lungs. None of that stopped her from launching herself through the air and slamming into the robot with such force that one of its front legs was torn from its socket. Her head turned and gripped the handle of one of the blades she carried, pulling out something resembling a cross between a chainsaw and a knife. Her bloody jaws clenched and the weapon began to whirr. Hooves locked on, the Reaper began to tear into the body with the sparking saw blade.

What the hell are you mare?

A pink mare with a curly mane was balancing on a ball on the edge of a cliff, a cupcake on one hoof and a present on the other. A white alicorn grasping a pair of scales with a sad expression. A pair of red eyes peeking out of a cage of nine swords. An empty bottle of Wild Pegasus with eight upside-down shot glasses on a bar with a mare silhouetted in a doorway. A purple mare hanging by her rear hoof from a rusted street light.

A moon overlooked by a sad young black alicorn. A handsome unicorn stallion smiling, his mane and horn bright yellow. The black towers of Hoofington wreathed in green light. Six swords piercing the clouds with upturned blades. A yellow pegasus with long, beautiful pink hair sitting before a pool and hugging a strange little blue and green ball in her hooves. I couldn’t tell if the card was upside down or not.

Blackjack got The Fool, Justice, Nine of Swords, Eight of Cups and The Hanged Man (or Mare in this case).
The Dealer's got The Moon, The Tower, Six of Swords and The Star. Not sure about the card with the blonde unicorn though.
Does anyone here know enough about tarot to properly interpret those card combantions?
That's got to be some sort of foreshadowing!

8322124
I'm curious about this as well. I'd need to look up tarot.

She gave a mirthless smile and shrug. “I want to fucking die, Blackjack. You’ve been out in the Wasteland for a couple of weeks. I’ve been staring it in the face for years, and it’s not getting better. The Hoof is a meat grinder. Ponies keep coming and they keep dying. It’s getting worse. The poison spreads a little more every day and one day, if I don’t die, I think I’m going to be the last living thing in the stinking corpse of Equestria.”

this reminds me of a weird scene in a "sandman" comic book where a superhero-type...i think her name was "metamorpha"...was talking to Death, yes the actual grim reaper (but she looked like a girl with white skin), saying that she wanted to die, but couldn't. "i even considered trying to blow myself up with a nuke, but what if it didn't work? then i'd be radioactive for years, and even more alone."

P-21 stiff as a baseball bat is amusing imagery

Security as melted beverage is also quite amusing imagery

Tent scene introducing Celestia and Luna 'in-person' along with the introduction of Goldenblood.
So coal was taken by force, really who is responsible for such a flawed infrastructure dependent on a foreign resource? And Goldenblood has family issues with abuse and more.

“Maaaaagic,” Rampage taunted as she trotted past us towards the store.

Like the magic.gif
i.imgur.com/YsbKHg1.gif

Good, Blackjack retrieved Cupcake's revolver sometime after the battle with Deus. It's a nice revolver after all.

“Robronco not liable for collateral damage, injury, or death thirty days after placement.

Robronco's not or Robronco is not (or maybe this is just a nitpick)

Okay. There was ‘not okay’, and then there was an entire world of fucked-upness that transcended all boundaries of normalcy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AJ6zR2909U

Ah, Mr. Horse's mechasprite demonstration was secretly sabotaged. Zebra reason?

Ponies is ponies, and the sooner you realize that, the easier it’ll be.”

Ponies are ponies (or is this intended informal speech?)

Every inch of the room had strange little trinkets and nick-knacks.

knick-knacks. (I've never seen it spelled otherwise)

Ponies is ponies, Scalpel had said.

After twice or more instances of the same informal speech, I'll just accept it.

The Sparkle-Cola was drugged for the second time with Barpony, wasn't it? Let's see that's.. two times for sex? Glory was annoyed with the fortifying work as is. I'd be pretty mad too if I was used by somebody playing as a different persona. Caprice really couldn't of made herself more obvious on re-read, she knew way too much knowledge of the place for a simple barpony just working at a bar. Also Rampage's interruption was hilarious, Glory was confounded with Blackjack's stupidity but I guess sometimes ya gotta learn the hard way about the truth. But sheesh, Fixer chem to wake up from the Moon dust's trick? Oookayy. Good thing Caprice's plan to keep on the downlow didn't work, she could of sold Blackjack out if BJ did nothing about it. But everyone assumes the worst out of fear.

Aptly named chapter for a multitude of reasons. As well as quite long for the second volume's first chapter, same as the first for a long length. Good stuff.

8395600

The Sparkle-Cola was drugged for the second time with Barpony, wasn't it? Let's see that's.. two times for sex? Glory was annoyed with the fortifying work as is. I'd be pretty mad too if I was used by somebody playing as a different persona. Caprice really couldn't of made herself more obvious on re-read, she knew way too much knowledge of the place for a simple barpony just working at a bar. Also Rampage's interruption was hilarious, Glory was confounded with Blackjack's stupidity but I guess sometimes ya gotta learn the hard way about the truth. But sheesh, Fixer chem to wake up from the Moon dust's trick? Oookayy. Good thing Caprice's plan to keep on the downlow didn't work, she could of sold Blackjack out if BJ did nothing about it. But everyone assumes the worst out of fear.

I don't think she was trying to hide it. After all, Rampage already knew who she was, and everyone else figured it out right away. I think she ended up using the fact she was lucky just how thickheaded Blackjack was to her advantage.

Oh my god, is that a Tolkien reference I see!?

“Oh rain may fall and the wind might blow, the earth could quake or clouds bury us in snow, but as bad as they are there’s one thing I know… with friends and whiskey is how I plan to goooooo!”

Here's the LOTR version

Hey Ho to the bottle I go
To heal my heart and drown my woe
Rain may fall and wind may blow but there'll still be
Many miles to go

Maybe I'm seeing things, but it looks close.

8322124
8324016

For Blackjack, we have:

The Fool: Beginnings, new undertakings, acting carelessly.

Justice: Fairness, justice, law

Nine of Swords: Sorrow arising from conflict

Eight of Cups: Disappointment, failure, retreat

Hanged Mare: Wisdom through experience, possibly unpleasant

For the Wasteland, we have:

The Moon: Illusions, deceptions, hidden enemies.

The Tower: Sudden change, possibly catastrophic or violent

Six of Swords: Transition and change, leaving behind baggage and the past

The Star: Completion, fulfillment, success

These seem to be fairly straightforward reflections of the characters and story so far. Blackjack is the Fool, rushing in heedless of danger seeking to bring Justice. Her actions cause conflict, giving rise to sorrow and pain and also creating powerful feelings of failure and unworthiness. These experiences, however, offer wisdom through their harsh tutelage.

The Wasteland, and Hoofington itself, are like the Moon on a cloudy night; dark, mysterious, and full of secrets. Enemies lurk concealed in the shadows and the lines between friend and enemy becomes blurry. The Towers of Hoofington, which once rose, have fallen again. However, there is now a period of change where it is conceivable that a better future could be possible.

“That featherbrained idiot almost singlehoofedly destroyed ten years of work getting the Volunteer Corps established!

Goddammit Glory you've really drunk the Kool Aid, huh?

8580547
EnClAvE BrAiN WaShInG spooooky

“Of course I’m not giving up. I have to find some way to stop Lighthooves and expose him and what he’s doing. Not because he wronged me, but because he wronged the Enclave! I can’t believe that he’s operating with the blessing of the pegasus council. And if I can prove my loyalty and clear my name, then maybe I can be Morning Glory again.” She sat up and sighed. “Till then, I’ll have to be somepony else,” she said as she stood, looking out at the drizzling rain.

i would love to read her meeting Calamity. learning that lighthooves is not only working with the consent of the enclave but that what he is doing is their general policy.

“You think all ponies are good people, and you want to help them.”
OHMANOHMANOHMANOHMAN

Now we get the proper introduction for rampage: bloody mess maker. We even get that high dose of guts and blood and it gets me to crave pony meat a little

Maybe these lucky moments either reminded that blacjack was not 100 slutty at the beggining or that advice made a hundread
Years BC about the woman that decorates the butt is after your food deposit.
Regarding using coal as the dependant resource maybe is something that kkat should have thought better to make a more fitting equivalent, looking... At it
.. Now.... It feels silly...... ***Shots fired***

6574743
While total regeneration happens the caster still feels pain and psicological trauma.

What would happen if rampage dived in a pool of acid? Or in a volcano?
Would she "wake up" millions of years after the rocks cooled down?

6574743
It makes me think about the possibility of celestia killing ainnocent pony or zebra with her own hooves, like blacjack, she would have a mental breakdown.

Blackjack also haves the same feeling i have when i look at celestia, i could almost feel the motherly aura

7653204
The hallucination is some sort of twisted spirit that was the result of bombs, magical artifacts and souls mashed up. And that it manifests on some ponies that try to change things. That is my headcanon

8518689
Aftet all these years, i will finally know what they mean...

What kind of drink is "the price"? Did someone attempt to recreate it? Or it does exists in real life?

I bet that there will be an enemy that will exploit blackjack's mercy and everything will fall apart. But it will not make she lose the mercy.
Because stupid

I can't help but feel a lot of this could have been avoided if the whole world wasn't playing keep-away with Caprice's identity for some reason. Like... how did anyone feel that would be a good idea?

Glory and P-21 clearly knew and they should have realized Blackjack was going to feel betrayed when the pony she'd been with turned out to not be who BJ thought Barpony was. On top of that they know she's been looking for Caprice to turn in quests for days.

“The zebras have a word for this. It’s not a fight. It’s not a battle. It’s war. They use it when their entire country faces terrible threats. Flights of dragons. Swarms of manticores. They’ve done wars before, where every zebra is drawn into the fight. And they are terrible things.”

“War. Hardly sounds serious. Let the Caesar bring his war.”

"War?” Celestia rubbed her eyes. “I’d forgotten that word; it’s been so long.”

“That young stallion was mistaken. It’s not a zebra word. We invented it. When you fought me,” Luna replied softly. “Wyrre… wasn’t that how it was said back then?”

Heh, Ponies not knowing what war is, even though Twilight uses the word casually in a season 2 episode.

Twilight Sparkle: What happened to you? The future must be awful.
Future Twilight Sparkle: Please! I don't have much time!
Twilight Sparkle: Is there some sort of epic pony war in the distant future or something?
Future Twilight Sparkle: Actually, I'm from next Tuesday morning, but that's not important right now!

Heh, 'Epic Pony War.' Great foreshadowing!

“So. You figure out who Caprice is yet?” the Reaper asked.

Also, lavender unicorn syndrome

9538302
To be fair, I wrote this before that episode aired.

9538302 9538413
Yeah, at the time, the peak warlike conflict in the show involved... throwing pies at buffalo. However that was supposed to work.

9182886
Wake up juice lite

I had so many reasons to be happy for his death, so why wasn’t I? I doubted that any bounty hunters would be after me now that he’d been finished off. Heck, technically this made me a Reaper. Nopony would mess with me now, right?

Deus was working for Sanguine. Sanguine and whoever is behind him, still want the EC-1101. In all likelihood they will put an even higher bounty on Blackjack’s head. Even in the unlikely case of them not announcing a new bounty, there’s still Usury who wants the Pony that goes around killing her slavers death. Not to mention others like Sidewinder or the Enclave who have a personal grudge against her

Sorry Blackjack there are still a lot of ponies that want to mess with you.

“Oh, well, us hallucinations need to do something to keep things interesting. Otherwise, some ponies just don’t think,” he said as he dealt five cards to me and five to himself.

Dealer should listen to his own speeches. Just appearing once in a while for a cryptic speech is the opposite of keeping things interesting.

“I’m sure that this is all fascinating and chock-full of meaning and mystery, but you should know that I’m not a smart pony. I don’t get stuff like this.”

Blackjack is basically me in this scene.

“The Enclave didn’t betray me; Lighthooves did. And every single time some pegasus goes Dashite they completely destroy everything Rainbow Dash wanted to do. Like they decided to drop her loyalty and courage and become the greatest egotists of the pegasi.

An interesting perspective and I can see where Glory is coming from. She believes the Enclave can change and that their leadership is willing to listen to reason. Therefore the best approach is to change the system from within. The Enclave with all their resources can do more good for the surface, than every single Dashite. Operation Cauterize is going to be a horrible wake-up call for her.

What she also doesn’t realizes is that not every Pegasi has the same protection she has. As the daughter of a hero with a lot of political power, she can get away with more stuff than many other Pegasi. Even Calamity wasn't supported by his father like Glory was. So every Dashite willing to leave his home and family behind, becoming an outcast, just to help the surface is actually a lot braver that Glory gives him or her credit for.

When Stable 89 opened its doors, they found me in the tub. Despite being battered and banged and bloody, the cast iron tub in the middle of the street proved surprisingly comfortable as I lay back and occasionally refilled it with water from a nearby down spout.

Blackjack really knows how to leave a strong impression.

Maybe see if Scalpel can remove that… whatever it is on your butt so we can see your real cutie mark under it,

So the stallions do have real Cutie Marks. They’re just hidden underneath that Stable 99 male symbol. Interesting.

Fact is, I like being P-21. I like that I’m the stallion they were supposed to kill but couldn’t. I can’t forget 99. It’s a part of me. So I might as well take some strength from it.

Turning a name that was supposed to make you a lesser being into something to be proud off? I can get behind that. It’s basically one big “Fuck You!” to Stable 99.

“Drill a hole in the bottom and attach a wire to the detonator. Unicorn sees the mine, disarms its detonation tab, picks it up, wire rearms the mine and boom.” Okay. I’d be letting P-21 handle any mines

Good to see that at least some ponies spent some thoughts about how to ruin the day for Unicorns with ridiculously overpowered levitation magic.

“Honestly, where is she? I can’t believe she’s still hiding! Or did she run?” The peach mare just blinked at me as if she thought I was joking or something.

Silly, silly Security… Still hasn’t figured out the most obvious thing.

Vast quantities of semi-digested meat splashed over P-21’s back and he froze in place, twitching.

“Suddenly regretting, not having killed you!”

The young stallion cried and protected his head. “Please, Father! I only wanted to help her!”
“Don’t you dare call me that, you hear me? You have no father,” Blueblood growled.

People like to reform Cozy, Chrysalis and even Sombra in their fanfics. Yet Blueblood, a guy whose only "crime" was being snobby, is often turned in some kind of monster. Is there some explanation behind this, I don't get?

They’re prostitutes that rotate their security duties, mares who are trying to kick Dash and Dust addiction, and fillies desperate not to fall into either trap. And stallions who sign up just try to use it to get free drugs and sex.
And it’s worked for years; the Pecos were our unofficial security contractors, paid in booze, Dash, and sex. Sidewinder could have taken us over if he’d had a little more sense and a little less whiskey

That sounds like a receipt for disaster. When Caprice was first mentioned by Bottlecap, it sounded like she was a rather successful and ruthless business pony. Turns out she’s a pretty bad leader who’s just winging it. Probably would be a lot happier running a bar instead of a whole city.

When we finally took a break, I felt good. No. Screw that. I felt great! Truly and honestly great. For once, I didn’t have any regrets about leaving my nice, safe, ugly life in Stable 99.

Unless I missed something, this is the first time Blackjack had sex with somepony else during this story. Speak's BJ is notoriously horny and tries to get under the tail of a lot of ponies. Even after she sobered up, she actively seeks out sex constantly. Supposedly there’s also a ridicules amount of sex in the later chapters. It almost like she was a different pony back then.

Well one way to explain this could be that all the traumatic events that are going to happen to her in this story turned her into a sex addicted. Others drink to forget their sorrows, Blackjack started fucking. Could actually explain a lot about her behavior even if it wasn't Somber's intention.

“And she can keep the price low too,” Glory responded. “I don’t buy the argument that all those scavengers in the ruins got their drugs from these outside suppliers. I don’t believe she’d undercut her profits through ethics. They’re lingering here, Blackjack. And I know Scalpel’s trying to treat more addicts, but I think she’d be happy with even one additional patient.”

Glory has a point! In all likelihood barpony just manipulated Blackjack into taking out Caprice’s competition for her. Blackjack, despite her bad experiences with Lancer and the Enclave, is still far too trustworthy. Just because a barpony claims that Caprice actually is an ethical drug dealer, you’re gonna believe her?

He would still have to wear that damned leg brace. I silently wished the Wasteland could be a little more fair for once. Bust my leg and let him walk. But the Wasteland didn’t work like that. He got to limp and I got to guilt.

Again Blackjack blaming herself for everything! If it hadn’t been for Blackjack he wouldn’t be limping, he would be death. Courtesy of Daisy and Marmalade.

“Nope. But it can’t kill me,” she said as she then trotted ahead of us out into the open. “Enough sneaking around!” she yelled brightly, “This is getting boring!”

encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcT8VsDekA2VTh6C0mntCH9Dd9peWDs_vVSrDg&usqp=CAU

I drifted a little bit and found Scalpel when she was still a wandering medic with old Bonesaw. Tried to figure me out.

Ooohhh so that’s why she called her Mom in the previous chapter. I guess Bonesaw is dad, then?

Crossed paths with a Reaper named Rampage. She swore she could kill me twenty different ways. I was only looking for one. Turns out she was a lot squishier than me.

So Reapers are basically wandering around the Hoof, picking fights with others? What's the appeal of joining them again?

I want to fucking die, Blackjack. You’ve been out in the Wasteland for a couple of weeks. I’ve been staring it in the face for years, and it’s not getting better. The Hoof is a meat grinder. Ponies keep coming and they keep dying. It’s getting worse. The poison spreads a little more every day and one day, if I don’t die, I think I’m going to be the last living thing in the stinking corpse of Equestria.

And in a dark twist Blackjack [[spoiler: would herself eventually become an immortal, badass fighter that can survive getting half her face blown off. And just like Rampage she would hate everything about it.[]

Like that she was on top of me. “Not! Talking! About! It!” And looking into her eyes I knew she’d kill me right now rather than say another word.

Well when even immortal muderpony doesn’t want to talk about the place, you know it’s bad news.

They chewed up the bits of metal and spat out wads of shiny liquid metal on the table, forming the globs into solid steel. They smoothed the metal with licks of their tongues and in a minute an automatic pistol lay on the table. “Voila! From scrap to weapon in ten seconds flat.”

Calling it now: At some point in the story Blackjack and Co will run into them. Except that somepony has programmed them to ingest meat and bones. Because that’s exactly the kind of “fucked-up stuff from your worst nightmares” I’m expecting from Project Horizons.

“It’s just the scientist in me. I mean, if they’re immortal and healed by radiation, why the drive to eat at all? Is it a reflex? Instinctive? Is there an actual need to eat or do ponies simply taste good?”

Don’t try to figure that one out. It changes with every game. Personally I prefer Ghouls who still need to eat.

The holes were evenly spaced; an automatic sweeping from left to right. This was a murder. Another two-hundred-year-old murder. My mane crawled on my neck as I remembered the ponies in the museum.

A lot of ponies got get killed shortly before the bombs fell. Also I can’t really imagine the Cakes as some kind of spies working for Pinkie. I know, I know, it’s always the ones you except the least but it seems very out of character. Even in Fallout: Equestria.

At the lavender unicorn mare with a broken horn.

Nameless slave gang leader was honestly the last person I expected to show up again.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. Then I looked at the maimed mare. She stared at me in shock. “I couldn’t… I wanted to, but I couldn’t. I’m sorry.”

People have criticized Blackjack for letting others get away with terrible crimes unpunished because she couldn’t kill an unarmed pony.

While I share this sentiment, I can understand Blackjack to a degree. She herself has been a rapist, too. Not out of malice but because apathy towards the males of Stable 99. She gave P-21 a gun, fully expecting him to kill her, yet he spared her life. If she got a second chance, how could she deny it somepony else? Especially if that pony has hurt far less ponies than she did?

She tapped my head. “Because you want to save ‘em. You want them to be good ponies again. But ponies ain’t good or bad. Ponies is ponies, and the sooner you realize that, the easier it’ll be.”

Blackjack spared a slaver. An evil Pony who ruined the lives of countless others. Then one of the victims wanted revenge and raped her in front of her daughter. The perpetrator became a victim and the victim a perpetrator. Scalpel summed it up perfectly: Ponies is ponies.

Still, I didn’t think Blackjack sparing everypony she comes across is the right thing. It’s what I call the Batman dilemma. Batman refuses to kill, which is a noble thing and objectionably good. Yet he spares the Joker again and again despite him always breaking out of prison causing more death and mayhem. So no matter how you see it, by killing the Joker Batman would ultimately do more good and save countless lives even if it goes against his principles.

In Project Horizons, Blackjack could theoretically come across a gang leader who burned down farms, raped ponies in front of their children and then forced them to work as sex slaves in brothels. Said pony surrenders and begs for mercy. Blackjack lets him go and even thought said pony never harms another pony, he doesn’t feel remorse or tires to make amends. Instead finding a new less dangerous job and lives the rest of his live in peace, never having to answer for his crimes. That’s not justice to me.

Having a moral code is a noble thing that can make the difference between being a good or a bad pony. But a good pony also knows that at some point you may need to break your code to be a good pony.

The door hissed open right then and in walked Caprice. Suddenly I could see around her edges. The apprehension underlying her smooth demeanor. The wariness in her eyes. The fear. She was afraid of me.

Took her long enough to figure it out. I think to most readers it was obvious who barpony really was right from the beginning. Then again, I believe this wasn’t supposed to be a shocking surprise for the readers. Instead we were supposed to realize this long before Blackjack to show us that Blackjack is well-meaning but also a little bit dense sometimes.

“I’m sorry…” she muttered softly. “I just… liked not being me.”
“Yeah,” I muttered back, chewing down another bitter tablet. “I liked you not being you too.”

Caprice is a really interesting character. I can’t help but think that she’s genuinely sorry and secretly would be more happy not being in charge of the town.

Blackjack’s On-screen Body Count: 116

First chapter in which Blackjack killed absolutely no-one. In every other chapter she killed at least some animals or ferals ghouls. She did destroy a few robots but they weren’t sentient and thus don’t count.

Outside, I found Glory working her magic with the machinery, getting the frames together. Given all that she’d been through, she seemed to be throwing herself into her work. When she spotted me she pressed her lips together and scowled. “Oh look, she emerges.”

Welp she's going goth alot sooner

I wandered around, looking for the ponies the letters were addressed to. One to the butcher in the Trough. Another to the robot-masked ponies in Mixers, who apparently never left their armored booth and required me to feed them through a slot. I wondered how they got food in there, or went to the bathroom… okay, not wondering anymore! Two were to Scalpel from former patients. One to Caprice; I’d deliver it when I finally met her.

Oh!!!! They're daft punk!!

Awww.... 😢😢. Why can't she just get a break and relax? I was really hoping for flank to be a steady place that they visit