O my god i just had an orgasm 0.o

I LOVE THIS STORY, AND SHE DUS TO IT SEMIS
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Why did you post so many chapters Somber? Four I could handle, five... sure... but NINE!?
Jesus christ, you're killing me man!

But its cool, I didn't need emotions today

So damn good chapter well done, well done, whew... interesting thing about Dashie~ *plots*
Good show!

Footnote: Maximum Level Reached.

Oh shit... The last time this happened didn't she die ??

7178252 Pretty soon after, yeah. I have been kind of wondering what happened in chapter 50 that she jumped from 15 to the level cap. My best guess is that it was either the Goddess connection becoming strong enough for the Goddess to partially control Blackjack's actions, or doing the memory dive thing with Rampage. If it'd happened a chapter earlier, in 49, I'd pretty strongly suspect it was the soul removal, talking with Snips, seeing the maelstrom, and all that and then coming back. As it is, there's nothing that stands out quite that much.

But when I opened to door,

the door

“The Grand Pegasus Enclave said that they had substantive evidence of crimes against the Enclave committed by Thunderhead. Intelligence has been in complete chaos. Half their units abroad have either been arrested or have turned completely. Neighvarro’s got their own intelligence officers who’ve been wreaking havoc against us.”

Formatting (the spaces between) seems not consistent around here as the rest, but very minor

I looked at the rows of terminals and reached out a hoof, scowling at it passed right through

as it ?

left the meaning room.

meeting room

and sealed with Wonderglue

wonderglue ?

A good day huh? If not only in a blue moon, every so often. Let's see.. summary time. Spoiler alert, ahead be spoilers of this chapter. Glory's lying ability failed, her cooking proves to be a multi-purpose utility, let alone a hilarious cyberpony cake as a weapon. P-21 is happy again, Rampage and P-21 are both protecting Blackjack from what she 'should not' know. Blackjack's real name, her apparent ancestry and teasing as to why the door in Tenpony did not open. The Psalm memory was most interesting and sad, and somewhat heart warming. The Society conscription was thwarted with a clever plan, Pain Train sounds a lot in appearance as a minotaur we fondly recall. Six ponies were liberated and ran off, Lacunae can easily blackmail Blackjack for her brush with this Trouble. Onto the Skyport, persuasion check was successful. Lacunae was possessed by the Goddess it seems with the terminals, Blackjack lost her fucking weapons. A Raptor is introduced, just wait until you see the cloud fortresses. Blackjack beforehand uses her damn broadcaster to announce to the entire Wasteland on whatever channel she is a bad pony, and somehow stirring up more Trouble to lure to the Skyport. Lighthooves in the terminal briefing was not identified, perhaps a rogue operative and Thunderhead officers arrested and even more tension growing between Neighvarro and Thunderhead Enclave. Of course the highest ranking? member's name in their military is Harbringer. Much later Scotch Tape got her cutie mark! Celebrations! "You know what this calls for? A party!" It occurred to me that Blackjack may very well be related to Pinkie Pie with the danger sense she has, and perhaps more than one with her little ponies in her head. Dang it, I was hoping for Glory and Dawn to have some dialogue one-to-one in this chapter. At least they have a reunion. It's honestly hard to think about someone from what feels like a past live to just show up out of the blue and act like nothing happened long ago. I would have a similar reaction.. Pays off to examine old books to learn and find hidden notes huh? More and more intrigue and questions than answers.

Oh, that is a kind gesture to thank the reader for venturing through this far. Thank you back for the creation of this story Somber, Hinds and company. I will be interested to learn how this huge story was conceived in the first place after I am done reading it once.

7180670
>>Wonderglue
It should be capitalized, as it's a brand name; think Krazy Glue or Gorilla Glue.

well. Blackjack had a good day. blackjack has the weirdest luck, as she is depected to have a lot of it... but, well. you've red the story.

merphys law GO FISH!!!! some pony needs to lern her that to not JIXIT!!! and lowle chapter just 1234..... rughtly 19 left? uggghhhh

takes out sniper shotting some raiders on the rode welp might as well get some loot.....

Psalm reminds me a lot of Christian from Pilgrim's Progress.

im glad that Blackjack/Go Fish finally had a good day for once. congrats to her. congrats to Scotch for getting her cutie mark too. great chapter Somber. great chapter.

7424345 Oh god

Wow, it was actually a good day. I'm honestly shocked; I saw the chapter title and braced myself. :O

The pancakes are a decent running gag. Pain Train is better. :V

>tfw everyone cheers for Scotch pooping

On that note, what's her cutie mark? I get the gist from the description, I'm pretty sure I recognize it, but I can't quite put a name to it.

8004246
What, no trust Somber can live up to the goal set in his avatar for even a chapter? ;_; Well, given the track record, that's probably fair. XD

Incidentally, I have it on good authority this chapter took place on January 20th.

The pancakes and cooking thing are just one of the cutest things about Glory. She tries so hard! FiM minotaurs are gold, possibly the most cartoonishly styled creatures in the show, but in an imposing and threatening way that makes them a natural fit for FoE. And of course Iron Will makes a great template for anything. :V

Nobody's ever cheered for you pooping!? I thought that happened all the time! :p

It's a square and compass. They're drafting tools used by architects and engineers (at least before CAD became dominant), and a symbol of the Freemasons.

Hagrid voice: "Yer a Freemason, Scotchy."

8006414
Hah, okay. I heard the description and thought "masons", I just wasn't sure if I was full of shit.

Wasteland Illuminati confirmed

8010915
Nah, that would be Scotch a few minutes before getting her mark. :V

“And that mutated river serpent with two heads?” Lacunae asked softly.

Was that Steven Magnet?

I mostly agree with BJ. That day was weird. Dawn is weirder still.
But I am more curious about the Goddess...

And the S.P.P.

Has anyone else thought that the Goddess is using a variation of the cloning technique developed by Project Chimera to create the Alicorns using the heavily refined and specialized I.M.P instead of raw Flux. It makes sense to me, the Alicorns affected by the pink cloud in Canterlot started to remember who they originally were, could it be physical memory, or something remembered by the soul? In that case Echo is wrong, the Goddess doesn't control the souls within unity, she's just found a way to make the soul the soul inhabiting the vessel step aside and control them directly, just like the souls within Rampages Pheonix talisman.

This is just a personal head-canon I came up with based on information from Fallout Equestria, Project Horizons, and what little I've read of Starlight.

Blackjack had a good day? What?! And why do I feel like Dawn is the leader of the Harbingers?

I just groaned, and the last thing I heard downstairs was Glory’s mom saying politely, “What a curious young mare! I think she may look just like Rainbow Dash!” Glory laid me down on my bed, closing the door as we passed, and I felt more blood coming out my nose. I tried to send Lacunae a warning about Dawn and our story about Glory being in Riverside, but for all I knew I told her to kumquat the picklebarrel.

oh, i just HAVE to post this:

Wait, you live in Fallon? As in near Reno and Sparks? I think we actually live seriously close together.

8448532
Carson city, now.

8448532
Wow, I've got family in that area!

9334337
Fanckakes

9551889
Paincakes

“… don’t want to go…” I murmured softly. I prepared for the onslaught of questions about what was wrong with me, how I could want to stay in this horrible place. “I know it’s stupid and this place is dirty and closing but it’s the only place I belong. The only place I deserve to be!”

Well now we know where blackjack got that extra dose of self loathing from.

“I can’t believe it!” I stormed as we trotted towards Chapel. Vigilance! Sacrifice and Duty! The magic sword of scary sharpness… all gone! I was disarmed; I was pissed!

Those bastards must pay for stealing the good stuff!!!!

Luna. She’d said she’d help. She’d said to be patient. I imagined I could hear her voice calling me… But I couldn’t be patient any more. I was out of time! I crouched there, eyes clenched shut. “Please…” I whispered. “Please, Princess Luna… Please…” I trembled as I curled up, as if trying to disappear so that when the headmaster returned, I’d be gone. Those three words kept me anchored there; the moment I couldn’t say them anymore was the moment I was finished. They were the single light in the blackness that threatened to consume me. If it took me, I didn’t know what I’d do.

Just like Blackjack huh. What's with the weird correlation between them both thinking they aren't worth the trouble.
Also Luna helping orphans reminds me of that one song/animation with Luna singing and helping a bunch of orphan foals. Wonder if that's a reference to that?

I looked at my Teacher, giving him a smile I’d only shared with one other as he looked back and said, “Certainly. You can be my assistant…”

Oh my God. That's why Blackjack had that memory of Littlehorn! It's all coming together now

What a sweet ending. Hope she gets her pistols back though.
Could Dawn be the prophet? I mean they said it was a pegasus and P 21 said he didn't trust her so maybe some foreshadowing?

She slammed her hoof down on the handle of the skillet, flipping something black into the air. Then she grabbed a plate between her hooves...

It's gonna break. It's gonna break. It's gonna break.

The plate shattered,

YES!

She looked at the doorway. “Come on in. You’re such a horrible lurker.” There was a shift at the door, and then a handsome young stallion slowly walked into the room. His yellow eyes met mine with a wary look, the eyes of a pony who’d been hurt.

“Who… who are you?” I asked warily.

“My name is Goldenblood,” he replied as he sat next to my bed.

Well, I guess it’s time for some of the villains to step up their game and work a little harder at making us hate them. Last chapter, The Goddess went from a mostly comedic nuisance to an outright loathsome monster shockingly swiftly. Not to be outdone (really, would he ever let himself be outdone?), Goldenblood is now stepping up and saying, “me too!”

Goldenblood has really been a difficult character for me to wrap my head around. Despite all the monstrous projects that he was directly or indirectly responsible for, I couldn’t quite bring myself to just outright hate him. There was always that little niggling feeling in the back of my head that, “oh, he’s a tragic figure.” He was trapped in the middle of an impossible situation. He didn’t want the role he found himself thrust into. He was doing what he did because he genuinely believed it was the “lesser evil.” That any alternative would be worse for Equestria, for the world. One could say that he was uncomfortably similar to the Ministry Mares themselves. And honestly, it was funny how insanely competent he was at pulling the strings behind literally every Lunadammed thing in wartime Equestria. It got to a point where I would just laugh and go, “oh Goldie, you’re at it again you clever little scamp,” whenever he was revealed to be behind yet another covert scheme. But now…

It was shown in previous flashbacks that Goldenblood and Psalm had a close relationship, but the exact nature of that relationship was only now revealed. It was at this point in this scene that an icy chill hit my chest, and my RAGE grew as the implications dawned on me. GOLDENBLOOOOD!!!!! SHE WAS YOUR DAUGHTER YOU MISERABLE FUCK! I don’t give a damn how you downplay it. You accepted her; you took her in. She was your daughter, and the O.I.A. was your agency! How could you let her join the O.I.A. knowing better than anypony what that meant? HOW COULD YOU LET HER BECOME AN ASSASSIN FOR THE O.I.A.!!! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!? AUUUGHHHHH FUCK THIS GUY!!!!!

The Goddess persisted, her words oozing into my awareness. I couldn’t plug up my ears to stop her, and mentally chanting ‘LALALA’ was far less effective against her than it had been against me. “She did something to you. Something that’s hurt you more than you could ever realize. Something that’s almost killed you more than once. All for her own selfish gain,” the Goddess purred softly in my ear. “If you really want to know, go into her mind. Find what she’s hiding. Or don’t. Either way, it should be fun.”

Hmmm, Lacunae is the one who put Psalm’s memories in Blackjack?

“Well Glory, I don’t know how to say this. You tried for perfection…” I said gravely, then grinned. “And you nailed it!”

“So... all I need to do is heal enough and tell Lacunae that it wasn’t any trouble,” I said as I trotted out the front door.

And bumped right into the chest of my purple friend. She slowly narrowed her eyes before taking in the hole in the roof, the missing floors, the flooded basement, and Pain Train half buried in rubble. I gave a sheepish little grin and spread my dinged forehooves wide as her gaze returned to me. “Trouble? What trouble? No trouble here!” My grin strained all levels of credulity before I gasped, “Please don’t tell Glory!”

Lacunae looked down at me, then slowly smiled.

This entire scene was just perfection from start to finish. PH at its best.

All three power-armored soldiers pointed their weapons at me again. I passed Lacunae a warning to be ready to shield me as I grinned at them. “Nice armor. Nice guns, too,” I said calmly as I looked at their wingcovers. A telekinetic yank upwards as I passed forward, three shots from Vigilance right into the wingpit, sword out and slicing through the same weak point in the armor of the pegasus on the other side. Pivot around. Jump and grab the third with my fingers and ground him, then maybe finish them off.

Of course... if I’d actually done that (not that I could, anyway, with my horn burned out), that would have been Trouble...

“It’s a very nice cutie mark,” he said as he pulled her into an embrace. Immediately, she burst into happy tears as she held him. Some of the other ponies looked on at the spectacle in confusion and with a little envy.

Congratulations Scotch! Definitely well earned.

Just when I finish chapter 50, with Glory's mom making a surprise appearance at the end, the very same day Tell Your Tale shows us Sunny's mom for the first time. Talk about funny coincidences.

Chapter 51: A Good Day

Please let that title be true.

“I heard that my daughter Morning Glory is a close friend of yours. I was hoping to see her again. I also wanted to meet her dear friends,” she said as she smiled over her cup pleasantly. “Do you go by ‘Security’ or should I call you Blackjack?”

There's no way she didn't hear the broadcast. Either she's pretending she didn't or she's going to mention it at the most embarrassing moment possible.

I glanced at her and saw the tiniest little shake of her head. “Anyone seen Glory? Is she in town?”

She doesn't want her mom to see her while she's looking like Rainbow Dash. But it's better to come clean right now. I'm sure her mom still loves her regardless of how she looks.

“I mean, she’s getting spare parts and healing potions,” he said finally. Scotch Tape looked up at him, then nodded quickly with a grin.

Wow, you are all terrible at this. Now wonder Glory is the one handling the speech challenges.

If I learned somewhere that Trooper Kill-all-zebras was sent by Goldenblood as a part of his master super sneaky scheme, I was going to flip a table or kick a hole in the wall or something!

That though didn't even cross my mind. Luckily it seems unlikely to be true.

Contrived? Please. I’ve seen Goldenblood. He’s got contrived covering every inch of him. I don’t think he could fart unless it was part of a greater plot.

Wow, I really hope all these sarcastic complains from Blackjack about Goldenblood being involved in everything are a result of Somber responding to the criticism and it will result in fewer appearance of him.

“Ever think that maybe this is just a coincidence? A good coincidence?” Despite the long odds, it had to happen occasionally.

Almost nothing that happens in this story is a coincidence. She absolutely heard the broadcast, realized that her daughter is out there and decided to meet her. Maybe she worried about her relationship with Blackjack?

“Right,” he said, his blue eyes turning to Glory. “For what it’s worth, I don’t trust her.”

You are not really good a thrusting ponies in general, P-21 but maybe she really has an ulterior motive.

But he didn’t leave; not that there weren’t parents who wanted to adopt him. While pleasant and witty most of the time, Cheddar became the moodiest orphan in the place when prospective parents interviewed him. And when they moved on to another child, the friend emerged again

That's some serious determination. He really wants to learn Psalm's name and be friend with her.

And a dream began to settle in; a dream where we’d eventually become adults ourselves. And we’d leave together when we were sure the orphanage was in good hooves. And he’d travel all around the world deciphering important things, and I’d see a world I could never imagine. A world where gray did not exist.

A happy dream about your future? In Project Horizon? Poor souls, something horrible is about to happen to you any minute now.

“Would you go and leave me if she offered it to you?”
I couldn’t look at him as I spat out the lie, “In a heartbeat.”
Well… I guess I better go pack then!” When I didn’t say what he wanted to hear, he spat out angrily, “Wouldn’t want to miss my golden opportunity, would I?”
“I guess you better!” I shouted back, clenching my eyes shut. If I looked at him… If I looked…
“Fine!” he snapped.
“Fine!” I yelled back.

That's a really strong friendship between these two. Cheddar refusing to leave Psalm behind, so Psalm purposely makes him hate her so that he would leave because she knows that he never again gets a chance like that.

And I’d stay here and grow up and grow old and try to help every last one of them find a better place to live. And then, I’d die here.

But you would still have lived a good live and helped many ponies find happiness. That's nothing to be sad about.

Beads of starlight seemed to shimmer in her magically billowing mane and she wore a tiara the color of sky just after the last reds of sunset faded from view. Her majestic wings folded beside her and her horn glowed once.

And suddenly Luna is there. Maybe there is an happy end to this story?

Slowly I looked up at the beautiful dusky dark shape of the Princess of the Night. My eyes met hers, and I saw the understanding of the pain within me. Her lips slowly turned in a soft smile. “We were calling you, dear.”
“I… I thought I was imagining…” My feeble words dribbled out before I lowered my gaze.

You really took your sweet time Luna, but better late than never I guess.

“None of that. You’re the last one, Psalm. It’s your turn. You deserve a chance at happiness too.”

I'm not crying, you are crying!

“That sounds… odd. I’m barely old enough to have children of my own, let alone one your age. I think a better word is ‘guardian’, but even that sounds off,” he said with a small smile. “Why don’t you just call me ‘Teacher’?

I just said how nice it would be to see less of Goldenblood, yet I really enjoying these moments where he's just Goldenblood the teacher sincerely trying to bound with a young Pony. No super secret projects, no schemes, not being involved in every important even in the story. Just him being a normal pony.

Rarity learning teleportation magic? I had to admit... the idea of being able to teleport on my own nearly had me salivating. Popping out of trouble, appearing behind my enemies...

And then every time you actually want to teleport straight to your destination instead of going through a place full of horrible things, the story will come up with a more or less flimsy excuse why it won't work.

“I am the same as I ever was and ever will be. You know that, Blackjack,” Lacunae replied in soft resignation. “I cannot change.”

When you first appeared in the story you were just kinda there and acted as a mouthpiece for the Goddess. In Fallen Arcs you gave to bodies of the death ponies a burial as a sign of respect. In Tenpony you realized that the Goddess' plan was horrible and she should be stopped. In the Collegiate you cried because you couldn't heal Blackjack's mental wounds. In Meatlocker you liked the dress the Ghoul seamstress made for you. On the way back to Chapel you were embarrassed when you read Blackjack's thoughts about enjoying that butt plug.
For someone who claims that she cannot changed you changed a lot.

“Oh, you poor deluded little fool,” the Goddess purred in my mind, and I imagined a blue mare holding me from behind and whispering in my ear. “You still haven’t figured it out yet… no surprise. You see, your dearest Lacunae has betrayed you.”

The Goddess really can't resist being a bitch, can't she?

“She did something to you. Something that’s hurt you more than you could ever realize. Something that’s almost killed you more than once. All for her own selfish gain,” the Goddess purred softly in my ear. “If you really want to know, go into her mind. Find what she’s hiding. Or don’t. Either way, it should be fun.”

Now I'm worried and curious. What has she done to Blackjack that unknowingly hurt her? Sure the Goddess could be bullshitting but one rule of fiction is that villains rarely lie about these kind of things.

“I know you want to help her, and I do too, but…” she went on before she blinked. “Wait. What was that?”
“I said fine. You’re right. I should know a little more before poking around inside her for more memories,”
“Who are you, and what did you do with Blackjack?”

Are we going to see real progress here? Nah, I'm still skeptical. Let's see what happens after the next horrible event. If she's not going back into self-sacrifices mode then, and only, then I'm willing to humor the thought that she actually has learned that lesson.

Your commanddecision to execute Goldenblood without trial is a crimeinsult sad injustice unprecedented in pony history.

As much as I hate the guy, I've to agree with Twilight that this is wrong.
Now the reason why there was no trial is simple. Goldenblood knew a lot of nasty secrets that could never be allowed to be known to the public. Like him and Luna's little talk about sabotaging the peace talks and assassinating Celestia if necessary. So she had to get rid of him quickly before he could endanger her rule.

Goldenblood had known. Hell, he was the grand architect of this whole scheme. This plot that had wrapped itself tightly around Equestria and the world. And he’d done something, created something called Horizons to deal with it. But something had gone wrong. Something that even Goldenblood had missed till it was too late to stop it. He’d had Trottenheimer make a weapon of unimaginable power, but had been arrested before he could use it. Executed. Failed. What had he known?

Yeah I get it. Goldenblood had lot of secrets and did lots of scheming. You don't have to remind me every few chapters.

A small part of me wished that I had pushed the button on that terminal and activated Project Horizons, just so that I’d know what it did.

There's a less than zero chance that something really horrible would've happened. There's also a less than zero chance that it would've made live for you a lot easier. I'm still glad you didn't active it without knowing what it did.

After soaking up radiation for an hour in Blueblood Manor, Lacunae had teleported me over to the Collegiate to find out everything I could about memory magic; after all, they’d been the ones who’d modified Scotch Tape’s memories.

That's a great way to use Lacunae teleportation for the benefit of the narrative. Allow Blackjack to quickly travel from one place to another to have a chat with somepony.

Apparently I should be dead of a burst blood vessel in my brain at this moment; fortunately, Silver Stripe’s augmentations had prevented that.

Holy Moly it was that bad? In the last chapter it felt more like a painful but not life-threatening situation. And now the story told me it would've killed any non-cyborg. Glad it didn't turn into another near-death experience for Blackjack.

So Red Eye is our best source for caps and ammo. We patch them up and manufacture healing potions for them and they keep us supplied with food and salvage we need. She caught my glower and shrugged. “Don’t look at me like that, Blackjack. If I had alternatives, I’d take them.”

Not great but I can understand her reasoning. In world like this you can't just work with nice people. Heck even in our world that seems impossible.

“The prophet is a pegasus?” I asked with a frown.

Oh no, I've a bad feeling about this. There aren't that many Pegasi in this story and one of them just showed up at the end of the last chapter. If it's not a new character or Lighthooves that doesn't leave many other option.
Please let it be Lighthooves...

“Right,” I said slowly, looking in the direction of the Skyport. “Well, I need to check on Glory’s sister anyway... so I can tell Glory if… if everything turned out alright or not.”

I imagine Glory's family must be really worried. Her marefriend beat Dusk within an inch of her live and soon afterward she announced to he radio for all to her that she cheated on Glory. Best case scenario is that she just dumped Glory. Worst case is that she hurt her. Probably a good idea to tell her family she's okay. Whether or not they believe her will be a completely different matter.

“You promised not to get in trouble,” Lacunae reminded me.
“It’s a walk from here to the Skyport. How much trouble could I possibly get in?” I asked with a small smile.

Now you've jinxed it.

“Now those giant frogs. Those didn’t count as trouble, okay?”
“And that mutated river serpent with two heads?”
“And that squad of Seekers?”

Okay that was pretty funny. And nothing out of the ordinary for Blackjack.

“Serfs. Not slaves,” the stallion said reasonably. “You just have to sign the paper saying that you agree. Then we can all leave this horrible place. I’ll heal you all up, and you’ll be ready to get to work.”

Yeah because if you force them to sing the contract under the death of threat it's absolutely a-okay. At least the Raider boss in Fallout 4 who tortured people into joining his gang didn't try to hide what kind of horrible person he was.

“You sure I can’t fuck ‘em?” a deep male voice asked, making my hackles rise.

Okay these ponies get less sympathetic with every future word coming out of their mouths. Looking forward to them realizing how fucked they are when they notice Security.

“Never take another, or I shall slake my hunger upon you! My hunger for blood! Blood! BLOOD!” the specter demanded, its voice rising to an earsplitting shriek.
With a scream of terror, the brown unicorn raced after his companion.

Not as satisfying as Blackjack whipping them floor with them but satisfying nonetheless. And surprisingly smart. She realized a direct attack could've led to them blowing up the hostages and tries a different tactic.

It had a head like a brahmin, only not quite so deformed, and it stood on two heavy split hooves rather than four mutated ones. Its upper body was so muscled that it looked as though a good push would send it tumbling over.

A Minotaur? Rather unexpected. You don't see them that often in fanfics.

Pain Train rose out of the flooded basement, trailing streamers of the foul gray water. I backed away, aching as he advanced.

I have to give this guy some credit. He doesn't seem to have any cybernetics or other upgrades and is still able to challenge Blackjack in a fight One vs. One. Not many could do this before she became a cyborg, fewer could afterwards. And they usually were augmented themselves.

I crept along the jagged edge which was all that remained of the first floor, looking down at the creature surrounded by twisted ponnequins and draped in rotten wood and cloth. That would have to do. If he cared to dig himself out, he could do so.

You were far to nice to that guy, considering he was both a rapist and a slaver. But wouldn't be Blackjack otherwise.

“Look at it this way,” I said to the pink mare, “you can give them a small amount of food and medicine and explain that the deal is temporarily suspended till later, or you can have a mob that gets bigger and bigger with every passing minute.”

Wow, Blackjack actually succeeded at a speech check. Guess it's easier to convince the Enclave to hand over medicine and food than lying to your girlfriend's mom.

A telekinetic yank upwards as I passed forward, three shots from Vigilance right into the wingpit, sword out and slicing through the same weak point in the armor of the pegasus on the other side. Pivot around. Jump and grab the third with my fingers and ground him, then maybe finish them off.
Of course... if I’d actually done that (not that I could, anyway, with my horn burned out), that would have been Trouble...

You've got me story. Wouldn't haven been the craziest stunt Blackjack had pulled off so far.

“Brought here? You mean you know what happened to her?” Lightning Dancer blurted. “What happened? One night almost a week ago she was called out for a patrol and nopony came back! I can’t find any official orders, which means it was an Intelligence operation, but nopony is saying anything!”

Thank god, Dawn has been imprisoned or killed by some nefarious group and the rest of Glory's family doesn't know about Blackjack's little murderous breakdown. Sucks for Dawn, but on the bright side Blackjack now can avoid an awkward conversation with her family.
As for who's behind the murder or kidnapping; My money is on Lighthooves.

I turned on my broadcaster, opened a channel to wherever, and shouted, “Okay! Attention everypony! Security here! I am a dirty, lecherous, adulterous mule! I cheated on the best mare in the Wasteland and am a bad, bad pony. Happy?!”

Great job. You just alerted every single pony in the base to your presence and put Lightning Dancer in a lot of trouble.

“When we learned that Thunderhead Intelligence was involved in the development of a biological weapon that could be used against the rest of the Enclave, we simply had to act.”

Yes they are the baddies but you can't say they are in wrong here. What Lighthooves did was horrible and preventing him from weaponizing a disease is a good thing.

I’m sure you did, High General Harbinger.
There was no way this could be a coincidence! And hadn’t someone mentioned they were led by a pegasus?

If he's the leader of them, it says a lot about his ego that he named the group after himself. And when will people learn to actually use codenames that don't give your enemies information about you and your group?

“I’ve got two hundred and thirty-two operatives, all memorized. There is no Operative Lighthooves in Enclave Intelligence.”

Unless Stratus is lying that means he somehow was able to pass himself off as high-ranking member of the Enclave Intelligence and ran several secret experiments without anyone the wiser? That's a Goldenblood like level of manipulation. If that's true I'm really impressed.

“This isn’t dyed. In fact, chemical analysis shows that somepony probably used dye to conceal these colors. They’re a 99.9% match to Dash,” General Chaser said grimly.

Oh boy, Glory's life just got a lot more complicated.

I munched on the cake that had fortunately been tangled in the alicorn’s mane. It may have had a few stray hairs stuck to it now, but they didn’t detract from the delicious appley, oily, greasy goodness.

You still have the cake, the most powerful weapon of them all.

“You make the mistake of thinking that I’m a person to be violated. I’m not.

They must drink a lot of Kool-Aid at the Unity. They brainwashed her into seeing herself not as a pony. And that's the fate the Goddess want for everyone in Equestria. Or at least the ones that are “compatible”.

“I’m not a person. I’m just a collection of memories. Any critical memories intrinsic to my own identity are gone.”

Yeah, yeah you just said that. Stop sounding like a broken record. It's worse enough when Blackjack does it.

The tumbled-down scaffolds and rickety structures were gone, and Scotch Tape was directing three different teams at work.

Impressive for a kid who up until a week ago know nothing about the world outside her stable. Come to think off it, how many main characters in Fallout: Equestria stories are actually good at building settlements? I imagine most are like Littlepip or Blackjack, the wandering gunslinger/adventurer type. That makes Scotch a rather unique protagonist and it's nice that Homelands allows her to put her skills to good use. Now I really want to see what she could do to Bastion... Maybe one day.

“Blackjack says she’s going to prove you’re a real pony,” P-21 said.
“Blackjack’s an idiot. You know that,” Rampage said with a smile and a roll of her pink eyes. “Sometimes I think she’d try to help a corpse take a walk.”

Parts like this is why I wish we wouldn't be always seeing things from Blackjack's perspective. I really want to see more interactions between the rest of the group when she's not around. Like when Glory and Scotch helped P-21 overcoming his addiction. Or when Scotch and P-21 bounded in her absence.

She had Folly. She could have ended me, but she didn’t. I doubt she ever could

I doubt that even that gun could've permanently killed Rampage. Still, she's right. Blackjack could ever kill her even at her own request.

“She’s Security, and we’re her friends. That’s why. She’s the mare who tries, and we’re the ponies who catch her when she fails.”

Truer words have never been spoke. Blackjack needs her friends to prevent herself from burning out while trying to save the whole world.

I have her memory orb and everything. I just don’t know if she’s ready for it. We promised to wait till she was stable.”

Wait till she's stable? You should know better by now. Right now she's in a pretty good mental state and in this story you never know when the next horrible thing is going to happen. This is probably the best time to tell her whatever secret you kept from her.

“She’s got no right to be upset. Not after modifying Scotch’s memories and telling you she’d lie to me just to make me feel better,” Rampage told him.

P-21 told Rampage about that? Colour me surprised.

“You look like you’ve received some bad news,” Dawn said from behind me, looking at me with her odd little squint, as if she never really opened her eyes.

She's pretty sneaky. At least medium sneaky.

“So how did my little girl get transformed into Rainbow Dash?”

She knew right from the start. Why I'm not surprised?

“I had a feeling when I first saw her, and she was always a terrible liar.” She turned towards Star House. “She still nibbles her mane when she’s nervous. And that cooking... only my daughter cooks like that.”

All of them did a terrible job a lying back then and yeah the cooking was a dead giveaway.

She once almost flew down to the surface when she was just a filly, with plans to give her boxed lunch to the first pony she came across. Striker barely caught her before she was zapped by a lightning rod .

That's cute, even if she almost died. Even at a young age Glory was already an idealist who believed in helping others and that the Enclave could do so much good for the surface.

For a moment, everypony just looked at each other in confusion. Then came a sound of passing gas and a tinkle, and looks passed from one pony to the next. Finally a pregnant pause, and then a sound of a flushing toilet filled the air. The assembled ponies let out a cheer as Scotch Tape emerged, blushing faintly.

Thanks story! I didn't really need the description of Scotch using a toilet. I'll never get the pictures out of my head.

Now the greater challenge: getting the fillies and colts to keep it clean.

That's going to be an impossible task. I doubt anyone is going to volunteer for toilet cleaning duty. Maybe Charity can have “Saucy Flanks” doing it. Sounds like the jerkish kind of thing Charity would do.

“You look, Blackjack. Please tell me it’s not a toilet.”

That is actually a reasonable fear, considering it may have happened while she was taking a dump.

“It’s a very nice cutie mark,” he said as he pulled her into an embrace. Immediately, she burst into happy tears as she held him. Some of the other ponies looked on at the spectacle in confusion and with a little envy.

Daawwww...

Indecision finally broke, at least for a little bit, as she smiled and joined them in their exuberant dancing. She even smiled like a filly.

Dancing Rampage. I imagine she's a terrible dancer who looks rather goofy but enjoys it greatly.

“I don’t deserve to,” I said quietly, taking a pull on a bottle of Wild Pegasus I’d obtained for the celebrations. He gave a deep sigh, and I smiled. “It’s alright. I’m fine like this.”

Oh goddammit Blackjack! Just have some fun with your friends and enjoy that there's currently nothing horrible happening to any of you.

“I’m a soul in a box, and EC-1101 is bonded to me. The Goddess manipulates minds and souls connected to her. If she found out about me, she might try to yank out the Megaspell through your connection.”

But she can read Blackjack's mind and you just told her not to mention him around the Goddess which probably means Blackjack is going to think about Dealer whenever the Goddess pays her a visit.

“What are you talking about? Blackjack doesn’t have good days. She has days that are bad and less bad and occasionally are punctuated with good events.”

You took the words right out of my mouth Blackjack. That's your live now.

And if I could have one good day, I could do anything.

Okay in the next chapter something bad is about to happy. This was far to happy for PH.
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This chapter feels like an anomaly. It's called "A Good Day" and it was indeed a good day. Absolutely nothing bad happened to Blackjack, her friends or any innocent bystander. There wasn't even a single death in the whole chapter. It was like a breath of fresh air! And I love all the little moments of happiness. Like the bounding between P-21 and Scotch as well as Glory and her mom. Or the scene with Psalm and Luna. Even Goldenblood was surprisingly sweet and him showing up is usually the low point of a chapter for me.

Buuut PH has conditioned me to expect the worst. If things looks that nice and everypony is that happy something truly terrible is going to happen very soon. Not that I mind being wrong. The group deserves at least a few more chapter before the next catastrophe.

The Goddess persisted, her words oozing into my awareness. I couldn’t plug up my ears to stop her, and mentally chanting ‘LALALA’ was far less effective against her than it had been against me. “She did something to you. Something that’s hurt you more than you could ever realize. Something that’s almost killed you more than once. All for her own selfish gain,” the Goddess purred softly in my ear. “If you really want to know, go into her mind. Find what she’s hiding. Or don’t. Either way, it should be fun.”

It was Lacunae who put Psalm in Blackjack's head, wasn't it?