Hooooooooooo lordy, more updates, what a day! Awesomeness so far~

Also... I was vastly confused by Morningstar being called Daddy... taht whole bit with Glory and Morningstar, along with I think Triage confused me a great deal.

Regardless... awesome work well done!

7319752 There, "Daddy" was referring to Sky Striker, Morning Glory's father.

“Am I glad the Enclave is gone? Hell, yeah,”

Hell, yeah. ?

Triage was examining a printout of the her own

examining a printout of her own

Dang it, was there a timeskip that occurred after the original Fo:E and now the places Blackjack has visited are now thriving in existence from her impact on the Wasteland? Reading an afterthoughts thread it now makes more sense with these various scenes all over the place involving, what else? Pipbucks. Yup a timeskip, of three months from the arc's starting description. Son of a gun. I'll have to read more later when I can.

Wait ... So Lacuane/Psalm is still alive?!

Huh. I'm surprised no-one else commented on the Toaster reference. Ah well, i guess i'll have to do it.

Man.. i was on edge like CRAZY! throughout the entire chapter.. i am glad that boo nor BJ died!

This chapter... ooooh, it was a good one. That last little visit was a good one, and it certainly makes me wonder a whole bunch more things. Also, poor Triage. She's seen some shit, and that Enervation frequency thing isn't helping at all. But cool, we're learning stuff! 'Bout time, but I guess it can only be done when BJ's gone.

~SolidFire

This story does not have a happy ending...

7735282 second time reading through it. I know

Looks like dawn has broken

“Blackjack’s been dead for a quarter of a year. 

They thought the same thing when the Celestia sunk.

Glory thought the Same thing when her soul left her.

And now here you are...talking about the most unkillable pony to ever exist and think she's dead.

I guess 3 strikes you out could probably count, but I prefer the 9 lives theory.

Through the sodden tatters that might have once been a dress, a candle could be seen upon her flank.

Okay, now I wish Matpat were here.
Okay...so...black dress?
Lacunoid
Candle?
That's definitely Psalmish.

Purple?
Lacunae again.

Caution?

“This doesn’t count as a bad place?” Crumpets muttered.

Good question. Anypony got an answer for captain obvious here?
Psalm.

Which one is it!?

“No!  No… I’m not her.  She was me, but I wasn’t her,” she stammered, rubbing her face with her drenched wings.  “I’m not supposed to be here.  I’m… I’m supposed to be in a bad place.  Because I did bad things.  But… but now I’m not.  I’m here.”

Definitely more Psalm then Lacunae...

“What is your name?”

She froze, her purple eyes haunted a moment, and then she whispered, barely above the rain, “Psalm.  My name is Psalm.”

Bingo! Totally called it, boi!

And I know that Paladin Stronghoof would like to--”

“No!” she blurted again, then bit her lip and shrank back.  “I…  No.  Please.  I want to see him… but I don’t deserve to see him… but I… I…” 

Wow. When a crush transcends death and metamorphosis, you know that match was meant to be.

Bravo, Stromghoof. Your charms that have been passed down by generations have finally caught onto something other then bramble.

“One who put a landmine under your butt,” P-21 replied casually.  “So, how are you going to disarm it?  Do you have the time to get off the pillow, move it, and levitate the mine away?  Can you move fast enough to get out of the three-meter blast radius?  Oh, I know some ponies who could, but are you one of them?”  As the rest of the class started to lean away, he added, “She’s not the only one.  I’d think really hard before running.”

What the fuck bro? Teaching through demonstration?
Your gonna run out of class at this rate! Lol

Be aware that sometimes sneaky bastards like to hide them under trash, empty cans, or pillows.

Like you, P-21?

“That would be part of the lesson,”

In which failure does not get a re-do

“Absolutely,” he replied, keeping his voice low.  “With real detonators, real talismans, real disarm tabs, real timers... and something special in place of most of the charge, courtesy of Sekashi.”  Chuckling, he looked up the hill.  “The wall done?”

My gosh, he really is insane.
Fake bombs are still bombs, P-21!

“Some say north.  Some say south.  All say he’s long gone.”

Long, looong gone.
He met Pip, what did you expect?

That leaves us with the Sleet, theCyclone, and the Rampage,

So the pirate raptor lives...huzzah.

Even the massive airship, wedged vertically between two skyscrapers with its nose suspended mere feet from the cracked asphalt, seemed as if it'd plunged here centuries rather than months ago.  The slow trickle of red dripping from its ports and breaches was the only evidence to the contrary.

YESH!

dang...isn't Majina adorable?
Did you know Majin by itself means genie?
More appropriately a demon but a genie none the less.
It's quite interesting, actually.

 “Fascinating.  Even covered, it continues to draw attention.”

What kind of doctor are you!?

At least give me credit for remembering it.

I suppose I should also give you credit for remembering the light bulb.
And the nuclear reacter.
And the trash bin...

how do you even have enervation in your wing...

OH SHIT

I had noticed the narrative emphasis on odd characters having Pipbucks, but I never figured out what was going on. The answer was right there in the chapter title even! Marvelous work using alternative narrative, here. :D All the scenery interludes about the city were great, it was nice getting to see a victory lap of Wasteland life getting itself back together, and... yeah, once again, the narrative has made me its bitch and I love it. And of course, not figuring things out, the apparent third-person made it seem like Blackjack could plausibly be dead. Not that I'm surprised she isn't. Great job.

Why are they called Bebop and Rocksteady though why why why Okay, but when is this set? With all the talk of what the Lightbringer did, is this after she climbs into SPP? I mean, it would have to be. So I wonder about the constant rain. Icy Shake, I summon thee! Provide me with answers!

8172791
Yeah, the same thing happened when I read it the first time. Going back, I was especially slapping my forehead because besides the title (I've historically been bad at paying attention to those, both for books' chapters and TV shows' episodes, so missing that wasn't a surprise), there was one other hint right at the start: the first sentence.

The halls of Stable 99 smelled different than I remembered: an antiseptic tang lurked in the corners, under the beds, and in the closets.

As for the names... they're strong? I dunno, Somber's gonna Somber.

It's been three months since the battle at Thunderhead, and Littlepip's in the SPP, in fact this is after (Velvet and Helpinghoof and whoever?) published "The Book of Littlepip." It's briefly brought up in the Crumpets and/or Storm Chaser segments. She can't affect the weather in Hoofington for some reason, and similarly there are problems getting transmissions into or out of the area.

8172971

the first sentence.

Oh geez, even better! XD

Bebop and Rocksteady are from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. :B Do we live in a world where that is now before some people's time?

So it's just the Hoof that's having weird weather? Okay, that makes sense. And I can probably guess why. :B

8173192
Well not me, but some, probably. :P Though there are also the new movies now, and I'm pretty sure one of them included those two, so that would catch some of the people too young for the original run. But ya know, rhino and warthog gang muscle, Steel Rangers are strong, whatever. What I didn't know until now was apparently rocksteady is a type of music (as well as bebob). So maybe also because a bunch of the kids at Chapel had music themed names? In any case, the simplest explanation reference is probably because Somber likes throwing references into things.

8173232

Somber likes throwing references into things.

This is why he's a terrible pony.

You hear me, Somber? Terrible. :V (But so good write.)

“Sweepie,” Boo protested, turning over on her side and pulling the blanket more tightly around herself. “Go ta bed, Bwackjack,” she grumbled, swinging a hoof in my direction.

Eeeeeeeee!

“True. I think it’s the fact that you relegated all of us to ‘workers’ that tangles the nobles’ mane. Wealthy ponies don’t work for their wealth. They are wealth. That’s why they’re better than workers,” Splendid chuckled.

reminds me of a quote in a Spider Robinson book: "Gold is not wealth. Food is wealth. Land is wealth. Gold is just money." he goes on about how some country, i think it was Spain, imported too much Gold, causing a terrible inflation problem that crashed their economy.

“Bebop! Rocksteady! Fortify that bit there and that one there!” she ordered, pointing imperiously at where the wall sagged and threatened to collapse.

Nice reference, and using them to steady a stone foundation, even better. I wonder what they will do next time, shred some documents?

Aside from that: If Blackjack turns out to be dead just after we learned that she was pregnant, I'm going to cry!

“That leaves us with the Sleet, the Cyclone, and the Rampage,” Twister said thoughtfully.

Storm Chaser growled, “How she got the crew’s support, that I’ll never know. Where she found all that red paint, I’ll never know.”

You're fucking kidding me...

I didn't get the whole spying thing until it was revealed; and it was so obvious, too! And there was so much that happened in this chapter; P-21 being a... great teacher, Glory and the others, and Boo having a larger vocabulary.

The thing I'm stuck on now, thoughts I mean, are that there is some great being out in space and that Blackjack and Cognitum will have to work together to beat it at the end... or something like that. I'm not sure how I feel about that idea, but it would be... something.

At least Boo is still the best, bundled up ready to sleep the day away -- or night. And that freakish luck of hers -- it has to be maxed out! Lol.

As to Paladin Mustang, I think it would have been better as Star Paladin Mustang; then again, I don't remember the ranks all that well. Which reminds me: Psalm!!!

Love this intermission chapter showing the effects on the wasteland blackjack caused.

The insanity of psalm is back.
To to believe not allowed to be happy.

Sometimes i indentify here, would believing that sometimes i do not have this or that because ****** you count?

If i recall my history classes, the slaving prohibition in xvi century on brazil, took off because dutchmen proves the efficiency of a paid worker is better than a slave worker.
It was... Enforced? By queen isabel of spain, not out of pity but because money

I wonder if somber took that refference

P21 finally had the opportunity to teach like a professor, on the wasteland even! And teached a foal raider! Now we need to see rampage 's dream of dying.

Ohh, the talk about old ponies and older ghouls is surreal... Stormy says she is too old for the name, then rainbow dash says she is 3 times older, no biggie!

Hey, somepony is reading at the same time as I am again. He heee! Knowing this that makes me reading this much better. To know that I'm not alone reading it. Thank you, the reader whom is reading this chapter(s), for giving me another reason to get this reading done. It made my two days spectacular. And I hope you read this.

Bebop! Rocksteady

I think I've heard of those names before....

9740830
In the ninja turtle's show, they were those two mutants that went along with shredder, a rhino and a boar

Ch63 Perception - Nice recap chapter of current events in the Hoof while Blackjack is missing, but I really need to know what happened to Blackjack. It is driving me crazy.

The end of the Chapel scene made me tear up, then laugh, the feel bad about laughing.

“Be that as it may, you might want to get them out of here. Their attitude is catching,” Splendid said calmly. When Grace arched a brow at him, he amended, “I don’t mean kill or even exile. Perhaps they could work as liaisons with Tenpony. Just get them away from the other bluebloods who think ‘Good King Security’ is gone for good.”

She was queen not king

Chapel had a drainage problem. The recent construction had ripped open the ground, and with soaked earth and constant rain, the heavy runoff now threatened to erode all their hard work. “More rocks over there! If we don’t get this water under control, we’ll end up in the river!” Scotch Tape shouted up at the pegasi as her duct-tape-repaired rainslicker flapped in the wind. They flew in a train from further up the hill, carrying whatever rocks they could in their hooves to pile up in a retaining wall above the town. “Bebop! Rocksteady! Fortify that bit there and that one there!” she ordered, pointing imperiously at where the wall sagged and threatened to collapse.

Hahaha!! I get the reference 🤣🤣

“Our teacher is a psychotic, evil, sneaky, no-good fucking jerk!” snapped Razorblade.

Not wrong

Yay!!! Boo is talking more!! So cute and adorable!!😍😍

At this point Blackjack has to be at least 3 months pregnant right? So not only is she pregnant but she's inside the core. At least she has Rampage there to help. What an awesome friend. If there's anyone who deserves the element of loyalty it would be her.

Core parts are SO good! I was imagining Rorschach from Watchmen reading it.
Favorite part of now my favorite chapter.
I am reading Horizons for third time and it's just so surprising how something that I wasn't paying attention several years ago now puts such an impression on me.

What a great start to the final arc, really excited to see how the whole story plays out (hopefully at least some characters end up with a happy ending). Wasn't expecting that time skip at all! And psalm being alive!!!! aaaaaaaa!