Hee! Blackjack and Daddy sitting on the moon. He’s gonna make her...er... damn it. And she fired another burst with renewed vinegar.

Gonna make them a pickle, eh?

The Angel's death was probably one of the most satisfying things to happen in this story.
Oh, and Tom can talk-

Hoooooooooooooweeeeeeeeee, only one more chapter to go... hot damn man this is one hell of a ride.
From a simple security mare living in a stable... to going to the fucking moon and kicking ass, jeez... who can top Blackjack's insanity?

Nice job!

the promise of an end to her life only for it to be denied her yet again.

the promise of an end to her life only for it to be denied to her yet again. ?

“Oh, you have to be shitting me?

“Oh, you have to be shitting me!/. (A question mark seems odd, IMO.)

Worse, it kept me in place me long enough for Rampage to pounce.

Worse, it kept me in place long enough for Rampage to pounce.

I just don’t see anything we can reach in that wide-open, empty chamber than could control a megaspell.”

I just don’t see anything we can reach in that wide-open, empty chamber that could control a megaspell.”

And she fired another burst with renewed vinegar.

And she fired another burst with renewed vigor.

(It's vigor. Right? Riiiighht? Tell me it's supposed to be vigor. Vinegar makes NO flipping sense! Actually, I just read the FoE PH Ch. 73 subreddit thread. Seems intended for reasons. Disregard this one then. I don't want to contest the reasoning.)

An interesting chapter title. Had to look this one up, astronomy definition is fitting.
Well that didn't take too long for Rampage to be persuaded again. RIP Doctor Comet, hardly knew ye, literally. Although damn, this whole chapter is simply crazy. Of course Tom can talk to Blackjack. Why shouldn't moonstone be able to do that with the 'gifts' Blackjack were bestowed upon by the stars? Oh, and good riddance with that Angel in Rampage. I kept reading Astrostable as Astrolab for some reason. Not only is there a Lunar Palace but a Stable on the Moon.

“How come you didn’t explode? I thought you were supposed to explode on the moon,” Scotch Tape asked, actually sounding slightly disappointed.

Actually, the body of an average land animal (such as human or pony) is too efficiently insulated to explode. What would happen is you would bloat before all gases, liquids, and liquids turned gases by the lack of pressure would be violently ejected from your every orifice. This would cause your eyes to burst, your tongue to swell, and your ass to do it's damnest to turn inside out. Eventually you would become a giant piece of jerky-like substance. You'd be dead in fifteen seconds, tops. Assuming you weigh as much as the average American adult, you'd be worth ~125,000 calories.

Also, space tastes metallic. At least, all objects that have been exposed to extraterrestrial vacuum for an extended period of time taste metallic.

7411122 So you're telling me someone stuck something out of a spaceship, completely premeditated, just so they could lick it?

I imagine this Tom sounds like a godly version of this Tom

He’s going to die. Blackjack’s going to die. Rampage is going to die. I’ll be all alone

You'll never be alone, Scotch. You will always have a friend (in me) (or not...just kidding!)

Damn, Blackjack’s ass is almost as nice as Calamity’s. Get back safe.

He's thinking of this now!?

Dang. Its always giant god-tier monsters with this story.
The Goddess, Luna, Cognitum, The Eater and now Tom?

My gosh. Why don't we invite Azothoth and Cthulhu while we're at it?
With Thanos his friends too.

Have ourselves a giant deity level fiesta here.

BJ can read minds now... is she going to be able to raise the sun next or something?

It's funny how easy it is to forget about Echo. That's kind of his whole persona, after all.

I want to say, for the record, that when I use the word "bullshit" to describe anything happening in this story, I mean that in the most loving, honored way possible, because all this bullshit is really amazing to behold.

Talon mercs feel woefully underpowered for this level of the game. Why does the fight room smell like burnt candy? The last stand of Charity and Chapel is very Helm's Deep. I like that Echo thinks Cogs is the monster they deserve. And was she talking to Lacunae? I think she was talking to Lacunae.

I can't believe there are only four chapters left, for all that one of them counts for two. Seriously, next chapter is the showdown with Cognitum? What's left after that? D:

8249586
Eater.

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When she was in vacuum on the lunar surface? I think she was talking to Tom (there's that text gimmick that seems to match that section and the end with Tom--and I think before that the only colored text was the Eater's green). My original guess was Luna's soul, but Lacunae could make sense too. It's hard to say what works best, since there are issues with what's said there given 1) what Blackjack was thinking about, which seemed to be mostly the world rather than mainly her friends right there on the moon and 2) when you look at what Tom wants on the world level of things, he wants the opposite of what she does: for Horizons to fire at the Core. So giving that pep talk is a bit confusing--either it's not Tom, and someone else is getting purple text; or he's encouraging her to get up to go mess with his own plans; or he's just talking about helping her friends while she's thinking mostly about the larger world.

Good question on the burnt candy. I don't know. Could be a continuing effect of the vacuum on her sensory systems (but what exactly triggered it then, and not really elsewhere?), the moonstone poisoning (again), or I guess an actual smell there for some reason.

Then Scotch Tape fired her disintegration rifle up at the rafters. “Will you two stop thinking at each other and get going? I think the sniper is still up there!” She fired again and thought, Hee! Blackjack and Daddy sitting on the moon. He’s gonna make her...er... damn it. And she fired another burst with renewed vinegar.

Vinegar? How does one shoot with renewed vinegar?

Rampage, jump to your left! I thought. She sprang, somewhat ungainly, into the path of the cone.

Pfffhahahahahah!

“Your reset button is a bullet through the brain. Blackjack’s is through her happy hole,” P-21 replied with a casual smile and shrug. “I didn’t make you crazy mares this way. I just work with that I have.”

Well.....that's a phrase....not at all inaccurate and it's absolutely hilarious but.....jesus...

delay you with a musical number

oh man, Rampage trying to sing?

And I’m going to kick your ass to the mo- er… um… sun! Or whatever!”

because they're already on the moon...

“No. But life is not easy. It struggles. Day by day, it struggles. How you face that struggle gives meaning to your life. It is only when things are at their darkest that you find your greatest strength. Life for life’s sake is not always enough. It is meaning that makes you greater than you are, and sometimes that meaning is greater than life itself.”

this reminded me of a line in a comic book:
"life doesn't give us purpose, WE give LIFE purpose."
that's from the "Blackest night" super-crossover by DC comics.

8323803
Payback!

7758119
Sounds like science to me!

8755714
"Sometimes you just have to throw science at the wall and see what sticks!"

“Forget it, Twilight. I know what you're up to. The second I go in, you'll have your little minion Spike come and take Tom!”

“Tom?”

“Well, it's not going to work.”

It took me way to long to get the reference

8118531
Always nice to find a fellow Yogscast fan (Yognaught)

Of course, it isn't until I finished reading this chapter that I realized I didn't comment on the last one; too late now, I guess.

This chapter was great; from the fight with Rampage to the deliriousness...ness. Cogs is next? I can't wait to get to it! The ending has really been excellent!

I've loved the updates with the surface and the wonderful action as a whole. I can only wonder how things will go, and it has me excited to continue.

If I don't end up asleep in the next hour-ish, I might just start the next chapter. Until the next chapter, I hope things go well for you.

From where blackjack could project her thoughts on other ponies is minds, i wonder how the power levels could be measured, on the beginning she could only levitate

“Okay, now you’re just being ‘pop my head like a bloatspite’ stupid, 'cause that's not true,” her annoyance focusing into anger. “That’s impossible.”

Search your feelings, you know it to be true!

“That’s okay,” I murmured, imagining I was nuzzling into Mom’s embrace. “I need to go back, don’t I?” The thought filled me with dread, and I heard the distant echo of battles growing.

Blue font? Motherly? This has to be the real Luna right?

Nevermind guess it was Tom. What a funny name for a giant rock. Wait is that a reference to something from the show? Sounds like it.

HERE COMES TOM!

“ Wishing is a start, but if you want them different, you must make them so,” it said softly. “And to do that… ”

Unquoted text should be white.

OH. SORRY. I’LL TRY AND TURN DOWN THE VOLUME. the voice said with a lower rumble. HOW’S THIS?

Second sentence should start with uppercase.

Even on the second read I still want to see Blackjack drop into all that flux, absorb it, and grow in size to the point where she could simply hug Tom out of the way.

The scene where they discover telepathy is one of pure fun.

Chapter 73: Apogee

This was a missed opportunity to coin the term “apohippos.”

Rampage opened her eyes, tears running down her cheeks. “Please,” she whimpered, “help my little girl.”

Poor Twist

“No!” Rampage sobbed as she released me and fell on her side, clutching her head and writhing as though in physical pain. I scrambled back as quickly as I could, flopping while I watched the armored mare flail like Tenebra in the midst of an epileptic fit. Her claws raked at her head as if trying to physically scrape the memories out of her skull, and, failing at that, ripped and shredded at the ground. Finally, she collapsed on her side, sobbing brokenly, blood and tears mixing in the sparkling moon dust covering her and tiny bits of carpet drifting in the air like feathers.

“She wanted me to live. Mommies die for their babies. But I didn’t. I killed my baby, Mommy. I killed her,” she choked out through helpless sobs. I approached slowly as she muttered, “I’m sorry, Mommy. I am so sorry.”

I knelt down and stroked her gently. “Shh… shh… It’s okay, Peppermint.”

You would think that maybe, after this long I might become desensitized to this kind of emotional trauma.

Enope. Rip my heart out with a fucking spoon, Somber. WITH A SPOON!

I dug down all the way to a hard little knot that I couldn’t push into, and seizing every bit of that slimy, acidic, poisonous thought, I pulled. I ripped. I consumed. I eradicated. With mental ferocity that outpaced the ruin of any balefire explosion, I tore every last bit to splinters.

Then my horn burned out with a pop, and we both fell again. The moonstone that had stuck to my horn had turned inky black. It fell freely around my hooves, and I watched as it disintegrated, releasing a black shadow that was swept away with a tiny pathetic scream upon an ethereal wind.

The Angel is a presence so evil Blackjack doesn’t even think twice about eradicating it.

As he turned towards Velvet with a half-grin, half-snarl on his face, her horn glowed, and somehow, then even he was staggering about as if in a drunken stupor. Now why didn’t I have that spell?

Always nice to see Velvet kicking ass.

“It will work! The wing was proof! Science can do anything!” Morningstar bellowed in her face. “What would Blackjack say if she knew how you were letting–”

Triage’s horn glowed, and a clipboard slapped hard across Morningstar’s face. The stunned pegasus shook her head, and the clipboard swung back and struck her again. It was enough force to send her crashing to the floor with a nosebleed. Triage glared down at her and blew a plume of smoke. “Either she’d say a thousand lives are worth more than one, or I don’t give a shit what she’d say. Now get out of my way and get out of the Collegiate. I have to save all the lives I can before we all die.”

Yeah, I’m gonna have to side with Triage here.

“Yeah. That usually takes a few years of exposure to small amounts. From what your friends told me…” He consulted the clipboard. “You rolled around in the stuff, then did radical and uncontrolled mind magic, then used an experimental extrasensory perception device. I’m shocked your head didn’t explode.”

*Checks my clipboard* Mmm Hmmm Yup! Just a normal day for Blackjack!

I gazed at him for what felt like forever, and licked my lips nervously. “I have to go,” I whispered softly. “I can’t stay here while you face her,” I told him, trying to keep my head together as images flickered in my vision. “I can’t stay here and see… what I’m seeing… and do nothing… I’ll go mad,” I whispered, trying to keep my fear as calm as I could.

I sincerely believe that she would.

P-21 returned my stare equally as long, then smiled and gave a little nod. “Okay.” He straightened and looked at the others. “She’s coming. Let’s go.”

The real reason P-21 never changed his name is because the only logical name to take up would be “Chad,” but he’s too humble to do that.

I relaxed a little and smiled at her. “Yeah. Guess I was wrong. I’m frigging weird sometimes,” I said, robbing her of her laugher. “Just saying,” I added.

Blackjack the smooth talker strikes again.

It took a few minutes to work it out. Apparently, as long as they were thinking it at me, I could pick it up, and vice versa. The only limitation was that my friends couldn’t think at each other, which was probably for the best.

I’ll give her this though, she is the master of the understatement.

“She’s what we deserve!” he shouted, turning away from the screen and looking at me with anguish in his eyes. “We fucked up. We fucked it all up! We deserve a monster like her to rule over us. To punish us for taking two centuries and still not setting things right!”

I can’t even begin to explain how over Echo I am. In a story where it feels like literally every character is trying to one up each other to be the one to claim the lifetime achievement in angst award, this fucker just feels like such a pathetic wannabe in comparison. There is nothing I want more than for Velvet to teleport in and bitch slap the salt right out of him.

”You. Have suffered. Nothing.”

Amen.

YES, IT’S NICE TO FINALLY MEET YOU FACE TO FACE. The voice chuckled. I turned, looking left and right, then behind me at the massive moonstone. Only this time, the light that had swirled within had coalesced into a gargantuan glowing pony-shaped outline… an alicorn-shaped outline. Well, that raised a couple theological questions I didn’t want to think about at all right now! The pony’s eyes were ovals filled with bluish light. CALL ME TOM.

Oh. So the star spirit bound to the moonstone wasn’t tricked or ignorant. He wanted to be here. He’s coming for the Eater, and it’s personal. Let me guess, the Eater ate Tom’s star mommy/daddy/brother/sister/all of the above. We’ll find out soon!