Sees this upload just as I finish 74
http://media2.giphy.com/media/IeLOBZb7ZdQ1G/giphy.gif

“Hey, Silver Spoon. There you are.”

Silver Spoon stared. “T…tiara?”

“Of course, you dummy. Who else?” The pink mare spoke with more fondness than malice as she smiled and nodded over her shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go paint the town red.”

Look, Raist... bunnies...

I'd totally love to meet Somber, that'd be awesome but alas... not yet.

Awesome chapter well done, and holy shit at all of the death...
Rainbow Dash went out with a bang... I'll miss yee Dashie.

Good show!

“Anything thing she needs, you give it to her. Got it?”

“Anything she needs, you give it to her. Got it?”

RIP Sagittarius, one tree down.

RIP Silver Spoon? And she found some manifestation of Diamond Tiara? Second tree down.

The great, bloated, technological monstrosity suddenly burst along the back, and a flaming rainbow slurry poured out in great splatters and tears. The fire seemed like a living thing now, and it spread out consuming all in its path.

Formatting seems a bit off at "splatters and tears." Or is it on purpose?

RIP Toaster. In pieces that is. Third tree down. Can't have it all with betrayal. (I noticed his death is not listed on the spreadsheet)

I envied her that.

I envied her for that. ?

“Where is General Storm Chaser, Private?”

“Where is General Storm Chaser, private?” (If not to simply show his inferior rank with no name stated)

“That’s it. I have attitude control now,”

“That’s it. I have altitude control now,”

“Oh horseapples!” she shouted as twisted the wheel with her hooves while her wings pushed buttons and knobs.

“Oh horseapples!” she shouted as she twisted the wheel with her hooves while her wings pushed buttons and knobs.

RIP Rainbow Dash. Be reunited with your friends. That better of stopped this Tempest.

Psalm sat at the table, staring down at the assembled sniper rifle on resting on it.

Psalm sat at the table, staring down at the assembled sniper rifle resting on it.

as Brood began to appear on the tops of the walls.

as Brood began to appear on the top of the walls.

Farewell Penance, Psalm you may have just saved Crumpets & Paladin Sugar Apple Bombs Stronghoof and yourself.

The time to return to your other halves is not yet come,”

The time to return to your other halves has not yet come,”

RIP Harpica, buying time for Chapel to retreat to The Chapel. (I noticed her death is not listed on the spreadsheet)

RIP Deus/Doof ? (I noticed his death is not listed on the spreadsheet either)

As she song ended, she turned to the others.

As the song ended, she turned to the others.

“So what? She’s been exploded before! She could have found a way... done something... she’s a fucking alicorn now! You’re telling me she doesn’t have some kind of magical Princess Blackjack bullshit powers she could have used to save him?!” Scotch demanded as she clutched his jacket.

I agree with Scotch Tape, there is a sense of terrible loss and P-21 and Glory's fate only compounded it to devastating Blackjack and most likely the reader, too. She basically read my mind, Blackjack is an alicorn and it had to be this way? I need a hours long video to get the perspective of these tragic sacrifices. These two sacrifices and Rampage being lost on the moon, this is what justifies the tragedy tag on this story for me.

Read the scene with Candlewick and couldn't get this song out of my head. It was too perfect.
https://youtu.be/_XoOt-5pW_Q

Huh. Well, I called the end for the Castellanus. Not for lack of intent that I had the mare at the helm wrong. A long delayed reunion awaits Dash, hopefully the rest can all make it too, someday. ...Err, mostly I mean Rarity, since per PH's canon she's kinda in some sort of limbo after having her soul carved up to make dolls collectibles. ...If I remember right, though the character who said that may have been wrong. Of course, 'Shy still being alive, she'll join them in her own time. If... if that's alright with them.

I wondered if/when Scotch would do that. Usually the blame/anger portion of the five stages goes inward in this story; it's almost refreshing to see a character blame somepony else. Naturally, Lunajack is going to follow the more typical pattern and blame herself, sooo yeah, we'll see where that goes. Crumpets, I hear ya loud and clear... the crazy ones really do repeat themselves, don't they? Don't they?

Good chapter (well, 26k word part of a chapter, heh). The jumping perspective pays off, I think. I'm not Tom. I don't give a fuck about Equus without life on it. Billions of years from now, campfires? Fuck off. These people matter, and I'm glad we're with them in this fight. This conflict has no business in the epilogue. Right here, right now, is where it belongs.

Damn.... just... damn...

Holy shit... I feel like I'm saying that a lot, but these last chapters have been pretty deserving of that reaction. The general bleakness of this story has gone up exponentially in the last group of chapters, and that's made it really hard to keep going. So many beloved characters are dying in just... depressing as hell ways. Damn. I'll keep going, but it's going to be hard.

~SolidFire

I love you for that Voltron referance. yet another awesome chapter!

The Blacks

The Whites

My sister!  My stable!  I couldn’t stop it!  Couldn’t stop it!  Stop!  Stop!  Stop!  Stop!

One of these doesn't belong. Can you guess which?

To 99!  To Canterlot!

Yeah, I'm definitely seeing some royal influence here.

 I failed and I died... and I failed at that, too.” 

That's pretty bad when you fail at dying too.

Rainbow brought the helmet around, striking Storm Chaser in the temple and staggering her in her seat.  The mare wasn’t quite knocked out, but she was dazed.  “Chicanery, come quick.  You’ve got some duct tape, right?”

The white pegasus trotted back in, his eyes wide.  “It’s standard issue for engineers.  Why?” he said as he pulled out the roll.  Rainbow Dash seized it, looped it round one hoof, and tore off strips with her teeth, leaving bits of her wispy rainbow-hued mane in the adhesive, then wrapped it around Storm Chaser’s hooves and covered her mouth.  By the time the mare had gathered her wits enough to start resisting, Rainbow was finishing taping her wingtips together behind her back.  Chicanery watched it all with a hapless expression.  “Oh, I am so dead.”

Oh, you are so much more then dead, Chicanery.
Knowing her stubbornness, she'll make you undead just to kill you again.

the chair squeaking.  “Oh, yeah.  This was the one with the squeaky seat.”

That must be one old bird...
One prehistoric raptor right there.

Did a missile explode if you dropped it?

I don't know. Care to find out?

tiny speechless ponies held each other, a tiny pink pony and yellow pegasus sobbing against each other while three others comforted a tiny, stunned, blue pegasus.

Yeah bro. Real Dash just went out with style.
Shocking, it must be.

“Luna wasn’t able to forgive me before she died...”

You know, now I can't help but wonder how Psalm will respond when she finds out Blackjack sort of is Luna now.
Will she accept her forgiveness if they find each other?

“No.  If we get anywhere near medical, I just know Nurse Sexual Healing will try and give me a sponge bath.  With her tongue.  In front of everypony.”  She gave a little shudder.  “And she wasn’t even a Stable 99 survivor.  I think there’s just some kind of perverted aura to this place or something.”

Sounds like my kinda nurse!
Redheart could really take a page from her book...

He spotted her, and his eyes were dragged away from his enemy as he gazed at her.  They widened and softened as for a moment the battle was no more, and he stretched a hoof towards her.

Then his body jerked as a half dozen bullets tore into him. 

Faust dammit! So dramatic he had to go out as if on stage...

I hate Blackjack!

Wow. Punch to the gut, anypony?
No? Just BJ? How sad.

Her very. Last. Freind. And now she hates her.
Anyone else seeing Blackjack pulling another verdant hill? (When she was about to commit suicide)

Ohhh, so the leader of the Half Hearts is your editor's OC? <.< I'm okay with that, I guess.

So this two-part chapter is going to be a lot of "Meanwhile, on Equus" and noble/tragic sacrifices. It's getting a tad repetitive, but at least enough ponies are pulling through to make things not entirely predictable. That said, you killed Rainbow Dash, you bastard. D:

So, Sagittarius got a good death. Silver Spoon, super sad. Candlewick, very glad he made it through. Rainbow Dash, fuck. Also, unnecessary Voltron references! :D I hate that! Sounds like Crumpets is going to be paralyzed, but I enjoyed watching her slap Psalm around. (Yet another alicorn gets a minigun though...) And then Harpica seems to die for almost no reason, which was super-sad, only to be one-upped in total immense sadness by Deus. ;_; "I was a good pony"? Tears, man.

Also, was that goddamn Winona who shows up to save Precious and Charity? c.c I had forgotten about her.

8261865

Ohhh, so the leader of the Half Hearts is your editor's OC? <.< I'm okay with that, I guess.

Second time that happened (that I know of), but the first you'd be able to tell from the author's notes: the lead zebra technician at the spaceport was Hind's OC (with a different name than his handle).

Think out of the chapter/part, my favorites were Silver Spoon and Rainbow Dash. Silver had long been a favorite side character, and I thought it was one of the most touching, sad scenes since Lacunae's death, with the other being Glory at the spaceport. Rainbow's was just going out like she lived at her best. With some bonus nostalgia. Doof's talk with Charity reminded me a bit of The Iron Giant--"You stay, I go. No following." ;_;

On the subject of repetition, I kind of wish the ordering had been such that the Team Imaginary Friends/Silver Spoon scene and Chapel/Charity scene had been on opposite sides of the part break, since there was a fair amount of overlap between what Silver Spoon had going on and Harpica.

Still not sure I ever got the Voltron references...

FYI, if you're going from the reading and want the tagged scene (ETA: see 8262225 for details), you'll need to get it from the published chapter. I don't know why Visual Pony did the "we'll see" at the start rather than record that announcement after doing the reading and making the decision. Also that he'd said something, or even just added a static sound or something along those lines, where the skipped section was. With it just pulled and nothing in the flow of the story indicating anything was skipped, I found it a bit disjointed and disorienting.

On that note, there were major changes towards the end of Chapter 77 in the port to Fimfic which aren't reflected in his reading, so if you want the story as it stands now, that's here, if you want as it was first published, you're good with the reading.

8261934

Still not sure I ever got the Voltron references...

When Rainbow Dash starts off "Activate interlocks". That's the original dialogue for forming Voltron. <.< Homaged in the new series, but only once.

Also, "tagged scene"? I'm not sure what you're talking about. Was something left out of the reading?

I'll have to make sure I check out chapter 77 here, then.

8262057
Okay, thanks. That's not exactly the kind of thing I'd get just from knowing the basic idea of Voltron.

From 75.2:

Author’s warning: There is a consensual sex scene* between a minor and an adult in this chapter. The author does not condone this behavior in real life. The scene will be flagged for individuals wishing to skip said material. The author apologies if lack of this warning offended people earlier.

---

The page that follows is the one flagged in the warning. Please skip to the next break if you do not wish to read such material.

---

The flagged section was left out of the reading, which just jumped from the section before it to the one after.

*Well, I'd say more "scene with consensual sex" than "consensual sex scene," but you know. Other portions/aspects of the scene kind of inform later scenes, but it's not like it's vital to anything else.

8262225
...Aw, shit, I was hoping that wouldn't happen. >.< Well, thanks for the heads up!

8262263
Yeah. It's another one of those being true to the character, and I really didn't want to have Scotch hate Blackjack. So yeah.

8262263
You're welcome. And at least it's easy to find what's missing if you do listen.

Doof is best pony.

Rainbow Dash flew over and landed in the captain’s chair. “Been a while...” she said as she stroked her hoof over the armrest and gave a little bounce, the chair squeaking. “Oh, yeah. This was the one with the squeaky seat.” She reached over, tugging the terminal connection closer. On it was a diagram of the Raptor, much of it flashing bright red with alerts. “Okay. Activate interlocks,” she said as she hit buttons on the armrest of the chair. “Dynatherms connected. Infracells are up...” She frowned and hit a different button a half dozen times. “Up! Get up, you damned infracells! Good.” Then she pulled over a wheel set on the other arm. “Megathrusters are go!” she said as she pushed a tiny knob to the top of its track. The entire ship began to rumble, and she grinned. “Let’s go, Castellanus !”

Oh my god, you included a Voltron Reference! Friggen nice!

My sister! !

Wait... What?

I wanted to go back to Star House with my friends. To 99! To Canterlot!

Nevermind, I got it. Would be cool if Blackjack had a sister though.

Another wonderful chapter, Somber. I've been really enjoying the Author's Note section at the end; nice and cheerful, really great for dealing with the... downs of each chapter.

It really has been like a rollercoaster ride -- getting dragged left and right, up and down all against my will. Yet, I allow it. I don't understand why I allow it, but I do -- at least it is better than the real thing.

So much to talk about... hmm? Oh! Dashie's death was... fine. While it tends to be disheartening to see a good character go, she went out as she lived: always 'awesomer'. While Spoon, on the other hoof, just felt... saddening; in the show she is bratty, but she was... decent in here, and, as such, it was a real shame to watch her go out -- with a bang.

I'm relieved that Candlewick made it; and am even more relieved that Toasty didn't (though he might have been able to be redeemed?). Oddly enough, figurative heads would roll if Charity died (from this war); she has a future! And then Doof... breathes he did great; I hope things work well for him (his image, his daughter, and all else).

Before I forget to mention it: Blackjack has a sister?! Since when?! I don't recall that being there in the slightest!

My apologies for taking so long to finish reading the chapter. I haven't had too many points to just read, and for that, I am sorry. And, Somber, you're one of my top three favorite writers -- I doubt anything can change that.

9100731
9101243 is correct.

XSRacing111, if you see this, it's best to reply to the comment in the chapter it is posted in; otherwise the person you are responding to won't get a notification.

9104777
Thank you for notifying me about the message, Ice Skate.

That really helped clear a tad bit of confusion I was having.

9104777
Yes I got it
I’m on my phone most of the time so I can’t tell sometimes.

Blackjack not dealing with emotions like an adult...well isn't that a common unending theme with her.

On it was a diagram of the Raptor, much of it flashing bright red with alerts. “Okay. Activate interlocks,” she said as she hit buttons on the armrest of the chair. “Dynatherms connected. Infracells are up...” She frowned and hit a different button a half dozen times. “Up! Get up, you damned infracells! Good.” Then she pulled over a wheel set on the other arm. “Megathrusters are go!” she said as she pushed a tiny knob to the top of its track. The entire ship began to rumble, and she grinned. “Let’s go, Castellanus !”

Um... I think you're missing four lions. Or at least raptors. XD

At least BJ got to see Tiara as Spoon saw her. Whether or not it was really her ghost or just Spoon's delusions.

I mean, ghouls are half dead already, so it makes sense they could have a link to those who have already passed.

I choose to believe it was really Diamond's spirit welcoming Spoon home. Two halves now eternally made whole.

Legit, I actually can't look at or even think about P-21 atm without wanting to ball my eyes out. So I'll just say this now: ya know a characters death is meaningful when you can't just easily get over it. When seeing that characters name makes it hard to see cuz of the tears. And ngl, i loved P-21 as a character. He had really good development over the course of chapter one and now. He had ups. Downs. Highs. Even lows. Like... Rest In Peace, P-21.

What an ending for Doof the Marauder. Wonder how his repair talisman got knocked off. So many people dying left and right. Wish Rainbow went out with a sonic rainboom would have been sick. But I'm not complaining how she decided to go out. Silver Spoon's sacrifice was also noble. At least she got her happy ending. Man everyone's dying left and right here

I swear to God if my boy Stronghoof dies I will cry my eyes out