7425010
I missed a lot of these backlashes as they happened based on having only picked up the show about a year and a half ago. Flash is meaningless to me... though yeah I guess that's the reason he's hated, well combined with being a bit shoehorned in for whatever reason. Stygius' timing... and being a batpony... random nice guy in the Hoof... and the shadowstep thing (though Fallout does have the Blitz perk, and this is a Crossover...)... causing drama innocently... yeah I guess I could see it. Hmmm.... I hate to say Somber might have himself to blame there. So much shit goes bad that a random nice guy sticks out too much and breaks immersion. Or was that not the issue with him? I might be missing the point on this one. Meh, I spose I got bigger things to worry about than him in this fic... for now...
S'okay, I need to lay off Goldenblood (more than said my piece there... I was sleep deprived) so in exchange I'll at least not complain about Stygius... probly. I reserve the right to prove myself wrong, that's half the fun of commenting as I go. Cheers.

7412750 the sequel went up a little while after the first was finished on Google docs. That's why

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeew, hot damn man, hot damn... what a chapter, and Blackjack, damn girl...
Again, like always, I have no words to really say about this. The story is amazing, and I'm surprised I lasted this long against one of these legendary Fo:E fanfictions, so damn good work Somber, love your characters, story, and the scenes you paint with your words.

Here's hoping one of my own Fo:E stories become legendary

Carry on my friend!

Where the hell does Triage and Whisper and all the rest get all this moonstone?! Only a few kilos were brought back, and nearly all of it went into silver bullets and anti-enervation necklaces for the Tokomare project people, and part of what was left was used in BJ for her augmentations, and trace amounts more was (supposedly) used in the Moon Dust drug! There shouldn't be any moonstone left in the whole of equestria at this point, but the Collegiate has enough just lying around to stick into some random (to them) patient's IV bags?! I get that charity got her stone from the museum, but my point still stands, as the stone should, from a plot point of view, have been used to make shells if it's that g-dam rare, as, you know, they're trying to kill the Eater. That kind of takes moonstone requisition priority, as it is more important to have the recoved stone in shells than an IV for a dying patient. Speaking of which, why didn't they use the moonstone from Glory's (now useless) IV bags to make more shells?

Anyway, rant over, I want you to know I nitpick because I love this story, and wish to see plotholes sealed. At least add in a terminal entry or something in the Astrostable scenes saying how that the rockets used to get the blanks/materials/ponies up there brought back some more of the stuff, and how it was distributed to various places of education and labs for further study. (That would also explain how the Mixers got a hold of some, despite it being Uberrock used in megaspell guns and enervation shielding and (probably) being under insane protection, as they could have raided a derelict lab or something)

Edit 1: If BJ only has luna's soul, not memory, as is mentioned at the start of the chapter, with the healing spell part, how can she "remember what her sister told her"?

Edit 2: "She glowed up at me" should be glowered.

Edit 3: I may have just missed it, (1:30 AM isn't all that conductive for remembering all that happens) but I swear BJ hasn't undergone the surrogacy spell yet? And she is about to face the eater? With super-enervation all around, as, y-know, the eater gives it off? I think it was supposed to happen before now. I could have sworn it has happened by this point in the story in the gdoc equivalent.

hay ive looked ever where and i havent found any of blackjack's little songs i cant even find the lyrics out side the books if some one who is just started the book could log them by page and chapter or even just copy and past them to me let me know so i can try to force my friends hoof in singing them lol :P

“It was taking us back to the space center,” she said as tapped the controls.

“It was taking us back to the space center,” she said as she tapped the controls.

Who knew that that was doing to my kids?

Who knew what that was doing to my kids?

The soul of alicorn Luna seems to be breaching into Blackjack's chapter commentary in and between dialogue.

Ha, floozies

RIP Windsheer. Poor Calamity.

Morning Glory is actually alive, if just barely. How, and now the question is will/when she die again? On the bright side of sadness, a I want to believe actually worked.

That is the best dream ever in this. Leave it to smart pony Glory to have an actual plan ready.

“Charity is already trying to convert our moonstone into shells you can use the destroy the starmetal F.A.D.E. housings.”

“Charity is already trying to convert our moonstone into shells you can use to destroy the starmetal F.A.D.E. housings.”

RIP Morning Glory for real this time. One last defiant moment of life. (The spreadsheet should be updated I think)
That's right Scotch Tape, she's not boring. How terrible timing. I'm with Scotch Tape on this, it's not fair for P-21 and Glory.

I couldn’t give her want she wanted.

I couldn’t give her what she wanted.

Luna’s electroshocked nipples

LittlePip's creative swears strikes again!

Grace the surrogacy mother, with a broken horn. Atleast Blackjack finally had the procedure done before going to the Core underground again.

Celestia and Luna having a heart-to-heart. That's nice. Triage and Bastard are related, huh. And literally 200 years old or so. Oh man is Bastard's real name embarrassing like Skipper? So Whisper is on board to destroy the Eater. But who will the other five be to finish the fight?

I can hardly believe I have come this far into the story as well. It seemed impossible to find time to read, then just devoting some hours per night to read a chapter or almost an entire day to catch up. I have prevented falling behind beyond hope.

That Les Mis song fits too damn well. So much death and ghosts.

To the last to resolve the conflict, to save the entire freckn' world. Into the Core and Towards Tomorrow.

7428091 Do you even English m8

Wait, Lightning Dancer is dead? Did she die offscreen or something?

Glory's death was a real bummer. She doesn't even belong to my favorite characters and it still hurt the first time I read this story. Same with P-21 and Stygius. The latter's death had the biggest impact on me.

Just one more chapter left

Final mission. Choose your party.

Part of me still wishes there had been "alternate endings" written out for this and branching from this point like an actual Fallout game. But that would take way too much time for Somber to even attempt.

The One Man's Pony Ramblings review is now live!

From the man who's probably been doing this longer than any other.

7441609
Aw yeah. RWBY and it's killer OST. He burns alright, literally.

On the relevant note, I look forward to the last chapter & epilogue to be uploaded.

This came to mind thinking of Tomorrow.

Finally, I've reached the bloody penultimate chapter and now the ending is coming soon... which leaves me with warm and sad fuzzies... Also, Blackjack, really girl? You had all the time to learn that and you're reluctant? I mean I can understand but my god can it get a bit annoying...

Also... bloody hell, all the main characters except Boo and Scotch (Rampage as well, but I'm putting this under spoilers) are officially... deceased. I feel like this song will do them and any other side character I missed justice You all will be missed

With the amount of folks who've died lately in this fic, I find this oddly fitting. (Great bloody job by the way. Ultimate chapter here we go!)

T(FN)

It's like game of thrones, condensed into one chapter.

Well.. that just did it.. now i just have to send everyone in the current room i am in upstairs so i can bawl like i never bawled before... and this song didnt help but.. it did fit very well at glory's final moments with blackjack..

This monster of a journey is coming to an end. Oh gosh. One last penultimate chapter for the fate of the world. I'm going to be a shaking mess for the whole thing, I bet. Time to dive into the mayhem.

~SolidFire

Ok, so I was rereading this and I noticed something.

The hollow expression on Moondancer’s face as she held the weeping dove-gray pegasus fillies Lambent and Lucent.

Moondancer?! What are you doing here?

“Wow. I think I’d rather storm Neighvarro all over again than hang out here,” Spike said before frowning down at me.

damn the hoof must be pretty damn crazy hello pot i'm kettle definitely walked into that one

"Sail us into hell and back, what's the fucking difference? Even if it kills us now, we wouldn't do it different!"

Morning Glory was alive!

What the fuck is wrong with you, Blackjack?
It's the literal end of the world and "Glory" plus "Space-" automatically makes you smile, even though most of your friends just died or got turned to soul juice...

Seriously, BJ.

“Is something amiss?” I asked properly, keeping my head when all others had lost theirs. Sister, you’d be so proud.

No. She'd be so dissapointed.
I'm not entirely sure what this is, but I kill my own feelings enough to know this is most certainly NOT a good thing.

This isn't you, Luna.
This is Blackjack! Give her back the reigns!

“I’m Starkatteri. Creepy zebra soul and star shit is kinda our whole deal,” she replied. “And if you call me ‘sweetie’ again, I’ll personally get a dead star to piss on your wedding day.” That definitely cut off all inquiry in that direction.

I wonder what that would be like?
Velvet in her white gown that Pip found.
Calamity in his suit and hat that everypony told him not to wear.
Then...I don't know, Aliens come down and abduct velvet, and they end up going on a goose chase.

So Bastard and Triage...do they appear in another fiction?
I can't help but think of Heroes. Or Murky number 7.
Do they appear in other fics? I know Puppy Smiles was at least alluded to by Chicanery.

At the end of the row stood Applebot, Sweetie Bot, and Scootaborg.

Must have had a field day getting that Ultra Dash worshipper in that tunnel.

Half an hour until armageddon.

Crap.

Tick tock, deaths on the clock!
Giant star eating demon to kill.

ok, we found out she was alive and then she just dies. Goddamnit

Hah, I had all those questions about last chapter and you answered most of them here. XD Go figure!

And, well, at least Glory's death was still a death, still meaningful. She didn't deserve to suffer as much as she did, but you really got me with that "what if" scene in the mindscape. :C

Her Pipbuck becoming a Broadcaster is a neat touch, though the connection between Enervation and Pink Cloud feels very last-minute. So it's not just that Big Momma is sweet on Big Daddy, they're actually married? Or were? c.c Either way, she's a scary lady. That "mazel tov" is two of the funniest words in this whole story. XD

It sounds like the Brood are being taken over by random souls brought up with the Eater; I'm surprised you haven't used that as a way to bring characters back. Also, now I'm wondering if Glory and others who've died recently have been taken by the Eater, and that is a worry I do not want to have to deal with. D:

If I haven't said it before, Pythia is literally the best. I'm surprised the surrogacy spell happened offscreen, though I guess there was no reason for it not to. I can forgive a lot of things given how you brought Littlepip into that last fight and had her be way badass. c.c Psalm forgiving Luna/Blackjack hit me way harder in the feels than I expected. Also, it took me far too long to realize they'd given her the control box and I feel dumb. >.< Bastard and Triage... It's funny, I noticed something off about her talking about her 'residency'; like, that's just not something you do in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Now it makes sense! And nothing else does. Trying not to think about it, because I suspect the full story exists only in that comment you gave me a couple chapters ago. :B (Who in this story isn't 200 years old, seriously.) Lastly, I'm still not a big fan of Whisper, but goddamn does she get some great one-liners at the end of this chapter.

@Icy Shake: Let me know what scene I should be looking out for to read myself? :)

8276965
The "what if" scene was the single best thing about her being back, and if there was something missing from the time before the mission, it was defining what "Tomorrow" would be.

The forgiveness scene didn't go the way I expected it to, and it's better for it. The residency thing was something I sometimes thought about, but mostly swept under the mental rug as maybe something the Collegiate kind of did in some form.

Re where to switch: After the scene where there's a big discussion of what P-21's real name is, there's a rapid-fire sequence of three dreams, each a paragraph long. Those mini-dreams are the same in both versions, but starting right after the last of them and through to the end of the chapter you'll want to read.
Besides that, there's a bit of expansion in the 3 paragraphs following "For an instant, Pythia’s expression mirrored her youthful form." and the paragraph after "“What’s it going to cost me?” I asked." that might be worth seeing (more the first than the second), but isn't really needed.

Re "mazel tov," moved to the bottom because kind of derailed: get where you're coming from with it being very funny, in just how dry a response it is to some of the weirdest shit ever. But it also raises so many questions for me in just two words (though I feel like I have to have seen something like this elsewhere). Like, what does it mean for there to be Jewish ponies? (Heck, what does being a Jewish pony mean?) Would the historical experiences of the Jewish ponies of Equestria be anything like those of them on Earth (it seems like they shouldn't be, even excluding the Holocaust, unless you're working with a much darker than show-tone Equestria, like maybe FoE-verse or what Estee's got)? If the history is really different, how does that change their culture? 0_0

well after crying through this chaper i found this song pretty much summed it up for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWseyWVeNdE

“I don’t deserve forgiveness,” I muttered against her neck. She sighed and patted my back.

“Neither did I. But sometimes what we need is more important that what we deserve,” she replied.

this reminded me of a story: Starlight Glimmer says something like, "why did you forgive me? i don't deserve it." to Twilight, and she responds, "no you didn't, but i didn't deserve to be forgiven for driving half the town crazy with an enchanted doll." i forget the next part...

“He... faked his death?” I struggled to say.

She nodded with smile. “Any time he wanted to get away from Big Momma, actually.

And he was due to make an apology to get the Highlanders in the fight...

That fucking asshole got us all choked up about his badass heroic sacrifice and everything!

Triage sighed and rolled her eyes. “We really don’t have time to get into it. Roo–”

(Runs to grab a dictionary)

Rooftop? Rook? Rookie? Rooster? ...Root Beer? .....Root Canal?

I think that pretty much covers the serious possibilities. Any I missed?

Almost the end, it's been one heck of a read... heck? why did I go with heck? Er... another great chapter; this one really aimed for the feels.

I wonder how all will go?

Things are wrapping up nicely. And Triage and... Roo... are siblings? That... makes a lot of sense. The whole 'residency' caught me off guard, and I was left wonder about how it played a part in things.

I'm glad to know that Blackjack isn't going to be going alone, no matter what she would have wanted (before the convincing). Anyway, I, sadly don't have much more to add. Until the next chapter, Desh.

Goddamnit this story is going to kill me. Is no one sacred here.

Glory s final scene is too much
Without even reading, i know it iwilll make me feel bad, very bad
Its worse than blackjack in the first time

Are you done with you killing spree.... *Silently sobbs*

9280968
10062230

No.

Scootaborg: CRUSH. KILL. DESTROY. SWAG.

FucK! Glory's death made me cry so hard, goddamnit. I really, really liked her :C
Love this story and I hate it at the same time ;_;.

10275539

Only I would be a monster enough to kill her twice. My characters deserve better... q.q

Indeed they do. Glory's death felt like stab, punch and gunshot into the heart at the same time xd. At this point I would like a Blackjack to die as well just to let her be with Glory in afterlife xd. Damnit.

I must admit. I've read many stories in my life (for example Fallout Equestria) and this moment was the first one who just demolished my soul. Kinda good job xd. You were the first one who made me crying xD (also, becasue it's so well written too)

How many more characters could possibly die before the world is saved? I know it's gotta be somebody. I really hope it isn't Whisper, I liked her redemption arch a lot

I'm almost done. On to the next. I really loved your story. It's a pain for me to have come so far and then...see it end.

10409827
Amen.

7432781
thats what i notice too, among all the side characters shes seems to be the only one who has a offscreen death

All these deaths honestly have slowly broken my heart. But the ones that hit me hardest were Glory and P-21. Especially P-21. I at least could look at Glory's name in reading and not ball my eyes out immediately. Took me much longer for him. Rampage doubled down on this, tho. It wasn't just him but then her being left on the moon to suffer eternally, stuck forever. That mixed with his death hit me really damn hard. This whole story has been amazing.
Also, that part between celestia and blackjack was nice. 200 years and the sisters finally got reunited even if only for a bit.
And that part with glory was equal parts sad and great. Mostly sad. And Stygius... God that one actually was just... Poor Whisper.
R.I.P. to all who've died thus far in this story.

I sat down at the party table in the centermost seat, empty chairs to either side of me. “Empty chairs... empty tables...” I murmured at everything spoiled and scattered around me. The phantom faces and shadows of those I had known and loved watched me from beyond as I sat there, awaiting my turn to join them.

From the table in the corner
They could see a world reborn
And they rose with voices ringing
And I can hear them now!
The very words that they had sung
Became their last communion
On this lonely barricade
At dawn

I have cried too many damn times already, how dare you get me with a Le Miserables reference too. I am actually sobbing. Fucking phenomenal work wordsmith, I hate you for making this so good

Was Goldenblood killed? I just remember him being captured by Legate. Did he kill him during that tussle?
As much as I hate you for bringing back Glory just to kill her I'm glad she got to say her goodbye. Everyone in her group said their goodbyes to Blackjack expect her. Now they can hopefully all rest in piece. Maybe Rampage can come flying back on Tom?

So like... I could say a lot of things about this last volume in general. On the bright side, it's a lot better than I remember. Not that that means a whole lot.
The plot feels a bit convoluted and contrived, and it stretches onnnn and onnnn, but at least it's interesting.
However, I don't have any notes, and I frankly can't be assed to put in the effort. Instead, have a ranking of some character deaths.

Big Daddy: Classic hero’s death. Bit cliché, but I can’t hate it for that. 8/10.

RD: Same as BD, but so much more awesome. Truly an amazing sendoff to the character. 10/10. Damn, and to think it annoyed me, 8 years ago.

Echo: 6/10. Pretty good, would have been better if the audience and BJ cared more about him. Brutal, immediate, and unexpected. As a death should be.

Stygius: Would have been a 10/10. Falling in battle, without any warning and without anyone being able to magically CTRL-Z it with a healing potion is peak death. However, the proposal made it so damn obvious. What’s worse, it felt like a huge “Be sad, please” neon sign was posted over the scene. 6/10.

Goldenblood: Honestly, a fine death. Not a tear jerker, much like Echo’s death, but it was so satisfying to see his character arc conclude like this. I’m not really fond of a character dying right after their arc finishes, though. That’s just dumb. (Murky Number Seven spoiler: cough cough Protégé). 5/10

Then there’s all the other heroes’ deaths. Honestly, it started to get a bit cliché, but I just can’t hate them. Every hero’s death gets a 5/10 by default. Candlewick’s would have been a solid 8/10 tear jerker, but he lived so he’s disqualified.

Rampage: Dunno if it counts, but I’m counting it. 7/10. Not contrived, but also not as quick as a death should be. However, the sheer horror of it makes up for it.

Glory: While I could argue that the circumstances leading her death are contrived, they ultimately made a lot of sense, and it would be a disservice to call it contrived. Moreover, the decision to have her die off screen is very good because it leaves ambiguity for the characters (even though we, the audience, know she's dead). The last goodbye was a bit much, but it also did make sense. Overall, solid 7/10, no wonder it made me bawl my eyes out, 8 years ago.
Or at least that's what I wanted to say. Nope, Glory had to come back with exactly two purposes. To be plot relevant one last time before her plot armour ran out, and to die on-screen with a terribad hollywood death where she got to give the protagonist the last words she needed. 2/10, because it could have been worse.

Speaking of worse...
P-21: 0/10. Most bullshit, contrived death I've ever seen. Having him die during the actual fight with Cogs would have made a million times more sense. A stray beam hits him, BJ doesn't notice it until Cogs is deleted, BJ celebrates victory and finds his corpse. Easily could have been an 8/10 death with just a minor change, and a 10/10 with a few more.
But nooooo, had to give a pseudo-technical reason for why Cogs couldn't be properly deleted (not to mention, a completely nonsensical technical reason that annoyed me almost as badly as the encryption bullshit back in chapter 63).
And then, of course, he stayed alive exactly as long as he needed to be in order to remain useful. Back in 2015 I wasn't really critical of media I consumed, and even back then it pissed me off enough to never finish the fic.
Glory’s first brush with death made me bawl my eyes out in 2015. Even in my second read, I cried pretty hard. In contrast, P-21’s death absolutely shattered my suspension of disbelief and did nothing but piss me off at the fic.

Finally, while it's not a death, Grace's scenes were pure kino. Grace is amazing. Turbo chad. Whisper’s second song was pretty kino as well.

Hopefully I said everything I wanted to say. Kinda hard to remember it all when you can’t take notes.