The battle of the Hoof ended 9 years ago. For some ponies, the scars are still fresh in the mind. As Threnody, a young heartmender working with the Followers of the Apocalypse will find, sometimes the hardest step is getting a Patient to speak.
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Well this was horrifying and confusing. I was lost for most of this chapter.
So Blackjack left the most "fucked up" place in the Wasteland (Hoofington) to walk into the second most "fucked up" place (the name of the region the story is currently taking place, it's been so long that I sorta forgot Aside from Stable 9, sooo... "the Wasteland 'round Stable 9"?)? I mean, between the mind raping unicorns and the forest of random body parts... Well, I guess that's just her luck. What do you have in store next?
Out of curiosity, how did you come up with the idea for the Red Forest?
Hm, so they have real life horses' blood types in your story? Doesn't that make blood transfusion way more complicated? Though then again, I don't recall blood tranfusion being brought up in neither Project Horizons or original Fo:E (though you think it would considering how much ponies get shot in those) so I guess that doesn't matter... I think the only two stories that had it mentioned were Heroes and my own
(Also HOOOOOOOOOOOOLY SH*T horses have different blood types than humans! Yeah, I really didn't realize it before Sooo lucky I'm not writing a story with a medical doctor as a main character)
Also also, does Glitter still has the same blood type after becoming an alicorn? I mean, I suppose it could still be the same, but it probably wouldn't work if they would tranfuse it to a normal pony from her...
Anyway, awesome (and educational) chapter^^ Certainly worth the wait^^
Edit: Ah, also, I wonder what's up with Threnody? Did she somehow gained a sort of telepathy on top of her empathic abilities? Though I suppose it would make sense if mentally fighting with a telepath could force such powers to develop...
Well damn, now we're past even Dead Money levels of dangerous
"it's possible this asteroid is not entirely stable."
It lives! Huzzah
You know, given how we've seen a creature made of ether, flesh and machines, an A.I on rampancy that summoned the equivalent to a celestial being to eat souls, the ability to transfer souls into blank slate bodies, a whiskey queen turned cyborg, and pieces of reality shoved into pocket dimensions. A forest littered with or made of corpses doesn't sound so farfetched now.
Welcome To The Wasteland!
Hmm so the annihilation meteor landed post war in equus and has done exactly what we would expect it to do. Man.... To bad communication is impossible. If the alien could direct the onset evolution then it could purpose breed the physiology of the ponies could give them alpha mutations. They could have fey eyes and dragon scales and manipulation tails and give them strong metabolisms.
what a chapter to start a new adventure, that forest is disgusting and reminds me of a game i played.
it brightens my day a little to read a new chapter of speak
This chapter made me think of that movie "Annihilation"; wonder if the Red Forest is the work of The Eater, or a Megaspell test site gone horribly right. Seems like whatever happened in the dream might've 'leveled up' Thren's empathic abilities to the point she's actually telepathic. Can't wait to see how bacon-haired horse plays her role in the story!
9528107
So... legit when I learned about horse blood types and realised one of them was QT, I had to, I mean had to include it as a terrible pun. That said, like many of the other comments have noted, there's a lot of influences from a horror movie called "Annihilation", as well as a few influences from Made in Abyss. ...And technically a cult horror movie called "The Ritual." I loved MiA, and find to be a darling, but full-of-fridge-horror show that I kinda wanted to explore a place like that. Then my ex showed me Annihilation and one of the monsters from there has literally haunted my nightmares ever since. So it sounded like a good idea at the time to take a hard left turn into creature horror and what-the-fuckery?
That said, I had to do a silly amount of research on things, and dear god trying to remember what the name was for 'Hox Genes' without having to rewatch 70% of a movie that scared the hell out of me was a feat.
9528434
Trying to decide if you just described Kirin.
9528120
"GET IN THE SKY BUS, LOSERS! WE'RE GONNA SEE A BODY! And... some really fucked up shit. And... this is probably a terrible plan... Blackjack why did we even make this plan!?"
Yaa it's a new chapter :) sadness I have already finished it :( Need more soon!
9527210
She has a container ship (named Blackjack x Thernody) of baggage.
9528840
We have a plan?
Although, at least you didn't draw inspiration from The Thing. That's so much nightmare fuel it's not even funny.
9529302
I watched Love Death + Robots and got more ideas.
Jaysus pleezus, that forest sucks ass!
Glad to see more if this story, still one if my favorite FoE spinoffs. And what an action packed chapter! Please don't let this cliffhanger torture me for too long...
9528828
... From dragons ballz?
9528826
Oh wow, me being not native english speak strikes again. Took me reading your reply twice and staring at "QT" for good five seconds before I realized what the pun was
Well, it seems I've got a new horror movie and a series to watch. Amusing, considering that the last one I watched was in fact "The Ritual" (either that or some movies based on Lovecraft's stories, I don't remember which order I was watching them, just that I watched a few last year around Spring I think... ). Buuuut I hadn't watched "Annihilation", or "Made in Abyss" for that matter.... damn I'm so behind with anime series... Need to pick one weekend to just watch stuff...
9528107
Blackjack had to be hooked up to Rampage to keep her blood flowing just before Blackjack's first "upgrade" in Chapter 34 Birthday. Other than that and some medical scenes in Meatlocker and University hospital I don't think blood transfusions have been used much no. I guess it's sort of assumed healing potions or hydra have an effect on minor blood loss usually.
Gotta say Red Forest is a cool concept. Very uniquely horrific and memorable for a series that has so many horrific set pieces it'd be easy for it to be bland or forgettable. Also reminds me of the peppermint monsters in Murky Number Seven for some reason.
I like the direction the Annihilation mutations are going. And are those towering monster things like those gas-spewing plants from S4e2 that were attacking Twilight?
Also, Rest In Peace blink grape vine!
Is 'kinship' supposed to be a verb or is there a 'feel' or 'have' missing?
I like that Threnody uses blue for her HUD, it goes with her water preference.
Just as with all the others who've said so, I'm super intrigued at finding out what Sunset's place is in all of this and discovering why Threnody's powerlevel is rising (That is, I mean, outside the meta-fact of fallout being an rpg ); and also if Blackjack's blank body survived that smackdown (I mean, she has to survive, right? SOMEPONY's gotta get Rampage back from the Moon. I fear for the others though), and what other horrors are making the Everfree seem like kids stuff from some Saturday morning cartoon!
9530476
Ack! There is a missing word there! Good catch!
Also funny story about her pipbuck colour - Bro kept arguing it should be amber and I kept telling him blue was the superior colour. I didn't realise that people legit had preferences when they played through FO3, NV, and 4, but apparently the loyalty to your colour is strong. Which... kinda made me think of that episode of Babylon 5 where the alien race nearly destroyed itself in a civil war over arbitrarily assigned colours.
"A quavering howl tricked in from"
"A quavering howl trickled in from"?
Hm. I wonder what the pony was doing that Blackjack even had the angle to shoot them there.
"Forest to make break for it"
"Forest to make a break for it"?
"fell a good metre along everypony else"
"fell a good metre along with everypony else"?
"they didn’t much kinship with"
"they didn’t feel much kinship with"?
"be waiting me out there"
"be waiting for me out there"?
Aye, I think it was worth it; thanks. :)
9529327
So we watched same thing...
And I consider Annihilation being rather a first contact going south movie than just horror.
9531232
Your comments on my errors are getting shorter! :D
And I have no idea what angle she used to work that out. With a shotgun no less!
Well, I'm quite concerned for the party and am afraid Threnody's been cursed by the Dealer with fake telepathy. This locale disturbs the hell out of me and I want it purged; please continue. And Annihilation plus Fallout sounds logical yet extra terrifying (it's one of the few horror films I've seen)... Would this be necromancy, Discord on a depressive drug, or the Old Gods' doing?
9531992
"Your comments on my errors are getting shorter! :D"
:)
"And I have no idea what angle she used to work that out. With a shotgun no less!"
Some ridiculously unlikely ricochet, maybe? :)
9530507
I shouldn't have been surprised that there'd be that kind of assertion about HUD colours. I have tried green and blue, but kept finding they strained my eyes. Maybe I need to try purple or yellow one of these days
9530003
Yeah, I remember that, just didn't count it as it wasn't blood transfusion, they just hooked her up to Rampage's circulatory system. I suppose healing potions and/or hydra could help with minor blood loss, though I'm not completely convinced on that... will have to reread original and PH sometime. Also depends on what we'd understand as "minor blood loss", as "minor minor" wouldn't probably even require, um, resupplying? Those examples I've made (of Heroes and my own Infinite Potential) of specified blood transfusion in turn were after a massive blood losses, hence they were necessery.
9533704
What I mean is when a character loses an entire leg and takes a hydra if it didn't regenerate blood too they'd instantly be anemic.
9533744
Well, yeah, in that case I can agree with it. But I don't recall if hydra is able to regenerate an entire limb. I recall it being able to regrow eyes and hooves at best
9531992
Well, they do make slugs. Also, she's practically a surgeon with her shotgun.
9528826
Ah ha! I knew the whole "when organisms stop paying attention to species" sounded familiar. I know the monster you're referencing. I had to show friends and family a clip of it once the movie was available for download because I couldn't fully convey how much it made my skin crawl.
And the chapter was worth the wait. Loved the imagery as well as the sense of confusion/revulsion from both the characters and myself.
I'm a bit late to the party but I'll just say this; Holy shit what kind of a hell hole have you created Heartshine. This place rivals that creepy ass hospital Somber made in PH.
Good to know that you've researched horse blood types. Honestly, if you ask me, Puppysmiles would also be a QT... A QT positive...
Also, Threnody can read minds now?
What the hell is that monster, a mutated Ursa Major? I... Think that thing's bigger than a blue whale? Imagine, a blood-themed ursa major... I call it an ursa globin
EDIT: I wonder if anypony ever had Neonatal Isoerythrolysis? Or if different combinations affect race parts?
Incidentally, would pegasi having the instinct to look up unlike the other races (and humans, IRL ninja tactics frequently rely on people not looking more than 45 degrees up) affect the raider virus? (which would actually be a prion?) ...Now I'm getting too in-depth, I think...
9528788
Seems almost related to Project Chimera in its potential medical applications. Wonder where it gets all that iron for the hemoglobin though. Ambient magic?
Well worth the wait cant wait for more
Nah, its probably just Boo.
9543402
Boo, honey. We have got to talk about your snack cake habits.
9542980
I understand your feelings about firearms. I do, really. But on 'my side of the coin', I grew up with them. My brother and I were taught gun safety practically from the time we could walk. My father made sure we were well drilled in safety before even letting us touch a rifle (a dinky .22 caliber, bolt action rifle). Made sure we knew that a 'gun' was something that could kill, and that handling it, we have to be safe about where to point it until we, ourselves, checked to be CERTAIN it was unloaded. He would even do things like put a spent brass cartridge casing into the breach to see if we really checked, and how fast we noticed it was there. We could both assemble and disassemble the weapon, clean it, and such almost blindfolded before we ever touched live ammo anywhere near the rifle.
By the time I was 10, I could shoot a squirrel in a tree at 100 yards, with a single shot, to the head (so the meat was not wasted. We grew up THAT poor). By the time I was 13 and strong enough to lug it around, my dad let me use the .410/.22 'over and under' rifle. A .410 Shotgun, with an integrated .22 cal barrel on top of the shotgun's barrel (to load or unload, it broke open like a standard shotgun).
So, when I enlisted in the Marines, I was one of a handful of recruits that had actually fired a weapon. The M-16 barely had a 'kick' harder than the old .22 I'd shot for so long, and never a worry about weapon safety, ability to learn how to use, care for, clean, and repair one in the field. And, no fear of it.
To me, growing up like I did, a weapon was a tool. One that could wound and kill, but still a tool... like an axe, or hatchet, a knife or an electric drill... all of which can hurt you or others if used improperly. All of which CAN be used as a weapon. I would have to say that my dad taught us, and the Marines taught me more, that anything can be a weapon. And the most dangerous weapon Nature ever devised is the Human Mind.
Bubbles might be better off if Blackjack can get her hooves on his broken weapon. She could find parts to repair it, since she's used such things before (hell, in FOE:PH, she stripped several rifles to make good ones out of parts of many bad ones. Shotguns too. I don't doubt she got her hooves on grenade launchers as well). From the description of the broken weapon on Bubble's battle saddle, it has to be a 40mm automatic grenade launcher. Something like this...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mk_19_grenade_launcher#/media/File:MK19-02.jpg
You could name it the IP-19. Iron Pony mark 19, automatic grenade launcher. perhaps??
You mentioned firing the old Colt M-1911. I used that weapon too and enjoyed it. It felt well balanced in my hand from the way the grip angled and made sighting easier down the barrel. I know that feeling of power, control, and awesomeness of the bellow of a 230 grain, full metal jacket round rumbling down range at nearly 1,000 feet per second at a target. The only other weapon that fit my hand even more was the 7mm WWII German Luger. The angle is even more pronounced and you only have to lift your arm and the weapon is level and pointed at the target. My only real dislike for it was the mechanism that would jam a round upon ejection. Otherwise, it was one of the sweetest feeling pistols I'd ever fired.
I would not worry about small hands. It seems you got the feel of the weapon and that's all that's required to use it. You mentioned liking it over the 9mm and others, and why. But I got no sense you were 'afraid' of it. Good. Like anything else, it's a tool to be used. And tools can hurt you or others, if you misuse them, or use them wrongly. And, if you don't take care of them.
I once had a near knock-down, drag-out fight with a woman about 'guns'. She standing steadfast that all 'guns' were 'bad' and they killed people. I got so tired of her pedantic platitudes, that I got up and went into another room and returned with an unloaded pistol. You should have seen her eyes!
I put it on a shelf and told her: 'There is a gun. It cannot harm you. If left there for 100 years, and no one touched it, it would not harm anyone. It takes a Human hand, and a Human mind, to pick it up and use it to harm anyone. The Gun isn't the thing that's 'bad', it's People that are bad.' Every time she would sputter her nonsense about gun-control, and the dangers of 'guns'... I would just point over my shoulder and say: "So far, it's not killed anyone. And it won't, unless someone picks it up and uses it" She tried to keep on telling me that I was a bad person for owning one, and bringing it into her presence.
I laughed and put down a spoon, fork, toothpick, a comb, and a stick that the dog had found. I asked her if these were weapons. Of all the items, the pointed to the stick. I laughed and told her everything on the table was a weapon, and explained as she got more and more horrified... just a few ways each could be used to kill.
After that day... She never spoke to me again about the subject, and my friends who had all heard me and her, would tell her when she got up on her high horse that I'd proved her wrong in so many ways that she was just being a whiny overgrown child.
Do I enjoy harming others? Hell NO! Will I harm others to defend those that cannot or will not defend themselves? Yes. I took an Oath, that even now binds me. To use what I know only to teach, defend, or avenge.
I am sorry if I seem to be 'harping' on the subject. This missive to you just sort of brought things out that I've not talked to others about in awhile. Sorry about that. But I am not sorry, nor ever will be, to use what I know for the reasons I've stated.
Oh, on another topic: I really like your portrayal of Blackjack and her interactions with Threnody. As screwed up as BJ can sometimes get, I really liked Somber's story. I think yours is an apt and fitting continuation of Blackjack's life story. Keep writing! I wanna know how things turn out!
Just being me,
the Frank Pony
9542564
Well sheeeet. I guess I need to go back to high school algebra in order to truly know the way of the gun.
Goddammit, the one good thing about the US high school system is that it keeps your brain active. I've been out for 3 years now, and my brain feels like a fucking potato, even with some of the community college classes I took for 2 years after high school.
9544071
I always find it kind of funny when folks get like that. I myself tend to be very much in favour of people have access to firearms, provided they know how to use them safely. I don't own one myself, but that's largely due to not having the time for proper lessons on how to care for it, etc. I'm like, 100% positive there's a range around here (I live in the middle of nowhere Coastal Oregon, if there isn't a range within 100 miles, I'd be very confused), but it's also just not been a priority for me.
Honestly these posts have been amazingly informative, and I may end up borrowing that IP-19 design for fixing up Bubblegum's repeating launcher. The running joke I have with my editors is the reason he uses shotguns is because he's actually not super proficient with firearms, but a shotgun doesn't require as much aiming skill when using it to clear a corridor, but also fills in a gap in the range band he feels comfortable using explosives with. As a colt, he spent most of his formative years alone, but he really liked things that went boom, and thus got good with them. It's also why he's very... wasteland equivalent of street smart vs book smart.
And you don't need to apologise for talking about this sort of thing! I ended up getting into a rather lengthy discussion about guns with Hap, another writer on fimfic, when I was talking about my job. He uh, expressed concerns that I was frequently going to people's homes who were in mental health distress, and that the main line of defence for me was the LEO who I responded to a call with. And, I agreed with him on several points about why firearm training and safety are super necessary. I just had to inform him that it would get me fired if I had anything more than a pen knife on me when I responded to a call like that. But I honestly like seeing comments like this, and I love learning new things.
Like I said in an earlier comment, if I'd known that the 25mm grenades were about as effective as a particularly lively M80 in a tin can (and... having had several male friends who in our delinquent days of high school, often experimented with making things explode), I'd've dropped the calibre of grenade altogether. XD
All told, I'm really glad that you seem to be enjoying the story. I always worry about how readers are responding to Speak, as... it is a pretty big tonal shift away from PH. Which makes sense, I suppose, as Somber and I are very different people with very different life experiences, let alone different genders. It's been... interesting to write BJ, personally, because while she's a girl, she has a lot of masculine traits. And in PH she was very much a power fantasy sort of character, while I've been writing her as a shattered wreck of an equine. Not that she wasn't one in PH, because she was a pretty damaged mare at the time, but... Somber didn't have the time to slow down and try to look at her. So getting new eyes on her, and having the story be told from the perspective of somepony who - while having a very rough upbringing - was relatively sheltered from the wasteland itself made for a really fun character study. Which means Speak tends to be slower and more contemplative than the original.
Side trips into the Red Forest notwithstanding. ^^;
9544515
I keep finding random things to fill it with more information and new things. If I am learning 1 new thing a day, I get kind of excited about it.
...honestly that's half the reason why I'll give Threnody a bit of a precocious vocabulary. It means readers may have to go look up words they haven't seen before, and they get to be one of the Lucky 10,000 people that get to learn something new every day!
9544888
It doesn't matter how quirky you think your thought processes are, Randall Munroe of xkcd has already documented it
9544888
Learning new things is always nice. Learning that something you thought was stupid, turned out to actually mean something is a whole new level of 'neat'. Case in point... the word: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Definition: extraordinarily good; wonderful.
hehehe. A 'nonsense' word I grew up with, actually means something. Cool. Just goes to show ya, that even at my age, I can learn something. :)
the Frank Pony
Banana Cream Pie sounds like an interesting Wolf
Christ in a handbasket, this took me a while but I'm back to it! Whew, good chapter as always Heartshine.
Goddamn, this forest is spooky, I can only wonder what it's fucked up nature is, I'm curious to hear the story.
Good show
Holly cheese... that escalated quickly. But if there's one thing I know, blackjack can't die. It would go against the laws of physics... lol.
I finally remember what the chapter 18 reminded me of! And i am now going to trigger so many people with just one word!
PLAY.
9582942
I... don't exactly follow what you're trying to say here, but I've been trying to write a story about recovering from trauma so... ????