Alright, folks, it's time for a live liveblog of this!
Now, I should make an addendum - I didn't actually go over a lot in the way of actual events in chapter 35. Largely because 35 was less of an events chapter and more of a character-building chapter, so I made fun of that instead. But there was a thing where Littlepip wonders what she's going to do with all these new orphans she's traumatized. She tries to take them to Friendship City, but they shoot at her, now that other characters are starting to realize that she's a twat.
I could also say a few more things about the whole Arbu thing, but I was writing stuff up when the browser refreshed and couldn't be assed to write it again.
So anyway, chapter 36 starts with an action scene again and I find myself checking the length of the scroll bar. Hm. Might be bearable.
Some stuff with fighting monsters, SteelHooves falls off the wagon, two random zebras show up and dies so the protagonist can angst.
Littlepip decides to comfort the remaining survivor, who's actually a guy. Never seen her give a hug to a guy character before. Anyway, we learn about Glyphmark, a place where you get kicked out when you grow up. Maybe she does stop being a sadist. Then again, after you gun down unarmed families with bullets that set them on fire, pretty much anything else is a step up.
Zebra guy cries some more, and Team Protagonist decides to head to Glyphmark to find Xenith's daughter. So they go to the place, which is a shantytown full of terrified foals. Littlepip notes that she can "feel [her] barely mended heart breaking." Well, even if sadist-Pip is out of the picture I'm hit with even more angst-Pip.
Anyway, the town's in really shitty condition, so Velvet negotiates with them and offers them food and supplies and stuff. They then learn that Xenith's daughter was the town doctor, but she and some others were abducted by the Nightmare Moons, who are alicorns that Calamity surmises are testing Littlepip to see what they can get away with. Velvet stays behind to help the kids while the rest of the group heads for Zebratown to find the abductees.
They meet back up with SteelHooves and go investigating stuff. There's a gay gag that I don't get - so Calamity walks in drinking a soda and SteelHooves asks "Are we on a date?"
Littlepip finds a terminal with a stupidly long password and finds the diary of Midnight Showers. Oh, goody, more reading journals and stuff. Those always fun to skip because it's a choppy cut away from the main plot read. Zebratown, it turns out, has it in the shitter because it was right beneath Canterlot. So this is a dry run of Canterlot.
Wait. So... I thought chapter 37, the really fucking long chapter, was the expedition to Canterlot initially. So instead it's actually. all one hundred-plus pages... In Canterlot. Fuck, it might actually take less time to play through Dead Money.
Anyway, they proceed in and Littlepip is nearly killed by a broadcaster. They make their way into the mazes, and alicorns appear n'stuff.
This chapter is extremely boring.
Anyway, blah blah blah encounter with the Pink Cloud and a bunch of ghouls, and the place hasn't been looted, so Littlepip will need to be careful not to be distracted by the conveniently stocked boxes when they get to Canterlot.
Also, I forgot to mention this in my Arbu update, but it's come up again: the sound effect the story uses for Littlepip's assault rifle is Pfft. So when she was murdering dudes I was imagining her shooting them with a nerf gun.
There's also stuff with this journal entry, Luna talks about her transformation into Nightmare Moon, "I wanted to punish," Littlepip draws a connection with Arbu and angsts some more.
The journal mentions Daisy. Where's her boyfriend, Sir Colton Vines III, I wonder?
More action scenes that are coming out of nowhere. I'm a little confused as to what the deal is with this zombies that have enough mental faculties to use weapons and yet are attacking on sight, as well as what the alicorns are up to. Anyway, Pip gets poisoned, zombie bites Xenith and she goes apeshit.
Pip and Steely go off, Pip is ambushed by alicorns and nearly dies before Steely saves him. SteelHooves comes across the room where he died and has a moment there that's made a hell of a lot more poignant because the protagonist chooses not to commentate on it.
After another journal break, he talks about about the day that the cloud went off. He starts crying. I wish the protagonist wouldn't mention how her "heart went out to him" and just let him have his own moment without butting herself into it. But neat, SteelHooves does things other than stand around acting gruff n' shit and occasionally making things explode. That's pretty nice, I guess.
The group meets up again, and they overhear some alicorns having a conversation. Turns out that the Pink Cloud fucks with the telepathy and makes them into a not-hive mind. Cool.
And now Littlepip has the mini-nuke launcher. As if she didn't need more toys to murder people with.
And then she dreams about being a zebra after she uses it and knocks herself out because of the size of the explosion. Serves her right, the stupid bitch.
Xenith makes a remark about how it's fortunate that you can't turn into a zombie from a bite. Yes, by all means, please remind me of The Walking Dead, a much better apocalypse story. And then there's a thing where Xenith worries that if she rescues her daughter, she'll be responsible for her and she doesn't know how she'll cope with that.
Then they come across a message on the wall giving doomsday stuff about stars and Littlepip reacts with horror about how the zebras must have taken that along with information about Rarity having the black book n' shit.
Then they find the kids and the allllll sprout wings and fly. Hooray! Well, one of them gets killed by an alicorn, so that's kinda sad. Then they all make it out (Calamity does a funny trick to escape that involves blowing shit up) and they meet again at the camp.
Well, that's chapter 36. Boring, but at least inoffensive. The next one is 37, which is fucking loooong... I don't think I should do that before finals. But then again, what am I going to do with my liveblog?
Well... there is one thing...
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