Warriors... It's time to play-ay!
Now that that's out of the way, I've liveblogged up to chapter 5 so far and Pannic has only commented on the intro for some strange reason. Guess a liveblog a day keeps the Pannic away.
Anyways, they reach the medical center after a little Rarity moment of whining and complaining. Four ponies greet them, notably Prince Splendid.
>“I’m glad somepony responded to my requests in a prompt manner."
I'm not sure if this guy's trying to be a Large Ham or not, but nobody talks that way. Either way, it sounds condescending.
As they discuss the squatters, we learn that Prince Splendid';s father is dying and would like the megaspell Fluttershy used that one time during a pony/zebra battle to cause it to start up all over again.
>“The Society members are the descendants of the aristocracy of Equestria. Our king and leaders are related to Princess Celestia, and thus we are the rightful inheritors of Equestria. Sadly, few in the Wasteland will acknowledge our bloodline claims.”
>“So… you think you should get to rule because your ancestors did?”
Pompous, condescending, delusional, and wordy. Yep, I wanna slap him in the face. Too bad Blackjack wants to tap that. As if. A prissy, princely, delusional pony against an idiotic, gun-happy security mare? Splendid isn't one of those disposable males you love so much.
Security Mare then goes on to discuss the terms with the squatters, using DJ PON3's nickname to make life easier. The upper floor to the Fluttersy Medical Center was locked, but opened when radiation levels were survivable. A team was sent up there, but never came back. Hmm... Abandoned hospital? Check. Mysterious absences? Check. Desired MacGuffin in there? Check. Ladies and gentlemen, looks like we're delving into horror territory!
>Damn, my mane was itching like crazy.
This has been a thing ever since chapter 1. Every so often, it gets itchy whenever Blackjack gets curious or worried about something. Not sure why, though.
After briefly learning about Fluttershy, they finally go upstairs.
>Slowly I turned and looked at the wall opposite the elevator. In flaking black-maroon letters, a single word was written as if with a paintbrush. ‘PLAY’.
Called it. Also I'm a huge horror fan. I wanna see more of the mint monsters from Murky. I loved that chapter and I'll probably enjoy this one a lot unless Somber doesn't know how to do horror. Please know how to do horror, Somber.
The lights flicker. Counting the three before, this is 4. Creepy music box playing? 5. Creepy lullaby? 6. The singing was by Morning Glory, but it still counts. Paintings of pony that generally become more and more horrifying? 7. Oh, and the PLAY words aren't paint. 8.
>Then we heard a soft ‘thump, thump, thump, thump’ in the hallway ahead of us. A bright red ball bounced down the dimly lit hall towards the three of us. No… not a ball. It was too irregular for that. It rolled to a stop at my feet, leaving bright wet splotches on the floor. The face on the severed head was a mask of terror.
9 and 10. Creepy foal giggling in the darkness makes 11.
>“Calm down,” I muttered, trying my best not to freak out. “It’s just a head.”
Yep. You'll never get ahead in life if you lose your head and start running around like a headless chicken. Maybe you should start heading out and head for that healing spell. Oh, and keep a head's up for any danger heading your way. Dismembered head joke.
They go on to see some mechanical robots and- damnit, the horror is ruined now! There'd better be build-up making those robots creepy before they turn and attack or else there's no horror. This is really why Five Nights at Freddy's isn't all that scary. There's really no buildup from them being all stationary and them moving around to come to kill you. It's thrilling, yes, but not scary. And the Jump Scares don't even happen if you don't fail. And they gain twitchy heads way too late in the game. Let's just continue on with the fic.
Blackjack tries to put on some music, but only the creepy music box plays.
...
Fine. 11. P-21 hacks a terminal to-
>"Peek-a-boo. I see you."
>The scream that began to play from the terminal rose and fell at earsplitting volume. “KILL ME!” she screamed over and over again between agonizing cries.
Aaaaand we're back to horror again. 12, 13, and 14. Half-Pissing-Herself freaks out and shoots the terminal with an explosive round. The trio decides to explore some more, finding a dead body that didn't want to play anymore (15) and a card key. They also come across... a Companion Cube. The Companion Cube. Actually, it looks like that, but it's a Jack in a Box. Except Jack is half a skinned corpse of a pegasus pony. 16.
After a scare of some dud grenades and real grenades that would make The Joker proud, they continue exploring to find dessicated bodies frozen and posed like dolls. 17. It's like Somber's trying to cram every single Horror Trope in here. I appreciate the effort, but don't go too overboard. Look at the Outer Metro and the Mint Monsters. That whole sequence was AMAZING. It didn't even have half of the horror tropes you used, and it was STILL amazing. Spread 'em out, Somber!
Backstory happens detailing Big Mac and the medical center they're in before everything goes wrong and the lights go out. There's something horrifying and bloody in the darkness and the trio are forced to play Red Light Green Light. Kind of odd to go for that when trying to do horror. Anyways, Blackjack and P-21 make it while Morning Glory gets trapped behind.
Blackjack gets angsty about killing Morning Glory and is in Death Seeker mode again. P-21 reveal himself to be too scared to travel through the upper level of the medical center alone and refuses to kill her. After that bit of depression, Blackjack decides to go get whatever's attention like a dumb and stupid pony while P-21 sneaks around and unlocks the doors and stuff.
>“You’re not stupid, Blackjack.”
Security Mare decides to turn the somewhat shoddy attempt at horror into... something that will likely be awesome and starts singing/shouting The Pony Pokey. It gets cut short as a foal-sized robot encounters Blackjack, freaking her out. A small scuffle later and she suddenly has all the robots chasing her.
Blackjack encounters a terminal P-21 had hacked and gets to listen to an Apocalyptic Log about the team that was sent up to explore the upper levels.
>...zzzzzzt... tired of playing...
See, now this log would've worked better if it was shuffled before everything started happening. "Tired of playing" could've been Arc Words for this chapter, with the trio seeing them every now and then before they even saw the blood-pained "PLAY". Move the screaming terminal to later a little bit, too.
Blackjack decides to be a loud distraction again and rushes off shouting about how she'll spank all the bad pony bottom, but I'm getting the impression that it's more than just that. She encounters someone who throws a ball of glass at her, and... she gets introduced to the wonderful, wonderful world of Memory Orbs. I can tell by the usage of "oooOOOooo".
SO MEMORY TIME! Backstory!
Redheart, Garnet, and Cheerilee discuss some zebra stuff about blood scrifics before Fluttershy comes in and start discussing something about devices and how they're not ready to be used. Healing bods, I guess. Cheerilee becomes an unintended asshole and brings up Fluttershy not having kids. Way to go! AT least she regrets bringing it up. Anyways, they say that some have started developing a resistance to sedatives.
>"It’s not as if we’ll keep them in stasis for centuries.”
Blackjack comes out of the memory orb strapped to a table and being Cupcake'd. She catches sight of the aforementioned sleeping foals and they're all in horribly bad condition yet still alive. So the kids control the foal robots an they went crazy due to resistance to the sedatives? That's what I get from all this, anyway.
Morning Glory literally drops in to save Blackjack again. P-21's there, too. As the two distract the robots, Blackjack slowly makes her way over to the cable powering the robots, losing her intestines along the way. She manages to sever the cable using bullets and Security Mare blacks out. She wakes up later getting healed and with guts intact.
It turns out Morning Glory escaped by shooting a vent and flying through it while Blackjack was busy distracting the robots. P-21 interrupts to indicate that they now have a Sadistic Choice of either leaving crazy foals remain trapped in their own minds or killing them all. Blackjack is a tiebreaker between the two and she freaks out, wanting to be put on the table again to have her guts ripped out.
We get an actually somewhat tearjerking moment as Blackjack decides to kill all of them as the trio sings Hush Now Quiet Now. After that, Blackjack heads back over to the pony that had the keycard and finds a Fluttershy figurine. The chapter ends with Blackjack tearfully apologizing to it. he comes to the conclusion that both of them had begged for forgiveness they'd never receive.
>New Perk: Foal at Heart - This perk greatly improves your interactions with children.
And there's the final icing on the Tearjerker cake. This chapter could have been better, but the ending bumped the quality of it a little bit.
