So our heroes are off to Fillydelphia. Or as Littlepip says:
Anyway, as they're flying overhead Calamity talks about how it's Hellhound territory and gives a spiel on what the Hellhounds are. Velvet then snarks about how Littlepip keeps dragging her off to places that nearly get her killed. Hooray! Littlepip is actually called out on this! Nothing will happen, but the thought's nice.
Anyway, they land at some building near the outskirts of Fillydelphia, I think it's a Helping Hoof clinic from chapter 23, but I forget. Anyway, Littlepip and Velvet go off together again, and despite the whole "you're not allowed to be that evil" thing from chapter 18 (ugh), Velvet continues to tease Littlepip, commenting that her ass is probably bigger from letting herself go.
Throughout the chapter, Littlepip is listening to the radio on and off, and we're treated to a number of speeches from Red Eye, who will be one of the story's main antagonists. I've gathered he's based on a number of characters in the Fallout games, particularly Ashur from Fallout 3's "The Pitt" DLC and Caesar from New Vegas. As I haven't played those, so for me he's just like a Bizarro-world Andrew Ryan, minus the hypocrisy and batshit insanity. In any case, he stands out because he's the first character in this story with a coherent thought process and unlike every single other bad guy in this story he doesn't seem to be a cackling cartoon cardboard cut-out caricature of a baddie.
I almost like him. That's good, because there have been a total of two other characters in this story that I actually liked, and of those two, one of them doesn't seem like she'll be doing much now that she's adopted, and the other one is dead.
Anyway, the two proceed, and they encounter the hellhound. They panic and hide, and there's actually a pretty nice bit where Littlepip, realizing that the Hellhound is intelligent, races through her mind with what it's doing, devising that if it isn't attacking, it must be setting a trap. Anyway, I liked this bit a lot more than most of the action scenes. Actually works on tension and stuff rather than "And then I blew the slaver's brains out with one of my many bullet dispensers."
Anyway, Velvet actually manages to solve the problem by using an anesthetic spell she learned while Littlepip was in rehab on the Hellhound, reasoning that it was her "patient" on account of a broken foot.
Holy shit, Velvet's attitude of not wanting to shoot everything is almost treated with a shred of dignity. Maybe that'll come up more later. Apparently it's eventually revealed the hellhounds aren't completely evil and that Velvet's completely right. For the time being, however, Littlepip's attitude is basically "Well, that's pretty fucking stupid, but it's cute so I'm okay with it."
Later when the group reconnoiters Calamity is all sore that Littlepip hasn't been going on trips with him, so Littlepip promises him that the next adventure she'll go with him alone.
Then there's a thing where Littlepip admires the sleeping Velvet, has a chat with her pet Balefire phoenix Pyrelight (I might've forgotten to mention that she had that), and grabs her ass. Class act there.
Chapter 23 has a twist on the formula: You know how every chapter starts with a one-word thing? Well, this time the one-word thing is something that someone says, rather than the narration.
Anyway, they talk about how Littlepip is very curious, which explains her penchant for lockpicking. Littlepip and Calamity go out on their little outing, but as no shooting happens, Littlepip decides it doesn't count and she'll have to do another one. She opens another safe and finds that it's full of memory orbs.
And it's a memory orb of SteelHooves with Applejack. And SteelHooves has an erection. Oh boy, that's just what I needed. Though I do get a kick out of Littlepip complaining about TMI. Anyway, Applejack's all pissed because a company developed a gun to use against the zebra war robots that's rendered her Rangers' power armor a lot less threatening all of a sudden. And then apparently Applejack's almost killed when the elevator crashes.
Anyway, they all go through, find Raider bodies everywhere, and Velvet goes to the bathroom. And Littlepip's apparently sorry about dragging her this. Sorry about the corpse-ridden bathroom. I'll be charitable and assume that she's also sorry about shoving a gun at her and getting her on the receiving end of a slaver's knife and making her an accomplice to murder. Also note on how Littlepip is getting close to vomiting and finding herself revolted at how callous she's become.
Anyway, they here rumbling from upstairs, and they get ready to blow a hole in the ceiling. Velvet suggests (possibly sarcastically) that maybe they don't start fighting immediately, which is blithely ignored because not wanting to murder things is stupid.
They blow a hole in the ceiling, the raiders tumble in, two of them run away, and the rest get blown to bits. Then Littlepip vomits. They briefly discuss the raiders that ran away, before Velvet points out that their group is basically a weapons caravan and the raiders were armed with spiked-up baseball bats. Huh. A moment of vague dignity for the token pacifist.
You know, it occurs to me that the raiders would make a much easier living by trading all that pre-war hair gel they seem to be sitting on.
Anyway, Littlepip and SteelHooves go off and do a thing and talk about the memory orb. This chapter is pretty much his deal, as when they get back, they find that Calamity and Velvet are pinned down by a few other Steel Rangers. They quickly recognize SteelHooves and address him as a respected Elder. SteelHooves is pissed at Calamity for shooting at them, and they team up.
They go on, talk about the Steel Rangers and what their shtick is (blah blah blah collect and protect old technology), and Littlepip recalls two chapters ago when Spike killed one of the Enclave soldiers by breathing fire into her open helmet. The Steel Rangers comment that that's stupid design, and they realize that the aim of the Enclave armor is more for intimidation than anything else.
The Rangers all really like and respect SteelHooves and talk about how they'd totally follow him if he took his promotion. Littlepip and SteelHooves make an agreement with each other - no more secrets. So SteelHooves tells her that the reason he follows her is because he'd pretty much given up on his ranger oath thing but now Littlepip is inspiring him with her acts of selfless heroism and stuff. Strangely, Littlepip's reaction mirrored my own: "Wow, what a crock of bullshit." Then he reveals that the other elders think she might be a threat, so they have him joining the group as part of an assessment of her and her stable.
Anyway, there's more stuff on the radio from Red Eye, and then there's a firefight between the group and a bunch of slavers. Littlepip is now using the zebra rifle as her weapon of choice. So much for being all horrified by it in chapter 16.
You know, the story becomes a lot more interesting if I take the perspective that Littlepip is an Unreliable Narrator and she's touching certain things up or lying to make herself look less odious, but sometimes she slips and forgets things, thus we have things like her being horrified by this gun yet continuing to carry it and be perfectly willing to use it despite having plenty of things that shoot at other things, or how I'm expected to believe that she's worried about her moral status despite not doing anything about it and having killed another pony in the most painful ways she could within a day of leaving her stable. Maybe that's an actual plot twist.
Anyway, she catches herself when she sees some slaves in cages begging her not to shoot them because the slavers are using as cover (and it is a mare that catches her pity, because it is always a fucking mare), blah blah blah shooting, two rangers die, exploding barrels that explode in ways that look like Pinkie Pie, and Littlepip frees the slaves and the rangers ask why in one of those moments that exists to show us that Littlepip is totally the selfless hero.
Anyway, Littlepip then sees another memory orb from Steely (I'm getting pretty sick of doing all those "by the way, this isn't a wiki word" things) in which he murders a dude who I presume had something to do with the elevator sabotage. I'd say that these two should get along great, but Littlepip didn't murder anyone in this chapter. She did use that horrific sets-shit-on-fire gun, but she also didn't gun down the fleeing raiders. So that's nice.
Also, the line "Celestia clop my clit with a hoof of sunfire" was used, and I should like to point out that it still isn't funny.
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