I find that my "very brief summary plus notes" format is much more fun to write than the usual "take notes as I go through." The chapters are getting longer, which means that the former method makes it a lot more work than it's worth.
As such, chapters 29 through 31.
So they stop at the Dashite Shrine, where Calamity picks up some Enclave armor and Velvet and Littlepip leave a PipBuck and a tin of drugs, respectively. Then they head back to Tenpony Tower because Red Eye sent the nuke from chapter 10 over there, SteelHooves leaves the party to do Steel Ranger Outcast stuff, the party heads off to Maripony to meet the Goddess, who assigns them to get the Black Book. They start to head out, but Calamity gets his wing injured and they have to go further into the Hellhound-infested town for medical supplies. Then when that's all done, Littlepip goes back and goes back into rehab because she took a Party Time Mint-Al because she needed to convince Red Eye of something, and then it's revealed Littlepip got a lot of memories removed.
We met the Goddess, who's basically the Master from Fallout 1. Minus the fact that in the game you can talk the Master out of his ploy by pointing out that the Super Mutants are sterile, at which point he will kill himself. That actually comes up in this story, but the Goddess just brushes it off. I can get that it'd be pretty lame if the baddie were dealt with in the same chapter she was introduced in, but when you actually go over the non-violent solution and go "thbbbt no," it starts getting pretty annoying. And then they're just gonna kill her off with another method from the game, anyway, so it's not like there's some sort of subversion of expectations.
But she's kinda okay. We get her backstory - she's Trixie, sort of, after that stuff with IMP, which turns out to be the same stuff as taint. We actually encounter some tainted creatures, one of which tries to tentacle rape Littlepip, because that's totally what this story was missing. But the Goddess isn't really that bad, given that they have this creative way of using magical fireworks for expressing emotions. Though I guess it's not a good thing if Trixie manages to stand out as one of the least annoying characters in your story.
The Goddess also taunts Littlepip about being "Corrupted Kindness." Because when I think of a character whose first answer to every problem is the application of bullets and seems to be utterly unaware of concepts like pity or mercy, I think kindness.
Anyway, they're gonna nuke the Goddess, as the whole memory orbs thing sets up. I'm really looking forward to that. Specifically, I'm really looking forward to unfavorably comparing it with Spec Ops: The Line.
There are two bits from these chapters that I particularly "loved." For the first, remember how SteelHooves killed that dude and covered it up, and how Littlepip's spent the last ten chapters in angst over not telling Homage the truth? Well now she finally does! In one paragraph of narration. No dialogue. And that's it. No consequences or shit, just a note that she told her, and that Homage's expression was "troubled but forgiving." I guess this is the last that that comes up, given that the next radio thing we get from her doesn't mention it at all and is just more praise for the protagonist. Thus we get a nothing of an ending, leaving this entire subplot completely pointless.
So Monterey Jack tries to rob the protagonist, and he gets hanged for his crime. One of the party members murders a dude because he didn't like him, and that's totally fine! I mean, I don't like throwing around tropes like Protagonist-Centered Morality, but if there were ever a case where that fits...
There's also a bit where Littlepip talks about how viciously she killed one of the Steel Rangers, and she's worried that she's losing herself and doesn't like the pony she's becoming. Present tense? I get that I'm kinda sounding like a broken record, but it only took her one day to turn into a vindictive twat. She isn't "becoming" anything, she "became" this twenty-six chapters ago. She's been like this for virtually the entire story. I appreciate that she's developing a sense of self-awareness, but it'd be nice if she were a little quicker on the uptake. And if she stopped being a sadist.
And speaking of the tropes, I took the liberty of removing a few bits from the fic's trope page:
- Velvet viciously calls out Little Pip in chapter 39, outlining every single atrocity she's committed and yet still considers herself a hero.
I actually went to read that section after reading that, and to that I say: Ha ha ha no she doesn't. Seriously. One person complained that I couldn't judge it without reading the full context, and maybe that's right, but it'll take one hell of a full context to translate "you're the most courageous, selfless pony there is" to a "vicious calling-out."
Also, on the characters page, under Homage it lists The Tease. Nothing wrong there. Then there's
And then
I removed that last bit on account of "please no."
Anyway, back to the actual story.
Speaking of LittlePip and Homage's relationship, there's another bit on the radio where Homage reads off a love letter to her that's honestly very sweet, and made me actually buy that these two were in an actual relationship as opposed to just being fuckbuddies. I mean, seriously, it was really, really nice. And then comes the "P.S.: Thirty-One."
That's just like you, Fallout: Equestria. You almost blunder into writing something that's actually good, and then you turn around and completely ruin it. Like in chapter nine you have a chapter that's hilarious, and then it turns actually emotional and makes me care about a bit character, and then you end the chapter on fucking "20% cooler." Or you have a couple parts where I'm actually ready to root for the terrible protagonist and then it amounts to fuck all. Or you introduce a character who might actually be interesting or likable and then off-handedly kill them off (Monterey Jack, Blood, Daffodil), or shove them off to the sidelines at best (Silver Bell, Strawberry Lemonade).
My other favorite bit is when they go into Maripony to try to get medical supplies because of Calamity's injury. This is kind of nice because it's the first time in forever we've had actual "survival" shit. Kind of hard to buy the stuff about how terrible the Wasteland is and what it forces you to do when the protagonists never seem to be wanting for things like food or weapons or the like. Anyway, Maripony is infested with Hellhounds, and the party tries to decide how best to go about it. Xenith suggests a stealth approach, while Calamity recommends murder. Guess which one Littlepip chooses? Of course, Velvet suggests trying to do things non-violently, but they blithely ignore her because that's what they always do. She then calls them out on it after driving one of the things away with a high-pitched scream, but fuck me if it has any sort of lasting impact.
Y'see, this is a problem. Maybe I could get "the world is terrible and we're forced to be violent in order to survive" - if the setting had any kind of credibility, that is - but the thing is the protagonists are flatly uninterested in anything else. Twice in chapter 30 Calamity starts whining because he wants to murder something. How endearing.
But I guess this bit is supposed to have Velvet in the right (eventually, I mean they do cut her leg off first). We're not supposed to know it at the moment, but the whole Hellhound thing is something like the token vindication of her beliefs or something. It's probably good that I know the spoilers, because otherwise I'd be complaining about her being a strawman again, but this is probably the closest she's been to not being a strawman. So a gold star there. Unfortunately Calamity got a lot more annoying. Maybe it's like there's some kind of twat balance that needs to be in place at all times. Like, I rooted for Littlepip when she wanted to save Monterey Jack, and then Velvet prematurely puts an end to that to drag her to rehab. Food for thought.
Xenith basically takes the prize for Best Party Member, largely by virtue of being the only one who hasn't annoyed me. She's still fairly bland, though she gets one nice character moment where she reveals that she stays with Littlepip because, having been a slave for so long, she doesn't know if she can be independent. She also sings the hero's praises a bunch and goes on about stars and curses, though, but that just makes me grumble more than irritating. Still, she's less interesting than the characters that were killed off to introduce her.
We're also introduced to Life Bloom, who's one of Homage's colleagues in the Twilight Council. I already don't like him. He strikes me as smarmy and he also refers to Littlepip as the Bringer of Light.
Anyway, that's it for now. Four chapters until Arbu.
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