So there's Fallout: Equestria. Then there's more Fallout: Equestria stuff. Fanart, fan videos and animations, comics, various adaptations, but most prominent are the numerous spinoffs for the thing. I've touched on a couple of them, mainly Pink Eyes and Murky Number Seven, the latter of which I am very fond of.
But today we are here to talk about Project Horizons, one of the biggest, the most famous, and probably the most contentious of the spinoffs. This thing was actually going strong while the original was still being written, and now it's entered its own final act.
I am currently on chapter 4, and I'm gonna be blogging these first few chapters on memory.
In any case, we're quickly introduced to Blackjack, a security mare in Stable 99. She's kind of a fuck-up. She is very ungraceful in trying to hit on Midnight, another mare in the stable.
Blimey, this fic throws a bunch of names at me. Blackjack, Deus, Midnight, Daisy, Gin Rummy, Duct Tape, the Overmare… I'm probably missing some. But it gives out a lot of names and so one has to sort out who's who, who's important, and who's gay. But the rundown is Blackjack is the protagonist, Gin Rummy is her mom, Midnight is some other mare, Daisy is a cunt, the Overmare is basically Joffrey from Game of Thrones, and Duct Tape is dead as of the start of the story. That helps sort things out.
So we're introduced to Blackjack and her general affairs in the stable and her interactions with the other ponies. And a bit where she gets hoofcuffs slapped on her, to foreshadow her role as a sub when she hooks up with Glory in their BDSM relationship. Fuck I'm going to be in for a long story…
So Stable 99 has the male ponies being basically kept as inventory stock for sex. There are twenty-one earth pony stallions and twenty-one unicorn stallions on breeding duties, with the foals not part of the rotation. Once one of the colts comes of age they're added as the new P-1 or U-1 and the others go up a bump. After 21 they're euthanized. The current P-21 is slated to be "retired," and Blackjack has to find him. In the meantime there's some stuff about how Duct Tape was killed in a freak accident. I forget the exact ordering of things.
There's also a deal with Blackjack interacting with her mother, and a bit about her insecurity about living up to her mother's example, as her mother is head of security. It seems like Fallout: Equestria fics kinda have a thing where they have to touch on the protagonist's mother. The original briefly touched on the distant and uncomfortable relationship between Littlepip and her mother, Murky really really misses his mom and wants to find her once he gets his freedom, and the entire plot of Pink Eyes is Puppysmiles looking for his mom.
This chapter is fairly long, and I'm just going by the revised version, not the original. It does a really good job of introducing us to Blackjack and her life. It really helps us get a feel for her as a character and lets us get to know her before the plot proper starts to kick off. This was something the original could've used, I think. It invited us to take a seat in one room but then kicked us out the door to the next room without letting us sit down. Granted, I think this chapter is certainly a fair bit longer than the original's, so…
There's also some stuff about tensions between the ponies in the stable. The Overmare is paranoid that someone is gonna usurp her. The other mares think she's gone nuts. Blackjack is put in the uncomfortable position of not really understanding what's going on and yet being in the middle of it, as she finds a suspicious reception when she sits down with her card-buddies.
Anyway, she goes and finds P-21 in drag. Daisy and some other mare come over and proceed to try to beat him to death, before Blackjack intervenes and takes him to a holding cell. The Overmare is extremely happy to see him. The Overmare then tosses Blackjack into the cell with him in her office, where she listens to some files. She hears some stuff with Duct Tape talking to P-21, and she mentions that they might be able to leave the stable and get married.
If you've guessed that the Overmare had Duct Tape bumped off over P-21, then whoopee for you.
Anyway, Blackjack finds some strange file in the computer, and both ponies manage to escape from the Overmare's office.
So it turns out that the Overmare was expecting some folks from Stable-Tec, opened the door, aaaaand now there are raiders. They murder a stallion in front of her, and then there's action scenes. Blackjack shoots them, there's gore, aaaaaand she angsts about it. Oh boy, here we go again.
So there's general confusion, there's a bad guy who says "Cunt" every other sentence, Blackjack witnesses the Overmare being raped, and it's also indicated that Daisy was raped, too.
I was considering doing this whole liveblog in Yes-Man style, but I decided against that because that joke would've gotten old fast. If I went through with that, however, I would say this.
You know, I really, reeeeally liked Fallout: Equestria, but I just always had this teenie-tiny niggling thought in my head that maybe, juuuust maybe the story could use a little more rape. Just a little.
So they realize that Deus and the raiders are after the mysterious file, and Blackjack decides she's gonna take it and run away in the hopes that it makes the raiders come after her. So the chapter ends with her and P-21 running from stable and, more specifically, from Deus.
All in all, this is basically kinda shaping up to be more Fallout: Equestria. Since this was the first really big spinoff, it isn't a surprise that this character has a lot in common with Littlepip. She's a mare from a stable. She's a unicorn. She's got a thing with her mom. She's not heterosexual. She shoots things and angsts. And if you thought the original had too much gore and rape as it was, well, you're in for a heaping helping of ha ha fuck you.
But overall, I actually liked this. It does a good job of introducing us to Blackjack and P-21, and I do like them both a lot as characters. I also like how this setup means that Blackjack is going to immediately have a companion from the outside, whereas Littlepip didn't meet up with Calamity until chapter 5. It all makes me feel like Blackjack is someone I'm acquainted with, and I'm interested in what she'll do next and how she'll react to what's coming ahead.
Anyway, let's see how this trainride goes!
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