So I've decided doing this from memory probably wasn't a good idea. Maybe if I re-read the thing I'll find a way to be funny.
So, Blackjack leaves the stable and marvels at the outside for a moment before she continues to run. That doesn't go so well, because P-21 got injured in the previous chapter and is now limping. Oh yeah, and U-21, one of the unicorn stallions, was working with the raiders. Forgot that detail. This is why I'm actually reading this chapter and not trying to recall things.
And Watcher appears and tells her which way to run. Blackjack's brain shuts down for a minute and P-21 has to snap her out of it and she thanks Watcher, who it turns out helped distract the raiders chasing them and sent them in the wrong direction. He gives them some advice and makes suggestions about friendship, which P-21 firmly denies. He goes "Oh… okay. Might wanna think about that a bit." and let's them go off on their angsty way.
At least, after Blackjack notices P-21's leg is injured. He tells her to shut up and they hear that U-21 and some raiders are on the way.
“Shut up! Do all stable ponies whine this much? ‘Please don’t kill me, I don’t wanna die. Please don’t rape my ass! It hurts, don’t do that.’ Bitch bitch bitch...” a buck said sharply. “Now hurry up. When we find the big guy, he’ll decide what we do.” U-21 shouted off a few more protests as they continued off to the south.
So they hide from the bad guys and argue a bit about proceeding. Specifically, she tries to nudge him and he snaps at her. Important character foreshadowing stuff. Somehow it seems a bit less compelling on a re-read. Or maybe it's 'cause it's kinda late right now. Yeah, it's like right now. I'm gonna sleep a bit.
I'm aware that this chapter, like the first one, was revised, though not to the same extent. What it changes I do not know.
So there's a blah blah blah as they go a-trekking and picking up stuff and Blackjack wondering about how her Pipbuck works. Radiation, Blackjack thinks about her mom. Yadda yadda yadda.
They come across some newspaper articles which contain various things of foreshadowing 'n' shit. I'm guessing "Hoofington's Angel of Death" is Rampage.
While looking at the newspaper clippings, Blackjack takes a moment to ogle the hawt stallions in the pictures. P-21 isn't in as good of a mood.
They continue talking about stuff, like Duct Tape and the stable and how P-21 doesn't want to think about that place ever again, and Blackjack is dealing with radiation and proceeds to read stuff on a terminal, and that means backstory. Waddya know, it's about the Apple Family and stuff. Guy named Hoss who died there.
I do have to admit I like the dynamic between Blackjack and P-21. It's an uneasy, tense, and reluctant union, and they play off each other pretty well. That's an advantage I think this story has over the original. In this, Blackjack immediately has a companion and their interactions are interesting to read (albeit a little hamfisted). In the original, Littlepip didn't meet her first party member until Calamity shot her at the end of chapter 4, and even then their interactions weren't very interesting, what with Calamity kinda just being a slightly more murder-happy sycophant. But I'll beat on Calamity some other time, moving on.
So they bury Hoss next to Granny Smith and BJ loots an Applejack statuette from the grave. There's a pretty nice moment of Blackjack asking P-21 what he thinks. It's some nice character interaction, as mentioned above.
Still, the Bobbleheads were only in Fallout 3, guys. They don't have to be important plot elements in every fic.
So they go to sleep and when they wake up, U-21 is after them with some raiders. Blah blah blah, blood and gore, but this time we get a relevant character trait revealed!
…I couldn’t do it. “Sorry…” I muttered to her. She shuddered and closed her eyes. I hoped that that was that.
Oh dear. This could get annoying. Still, hey, it's an intentional part of the character that I assume is going to be involved with character development. And at least it seems to be consistent, as opposed to Littlepip, who in one chapter would carry out cold-blooded premeditated murder and then not find it in herself to mercy kill an opponent because "the wasteland hadn't done that to [her] yet."
Blah blah blah, red is dead, P-21 shoots Blackjack in the ass apparently by accident, and U-21 is incapacitated. P-21 convinces Blackjack not to murder him (not that that's very difficult) and give him a healing potion, and they go on their way.
So Blackjack tries to get P-21 to carry a gun, but the guy's stubborn and refuses.
Blackjack has a short monologue, they carry on and go into a school, there's another fight scene with raiders that goes on for a while, there's a break in the fight where they revisit the gun argument.
...Okay, what?
I looked at the remaining three hostiles. They were still holding steady. I wondered if they could have imagined why we were holding back. Probably not. “Okay. Elaborate for me?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” he replied firmly. “I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to remember it.” He clenched his eyes shut and started to shake. “Just... I can’t. I don’t know what I’d do with a gun right now, Blackjack. Please... don’t make me use one...” he begged softly, keeping his eyes squeezed shut.
But yes, this is another deal with P-21. He won't use guns because he's concerned he'll murder Blackjack.
So instead he blows the raiders up with a big grenade.
Oh yeah, and these raiders are cannibals, apparently. One of them attacks Blackjack with a meat cleaver.
So Blackjack spares a raider who runs away, they come across some foals who are being held prisoner, more fight scene, and once that's done we're introduced to Scoodle, who's a "Finder" and with this group of foals. Bunch of orphans. They deliver exposition.
So they see a billboard saying 'Welcome to Hoofington!' and they meet up with the Spritebot and chat with Watcher again and Blackjack reasons that he knew about the kids but didn't tell them about them when he pointed them in that direction. Sorry about the pronouns there.
“Glad to be it,” I replied with a wince. I smiled as I looked at the bandages that half covered my body. “Half blown up, but yeah. Alive.” I looked back at the bot. Something niggled in my mind and I frowned. “You put this location tag in my Pip Buck, didn’t you?”
There was a long, awkward silence. “Well, raider bases are a good source of ammunition and other goods…” the voice said awkwardly.
“No doubt, and I bet there are lots of those all over the place.” I lay down, folding my hooves in front of me. “You knew, didn’t you? About the Crusaders?”
The spritebot hesitated, and I felt he was picking his words carefully. “I might have had some intelligence about them being held till slavers could pick them up.”
I was angry, but I wasn’t sure exactly why. “Why didn’t you just tell us?”
“Please, don’t. Do you have any idea what it’s like to tell people six fillies are being held by raiders only to have them turn and run the opposite direction? Or, worse, kill the raiders and sell the foals to slavers themselves?” There was anguish in his voice that said he knew all too well. “I just wanted to point you in the right direction and hope it would work out.”
I sighed as I lowered my chin to my hooves. “Do me a favor. Next time, tell me. Alright?”
The spritebot hovered a moment longer, then resumed playing the banjo as it bobbed into the night.
And so the chapter ends. There's a note mentioning that this is the last "revised" chapter and that there's going to be a dip in quality for a while.
Wait a minute… we have our protagonist out in her first day in the wastes, fighting raiders and saving prisoners? Blimey, this is just like chapter 3 of the original. Fuck, there's even a direct contrast that I swear was intentional; in the original, Littlepip guns down a raider who's running away and begging for his life. In this, Blackjack very pointedly doesn't do this and the raider comes back with reinforcements that P-21 dispatches with a grenade.
The chapter also makes a reference to a "Sawed Off" that I'm not sure what is. I just thought of one of those odd named slavers near the start of the original. I'm confused.
Shit, this really is "More of Fallout: Equestria" when you get down to it.
Anyway, I'd like to close this out with a bit of a choice in viewing for the next update. I've found some douche on fanfiction.net with a ton of shitty fanfics. I would like to take a look at one of two of them: The first is a shitty Harry Potter story called Partially Kissed Hero, and as you know from my Rose Potter blogging (I'll get back to that eventually) I know my Potter. The second is a shitty Naruto fic called Chunin Exam Day. I do not know much about Naruto, but I have friends who do who can fill me in. Both are shitty stories laden with sociopathy and a pretentious dipshit of an author who hates the source material for no good reason. Vote away, readers!
Not that you're off the hook yet, Somber.
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