Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons: Difference between revisions

[[File:Project Horizons 2 2262.jpg|frame|[[Arc Words|Hoofington]] [[Madness Mantra|Rises]].<ref>Full-sized cover image can be found [http://sw1tchbl4de.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d4bqcri here].</ref>]]

 

 

 

[[Blatant Lies|Stable 99 is an okay place to live.]] Sure, the place has seen better days, but the poor mares down in maintenance can't be blamed for the lack of upkeep. After all, the stable's been running on recycled parts for two hundred years, and a lot of important stuff got broken in [[Noodle Incident|the Incident]]. And the bucks might complain about the lack of freedom compared to the mares, but why bother? [[Double Standard Rape (Female on Male)|All they have to do]] [[Sex Slave|is get laid all day]]. Until they get [[Insistent Terminology|retired]], that is, [[Selective Obliviousness|but don't think about that]]. And yeah, the mares might not have much freedom either, but you can't take any chances, especially after what happened [[Noodle Incident|last time...]]

Of course, it pretty much goes without saying that things [[It Got Worse|go horribly wrong]]. The door gets opened and a band of murderous, cannibalistic raiders immediately swarms in. Before the death count can get too high though, [[The Hero|Blackjack]], [[Idiot Hero|worst security mare in the stable]], lures them out with [[MacGuffin|a mysterious data file]] stashed on her PipBuck. With a cybernetic monster on her heels and a reluctant companion at her side, she sets out into the Equestrian Wasteland, determined to discover exactly what those raiders wanted so badly. After some hard lessons, it isn't long before the troubled mare finds herself delving through the dark secrets of wartime Equestria, and engulfed in a plot that threatens far more than just Stable 99...

 

* [[Abandoned Hospital]]: The Fluttershy Medical Center - location of one of the most iconic scenes in the story.

* [[Action Bomb]]: Fury, who can even regenerate from it thanks to being part phoenix. {{spoiler|Blackjack becomes one temporarily thanks to the Killing Joke.}}

** [[Played for Laughs]]. Blackjack picks up the ''Foal At Heart'' perk at the end of Chapter 6, and occasionally lapses into childish behavior.

** Rampage [[Older Than They Look|in reverse]] whenever she regenerates from being disintegrated.

* [[After the End]]

** [[Averted]] by Applebot, who is genuinely helpful, and Ol' Hank, who is friendly and talkative. [[Ax Crazy|At first]].

** The [[A Is]] running the {{spoiler|virtual Fluttershy Clinic Blackjack is trapped in}} really do want to help. They just can't stop until she's "better."

* [[Ancestral Weapon]]: Vigilance, a 12mm pistol handed down to each Stable 99 head of security.<ref>An inherited position.</ref>

* [[And I Must Scream]]:

* [[Ascended to Carnivorism]]: Played differently from [[Fallout Equestria|the main story]]: Among Hoofington's many dangers is a virus that induces this in anypony infected with it. The compulsion is strong enough that, if there's nothing else to eat, the victims will eat themselves. {{spoiler|Pegasi are immune, but Lighthooves is attempting to change that. Chapter 42 reveals that he's ''succeeded''.}}

* [[Ass Shove]]: P-21 occasionally conceals items 'under his tail'. First a screwdriver, then later a ''grenade''.

* [[Bad Dreams]]/[[Nightmare Sequence]]: Blackjack suffers from these frequently.

* [[Bad Future]]: What Blackjack sees in a nightmare after {{spoiler|being ejected from the ''HMS Celestia'' and almost drowning.}} It's not a pretty sight.

** During the mansion adventure, she improvises with diamond dog claws glued to the end of a thighbone.

** In Chapter 42, Blackjack kills an Enclave pegasus by {{spoiler|[[Cruel and Unusual Death|stabbing several bones into the socket of her severed wing.]]}}

* [[Beware My Stinger Tail]]: As in the main story, the power armor of Enclave soldiers is equipped with a bladed tail for melee combat. Radscorpions and manticores, naturally, have poisoned variants.

* [[BFG]]:

*** [[Sixth Ranger]]: {{spoiler|Psychoshy.}}

*** [[Team Pet]]: Boo.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]:

** Trottenheimer's Folly is a literal example.

** Blackjack {{spoiler|goes [[Ax Crazy|kill crazy]] at the end of Chapter 42, and [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown|brutally kills a squad of Enclave by herself.]]}}

* [[Cyborg]]: Several characters. The purpose of Project Steelpony is to create these.

* [[Darker and Edgier]]: Compared to ''[[Fallout Equestria]]''. ''Project Horizons'' is a lot bleaker in tone, and tackles subjects that KKat only briefly touches on (ie. [[Driven to Suicide|suicide]], [[Rape as Drama|rape]], and [[Infant Immortality|child]] [[Averted|mortality]]).

* [[Deadly Gas]]: {{spoiler|Blackjack floods Stable 99}} with chlorine gas. Later, {{spoiler|[[Death by Irony|Killing Joke]] causes Scotch Tape's lungs to fill with chlorine.}} Pink cloud also makes an appearance in the lower levels of Hippocratic Research, and as Sanguine's [[Breath Weapon]].

* [[Deadly Hug]]: {{spoiler|Rampage performs one on Thorn.}} [[Berserk Button|Blackjack disapproves.]]

* [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]: [[Crapsack World|As standard for the setting.]]

** Deus puts an enormous bounty on Blackjack's head early on, resulting in her being hounded by dozens of bounty hunters and desperate wastelanders.

* [[Expy]]:

** [[Meaningful Name|Gem and Mini]] - [[The Matrix|albino twins that fight as a pair, becoming intangible at will.]]

** [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Psychoshy]] - essentially Discorded!Fluttershy taken [[Up to Eleven]].

** Paladin Sugar Apple Bombs Stronghoof, Champion of the Steel Rangers, is a very faithful expy of Major Armstrong from [[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]], complete with requisite [[Bishie Sparkle]], [[Large Ham]] and [[Testosterone Poisoning]].

* [[Eye Scream]]: Occasionally occurs in combat scenes.

** Blackjack takes down a mutated dragon by blasting its eye out with a grenade, climbing into the socket and unloading poisoned shotgun rounds into its optic nerve.

** [[Played for Drama]] at the end of Chapter 32, where the footnote text is inexplicably corrupted.

*** Played even more so at the end of Chapter 33, {{spoiler|when she dies.}}

* [[Forbidden Zone]]: The Hoofington Core.

* [[Forced to Watch]]:

** During her [[Journey to the Center of the Mind]], Blackjack encounters a mirror that shows her various reflections of herself. The final reflection is {{spoiler|monstrously mutated, prompting Blackjack to exclaim that she'd rather die than become something like that. She also notes, in passing, that her reflected self is incapable of looking back at her. Then, at the climax of Chapter 32, she loses her remaining eye and exposes herself to a large dose of taint...}}

** Blackjack frequently notes that her heart beats irregularly.

* [[Frickin' Laser Beams]]: Standard for robots, turret defenses and Enclave pegasi. The Flash Fillies gang specialises in these.

* [[Friend or Foe]]: The E.F.S system on the PipBuck somehow determines the status of all living beings and marks them as either hostile or friendly. Blackjack keeps wondering how it knows, and somewhat distrusts the system, especially after nearly killing a frightened scavenger who got marked as 'hostile' for using the basic [[Crapsack World]] survival rule of 'shoot first, ask questions later'.

** Blackjack attempts to dual-wield on occasion, [[Truth in Television|but her accuracy suffers as a result]].

** Taken to a [[Serial Escalation|ridiculous level]] by Lacunae in Chapter 31, where she wields a levitated grenade machinegun and a [[BFG|fully-armed]] and [[Power Armor|armored]] Steel Ranger.

* [[Half the Man He Used To Be|Half The Mare She Used To Be]]:

** Scoodle is torn in half by ghouls.

** {{spoiler|Dusty Trails}} would have suffered this fate in Chapter 36 if Sanguine didn't have an [[Almost-Dead Guy|even worse one]] in store.

** Rampage threatens {{spoiler|Psychoshy}} with this, but Blackjack stops her.

* [[Hannibal Lecture]]: {{spoiler|Rampage's 'Angel of Death' persona}} delivers one to Blackjack, along with an unhealthy dose of [[Not So Different]].

* [[Head-Tiltingly Kinky]]: In the revised version of Chapter 1, Blackjack does this when she walks into Midnight's room and comes across her being...busy.

* {{spoiler|[[The Hero Dies]]: And then [[Only Mostly Dead|gets]] [[We Can Rebuild Him|better]].}}

** [[Subverted]] and then [[Averted]] when {{spoiler|Blackjack gasses Stable 99. While Blackjack's actions are heroic, it's less a sacrifice and more a suicide attempt, so when Lacunae teleports to the rescue, BJ is dismayed.}}

** Played straight when {{spoiler|Silver Stripe sacrifices her synthetic organs to save Blackjack, reducing herself to a [[Brain In a Jar]].}}

* [[Hidden Depths]]: Sekashi.

* [[How Do I Shot Web?]]: Blackjack has a serious case of this after {{spoiler|being heavily augmented with cybernetics. She spends two chapters re-learning how to walk, and ends up triggering various functions of her new body completely by accident.}} Fortunately it's mostly [[Played for Laughs]], and she's fine [[Drunken Master|after she gets some alcohol in her system]].

** {{spoiler|The tainted ponies fused to the cryogenics room in Horizon Labs}} ask Blackjack and Rampage to [[Kill It with Fire|burn them]].

** {{spoiler|Dusty Trails, fed halfway through the rock crusher that killed Gorgon}}. P-21 gives {{spoiler|her}} a Med-X overdose.

* [[Idiot Hero]]: Blackjack. Known for nebulous [[Indy Ploy|"plans"]] and battlefield drunkenness.

** [[Deconstructed]] - it takes BJ a ''long'' time to work out why P-21 doesn't trust himself with guns near her.

* [[If You're So Evil Eat This Kitten]]: Almost literally, but due to the lack of kittens, {{spoiler|[[Beat Still My Heart|Rampage's heart]]}} is substituted.

** [[Subverted]] - Blackjack goes through with it, {{spoiler|but later finds out that she had already been recognised, and Daisy [[Kick the Dog|just wanted to watch her squirm.]]}}

* [[I'm Melting]]: Type A is the end result of enervation exposure. Partially invoked in Chapter 26 when {{spoiler|Enervation rapidly worsens a deep wound on Glory's wing}}.

{{quote|{{spoiler|I stared as the skin holding the wing slowly stretched like taffy and then broke, the wing splashing softly into the water beside her.}}}}

** {{spoiler|Sanguine breathes pink cloud in Priest's face.}} The results are... [[Facial Horror|exactly what you'd expect]].

* [[Immortality]]: Rampage; ageless, unkillable Regenerative type.

** She does age, but only up to about the late 30s. And if her body is destroyed (for example, by disintegration) she reconstitutes herself as a small filly who then grows rapidly to adulthood if fed enough protein. Nopony knows why either age is special.

* [[Immortality Hurts]]: Rampage has suffered horrifically in her long life, and apparently feels pain despite her [[Healing Factor]]. {{spoiler|For Deus, this trope is quite literal. His augmentations leave him in a constant state of agonising pain}}.

* [[Immune to Bullets]]:

** Gorgon effortlessly shrugs off bullets, lasers and explosives. {{spoiler|[[Conveyor Belt of Doom|Being fed to a rock-crushing machine,]] [[Cruel and Unusual Death|on the other hand...]]}}

* [[Implacable Man|Implacable Mare]]: Rampage. To a lesser extent, Deus and Gorgon. {{spoiler|Later, Blackjack.}}

* [[Infant Immortality]]: [[Half the Man He Used To Be|Utterly]] and [[Mercy Kill|repeatedly]] averted [[Deadly Hug|throughout.]]

* [[Instrument of Murder]]: Vanity uses Octavia's contrabass {{spoiler|[[Soul Jar|phylactery]]}} as both a bludgeon and a shield against an angry mob.

* [[Intangible Man|Intangible Mare]]: The Gemini sisters.

** Sanguine rants at length during his confrontation with Blackjack at Hippocratic Research.

* [[My God, What Have I Done?]]: Blackjack asks this a lot. Especially in Chapter 23 following {{spoiler|the execution of Stable 99}}.

* [[Mysterious Backer]]: The Dealer. He'll appear time and time again to help point Blackjack in the right direction, even as he emotionally beats her down just as often (much to Blackjack's confusion). {{spoiler|Thought to be a figment of her imagination for a majority of the story, but it turns out he's the spirit of Goldenblood's assistant, tied to EC-1101 as a sort of guide to make sure it gets to its destination. Even after learning this, we know next to nothing else about who he is or what his own goals are, but it's clear he does have some ulterior motives.}}

* [[Myth Arc]]: Since being broken down into volumes, the overarching plot is this.

* [[Named Weapons]]: [[Hand Cannon|Trottenheimer's]] [[Wave Motion Gun|Folly]], [[Grenade Launcher|Persuasion]], [[Ancestral Weapon|Vigilance]], [[Cool Gun|Duty]] [[Guns Akimbo|and]] [[Revolvers Are Just Better|Sacrifice]].

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Blackjack is often guilty of this.

* [[No Good Deed Goes Unpunished]]

* [[No Party Like a Donner Party]]: Most of the food in Stable 99 comes from the recycled remains of deceased (or "retired") ponies.

* [[Only Known by Their Nickname]]:

** Blackjack is actually a nickname chosen to hide her [[Embarrassing First Name]].

*** One of the tainted trees in the forest surrounding Hippocratic Research lures victims to their deaths with [[The Cake Is a Lie|fruit that look like slices of cake]].

** A fight carries over into a dance club with two [[Daft Punk|helmeted ponies]] who [[Tron: Legacy|provide a soundtrack for the fight]].

** Lacunae [[Team Fortress 2|wields a minigun and has a noted affinity for sandwiches.]]

** {{spoiler|The Overmare}} temporarily enslaves P-21, [[Star Wars|who later strangles]] {{spoiler|her}} [[Return of the Jedi|to death with his chains.]]

* [[Sickening Crunch]]: When Rampage {{spoiler|[[Deadly Hug|crushes]] [[Would Hurt a Child|Thorn]]}}, the sound is described as a "[[Nausea Fuel|crunchy pop]]".

* [[Spider Sense]]: Blackjack's mane goes itchy at the strangest times.

{{quote|'''Anonymous:''' [[And Now for Something Completely Different|For today's episode]] of [[Bizarro World|snoziroH tcejorP]], [[Cheerful Child|BJ and crew are happy,]] and [[Sugar Bowl|Hoofington is a great place to live!]]}}

* [[Strapped to An Operating Table]]: Blackjack, more than once.

** {{spoiler|Gem to Deus, with a bomb at point blank range.}}

** {{spoiler|In Chapter 32, Blackjack to the ''HMS Celestia''<ref>At least, that's her intention.</ref>}}

** Blackjack, when stressed or hallucinating.

** Lacunae, though [[Justified Trope]] because she's [[Hive Mind|communicating with the Goddess.]]

{{quote|'''Ponibooru comment:''' ALL ABOARD THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DETERIORATION TRAIN, NOW DEPARTING BLACKJACK STATION. AGAIN.}}

* [[Truth in Television]]: That virus that ravages the wasteland through cannibalism is more or less a pony version of [[wikipedia:Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease|vCJD]].

* [[Unskilled but Strong]]: The Harbingers. They possess pristine top grade weaponry, but nary a pony knows how to use it effectively.

* [[Unstoppable Rage]]:

** In chapter 42 Blackjack falls into this against a squad of {{spoiler|Thunderhead Enclave soldiers. [[She Who Fights Monsters|Her brutality]] makes [[Badass|a member of the Highlanders]] visibly afraid.}}

** This appears to be the whole point of the chem appropriately named Rage and its derivative, Stampede.

* [[Was Once a Man|Was Once A Pony]]:

** Deus, aka. {{spoiler|Doof}}.

* [[You Monster!]]: [[Subverted]] when {{spoiler|Blackjack decides to look into the memory orb Deus left for her}}.

{{quote|{{spoiler|"So…" I muttered as I stared at the orb, its light casting my features in its ghostly glow, "[[He Who Fights Monsters|One monster to another…]] what's on your mind, Deus?"}}}}

* [[You Shall Not Pass]]: Vanity, word for word, while protecting Harpica and some foals from an angry mob.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Fanfic]]

[[Category:My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Fan Works]]