The chronicles of Project Horizons : chapter 54 to 57 · 4:35pm Dec 11th, 2018
Another quadruple post ! Art thou not entertained ? More seriously, you'll see that this little batch of chapters have some incredibly stupid aspects to them and some that I would go as far as praising genuinely. In fact, I find the calmer chapters to be the more focused, character-based and interesting, especially in a fiction that just swims in a constant state of fighting, gunning and running. I know that it might be some of the appeal but variety is the key to my heart.
Let's go !
First, we start by a cruel reminder that our friend Deus the tank has joined the team making them more unstoppable than they already were before. One day, I'll make a blogpost trying to discuss the message of redemption and of the conflictual vision of a "punishing" justice against a "rehabilitative" justice, it's an interesting subject and I think I can try to make a discussion happen if you think you'd be interested. Let me know in the comments.
Then we have a discussion about sex and how one mare seems to have started her heat cycle. It's banter between the characters so I could count it as a positive but really, it's hard for me to do that when they're talking about their genital... again. This focus on sex is a bit strange to me because while I understand the idea of adressing the concept of heat and how sex makes Glory and BJ's relationship 'rocky', I simply don't see where this is ultimately going. The best way I could interpret it is it's a physiological way to force Glory to understand BJ's point of view on sex ?
Then we have a dream about Psalm killing Big Mac after the failed negotiations at Shattered Hoof Ridge because she absolutely wanted to kill Celestia and... hoped that Luna would forgive the murder of her sister ? That's some good self-delusion here but that's the issue with the character type Somber decided on for her : the religious nut doesn't need to think, it's a tool. Of course, no one knew that Psalm killed Big Mac except one person and we'll get to it when we come to it. It's really not a surprise to me that she killed Big Mac, as you have certainly read a while back, it was pretty certain that she would do it as soon as I knew Partypooper existed or rather, her role in the story. Does this disrespect the original ? Amusingly, it doesn't but it certainly makes everything important in FO:E about PH and GB. Some will hate it, some won't. I personnally think it's simply in the same line of thinking as the whole fiction. Oh and her childhood friend died too. Did I mention that I disliked characters whose purpose in a fiction is to die for cheap drama ? I think I did.
“It’s a battlefield,” I muttered in stunned disbelief.
“Not a. The. For almost four years. Everything from here to Dawn Bay is a mess of trenches, bunkers, fortifications, and bases,” Twister said in a subdued voice as she hovered above.
“Surfacers are idiots,” Boomer commented, punctuated by a yawn.
“It was genius,” Twister disagreed. “It’s estimated that almost three million zebras died assaulting Hoofington, while pony casualties were less than two hundred thousand. That’s three million that weren’t attacking Manehattan or Canterlot. Hoofington was such a critical target that they simply couldn’t ignore it.
I think Somber doesn't realize that three millions zebras dying solely on the Hoofington front in the span of four years in a twenty years long war is simply ridiculous. Here it means the zebra had enough soldiers to find a 15 to 1 ratio acceptable ? While I can accept such odds, you need to explain it carefully and with more than just "the zebras, master of war since they invented it, slammed their face against Hoofington until they were none." Yes, Hoofington is an important place to conquer because it's the center of technology but any general would realise that just sending more stallions to the slaughter isn't working or am I supposed to accept that the zebra military was just full of bigoted idiots ? I can do that but that also means that is severely reduced my interest in the zebras as a race if they are so simple-minded.
Then we have the bridge scene where Blackjack will confront one of the rapist she has spared in chapter 33 that apparently continued to be an asshole rapist. It's an interesting scene where BJ actually kills someone in cold blood and becomes an executioner. If it informed her character going forward I would have screamed "FINALLY !" but it's only a singular event that won't change her extremely merciful approach of her enemies, at least up to chapter 57. What makes me raise an eyebrow is... the scene that come after that where her friends are giving her shit for doing what she did in the sense where her friends are scared of her and don't want to speak to her directly.
Then Lacunae intervenes and this scene is strange. Lacunae tries to tell that she pulled the trigger when we know it was BJ and without the knowledge that we learn later, this scene just shows a hysteric Lacunae. Essentially, Lacunae thinks it's her fault for BJ's behavior because of something she did but I'll cross that bridge when we get to it. (Get it ? Bridge scene, cross that bridge ? No ? Okay.)
Then we have a fight with Hellhounds. Nothing to say as per usual, fights against random enemies usually are straightforward. Skipping ahead a bit, Lancer appears and after a fight, they essentially accept to agree on a truce for now and then we learn that Lighthooves and co have some interesting missiles in their warehouses. Also, since Glory is a perfect clone of Dash, she can go through her shield and allow BJ to get the last statuette. After a sudden and inevitable betrayal from the Enclave that was escorting them, the Hellhounds are freed from their mind control helmets.
Then we have the fight against the Legate and this one is a doozy. So essentially, the Legate is the leader of the Remnants, the father of Lancer and the husband of Sekashi, former husband. The Legate is apparently destined to fight the Maiden of the Stars and kill her but apparently the meeting is premature. However, a fight do happen and it is a duel. I have no issue with the setup but the fight itself is a bit sad. Yes, the Legate dominates BJ and visibly let her take some time to breathe and something is amiss but it doesn't change that she was about to kill the Legate in a fit of rage if Lancer didn't shoot her in the head...
Also, the Legate is somewhat interesting in the sense that his philosophy is to cleanse Equestria of its filth because it's clearly a den of lawlessness and cruelty and it's also easier for him to decide that because he wants to continue the war and make sure the zebras win in the end. I hope that this character gets more development later.
So... about that bullet in the head...
“The bullet went into your right eye, Blackjack. It deflected, and it’s sheer dumb luck that the round exited out under your right ear and not your brain stem,” Glory said in a shaky voice. “Celestia... I want some more Dash...”
Lancer shot her with his sniper rifle, the bullet pierced her eye but not her brain. What do you want me to say with something that obviously stupid ? It's such a blatant use of plot armor it's not even funny. Oh and we learn that Steelpony was leaked to the Zebra and Zodiac seem to be the obvious culprit due to her heritage. I admit that it would be quite stupid to say that she was "judged on her blood" just for her to justify their judgemental attitude by direct betrayal.
The chapter ends with BJ deciding to go towards Shadowbolt towers.
*******
The chapter starts with explaining how the Enclave defense system works and how to reach the Enclave from the surface, it's an interesting tidbit of lore even if the plan of BJ of using Rampage as a life support material seems utterly ridiculous to me. It was stupid then and it is stupid now perhaps even more so since her body is like... 90% mechanical ? How would that work exactly ? I'm sure I'm not supposed to care about the specifics but I do, that's kinda my thing. The plan of BJ seems utterly reckless but then again I suppose it's to be expected.
Then we have a scene with Lacunae explaining that the Black Book is coming and that the Unity is trembling from the prospect. The moment of the Death of the Goddess approach for us readers and... well, Lacunae is basically being overloaded with emotion from all Unity making her unstable. I also have the feeling Somber wants to make the Goddess extra villainous and extra cruel so that we want her to die quickly. It might be a bit too much for my tastes, especially since we all know where this is going.
Then the plan implies to go to the Society and ask for the flying machine of Awesome to go to the Enclave and I'm going to be pretty liberal with my summary here because a lot of this chapter talks about philosophy regarding slavery and serfdom and the little power struggle between Splendid, Grace and Charm. For now, let's focus on the crucial parts : P-21 hates the place and want to tear it down, Glory is for the place. P-21 is going to inspect the place to try and convince BJ to wreck the place essentially. Splendid is the seducer with a vision a la Red Eye. Grace is the nice and gentle do-nothing but clean the Society and Charm is an opportunistic bitch.
We hear a recording of GB to Trottenheimer where we see GB acting like a martyr, explaining his sob story and why he wanted to protect Equestria... by dooming it and destroying everything that made Equestria, Equestria. Of course, there's also a Star Metal sounding instrument that GB has near him and my god, if it's like the One Ring of The Lord of the Rings, I'm going to laugh so hard. In any case, he shows some vulnerability, Somber still adamant about making his Gary Stu a tragic character and that he intended to be executed for his crimes ultimately.
Then we have King Awesome making an appearance and I have to say that I like the guy, honestly. However, he comments the recording by saying this :
“He planned to be stopped. You heard that recording. Everything he’d done was planned to eventually be exposed. I think, instead, it was that he knew how shocking it would be for ponykind to contemplate that anypony could do the things he’d done.” He shook his head with a sigh. “I think he bloodied his hooves so that other ponies didn’t have to.”
He bloodied his hooves so that other ponies didn't have to ? So all the people he used didn't bloody their hooves ? Is there actually anything that he did on his lonesome without using someone else ? Didn't he use Vanity and essentially condemn him to die because he was of aristocracy ? Didn't he use Psalm to do his dirty work ? What was that about being a beautiful martyr ? He is an abject creature whose persuaded that he knows all the solutions to the crisis at hand. Somber, stop trying to make him sympathetic, it's too late. Him losing his child and being a poor little bastard is hardly enough sympathy points to make him relatable. He used people, he sentenced people to death in a heartbeat and he never treated any ponies like a respectable adult, basically saying that he was the best to judge from the get go.
We have a nice scene between BJ and King Awesome that I genuinely find to be a compelling character even if I sadly know what Somber will do with him. This character deserved better than to die two scenes after he appeared. Hell, I even like the little good night kiss that BJ gives Awesome making it look like she considers him a sort of surrogate father. I sincerely like that scene.
Skipping ahead some fluff scenes, BJ goes into the Enervation filled crop of Roseluck Industries and we know now that the more death there is around an active ring, the more powerful it becomes hence the Enervation and this Star Metal had been distributed everywhere in the world has harmless pesticides. Not really a revelation but it does clarify some stuff.
Skipping a fight against Dawn where she became more of a robot than the last time, BJ escapes and doesn't kill her because... she sees herself in Dawn and it's such a convenient way to keep the idea that BJ is invincible while keeping villains for longer than they need to be in the story. Awesome essentially validates BJ's choice of not killing Dawn because she would have liked to be spared if she was in the same situation (which is a really strange argument to make)
The chapter ends with more drama around the idea of serfs from P-21 and BJ is being crowned Queen of the Society against her will. CLIFFHANGER.
*******
We learn in chapter 56 that Awesome designated BJ as his successor right before dying and in the process Hoity Toity is giving a bit of lore about the Society about how they survived after the Blueblood manor massacre and settled in Elysium Halls to create a society of aristocracy and serfdom. He also explains that the reason Awesome did what he did was because it would be unexpected and would thwart the schemes of the aristocrats. Eventually, her friends arguing becomes too much for our BJ and she teleports away, completely stressed out.
Then we have a scene with Lacunae showing BJ that she was formerly Psalm (how the fuck does she remembers who she was initially when the whole point of Unity is to lose your sense of self and memories of you past) and that she got nommed by the Goddess after failing to kill her. Then Lacunae says this :
“Yes. It’s all my fault. The Goddess. Your pain and misery. What happened to you on the Seahorse. Dying in Hightower. Even your link to the Goddess. It is all my fault,” she said as she trembled and closed her eyes. “When you connected with me in the Collegiate, I took the opportunity… in my selfishness… to put pieces of myself inside you. You were so selfless and they were so small that I convinced myself they could not be harmful.” She sniffed and bowed her head. “But I was wrong. I’ve seen my memories poisoning you with every passing day. Corroding your confidence. Filling you with the self-destructive need that I’ve felt for two centuries.”
While the scene tries to mitigate the influence of Lacunae's scheme with BJ saying that it's "teenage level angst" to think that she's responsible for everything BJ did, it is undeniable that there was an influence by Lacunae : the visions, the fact that BJ started to think more and more like Psalm can't simply be dismissed out of hand. Here comes the biggest issue : the connection Lacunae is talking about happened more than 20 chapters ago which is above half a million words... What measure of what we saw in almost a third of the fiction is just the result of an outside influence ? Why do I care ? Because it'd so easy for Somber to say "Yep, she was influenced by Lacunae so everything you saw was essentially done with that in mind." which means that... did I watch a BJ-shaped Psalm or BJ with some moments being influenced by Psalm. I suppose the answer will be clear when Lacunae will die since apparently the memories and influence is supposed to disappear with her death. Let us hope that BJ doesn't change radically.
Then the chapters is a long story about politics. Funeral of Awesome followed by a pitiful assassination attempt and multiple ones after that where BJ kills an enemy sniper with a TK bullet from over 100 yards. BJ needs to choose a leader and everyone tries to influence her. It's definitely a nice change of pace in the story but the rather quick setup makes it a bit hard to truly care about who she'll choose.
Then we have a nice little scene with Grace that eventually leads her to become Queen since she danced with BJ but essentially after that, they're attacked by five Harbingers sent by Charm in the hope of becoming Queen through bribery or threat. Splendid on the other hand has a good head on his shoulders and try to convince BJ that his vision makes him worthy of the role of King but he is dumb enough to say that to her :
“We’ve got more than half our security force keeping the serfs in line. If we employed more stringent methods to get them to work, that would free up ponies to secure the rest of the Hoof. More liberal use of explosive collars. Using chems to keep them working longer and more productively. More energetic recruitment.” With a huff, he continued, “They come to us, begging for food and safety. The second we provide it, they work as absolutely little as possible. Worse, they grow resentful, and some even become threats. If we crack down harder, we won’t need so many here.”
I agree completely with his vision from a pragmatic sense but trying to convince BJ by saying "I'll drug my serfs and put explosive collars on them" is extremely stupid and I think Somber didn't want to make the choice for BJ to be too hard. I mean : One tried to kill her, another is basically saying yes to slavery and violence and the last one danced with her and said she was her cousin. Not exactly a difficult choice.
We have a nice discussion with Rampage with her talking about her lack of self, how she feels alien to her own body but luckily BJ will remind her that she's the one with the true problem by essentially having an anxiety attack and being smacked by Rampage herself. Rampage might be a bit pointless as a character in and of herself but as a foil to BJ she works somewhat well.
Skipping an hostage sequence where the minotaur she fought a few chapters ago just accept to not fight and Charm being clearly an opportunistic bitch. Then she goes back to her room and the Dealer who is still dead to me has a pretentious talk about the impossibility to ally order and virtue in any kind of regime because one will always trump the other. Let's just say that I agree with him on a general principle but saying that order HAS to screw over people is not necessary, order tries to make it as fair as possible for the individual but yes, it's hard to adapt to each and every situation. However, saying that virtue can only exist with the absence of order is ridiculous and excuse me if I don't listen to someone who spent 200 years in a fucking software. Especially when... didn't we agree that Celestia ruled for 1000 years in peace ? So how does her rule not count as order and seeing as how ponies lived back then, I'll say that there is a possibility to ally virtue and order.
Then Lancer appears like a ninja and gets defeated because BJ is in heat and his hormones makes him desire her. It's a stupid scene that ridicule another enemy of BJ and I don't want to spend too much time on it. Long story short, he thinks his dad is cursed and wants BJ to remove the curse and he also shares his sob story too.
The chapter ends with Glory revealing she fucked Splendid because of her heat and BJ is fine with it because she almost fucked Lancer because she was in heat too.
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I have to say that I genuinely like that chapter because of how character-based it is. People discuss, there is no fighting and no angst for the major part, we see character interacting and have some fun. That's a really nice change of pace. The first discussion is with Pain Train that explains that his people are attuned with nature and that Equestria was cursed by Enervation. Essentially, the Minotaur race cares about the balance of nature, the fate of the world over transitory battles over power which is interesting. This character wants nothing to do with pony politics and just wants to find another minotaur to see if he is the last of his kind or not.
We have a nice scene talking about small things, mares wearing dresses and being happy or embarrassed about it and damn I needed a calm episode like this one in that constant storm of a fiction. There's nothing of real substance in those parts but the atmosphere and the character interactions are nice and I don't need more to be happy.
Charm shows that she was serious about destroying the memory orbs and we meet Bottlecap and Charity that have a nice discussion and honestly, if the whole fiction had dialogue or interactions on par with this, the fiction would be infinitely better. We also learn that the B team (Xanthe and co) dealt with the Red Eye army in Paradise and we learn about the evolution of Meatlocker. It's a nice chapter to see the world evolves without having to see BJ being at the center of it all, it gives the Wasteland a soul. Stronghoof and Crumpets are here too. I like them a lot less but they do the same job of showing that the world continues to advance without BJ and apparently there was some survivors in Stable 99. Not sure how that'll come into play but it's interesting.
Skipping all the niceties because listing them would be pointless, we learn that the Brood of Coyotl, the cyberzebras are appearing in many camps in the Hoof but seems to do nothing. I wonder why. We also learn about the politics of the Enclave and it's essentially a bit boring and I don't think we needed to know why Lighthooves was doing what he was doing in that much details but essentially, he's rigging the votes through the usage of a more powerful threat than Neighvarro.
Steel Rain gets ridiculed too but that's not as much of an issue since BJ is using the power she's been granted and he's dumb enough to go meet her in person. Splendid asks Glory in marriage but she refuses quite logically and BJ picks Grace (what a shock) as her regent while asking Splendid and Charm to accept to work with her and not against her. Splendid accepts. Charm refuses and gets locked up.
Glory and BJ have a discussion about sex that ultimately ends up as "Let's have threeways to avoid the awkwardness of sleeping around on our own." Then they go dancing, get drunk and BJ fucks Glory and P-21 that doesn't hate BJ anymore and with that... I'm afraid to say that he crossed a line. P-21 shouldn't have done that. His character shouldn't have had sex with BJ, not with what we know of him... That's actually a very sad thing because I was starting to like how his character was evolving even with the disappearance of his addiction in a snap of his fingers. Sleeping with the murderer of your lover is something I can't get over, I'm sorry.
The chapter ends with BJ removing her Pipbuck and being teleported by Lacunae towards the Goddess to Maripony. We all know Pip isn't going to die so I really don't see what he is going to do about that... Please don't make it about you again.
Closing thoughts : P-21 is sentenced to death and his head rolls on the ground next to the Dealer's.
I'm all for that blog post about redemption. I think it is something that is hard to get right for fan writers for various reasons.
Your take on 3 million Zebras in 4 years being bad is a spot for interesting discussion. I saw that scenario tactically as very similar to a few in WW1 where it basically turned into trench warfare and took masses of soldiers multiple suicidal frontal attacks to break the stalemate. If you look at Russian tactics on the Western front especially then you will see the exact thing your calling Somber on. Russian tactics was literally throw a lot of bodies at the objective and via mass numbers try to take it irregardless of the loss of life. However I had a serious issue with it myself. How can the Zebras be masters of war and use such bad and archaic tactics? That part made absolutely no sense to me and was borderline offensive to read. An opponent that archaic tactically is a pushover historically in war. So how did they gain such a strong position on the Equestrian forces?
Ignoring the tactical failings of the Zebras and how they actually could have gotten to this point I am going to focus on the battle itself. The only argument to go to that I can remotely see as feasible is desperation however that doesn't work no matter which "version" of desperation you use. There is we can't lose this position or the opposite take; we must take it. Now this is an every battle thing however there is another level of it and its this level that I am referring to. For an example see the Battle of Stalingrad. This one just doesn't fit given where things are, how things got to where they are and the entire picture of the war as given. Yes Battle for the Hoof is the equal to Stalingrad however how things are playing out just doesn't make a lot of sense tactically to me thus my issue. The second form of desperation available just doesn't fit at all. Last ditch desperation. Basically your about to go down and rather than go with a whimper you want to go with a bang. See what Belka did in Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War as one of the more feasible extreme ways for that to go in modern times. Yes the way that played out had its own issues as well but at least it was something that could be seen as a feasible way for it to happen. The way Somber paints the Hoofington scenario via through the actions is that a tactically barbaric force, while not in a position to fully cut off the city and its defenders from land based support, is throwing waves of frontal assaults against a tactically and technically superior force that seemingly has no interest in pushing their weight into the fight and forcing the other side away. Now if that doesn't make a lot of sense I can throw more onto it.
The numbers don't add up. If 3 million in 4 years doesn't seem like a lot think about how many casualties there are going on in the rest of the war at that time. Now think about what the casualties must be for the entire war up to that point. Now ask yourself where are these numbers coming from. Now I get that this is in a future Equestria however it isn't too far down the road from what we are shown and as Equestria looks population wise as shown it doesn't look overpopulated in the same way that the Earth does. The population spike would have had to be immense in a way that I don't think I can buy to support the implication of the numbers of just Zebra losses given in just this battle alone. Especially once you look at where we are time wise in the war. Ignoring the effects of war on population numbers the casualty numbers I think we should be seeing to give a more reasonable feel should be more Ancient times in scope. Lets just extrapolate the numbers to give a bigger idea on why these numbers don't add up to me. So 3 million in 4 years for the Battle of Hoofington alone. Lets just say for minimum sake that all of the other battles in the war at that time were giving the same numbers. That means 6 million total in 4 years. Extend that to 20 years and you are talking a very heavy low ball minimum of 30 million. To sustain that the Zebra mush have some massive metropolis like cities. However they don't according to the pictures painted of the Zebra lands. 3 million for all Zebra forces during the 4 year span I could buy however 3 million for just the battle of Hoof? I'll say it again. The numbers don't add up.
There is more I am itching to talk about but spoilers. One final thing I will say however is how disappointed I was to see Awesome just come and go.
4979767
The Zebra losing 3 million troops in four years in one small area of a far larger war is ridiculous beyond measure and not even desperation can possibly explain those losses. If you have a defensive position that is hard to crack you flank and surround it, then starve them out, with a city with that size of population it'd capitulate within a few days. Also, if it was WW1, we have a Verdun situation, where you have a fortified position, so you pulverize it with heavy artillery before attacking with infantry and armour. Given that the Zebra are shown to be tactically adept and cunning, the idea of them throwing 3 million soldiers into a meat grinder like that makes no sense at all.
Hoofington would be a cratered wasteland and they certainly wouldn't have had time to build a metropolis there. Speaking of, we have a Stalingrad style situation and ponies turned it into the centre of their wartime efforts
There is just so much 'what?' in this fic it boggles my mind.
4979952
In all fairness the way I understood things chronologically the Hoof became the center of tech before the war got to it. The real issue there in that case is not moving it away a la Soviets and what they could from Stalingrad before the Germans arrived. That said you actually pretty much echoed what I said however in one third the space.
4980011
I thought the Hoof burned down early in the war, considering they blamed the Zebra for it, then rebuilt it all in sight of Zebra guns.
4979767
There is a lot of thing I can give to Project Horizons but the way it handles the war is... not good to say the least. My issues with the war in FO:E and PH is that we clearly have the impression of a defensive war (if the battle for the Hoof is one that remained so for so long it surely feels like it). As such, it appears that the zebras have the upper hand, they have sympathizers in every town, spies in every town, a direct access to Manehattan, they stole half the technologies of the Ponies and they have experience in war and yet... They seem completely outmatched by ponies.
It makes no sense to me that you fight for so long and, as you said, use such archaic tactics. Besides, it seems that the twelve tribes had... more or less their own way of dealing with war and while I'm sure they had a unified military, I hardly see those tribes uniting under the Caesar since they weren't before, unless you have to join the Caesar's army if you decide to fight ? It's never very clear. However, what is clear is that they are as many ways of dealing with war that there are tribes and it seems quite uncanny that all the tribes obeyed a stupid tactic, throwing their soldiers to the slaughter.
PH tries to say that there were some attacks here and there by ponies but we remain in a mostly defensive war for Equestria... as such I don't get a lot of things. Did Somber never study the details of a siege ? It seems so.