Thoughts on Fallout Equestria

I first started reading pony fanfiction about two years ago, a few months after I discovered Friendship is Magic and delved head-first into the fandom surrounding it. After I had absorbed the two seasons of FiM (all that existed at the time), I was desperate for more content featuring the characters of FiM, and fanfiction was a natural outlet for that.

Wary of low quality fanfiction, I sought out a list of recommended stories and found a lot of help on reddit. Besides going through that post's list of recommendations, I also found a list of top-voted fics created by a community poll (regrettably, I can no longer find a link to the two year old Google doc containing the results). I spent the next few months reading through the 25 some-odd fics on that list, and roughly 1.5 million words later I had exhausted my supply of recommendations. At this point summer 2012 was drawing to a close, and as school started up again I decided it was probably about time to stop obsessively reading and concentrate on work. The consequence of this decision is that it would be about 18 months before I came back to FiMFiction.net and started reading again.

Having heard so many references to Fallout Equestria over the last couple of years, when I finally started looking at fanfiction again I decided it would be a worthwhile investment to try it out. Despite its unanimous praise, I wasn't totally convinced it would be a story for me (I usually shy away from the grim-dark genre), but I'm very happy that I gave it a try. And the story left such an impression on me that I feel compelled to put some of my thoughts down on paper (as it were). So with that rather long-winded introduction, what follows are my thoughts on Fallout Equestria. And in case you haven't read it, what follows is extremely spoiler ridden (and specifically includes discussion of the ending), so this is your SPOILER ALERT.

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Shortly after finishing the story, I found myself on /r/falloutequestria and found a post which I think echoes my thoughts quite well, and probably serves as a good TL;DR for this lengthy discussion. I read the entirety of Fallout Equestria in just a few weeks, which given my usual frequency and speed of reading is something of a statement. Kkat is a superb story teller, and I think really found a way to keep the heroes in a constant state of tension without making it feel stale. This tension at every turn kept me up many nights, promising to myself "just one more chapter."

Besides this, I think Kkat has an astounding sense of pacing, both in terms of plot development and revelations. The very slow reveal of the back story (both of the Ministries in general and of the fate of the Mane 6) was executed with such a degree of skill I don't even think I can properly articulate my praise. Each flashback would often offer all prior flashbacks a new context, so that instead of feeling like I had been cheated or misled by the revelations thus far, I was simply being given a new understanding of them. One specific example includes the side-by-side conversions between Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, and Rarity and Fluttershy. By the time we're treated to the second flashback between Rarity and Fluttershy, we appreciate the first flashback in a whole new light. The incremental revelation of Zecora's fate is another great example. I think the fact that most of the Mane 6 were also left out of the loop also helped to make this reveal feel both more shocking and more genuine.

Besides some of the specific story-telling elements I mention above, Fallout Equestria does a great job of making us emotionally invested (which for me, is usually the strongest appeal of a story). With many FiMFictions, authors are able to take a shortcut; most of us are here because we're already invested in the characters of Equestria and the author can piggy-back on that when the re-use those characters. And while this certainly helped me to the edge of my seat as I learnt about each of their fates, Kkat had me just as invested (if not more so) in her main characters. The story plays the theme "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" very well, and the reader can only watch as every one of the Mane 6 and protagonists each makes steps down that road: Littlepip at Arbu, Calamity at Bucklyn Cross, Velvet at Fluttershy's Cottage, SteelHooves in the Zecora flashback. For me, it was heart-wrenching to see characters I care about -- and who I know have good intentions -- be led astray by the Wasteland.

The emotional investment has tremendous payoff in Fallout Equestria, which really takes the reader on a full roller coaster of emotions. As I was reading, I frequently found myself laughing out loud (SteelHooves' deadpan comment "Definitely a vice." sticks in my mind as my favorite joke) or holding back tears. I recall specifically that when Littlepip found Pinkie's last message to Twilight and discovered her remains with the statuette, I had to set the book (err, e-reader) down and take a break because I was on the verge of crying.

For me, the ending itself is one of the most powerful and bittersweet moments. For several chapters leading up to the end, I was waiting for the deus ex machina that would let Littlepip not have to follow through with her decision. That way she could live happily ever after (as it were). At the reveal of Celestia (in what turned out to be a literal deus ex machina, yet not a metaphorical one) I was sure that Littlepip would be able to just reconnect the controls, thereby solving both her and Celestia's problems at once. And as much as I would have liked for that to have been the ending, I think Kkat's ending was the correct one. It's emotionally jarring and not what I wanted for Littlepip; after the 45 chapters of incredible sacrifice, I wanted her to be able to receive the award of simply being able to go home. But the way this hope was built up (intentional or not) makes her last sacrifice that much more powerful.

But to take a step back from what seems like unending praise, I wouldn't describe the story as being absolutely perfect and without fault. For me, the first few chapters were quite rough. This is probably a combination of Kkat not yet having a team of editors and my own adjustment to the setting. And although I haven't played Fallout, a few elements of the setting felt artificial, as though they were adapted from common video game tropes or just from Fallout directly: computer terminals, particularly onse that control doorways, a protagonist with an inexplicable ability to hack everything, lockpicking and finite supplies of lockpicking tools/bobby-pins (a video game trope which is meant to discourage indescriminate attempts to pick everything, but which doesn't bear much relation to the way lockpicking actually works). Mention of the many different types of ammunition and (usually) instantaneous healing supplies also felt derived from video game source material, though those elements were a bit easier to accept considering how directly relevant and necessary to the plot they were, combined with the innate magic of Equestria.

In the beginning of the story I found this all a bit distracting since it served as a reminder that this was intentionally crossed over with a video game setting. That said, I got over it by the end of the first few chapters (I can't decide if it's because the prevalence/importance of such elements tapered off, or if I just got used to it).

I don't want to end on a note of negativity, so let me just reiterate that those critiques are minor and didn't prevent me from thoroughly enjoying story. It shows clearly in her writing that Kkat is well-read and an experienced story teller, and we are all very lucky that she has shared those skills with us (not to mentioned, freely given the time to write such an epic tale). It comes of little surprise to me, having read the story, that an entire community has spawned around it. So to her I say: thank you for sharing this experience with us.