Crossover Musing Corner: Fallout Equestria x Super Robot Wars Original Generations · 9:11am Apr 1st, 2014
You know what buckin' rocks?
Giant. Robots.
There is never a time, place, or situation that isn't made more awesome by the presence of a giant robot.
No series gets the concept better nor celebrates the existence of the giant robot more than the Super Robot Wars series by Banpresto. These series of tactical turn-based RPGs from Japan takes everything that makes the giant robot and mecha genre great and crystallizes it in games that are genuinely challenging, engaging, and more often than not actually have decent characters and plotlines.
But I'm not here to talk about those games, but rather about how I'd go about fusing these lovely games, specifically the situations, characters, and mecha of the Original Generations series of SRW games, into the Fallout Equestria universe. Why? Because its April Fools day, I'm probably never actually going to write this, but the idea still tickles me pinker than a certain party pony and I feel like waxing about it for awhile.
So the first thing to figure out with crossing over Super Robot Wars OG with FoE is to decide which era to focus on. Personally both the wartime era, the Wasteland era, and the Sunshine and Rainbows era all offer equally tempting prospects.
The Great War... the War of the Mecha
So the war between ponies and zebra goes exactly as FoE depicts, up until a point...
That point being when the Ministry of Arcane Science and Ministry of Wartime Technology pool their efforts and create the first true battlefield mecha in an attempt to counter the power and advantage the zebra gained when they brought dragons into the war. Instead of the Steel Rangers, Applejack's obsessing with creating an armor nopony has to die wearing blossoms out to a dream of a giant robot, with a pilot sitting invincible and safe inside it. Bringing this concept to Twilight, the pair work together to get their Ministries cracking on this idea of a giant fighting robot with the power to wipe out an entire company of emeny soliders and taking on a dragon one-on-one.
The result is the prototype Huckebein.
The humanoid shape of the giant robot is Twilight's idea, her Ministry having discovered ancient stone carvings of bipedal humanoid beings in remote locations around Equestria. She believes the humanoid shape is ideal for a warmachine meant to utilize modular weapon load-outs and specifically use melee weapons designed to kill dragons. The original Huckebein prototype is designed alongside a slew of experimental weapons, including the first 'Beam Saber' and a highly unstable 'Gravity Cannon'. The mecha used a unusual engine designed around a hybrid reactor using both gems and a experimental metal called Tronium, a metal recovered from a meteorite crash site Twilight's Ministry had been studying. Twilight does not share the knowledge of Tronium's origins with Applejack, merely calling the metal a synthesized material her Ministry developed.
The initial tests of the Huckebein are impressive, but the costs of maintaining the unit and its weapons lead Applejack to call for a redesign that's more economically sound. While the prototype is kept in storage beneath Canterlot a new project is started to develop several different "mass production" models that will be suitable for large scale deployment. At this time Twilight's Ministry and Applejack's, while still collaborating, develop two different teams and groups for this purpose; Twilight's SRX (Super Robot Experiment) Team, and Applejack's ATX (Aggressive Tactical Executors) Squadron. The SRX Team works on developing a successor series of mass-production Hukebein's, but also at the same time a secret directive from Twilight has the team working on a 'Super Robot' alongside the T-Link system, a special system designed to enhance and amplify magical energy in a pilot. Meanwhile the ATX develop a brand new mass production mecha that Applejack pushes into fast production, the Gespent. 
Lightly armed and fragile compared to the Huckebein, the Gespent remains a formidable war machine with arm mounted autocannons, plasma stakes, and the ability to carry any number of hand held weapons sized for the giant robots. Applejack pushes the Gespent into full production through a series of dangerous trial runs and actual combat tests against zebra fortifications, leading to the reveal of giant mecha to the world at large in an impressive display that captures the imaginations of the Equestrian populace tired of conventional war, and even more tired Equestrian soldiers seeking a sliver of hope.
While Twilight's team still lags in developing a proper mass-production Huckebein model, the MK.II only slightly cheaper than the orignal prototype, the Gespent is accepted as a full field unit for the Equestrian military and is mass produced and fielded in large numbers, all but replacing the tanks currently being used. A entire new generation of young pilots are trained in the machines and take to the battlefield. At first the Equestrians make great strides, but it isn't long before the zebra strike back.
Almost a mere few months after the Gespents take to the battlefield the zebra's counter with a remarkable mecha of their own, the Lion.
Though not as well armed as the Gespent, the Lion has the advantage of maneuverability and the ability to fly. Suddenly the battlefield becomes as destructive as ever as Equestrian Gespents and Zebra Lions battle it out in firefights more destructive than anything that'd taken place before. Applejack's ATX team continues to develop new mecha to field, creating a series of experimental new Gespents including the Altiesen and Wiesritter.
These mecha never reach mass production, however, remaining unique experiments in the ATX groups arsenal, alongside the SRX Team's Huckebein MK.II. At this time Twilight unveils to Equestria a new platform for which the deployment and field repairs of mecha can be made, and that is the Hagane-Class Battleship.
Though on the surface this ship was meant to be the flagship of a new fleet that would crack the zebra lines, Twilight, in an emergency conference, gathers her friends from the other Ministries and confides in them a terrible secret. In her Ministry's research on Tronium and the meteorite it came from, Twilight had discovered that the meteor in question was not a meteor at all, but was in fact an alien craft, and that a great deal of the technology to build the mecha being used in the war came from research on the craft; code named Meteor-3. Twilight further reveals that evidence had been discovered in Meteor-3 that the aliens the ship comes from may very well appear on Equestria at any time, as every since the development of the original Huckebein prototype and its Tronium Engine, Meteor-3 has been broadcasting a signal into space... and Twilight's researchers had just recently detected a return signal. Something is approaching the world, and could arrive in a few years, or a few months, perhaps even a few days. The Hagane Battleship, she reveals, is actually space capable, and is truly meant to be a defense against possible alien attack. Twilight also explains her SRX Team has been secretly developing a series of robots, the Real-Trooper Series, which she hopes will be the best line of defense against the aliens.
Twilight's plan is to reveal the existence of the aliens to the zebra in hopes of ending the war and together working to defend the world from potential attack, but her friends are unable to come to a agreement on how to do this, as the zebra seem intent on continuing the war no matter what.
Despondent, Twilight agrees there's little choice unless they can somehow force the zebra to surrender.
From this point the story follows closer to FoE norm; except that the Equestrians and Zebra continue to make use of more and more different kinds of mecha and ships in the war. However everything else remains the same, Rainbow Dash's Ministry develops the SPP, Fluttershy creates Megaspells, and come the end the bombs still drop, with Stable-Tech having still made Stables to shelter large quantities of the population.
However, in the Wasteland, vast, vast numbers of mecha remain behind in ruined bases or on battlefields, and the factories that made both the mecha and their weapons remain... and over two hundred years the Wastelanders, Raiders, slavers, and common ponies make use of these mecha and weapons to fight and survive in the post apocalypse.
Welcome to the Wasteland... Never Bring a Gun to a Mecha Fight
Two hundred years after the bombs drop much is the same as the FoE we all know and love. Raiders raid. Slavers slave. Alicorns seek candidates for Unity. Red Eye's empire grows in Fillydelphia. And one little gray mare leaves her Stable on an adventure that will change the world...
...The only difference is that now, almost all battles are fought using giant robots.
Literally thousands of mecha were built during the Great War with the zebra, and they litter the landscape like giant metal corpses. While many are little more than husks, many more were salvagable and mecha have become the mainstay weapon of almost everypony with any sense in the Wasteland. Scavengers and salvagers use mecha to explore the Wasteland, always looking for a big score in munitions, mecha parts, or even the rare intact hangar or factory. Merchants use mecha to move large amounts of goods and protect themselves from bandits. Raidres paint their mecha in skull and blood motifs, screaming across the Wasteland in savage attacks on fortified settlments. Slavers use mecha to control and capture large quantities of slaves, battling it out with settlements that dare resit with mecha of their own. Red Eye has built a dangerous, fortified citadel in Fillydelphia, an empire few can challenge, because in in Fillydelphia Red Eye has access to factories that can build new mecha, including the old Gespent series. He's also acquired some rare treasures, including his personal battleship the Kurogane.
It is into this Wasteland that Littlepip emerges to chase Velvet Remedy. It is from here her story progresses, but with a mecha twist; for soon after emerging into the dangerous Wasteland she encounters slavers who pilot mecha. She only escapes when the slavers mecha are attacked and destroyed by the Raiders from Ponyville, and she flees into the ruined town. It is here she discovers a hidden underground hangar beneath Twlight's Library, the secret development base of the SRXs, Real-Trooper project, and the abandoned prototype mecha: R-1!
The R-1's T-Link system recognizes Littlepip's potential TK power and activates as per the programming of a Twilight Sparkle AI system that explains to Littlepip the purpose of the R-Project and the SRX Team's goal to defend the world from a possible alien threat. The AI charges Littlepip with finding the other mecha in the R-Series, the R-2, R-3, R-Gun, and R-Blade, but first she must escape Ponyville and battle the Raiders and their mecha! It is from here a new saga unfolds, similar to the original FoE in some ways, but also quite a bit different in spirit and form as familiar characters encounter new situations and battles in an era where giant robots rule the Wasteland!
Final Musing
I'll say this much; its entirely unnecessary to put giant robots into FoE.
But if that's your first thought then your missing the point of giant robots!
Giant robots are never necessary. But they do make everything more awesome. They're not meant to be realistic, or be taken even all that seriously. To put them in FoE is pointless, gratuitous, and utterly without need.
And that's why I'd love to see it done!
It doesn't even have to be a redux of Littlepip's story. Its entirely possible to focus a story on the mecha pilots of the Great War. Or one can set it after Littlepip's adventure, when the alien invaders arrive and a new generation of young ponies, griffins, and zebra in the NCR must defend their beleaguered home with hot-bloodledness and grit! Really, it'd all be good, clean, mindless fun. That's what giant robots are for.
Been meaning to do this for over a week. You know what my favorite mech's are? Zoids.
Those are the ones I grew up with, giant semi-independent animals.
I have the only American released Gamecube game, and I love it.
My favorite Zoid? SHADOWFOX!
img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100803205826/zoids/images/8/8f/Shadow_Fox.png
But I love any and all mechs, how could you not? Just Zoids were my first. It was also the first series I really watched religiously.
It was on at the perfect time, just as soon as I got home I was able to see it. It was the first thing I card enough about to watch in order, actually learn the story as opposed to just watching the fights. Not to mention I don't think many other series have the mechs as characters. But these are animals in addition to machines, there are wild zoids.
These weren't just mindless machines, they were living, breathing, beings. Hell if an Ultimate X didn't like you, you couldn't pilot it, they'd eject you.
Just such an amazing series.
But yes FoE does need mechs, EVERYTHING NEEDS MECHS!
... I wonder if anyone's drawn ponies as zoids? I'm gunna go see if there's a Pinkie zoid now later.
I would like to see Littlepip in a gundam, I can honestly see that happening in the type of universe you're setting up, since most if not all gundam protagonists are either young adults or teenagers who just stumbled into the wrong place at the right time.
Also, that would make Littlepip a Newtype, just like Amuro Ray and the other UC timeline protagonists, and that would make Red Eye the Char Aznable of Fallout Equestria.