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Sep
5th
2014
A single picture, showing why I will (probably) never read Fallout: Equestria (possible spoiler) · 8:17am Sep 5th, 2014
(http://havebkyourway.deviantart.com/art/Mare-of-the-Ministry-of-Morale-s-Final-Moments-370827532)
I don't think my heart could take it. Just the picture itself made me fall into depression. 
(I know that Pinkie Pie doesn't die on-screen, but she still shows on this picture how I feel about ponies, including prominent characters of the show, dying by mass-destruction weapons. Also, I do not mean to offend/denounce anyone who loves this AU, as we are all different, and you have every right to love FO:E.)
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Servant Phoenix · 881 views
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Sorry for polluting your News Feed with stuff like this, it's just that I have to talk things like this out of myself, but I have no-one else who could understand, but you guys.
I haven't even opened up Fallout: Equestria, and it's possible I never will. Though I've enjoyed what I've played from Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, it simply doesn't interest me. I've heard that Kkat is probably one of the best writers to grace this site, and so while it would seem tempting to open it up to get a glimpse of this amazing writing, I likely wouldn't be hooked.
I don't hold anything against it; it just isn't for me. 620,000 words at that too. I'd be pretty much forcing myself to sit and read it. The story itself only has 15,665 views as of this moment too, so a part of me wonders why it has so many spin-offs. I guess it's because of the vast world that's been created, but given that story view count compared to some one-shots that have 30,000, it's a bit surprising that such a infamous fic of its stature has that much of a view count. I'm guessing it's the Mature tag. Or the Gore.
But hey, kudos to whoever enjoys it. As for the pic there, why does Pinkie have grey streaks? It's probably explained in the story, but as a non-reader, I'm in the dark. Given that she's holding a small Twilight too, my TwiPie radar sparked up some activity. But that's overthinking things, as usual.
I'm just skimming the story itself, and the chapter lengths really vary. 51,539 words on a chapter? Damn man. I've seen a one-shot story that was 67,000 (and haven't read), but still!
2429288 It only has 15000 views, because the story existed in GDocs first, so most of the people read it before it was moved to Fimfiction. Same situation with It's Dangerous Business.
EDIT: It's funny thought that actually I can play games like Fallout or Mass Effect (although only in small doses). Heck, Mass Effect is actually my favorite game. I guess it's the combination of ponies and gore/brutality/mass-killing that simply makes my heart break.
The point of FallOut: Equestria is that it is a cautionary tale:
The ponies and the Zebras had a minor dispute about a coalshipment. The sensible thing to do would be to let the courts in a neutral third country decide the issue. The Equestrian Parliament wanted to just seize the shipment by force because the lack of coal caused hardship. The instincts of the Princesses told them not to use force, but with a supermajority (over ⅔rds) of the Parliament demanding the use of force, the Princesses gave into the demands to use force. This lead to a generation (25 years) of war which ended in a MegaSpellExchange. The moral is that force is a last resort.
I read a lot of FoE and dislike it. It is not at all believable, even with the excuse of "We only had season 1 to work off of". It commits the sin that so many crossovers commit: It warps characters and other things to make the crossover work. I can't handle the mischaracterization of not just characters, but the entire world.
It's not even because it's depressing, that's fine, but I just couldn't buy the premise or many other things that happened.
2429288
The grey streaks are because at the point of death she is older. I believe at one point they compare her hair to a candy cane even. As for the figurine, those are scattered all over Equestria, of all the mane six. When Lil pip finds these trinkets she gets surges of strength or ect.
It's a very odd story. Everything about it makes me feel I should hate it. I refused to read it for two years, in fact. Then I did and I found that it was horribly gory in places, that the writing was iffy (at the start; it does get better), that it contained some astoundingly cringeworthy lines and that one good-guy character irritated the heck out of me. (For those who've read it, I'm talking about Homage here.) Also, my favourite pony is Fluttershy, and I still haven't made my mind up about how I feel about what happens to her in FO:E.
And yet I came out at the end of those 620,000 words feeling really rather impressed. Entirely against my will, and despite its flaws, I was really glad I'd chosen to read it.
That said, I can entirely understand your point of view on this. It could so easily have been mine.
Coming back and looking at this picture again... it's true, this really does it. I mean, just look! There's a computer! My immersion!
2435549 Oh you!
As a fan of of Fallout Equestria, I feel that I should take a stand for it. I'm going to try and acknowledge the objections/complaints, and with luck do it without pulling a fanboy/fangirl stance of "It's better/best because I like it/because it's popular.".
THERE ARE UNMARKED SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT FORWARD. I'M LAZY AND YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Lets start with the OP from Servant Phoenix. On the violent and terrible deaths of three of the Mane Six, and other such horrific moments. Fluttershy technically didn't die, but that's honestly part of what makes her fate prior to Pip finding her all the more terrible. Fallout Equestria is a VERY dark work. There is no denying this. It is a story about how the magical land of sunshine and rainbows DIED. Ponies and zebras were more effective in killing the world than any major villain in canon MLP history.
As 2429295 pointed out, this is a cautionary tale. It is a story about how the failure to follow the ideals of harmony can destroy everything that is held precious. But it also is a cautionary tale about how failing to try to understand your 'enemies' can be just as destructive. Ignorance can destroy just as easily as violence. Another part of the tension between zebra and pony was the return of Luna. Zebra's couldn't understand the distinction between Luna and Nightmare Moon. To them the two were one and the same. Ponies couldn't understand the zebra faith that the 'stars are evil'. While some may disagree that the 'stars' are enemies of life, there IS another force behind the war. The Black Book and the necromancer prisoner are very much forces of destruction and point to the zebra being right. These things added fuel to the fire, helping the world of harmony on its death spiral. Of course, even beyond the coal shippments, the final nail is the massacre at Littlehorn. It is never said, and in truth does NOT matter, how that event started exactly. Both sides tell differing tales, neither version matters. Only that it was the turning point, where both sides stop talking, and only the death of the other mattered anymore...
These things are incredibly depressing, and if they didn't upset you/make you sad, then there wouldn't be a point in reading it. The horrors and nightmares created by the Great War MUST strike a cord with the reader, if only so the caution not to allow it to come to pass is instilled within the heart and mind of the reader. But there is MORE to the story than just being a cautionary tale. Because it is also a story about hope, no matter how hopeless it all seems. Littlepip's story is the stuff of nightmares, because the world she steps into outside the Stable is a world where hope has been killed. It was slain in the Great War. But no matter how terrible the things she sees, no matter what horrors she deals with, Littlepip continues to work toward a better world. Her title of Lightbringer is very apt, because she brought not just the light of the heavens to the Wasteland. She brought back the light of hope.This little pony is nothing special. She is no Bearer of Harmony, no predestined princess of friendship trying to avert a terrible prophecy. But her actions, her refusal to let the hope within her heart die, these things had just as great an impact as anything the Mane Six ever did.
However Pip isn't perfect. She isn't a Mary Sue who uses a simple plot device and makes everything better. This pony has some serious flaws, drug addiction honestly being one of the least of them. And in no place is this shown better than in Arbu, where Littlepip falls. The wholesale slaughter of stallions, mares, fillies and colts, all at Pip's hooves. There the nightmares and horrors of the Wasteland finally break the would be heroine, and a monster is unleashed upon the town. It is an act that neither Pip nor the reader are every allowed to forget, or forgive. But while forgiveness may be impossible, Littlepip does grow from this, vowing that while she may be damned she can still do everything she can for a better world.
Further, Littlepip was not alone, and she could have never done everything she did without the help of her friends. These friendships, like a certain lavender unicorn's, are essential to both her story, and to the story of the Wasteland. Like Pip herself, each of her companions is very flawed. In the case of Steelhooves, outright broken. He is a nightmare made flesh. A suicidal murderer with the firepower to slaughter anything in his path, (regardless of collateral damage) and the skills and willingness to use it. But thanks to his friendship with Pip and the others, he finally reaches within and finds the courage to move on. It is unlikely that he forgave himself of his crimes, but inspired by Pip, he strives to improve the Wasteland as best as he can. In turn, Steelhoves was, IMO, the most influential in Pip's recovery from Arbu. The lesson learned, no matter that you become a monster, you can still strive to be better than you are.
In my opinion there are more, and greater, atrocities in Fallout Equestria than any other MLP fic that I have ever read. Even when put against the like of certain infamous fics. More importantly, these things are handled as they should be. The reader is made to feel the weight of it all. That picture above depresses you? The story itself will make you feel even worse. And never are the characters, nor the reader, ever able to just shake it off, at least not permanently. The Dark cuts deep into you and tries very hard to never let you go. But no matter the darkness, there is light within. Hope fights back, in its own ways, every step of the way. And the reader is made to feel this as well. The story keeps letting you feel that this world CAN be better. That no matter what things have become, hope can never truly die. Fallout Equestria is a story about how the land of sunshine and rainbows dies, there is no denying this. But it is also a story about how one little pony, through the magic of friendship and sheer refusal to give up, brought it back to life. As Pinkie Pie tells Pip, "Everything will end in sunshine and rainbows!". All you have to do is believe and be willing to work for it.
2437603
Wow, this was really interesting to read. Thank you.
I just don't want to be depressed
. There are enough terrible things in this world to be depressed about, I don't want to add extra from the worlds of imagination (let alone from the world of ponies...)
2437764 And that's a perfectly understandable reason. I may love the story, but even I, a full fledged Card Carrying Villain, have to admit it's heartbreaking at times. The fates of Twilight, Pinkie, and Fluttershy are among the worst parts. It's very hard to decide which is worse. Twilight is effectively eaten, her body and essence pulled into the monstrosity that is the 'Goddess', and there are hints she didn't exactly die from that. Fluttershy ran into Killing Joke, and while it didn't kill her, she watched the world die. Pinkie... Lets just say that being a clairvoyant can really suck. Rarity's fate, while somewhat gruesome, is less depressing. Generosity very much lived up to her Element, both in her sacrifce to save Fluttershy, and the creation of the Statuettes, like the one Pinkie is holding in that picture. But what makes it worth the read is the other aspect of the story. Hope survives, even in Hell.
I never read tragedy tags and I have even skipped entire series because like the second fic in them has been tragedy like some changeling thing that sounded fine but I didn't come here to be depressed knowing that whatever happened in the first story was pointless if they end up dead in the second
You know what's really heartbreaking? In Porject Horizons Pinkie Pie was murdered by Psalm, who was carrying out Project Partypooper.