Fallout Equestria 2 year retrospective

...Technically its been two years.

Ah, Fallout Equestria, my fave fic of all time. I never expected to come this far into the sub-fandom, or to even begin to like it nearly as much as I have been. Over two year ago, I don't think you would've been able to convinvce me that I would fall in love with this type of story. Why woul I? I mean, it's a crossover, postapoclyptic, and has none of the mane six, its just basically telling me to hate it. But, love it I did.

I remember hearing about this fic back in 2011, with all of the multiple update posts on EQD. Heck, one of the first times I saw anything FOE related was a madmax comic making fun Dash's rain nuke. Heck, I mostly ignored the series except for the EQD one year anniversary post about it, where it described a lot about the fic an characters. Still, I mostly let it alone and read other fics on FIMfic, and it wasn't until dec of that year, that things changed.

See, since becoming a brony, I had also became a Whovian and I had been listening to a backlog of Big finish Dr. who stories. Problem, I knew one day I was going to run out and I would be stuck listening to all of the old music CDs that I had listened to about a thousand times since my little brother was six! I had to find something else. Now, remember, this was in 2012. This was before the likes of Obab, Visualpony, and the Living Library. This was before people began to realize "Hey! Maybe I could read a fic that isn't clop, Oc-centered, dark, or romance. Maybe I could read one that...interests me!" So the closest thing we had to FOE like fics to be read were things like My Little Dashie or someone doing another Cupcakes read. But, that was when I saw on a blip channel for Doctor who reviews...a radio play of another fic that is dear to me...

PONY POV.

Namely, the whole set o Discorded Ponies and some of the Reharmonized set. So, I quickly ran, downloaded, and put it all to CD for a listen. It was a temporary fix, but it worked. Then, EQD had a post about FOE having a completed live read by Crazed Rambling. Well, I decided that it was time to go and bite the bullet and see what all of this hoopla was about. I went to youtube and downloaded Scortch's twenty five chapters of his live read and then the rest of Crazed Ramblings. (Geeze, there were only two of them at the time. Now there are four for yor enjoyment) and then burnt it all down onto CD. Enough for at least one of my carrying cases to get full (about sixty to sixty-five disks I think.) I then laid down in my bed an began to listen to it.

Of course, I was going in...expecting to hate it.

Yes, I said hate. Let me remind you, I normally hate stories that are like FOE. Post apoclyptic, the manes are dead, and dealing with somepony I don't care about. Normally, I prefer it where the goal is to STOP this thing from happening. Heck, I haven't rea Cupcakes to this day because o that. Heck, I usually only can enjoy it when its from the POV of a main character who sees this as a bad possiblity. So, you can can kind of see why I was in here thinking that this was going to be me riffing on a fic for fourty-five chapters.

Imgine my shock, then, when I got to the end of chapter three I found myself liking it a little. Chapter seven I fell in love with our petite protagonist, by chapter ten I was starting to love it, and chapter seventeen, I was hooked and I was never looking back. I found mysel surprised that a fic I believed was going to be hopeless and bleak, I even opened the disk with freaking End of all hope for Celestia's sake, to be a fic all about hope. A fic that was about finding hope in the most bleakest of times, holding onto it, and never letting go no matter what the cost. The ones who fall were the ones who lost that spark, but our heroes find it and bring it back to the Wasteland...no matter what.

So, a simple little journey into what I thought would be a bad fanfic during a bad time in my school career (Lets just say, it was hell) turned out to be a bright light in my darkness and a terriffic gift for me to give me a chance to find something good out of all of it. A chane to look forward to and have fun.

And I guess that the reasons why I began to love it are quite clear to me now. For one, it may be a crossover, but its the kind I like. Oe where I didn't feel lost because I had never read the material or played it. I mean, I did by Fallout 3 for my little brother when our local movie store was closing down, but I mostly ignored it and just played TGWTG videos while he did his work on that. So any reference to any of the Fallout games was backed up by my little brother going "Oh, this is like so and so from Fallout 1" or "This is like such and such from Fallout 3". And, unlike most big brothers, I listened...why? Because Celestia darn it if I am not a gigantic gamer and I love listening to stu about my ave hobby. The fact that it had the benefit of not weakening the mane six was a really nice bonus.

Another, as I said, was that it may have been set in a dark place, it was all about the establishment of hope. That, despite what you may have been through, you can always find a little hope. That if you hold onto it, and fight hard for it, you can keep that light of hope burning bright not just for yourself, but for others as well. There is also the fun bits that I find from Calamity, the pervyness of Littlepip, or just the one-liners that emerge from the mains. The names are kind of fun too, because as I said...only in a pony fic where I am dealing with the Apocolypse can I find a mare by the name of Strawberry Lemonade and a stallion by the name of Cottage Cheese. (As I always say, only in a pony fic...only in a pony fic.)

The characters are all wonderful and I love the deeper meaning I find in it all. Stuff like how it does touch upon the meaning of friendship, bonds, and the love for one another in the world, what you can find even in the most bleakest of times. I love how it showed that, without the others, the mane six's faults and weaknesses were strengthened and they found themselves unable to perform at their best. That their bonds allowed them to become stronger than they were, and without it, they fell from grace. That they all started with good intentions, but without their honesty, loyalty, and all of their other virtues, they couldn't see their real intentions come to pife. On the oppisite side, we see how the bonds Littlepip makes, turns her into a better mare, and in return, she makes the others better. This is also true of how the group makes each other better ponies, wether it be from Velvet turning Calmity into less of a gun crazy shooter or Steelhooves finally starting to see how wrong his prejudices were thanks to Xenith. I love the grey morality that I can find, looking at both sides of the coin. This fic doesn't really give us a solid answer, only one belief, "We can be better, we have to be better."

This is defintatly personiied in the wonderful OCs. When I started, I thought I would hate each one. Whether it be from Calamity's gun toating ways or Steelhooves looking like he would just be a big strong guy with no personality, but over time I fell in love with each. I love Calamity's brashness, his speed and cowboy antics. I love Velvet and her trying to be a good mare in a world that is telling her way is extinct. Steelhooves for his backstory and Xenith because of well...when you go through what she did and NOT come out as a whiny emotional wreck but instead a badass with butt kicking as your special talent? I think we got a cool mare. Regina is also a peronal favorite of mine, because I love how she eels like she was the second choice and always wants to prove that she is worhty of her brother's sacrifice. I love her snark, and her duel weilding nature.

The villians, of course, are some of my favorite in fanfiction. (Sadly has ruined a lot of fanfic villians for me because I use them as a scale) With Red Eye being the top. I love villians like him, manipulative, cunning, but with an ideal that you could almost agre with. To quote Captain America "In any other circumstance, I would volunteer to HELP him." His ideas are sound, the things he has made are sound, but much like Doom before him, if it wasn't built on the backs of slaves or will, it would be a sensible plan. Heck, I am reminded of Doom. In emperor Doom, he took over the world and what happend? The whole world was a freaking utopia. He stopped wars, brought true peace, and advanced the lives of so many. That is what I feel when I look at Red Eye, somepony who almost makes me want to root for him and that is scary.

Wich, of course, brings me to Little Pip

Yes, Little pip, there is a very good reason why I want to get her as a plush. (And if anyone could point a plush maker to me for one, I will be so grateful) Mainly because she is my fave pony OC. I love this gal way too much. Mainly because I love her will power. This gal could be a freakingGreen Lantern with her will. Not once, did I ever see her falter in her thinking that she could make the wasteland better. That she could change it just a little. Yes, there were times when she thought she was evil or wrong (especially in Arbu, but I can understand. They may have been cannibals, but she ruined family lives then. Children who didn't want that life or know about their parent's sin were scarred becausse o what happened) but through it all, she kep to her mantra, "We hav e to be better, we Can be better!"

I will fight against the darkness. And when I am too broken to move anymore, I will throw my body into it and make the darkness choke on me

That, to me, spells awesome. I love the times she looks at the mare's flanks, wich makes me think of my more pervy moments. I love all of her fallicies and her mistakes.

Two things I think of, when I see certain complaints to her and the story. One comes from my dear old enemies at Project After, where they say she has meses up morals/is the cause of exticntion. To the latter, I say Sheppard and Samus Aran. You know, Sheppard, where you KILL a race in order to stop the reapers and the less that's said about the massacre of three races the better. To the former o the two, I want to say, yes, wanting to see the better side of ponies, thinking of others better than her, wanting to make ponies better, and thinking that she can help no matter what. Those are horrible and messed upmorals. Yep, I so do not want to think that deep down anybodycould be good. Nope, I so want to think less of others. Oh, and going out of my way to help others, that is wrong too. Yes, we shoul try and go for a plan that wold kill everyone and NOT think of a plan that would actually save lives. But, you know, messed up morals

The other one, is a link on TVtropes where they mention anti-villian, and to that I say,if she were real...she would actually agree with you. But then sigh, and turn around and go "But I will still try and save you." and then go and help people. That is who she is and why I love this gal. Why, during a roleply I amdoing that is basically, "What if Velvet never let the stable, plus Samus", I hope I can do right by her.

All of this, is also puntucated with the fact that the author, lovely lady Kkat, is just plain awesome. Kind, very caring towards both our fandom and the sub-fandom she spawned, modest, and verymuch fun when it comes to the mstings of her work. I find every reason to be reminded why she is an exellent author. Even if we never meet.

So that, leads me here. Four months after reading, I was hooked like noone's business. I join serve FOE groups and have been reading a lot of the side stories. Met a group of fans that are just as awesome as the rest o the bronies and just as helpful/creative. Inpiring me to write my own FOE sidestory...no, two if you include my roleplay. Listening to so many of the radio plays and loving every part o it.

So, here's to more time with all of you.

Here's to the wonderful ponies that bring hope to the Waasteland.

Here's to the ponies that help others because its the right thing to do

Here's to all of us who bring the light to the wasteland

Here's to the heroes of hope

Here's

An awesome fic, with awesome characters, and an awesome world. Let's bring the light.