Tales of a Junktown Pony Peddler Commentary: Chapter 1 · 12:55am Apr 12th, 2015
This entry contains spoilers for Tales of a Junk Town Pony Peddler. Be warned...
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Sacrifice...
It’s difficult to describe in words the majesty I see in Kkat’s Fallout: Equestria. Even if I could, do I really need to? Kkat has been interviewed more times than I can count. The story has been analyzed in pretty much every regard down to every facet. Really, what else can I say that hasn’t been said? To the beginning, I guess.
I have known about Fallout: Equestria for quite some time, but have never read it. It was the same thing with Past Sins and even the show itself; I knew about it, and could have even liked it at the time, but just had no immediate interest. I’ve never played the Fallout games, or even it’s predecessor series Wasteland. At the time I am writing this, I even own the first two games of Fallout, but have never played them. My knowledge of the games is dreadfully short. I knew it involved a post-apocalyptic hellscape, several mechanics like scavenging, and certain story elements, but no direct knowledge via walkthroughs or Let’s Plays.
As for when I first learned of Fallout: Equestria, I can’t rightly say. I knew about it in passing since the early days of my experience with the show, but I can’t say when that happened. I had known from word-of-mouth that it was widely considered to be one of the highest quality of the early “Big Four” of Fallout: Equestria, Past Sins, Cupcakes, and My Little Dashie. I have read three of those. I’ve heard about the darkness and breadth of the world, the main character Littlepip and her companions, the shrouded past of Equestria, and all of the great themes within.
It was about a year and a half ago when I started. It just goes to show, at least to me, the impact it had on me: I remember nothing about that day other than the story itself. I was hooked from the very beginning.
I almost got into a little bit of fanboying there. Although I have now finished the story for the first time on a date I will now remember forever, March 16, 2015, this is not the story of Littlepip. I’ll try to keep this short. What struck the deepest chord in me about the story was three-fold: the characterization of its cast, its take on a gray morality, and the various themes dotting about. I loved that there was no right or wrong answer in such a hellscape where it was often kill or be killed. I loved that there was an inherent ability in every character to change and not keep the status quo. This is a place tainted by fear and self-interest, and something as simple as surviving can bear horrible consequences. Helping others comes with a set of fear and risk that may very well end in death. The Great Sleep is the least of your worries in such a place if a wayward raider of beast comes your way. That was the beauty of it, at least to me. I loved the story for its character study, and that branched outward into even more things I loved.
Appologies, I am still riding the high of reading the story when writing this. Commentaries have always been “my thing” and I am a little eager to get my thoughts down in words. Digressing, I loved listening to Scorch238’s audiobook, even if I needed to finish with CrazedRambling’s audiobook. It’s one of the reasons I invested in mp3 players, even though the first two are succumbing to my superpowers.
I listened all the way through chapter 31 before stopping for over a year. I couldn’t help it. You see, this is something I do when I love reading something so much: I stop. I know that my seem counterintuitive or even absurd to some of you, but the reason is simple. I loved it too much. A good story has an ending.
All good things come to an end. I didn’t want it to end.
However, my memory returned to me. I needed to go on an extensive car ride last year at the same time and was refreshing myself by listening to Fallout: Equestria on the way. Thinking back, I knew it had to be done. It’s time I finished this.
Heh, I got off track again. Still, I needed to give you context as to why I am writing this, what this story has brought out in me.
In June 2014, I revisited some old acquaintances of mine: Pony in a Box Productions. Back when I had my old security job, I passed the time listening to their radioplay Number Twelve, called so because at that time the Doctor would have been in his twelfth incarnation. I loved Jamjar and Lauren bantering back and forth as the Doctor and Twilight, and it was the constant listening to their stuff that led me to create my second fanfiction on the site. This is not the first work I have done for the Box crew. No, that honor falls on Ashes to Ashes.
I’ve stalked their tumblr long enough to know that they had been working on Tales of a Junk Town Pony Peddler for some time, but I hadn’t bothered because I hadn’t gotten far enough in Fallout: Equestria. I wanted to listen, but what would be the point? I’d have no idea what was going on, and even if they did keep their story self-contained, it’d likely spoil what I hadn't read. I gave it an experimental try later on, and luckily they did a good job at not spoiling what I hadn’t read at the time.
The main reason it drew me in was it made no truly blatant attempts to tie its own story into the original fanfiction. I’ve picked up other Fallout stories since then starting with the other main four: Pink Eyes, Project Horizons, Heroes, and Murky Number Seven. I like them all well enough, but the one thing I don’t is that, with emphasis on Project Horizons, when they make an attempt to tie into Fallout: Equestria, the attempt is obvious. I don’t like Blackjack tracing almost the same trail in the beginning as Littlepip down to collecting statuettes. You get the idea. The main character of Tales of a Junk Town Pony Peddler, Prodigious Peddler, is just a sales pony who isn’t trying to save the wasteland. The only time he hears about the events of Fallout: Equestria is the two or three times he listens to the radio, and only in passing. It’s episodic and self-contained, only using the setting as its own branching path.
For those of you who don’t know, I’ll summarize the basic plot of the radio play. Prodigious Peddler is just that: a peddler. He makes ends meet by going from settlement to settlement, buying and selling from his cart. One day he meets a filly wanting to buy safe passage to Megamart, a settlement a ways away from his current location. Her money's good, and a peddler keeps his word, and he indulges the request. Still, odd things are happening now. The mare is pretty secretive. That’s fair; he has his own worth hiding.
I can feel the Box crew subconsciously taking bits and pieces of what they’ve learned from their Doctor Whooves radio plays and using them for the series. It comes particularly obvious when examining their story structure: it’s very episodic. This is not a problem, and it gives it a certain degree of strength. There is no way this story could stand as easily if it had the scope and breadth as a novel. It relies too heavily on the reader’s own imagination to build the world rather than describing it in detail. Fascinating to be sure, and the only real obstacle I had when writing this myself. I had so little to work with, and instead I ended up creating its richness from what my imagination told me. In a way, it’s a little poetic. It’s a radio play that’s come full circle.
Still, Tales of a Junk Town Pony Peddler is considerably darker than the Box’s average stuff. Make no mistake; even though I gave events a certain dramatic flair, there’s a fair bit of darkness and death. For those that’ve read Fallout stories, this should come as no surprise. When compared to other stories hand that the Box has created on the other, there’s a tangible difference. Still, it seems to pull its punches and could easily be much worse than it could be. For a Fallout story series, it’s remarkably tame.
It does nail one theme right. When fighting the darkness, things always get worse before they get better. Right from chapter one, there is a fairly decent punch in the feels. A little tame and not emotion-heavy by fanfic standards, but a radio play is like I said a different beast altogether. In addition to we as an audience don’t know Peddler as well as we could, empathizing is impeded a little. I did what I could and did what I do best: scenery porn. I layered it on as thick as I could because there wasn’t much I could do about Peddler. What made the radio play interesting was the things he interacted with, sadly not too much about him.
There is a strangely good reason why human music is featured in the radio play. This is made even more fun and odd because it is canonically backed, so much so I couldn’t help but give a quiet and respectful clap of approval the first time I found out why. It is one things I am very fond of regardless. Music is often a very important part of fictional words. It sings to the soul and expresses the troubles that people have in everyday life. I don’t like the Hobbit trilogy as much as I do the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but one thing that it got correct right off the bat was the emphasis on music and the role it plays in different races. One of the longest series I’ve read, the Wheel of Time, has several cultures and music abounds. Fans have created some pretty impressive scores, including some by major producers. I am admittedly not too familiar with Fallout music in general and its uses in game, as I have not played the games currently in my possession, but I must admire what I see in Fallout: Equestria. In fact when writing the character Domino, I used the description of a ponified Frank Sinatra as he was the singer of Blue Moon.
. ~Big-Mac-115
Domino’s tale is pretty typical of the Wasteland. Lost love, lost hope, lost sanity, lost life. Slowly it eats everything from him until it consumes him entirely. The death of Domino was the only way that particular tale could end. Blue Moon tales the tale of someone sad and lonely until he finds love. Domino already found love and happiness in a time of war and tension, only to have it be ripped away from him and rubbed in his face as he was turned into a ghoul. Once in a blue moon meaning a rarity, and blue being the color of sadness and melancholy, only added to the symbolism. Despite Peddler being the star of the show, this particular chapter wasn’t about him. It was more about the wasteland itself and what it does to people who don’t thrive, but merely survive. Despite it ending with Peddler being forced to shoot Domino, it’s not entirely a sad story. Sad, of hell yes, but not entirely. Just look at what Domino says about his recollection. He was happy during the highest tensions of the war between Equestria and the zebra homeland. His filly Spades was all he needed, and even the memory of her was all he needed. When the world’s gone to hell, what’s worth fighting for? Surviving isn’t enough for the wasteland. Do better. Be better. Fighting isn’t enough. What do you fight for?
Well, join me next time for something a little more focused on the most prodigious of peddlers.
ah so you read Project Horizons then? That is one hell of story, emotional whiplash for days after reading the thirties.
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I currently finished chapter 6 and holy shit I took notes during the hospital. That was pretty wicked. Pink Eyes, I believe chapter 8 is next, and 4 for Heroes.
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It gets worse. Then it gets better. Then it gets worse again. I mean I think it's chapter 34 that has a legitimate warning that essentially says "click this link to skip the fucked up part of this chapter" It is fucked up.
Yeah, I didn't read Past Sins, or Fallout Equestria, Puppy Smiles either...well I read the endings and am reading the comic version of Past Sins, but still I'm in a similar position. Own the Fallout Games (some of them) but never had the time to play. I enjoyed the music and have passing knowledge of the radio play.
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I liked Past Sins when I first read it, but that was quite a while ago. I'm not sure how I'd feel about it now and my inclination to do so is muddled because Pen Stroke rewrote some of it to make it cannon with the season two finale.
I like Pink Eyes so far, as it focuses on innocence. Deep Down inside, Puppy Smiles thinks everyone is a pretty little pony and I find it pleasant that there's a story set in a terrible world where someone honestly sees the best in others. Still haven't finished it, or any other for that matter.
3002670 Basically Penstroke wrote his story so that Nyx could exist throughout the main series. I really should read Puppy Smiles, but I'm still having problems reading through Murky #7. Just can't seem to read those middle chapters.
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Yeah, that's what irritated me about Past Sins. I liked it just fine back then, but now the sequels depend on the most recent version, the one I haven't read. That for obvious reasons irks me.
I'm intimidated by MN7. That's a long one. It took me long enough to get through Fallout: Equestria, so I don't know what Sisyphean feat I'll have to perform for that. Plus, the chapters and thus audiobooks are long as balls. That's about the only way I can get through the longer stories because I'm on my feet so much.
Still have no interest in Cupcakes.
Greetings and Salutations, Journeyman. I am Flamin;Kisses. I have a ? about this story. So far you have only Chapter 1 on here, where is the rest of the story? Your story has been done into an audio play. I have chapters 1 through 12 so far, but I would like to read the Entire fic if possible. I see it has been just about 2 years now that you have entered anything of this storyline. I hope you are still willing to continue this? Thank you for reading this and responding back in a promptly reply.
cordially yours, Mr. Flamin'Kisses
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I would like to finish it, but my reasons why I have't added more are two-fold. For one, Sonicsuns has never returned my calls on where the revelations on "Let' Call the Whole Thing Off" are supposed to end up, and no one responds when I send them a chapter and ask them for input. Pony In A Box Productions has kind of vanished into the aether, so even if I was facing an unending zombie horde and the only way to survive was to finish, I'd have no material to do so. I am only novelizing what is there. I could try to go off on my own, but finishing someone else's work without the whole picture is neither how I like to write something, nor how I want to.
The second reason isn't as good, but still valid. I have a lot of writing projects, and I can only focus on one at a time. I try to limit myself to no more than three active projects at a time, otherwise nothing gets done, but sometimes I fail at that. This kind of comes with a sub problem. Fallout: Equestria is arguably the biggest subfannon in the MLP community. Novelizing Blue Moon (also one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite singers) was fun, but writing anything Fallout: Equestria related has the problem of disappearing into the crowd. There are so many Fallout stories that any one of them just kind of disappears into the horde of the rest. It's a strange feeling afterwards, like everything I put into the story feels wasted.
Do I intend to cancel it outright? No, but it isn't high on my priority list either. I do have the second chapter fairly close to being publishable. I can deal with dislike, but there is no response to give or way to pick yourself up from an overwhelming "Meh."
Oh my, sorry to hear that. Maybe if you collabed with somepony like ObabScribbler? She is very good reader and I believe she has some connections that would help you in a pinch. Put out a feeler about possible proof readers. I wish I could help you, but You do not know me and the situation may not be in a good way. But I would love to try and help you in what I can do. May I ask how many Chapters there will be for Prodigious Peddler and his crew. I hope you do not go as far in length like Kkat, Somber and the others with 70+ chapters.
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I had no intention of it becoming a doorstopper. Judging by the radioplay's progression, I suspect it would be roughly 25 chapters upon completion. The only real addition I would have made is a chapter entirely my own based on Louis Armstrong's rendition of Who Walks in When I Walk Out?
I did make what I consider a mistake in the first chapter. I don't like reading chapters/stories that are heavy on lyrics, despite how pertinent they may be. I put too much emphasis on Blue Moon and not enough on Peddler and Domino. The real problem I have is that I have no ending. The radioplay was (apparently) canceled, so if I need to foreshadow something or frame something in proper context to make a future event more powerful, I can't do that because I'd be writing blind. Of course, I could just write my own ending, but while I do have some earnest enthusiasm for Fallout: Equestria, I don't know where to take this story beyond its radioplay length.
Understandable. I do not know if you would like to schedule a session with DRWolf001 to help you out a bit. You can discuss anything that gives you stress, he is a good individual to talk with. the program is called "A Time With Dr. Wolf".
