Fallout: Equestria - Long Haul Reviews: Prologue · 6:12pm Nov 13th, 2016

Video made by, well me actually.

Well this was bound to happen eventually, I've read a lot of fanfics set in the universe of Fallout: Equestria, but I haven't read them all by any stretch of the imagination. So this fanfic I will be tackling will be entirely blind unlike the previous two reviews, so wish me luck.

This time around we'll be looking at Fallout: Equestria - Long Haul by Gamma Deekay, which follows the story of Night Flight, a Pegasus that had lived above the clouds for most of his life and finds himself in the Wasteland.

Lets see how that goes shall we?

---Prologue---

“The tragedy at Littlehorn was the ignition point of the conflict. While the Zebra government denied direct responsibility, we had to make our decision based on the fact that an attack by one was an attack by the many. In the single most efficient session of delegation that equestria has ever had, war was unanimously declared against the Zebra Empire. This of course eventually lead to the exchange of megaspells that brought about the wastelands.”
Mrs. Chalk’s lecture to the class continued to be pointless and boring. Instead, my thoughts were scattered as I hoofed at the worn dogtags that hung around my neck. My eyes were lost, peering out the window that the large black cloudship that sat in the maintenance dock at the other edge of the settlement.
“Day dreaming, Miss Night?” Mrs. Chalk spoke sternly to get my attention. Instead, it only garnered a chuckle from my other classmates. “Mr. Night. Excuse me, I’m still not quite acquainted with your… peculiar looks yet.” The elderly mare looked more like she belonged in history, rather than teaching it. But that was something I wouldn’t say, because as I’ve been told, I’m too nice for my own good.

Okay, I'm not going to make the obvious Dude Looks Like a Lady joke here, but this is still an interesting way to introduce the main character of a story. It also serves well to set up the setting by talking about the Great War, and despite the obvious setting of being the Enclave controlled skies, the history lesson doesn't seem to have a particular propaganda angle, other than obviously the wasteland.

So the prologue continues with the teacher Mrs. Chalk reminding the students that there will be a History Test tomorrow, which of course has the reaction you expect from any class of students being reminded they have to take a test, seems like some things are universal. After this Night wants to get out of school before somepony named Shimmer is in place with her posse, but Mrs. Chalk stops him.

She sighed and lifted her glasses off with her wing. “I understand that things have been hard for you.” Her beige eyes looked at me in the most kind manner I’d seen in the short time I’d been in her class. “Your mother died a hero to the Enclave. You should be proud of what she sacrificed for the whole of our society."

Right, sacrificed for the society of isolationist jerks, totally worth it.

In total seriousness this is actually a good idea, it gives Night Flight a bit of character and has this feeling of loss, that no matter what words are given by the Enclave or your teacher, you still lost a parent and no amount of words will bring them back. He will certainly miss her, but words will only help so much.

So Mrs. Chalk dismisses him, but not before leaving us with this bit of dialogue:

“Besides, the test will be useless next year, when our fantastic government decides to once again change the curriculum to fit their agenda again. I swear, nopony alive even knows what really happened back then anymore.”

Insert your own joke about the American school system here, its way too easy.

Its here that we learn more about the place Night Flight is living in at the moment, Settlement 262 or Four Peaks. Apparently its to the northwest and the home of an Enclave shipyard where most of the inhabitants have come to live. He then meets up with his friend Rogue Winds who comments that because he took so long then Shimmer was definitely going to be waiting, and its pretty much stated by now that Shimmer is the local bully.

I on the other hoof, was cursed not only with my mothers looks, but I was born with stunted primary feathers. It meant that while I could still fly, my level flight speed was much slower than other pegasi, and it tired me out faster than them.

Well that's pretty interesting, it gives more character to Night Flight and its something that's not always explored. I have to give Gamma props for using this idea, and I look forward to seeing how this is used in the fanfic.

And that's when we meet Shimmer Pull, and she is really "fun." She basically threatens to have her father pull Night's father off of shifts the next week, which Night then points out that it won't happen because the Shipyard is working on a Raptor to be sent to Neighvarro for whatever is going on in the East.

This is actually an interesting double reference, first to the events leading up to the day of Sunshine and Rainbows in Fallout: Equestria, but also to the Thunderhead Enclave that appeared in Fallout: Equestria - Project Horizons, where the Raptor originally came from.

And then Shimmer insults him by insinuating that his mother died of embarrassment because Night looks more like a filly than a colt and because of his disability. Yeah, real smooth Shimmer, go after their dead parent, you have a lovely career ahead of you as an Internet Troll.

So after walking and Rogue talking about his aunt who had died in Hoofington, we meet Night's father who had been called off early meaning they wouldn't have any meal rations. Night admits to him that he had punched Shimmer, which of course goes about as well as you'd expect, and Night is of course expected to apologize for punching Shimmer.

Yeah... this is something I've seen before in Scootaloo fanfics set before Diamond Tiara's character development in season 5. I honestly have very torn feelings about this, Shimmer did deserve it, but that doesn't automatically mean that Night Flight was in the right by punching her, to quote Rainbow Dash from the fanfic Keeping Your Promises by RaylanKrios:

“I think it is. Sometimes, you can’t reason with a bully. Sometimes, the only thing they understand is the taste of blood. Scootaloo didn’t injure her permanently, she didn’t beat her up and she fought fair.”

Not saying that's the best solution, I'm just saying that maybe its a fair point.

So then we meet Shimmer's father... and this doesn't exactly go well, while he apologizes, Airstream isn't exactly reasonable about it. His daughter is bullying Night and he doesn't seem to acknowledge that its a problem, instead chastising Night for standing up for himself, real father of the year material here.

So then Night heads to meet up with Salt Breeze, a stallion he has a crush on (this sounds strangely familiar). When he reaches the Den however, before Night can find out why Salt and Rogue asked him there, the siren at the skydock goes off, followed by a shockwave. When Night finally regains his balance, we learn that Four Peaks had been destroyed.

Night finds Salt still alive and Salt directs him to the surface to find a pony named Boxer that lives in a settlement. Salt asks him to get help get him freed, and of course Night being a Pegasus is weary about the idea. Salt of course tells him that the Enclave is lying to him (shocker right?), and promises him a date if he does this.

So Night leaves what's left of his hometown, and finds himself in the wasteland below, he sees something that he doesn't recognize as Pegasi, and finds himself in a forested area, then he runs into a wall and goes unconscious.

Really great start to your adventure Night.

---My thoughts---

This is a good start to the fanfic, the pacing is well done and Night Flight is an interesting and relatable main character. Also the idea of him being from a small town in the Enclave is reminiscent of the idea of a Stable Dweller without actually being from a Stable, this is an idea many fanfics play with (including my own), and it often is done well, including in this fanfic.

Given that this was my first reading of this fanfic, I was pleasantly surprised to find it good. I had been wanting to check it out for awhile now and I'm glad I had the chance to do so finally. I look forward to reading more of it in the future.

I give the prologue a final score of 5/5.

Fallout: Equestria belongs to KKat.
Fallout: Equestria - Long Haul belongs to Gamma Deekay.

Link to The Original Fanfic.

I still don't know what to do next week, probably going to try and do one every week, hope you look forward to it.