Fallout Equestria: Influx Reviews: Prologue and Chapter 1. · 8:11pm Nov 27th, 2016

Video made by me.

Fallout: Equestria is a universe that has spawned a lot of spin-offs with different ideas and concepts, some of them go beyond just the normal confines of either My Little Pony or Fallout. This week we'll be covering one such fanfic, Fallout Equestria: Influx.

How exactly does it go past the normal confines? Well you'll have to see since that's a bit of a spoiler and I want to address all of that in the review itself. I will say that its an interesting take on the universe of Fallout: Equestria, and the idea for the main character is interesting and well done. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do.

Also this marks the debut of two PMVs that will from now on be at the beginning and end of the reviews.

So lets begin.

---Prologue---

So we start out the prologue with a little bit of the backstory of the main character Crystal Eclaire who was born in the Crystal Empire, but had never sparkled like the other Crystal Ponies because of medical issues. She was born with a weak heart and had come down with many diseases because of her weakened immune system.

When she was 5 she moved to Las Pegasus with her family in order to get access to better medical facilities (though I'm a bit surprised that the Crystal Empire doesn't have good facilities). As she grew older it became pretty obvious that she has a lot of medical issues that kept her from having a normal foalhood, including brittle bones.

Then came the war with the Zebras, Crystal's father had been drafted into the Equestrian military, and her mother would've likely had the same done if she didn't have to take care of Crystal. There was a hope that the new Fluttershy Hospital and the Ministry of Peace would give her a better chance, but with all the focus on the war it was harder to focus on health issues like Crystal's.

Crystal's life continued during the war, she got a job working in a warehouse, but her health issues just popped up again because of the dust in the warehouse. Obviously she survived because she's telling the story, but it forced her to resign from her job. But she does eventually find a new one, working for a certain company.

I ended up getting a job where I could work from home: this was being a Sales Pony for Stable-Tec when they opened up a branch in Las Pegasus. At first, when the war was in its infancy, the products were more or less everyday items created by Stable-Tec, and it was a boring job then as barely anyone would be interested. I spent maybe a couple of days a week phoning up customers to try and sell something and they would either say they were not interested or just hang up as soon as I began. Those days were frustrating as hell.
As the war dragged out and things began to grow more intense, Stable-Tec started to get me to sell guns, armour, spells and other things that seemed to fit more with the war, rather than everyday life and my career in selling took off then as lots of ponies were pretty interested in those things.

Video made by Outsidexbox.

As the war continued, the military was sent to build up the Horseshoe Dam to prevent the Zebras from destroying it, and then when the Stables start to be constructed Crystal is given the task of selling places in the Stables to ponies. It also shows a bit of consideration on Stable-Tec's part that you don't see from Vault-Tec in that they're trying to make sure the right ponies get into the Stables.

They didn’t want the wrong type of ponies getting a place, since they said the purpose of the Stables was to save ponies worth saving.

Yeah, that worked out just great for some Stables.

However after eight years working for Stable-Tec Crystal's condition was just getting worse and she was re-diagnosed as terminal. Her body was starting to break down and would no longer be able to support itself. You can tell that she has a lot of regrets in her life because she never fell in love or really had a chance to live her life like other ponies.

After she turned 26, Crystal was approached by another Doctor that worked for the Medical Department of the Ministry of Peace. He offers Crystal a chance to do something for future generations of ponies that suffer from the same condition she does. Crystal is willing to help ponies as best she can and signs documents that would give possession of her body to the Doctor and the Ministry of Peace after she dies. She closed her eyes to get some sleep, resigning herself to having to wait for death.

And that's when we learn that the Doctor had an ulterior motive, he had been working as part of Project Infiltrator, which used elements from other projects like Chimera and Steelpony from Project Horizons. And that's where the prologue ended.

---Chapter 1: Awakening---

This is where we get our first real look at what's been going on with Project Infiltrator, apparently they had removed the brain from a Pony and placed it into the body of something called I-01. Apparently what they had done was build a new body for this pony, making her more machine than pony.

Video owned by Disney.

As the development of 1-01 continues we get more indications of exactly what Project Infiltrator had intended to make and what purpose it was to serve in the ongoing war with the Zebras:

“Zebras are very strong melee and unarmed combatants and if our latest reports into some of their abilities are to be believed, they can break solid rock with their hooves. So, we are increasing her mechanical skeleton’s durability with titanium. Especially around her chest and head, since they will be protecting her brain and heart.”

So yeah, Project Infiltrator was built in order to infiltrate the Zebras as the name pretty much implies, and to do so it built Cyborgs that could masquerade as Zebras. Its an interesting idea and definitely something that they would do during the war as they where being pushed to the point of desperation. Of course not everything is easy, for some reason 1-01's eyes are now glowing red, and anyone familiar with TV tropes knows that means you should take warning.

As the war continues it seems that the Project has been compromised, and also has been backed by the Ministry of Awesome (yeah, sounds like something Rainbow Dash would back). As a result the project is being moved back to Las Pegasus, and of course once again, the eyes are glowing. Yeah, that can't possibly end badly at all can it?

The Doctor that had been constructing 1-01 has to move the project again to Manehattan General and place the subject into stasis, this is also w here we learn that its definitely Crystal Eclair. At the same time Pinkie Pie is starting to raid Ministry of Awesome facilities, which is what caused this move. There's definitely a lot of indications that Crystal despite being more machine now, is still in some capacity alive, and the doctor promises that she'll be given back her old life once the war is over.

Awkward...

Yeah, as you can probably guess, it then cuts to the Last Day where the doctor who had been working on Crystal is being moved into one of the Stables in Manehattan. She tries to insist on saving Crystal, but the Colonel in charge refuses, insisting that she's just a machine and that she's already dead.

And with that, the mini story of what happened with Project Infiltrator comes to an end, but the story itself isn't over yet, because its time for Crystal to wake up.

After an unknown amount of time, the Stasis Pod she's in loses power, which causes the wake up process to begin. When she wakes up she has no idea where she is other than in some sort of hospital ward. Clearly it has been a long time since the war ended, and she tries to get her body to respond. You get this definite feeling of her being confused and trying to figure out what had happened around her, and it looks she's the only pony who survived in the stasis pods.

This is something that feels pretty natural, she's confused about the world around her and is trying to figure out where she is and why she was in stasis. She obviously doesn't remember what had happened to her because she hadn't really been aware of what was going on, this makes her feel natural and helps the reader relate to the character. Its something that this fanfic does well, and I have come to enjoy it as a result.

So Crystal starts looking around for anypony, and then there's a moment of realization when she realizes that she hadn't woken up in the hospital that she had fallen asleep in. This is an example of the idea of sleeping through the apocalypse, something similar to what we got with Spike in the original fanfic or the Sole Survivor in Fallout 4.

She then finds herself in the reception area surrounded by pony skeletons, which of course makes her freak out as she comes to the realization of exactly what had happened to Equestria while she was asleep. She then leaves the Hospital and finds out that she's not even where she thought she was before, instead she's miles away in the city of Manehattan. This just raises more questions in her mind until she gets overwhelmed and just starts crying.

She finally snaps out of it with the sound of a building crumbling and she looks up to realize that the hospital's tower is on the verge of collapsing behind her. She then finds something strange, it seems that while her heart is still working, her heartbeat is at a regular rhythm despite the fact that she's been running, plus the fact that her body seems to be undamaged from running into a bus. She's also noticing that her medical conditions from before don't seem to be a huge problem anymore.

So she looks around some more and finds more skeletons lining the streets until she finds the coast and see's signs of habitation on an island off the coast of Manehattan. Though after seeing that it has a lot of guard ponies and large weapons she decides that she doesn't want to go there anytime soon. She finds a wall with spikes and as she goes over it she finds an old pre-war ship the RMS Celestia that she remembered being announced. The problem is that she seems to assume that its only been 5 years, but she then realizes because of the amount of decay it has to be at least 10 years or more. She then realizes that her mother must be worried about her, and she wants to make it back home to see her.

Uh, I am reviewing Influx and not Pink Eyes again right?

Anyway while she looks around she gets attacked by, well, lets have her say it in her own words:

What I can see can only be described as a zombie, a real life zombie. A walking corpse. This is impossible, this should not exist, it can’t, and it makes no sense. Trying to make sense of what I am seeing ,I could only think of old horror movies where the dead were reanimated by spells gone wrong or from viruses but all that stuff was make believe but here right now I can see a real zombie and it looked hungry.

Okay yeah its a Ghoul, but you have to admit that's how you'd react too if you had no idea what a Ghoul was. So likewise she does what anyone would do, she runs away screaming. She tries to find any sign of what had happened to Equestria, she finally finds a newspaper that gives her some information.

“ARMAGEDDON”
It can’t be, they can’t have, can they?
“Armageddon, Equestria launches WMDs in retaliation to Zebrica’s launch of their Balefire Bomb arsenal...”

I just have one question about this, exactly how did they get a newspaper out before the bomb hit Manehattan? I'm pretty sure surviving the coming fire would be a bit more important than putting out the news.

So Crystal starts crying again when she realizes that Equestria had been devastated by the apocalypse and that her mother was dead because she didn't get a place in a Stable (well its possible she did, just saying). However she gets snapped out of this when she runs into what seems to be a pair of Raider stallions who want to rape her, and then we get this line that is the first indication of what had happened to Crystal.

“A fine young zebra cunt that’s what,” The first stallion’s companion answered with a dark lustful grin.

This of course confuses Crystal because she thinks that she's a pony and not a Zebra. This is admittedly a fair point, she wasn't born a Zebra, but she doesn't have much time to reflect on this because the Raider tries to mount her. However she manages to buck him off, leaving both him and Crystal confused by what had just happened. One of the Raiders draws a knife as Crystal gets away and tries to hide.

Video belongs to Fox.

So Crystal manages to escape and runs into a bus... again, okay is this going to become a running joke or something? Anyway, one of the Raiders hits Crystal over the head with a nail board that knocks her unconscious, but at the same time it shatters the weapon, leaving the Raider confused.

So we switch to a third person view again and we find out that indeed Crystal is now a Zebra, and while a beige pony watches from down the street she suddenly wakes up again, and now her eyes are glowing red. She kills one of the Raiders and the other one tries to shoot her, only to have it bounce out of the holes and she kills him with a buck to the face.

So the beige pony turns out to be a Doctor and despite the obvious concern that Crystal will kill him too, he goes to try and help her out. At this point the self defense protocol is deactivated, and she falls unconscious again, and he along with his Brahmin Brutus picks Crystal up and takes her to his clinic nearby.

While Crystal is unconscious, she's dreaming of her mother, and she also gets a flash of memory from when she was being turned into a cyborg by Project Infiltrator. When she wakes up however she finds herself bound up in the clinic where the doctor is understandably concerned about what had happened and is waiting to be sure that it will be safe to release Crystal. When Crystal introduces herself the Doctor is a bit surprised by her name because she seems to be a Zebra, which she's confused about still. She is shown a mirror and this is what she finds:

I weakly lifted my head and looked at myself. For the first time since I woke up in the hospital, I took the time to actually see myself and finally understood why everypony was calling me a Zebra. My once dull pink coat and yellow tail had changed to the white and grey stripes of a Zebra. I don't understand; how did this happen to me? What did this to me? But then I saw the gaping holes cut into my body; there were like several holes dug into my flesh on my chest, belly and legs and disturbingly, they were not bleeding but it was what lay within those holes that made me scream.
"What the hell has happened to me?" I screamed as I struggled against my bonds. I could hear and see the mechanical, skeletal like limbs moving and straining with me. It's like it is my body. I can feel everything trying to move. What's happened to me?

Yeah, this is where we get into the other element of Influx, not only is it a Fallout: Equestria story, its a Fallout: Equestria story that incorporates elements of the Terminator movies. Crystal Eclair is basically an Equestrian made Terminator like what we see with Marcus Wright in Terminator Salvation.

Video belongs to Warner Bros.

The Doctor seems to realize that she's more than just a normal machine given that she's showing so much raw emotion, so he finally lets her go. He explains that he had to do a lot of work on her body and had found a Zebra regeneration talisman (anyone else having Project Horizons flashbacks?), he also tells her that despite being more machine than flesh now she is still alive because of her heart and brain. He comments that he has never seen anything quite like her, and this is pretty close to the truth given there's not much precedent for this other than maybe Blackjack later in Project Horizons.

She thanks him and asks more about what had happened and the doctor gives her an explanation of the war and how many ponies had survived in the Stables. Its at this point that Crystal finally gets an answer about how long its been since the apocalypse, its been 190 years, which makes her cry more when she realizes that her mother is long dead (well, unless she became a Ghoul). At this point, she has no idea what she should do, and at this point she just wants to figure out what had happened to her and why she's a cyborg all of a sudden, so she needs to go back to Las Pegasus, but she's then directed to the Ministry of Awesome Hub in Manehattan.

She finds out she has a PipBuck and a Stable Jumpsuit in one of her bags and its suggested that she uses them to try and disguise herself as a Stable Dweller because ponies wouldn't trust a Zebra. The Doctor offers to integrate the PipBuck into Crystal's mechanical parts and she agrees, also its interesting that she seems to still feel pain, and after some trial and error the Doctor finally gets it installed into her systems. As she leaves he gives her a pistol so she can defend herself along with directions to the train station that will lead to New Pegasus and then to the MoA hub.

But on her way to the Hub, Crystal is ambushed by the boss of the Raiders that had attacked her earlier, but before anything can happen she sees two balls of crackling green energy heading for them.

---Character Analysis: Crystal Eclair---

Okay, time for a new segment in my reviews, I'll be looking at characters introduced in the chapters and talking about them more in depth before I get to my final thoughts. So lets start with Crystal Eclair herself.

Image made by Crystal-Eclair.

Crystal Eclair is actually a really interesting idea for a character, while Cyberponies aren't unusual within the universe of Fallout: Equestria, Fallout Brony takes it to the next level with Crystal with her backstory. She was rather obviously inspired by Marcus Wright from Terminator Salvation, with a few obvious differences like being intended to be used to infiltrate during the war. In addition, the fact that she's part machine is something that is explored in several ways down the line.

The idea of her being remade as a Zebra is fascinating as well, it gives her some interesting characterization because of what this means for who she is. This means that she's going to have some problems further down the line of course, but because she didn't have it done to her willingly, she has to be able to reconcile that fact as well. Much like the machine element, this is explored throughout the fanfic in creative ways.

I joked a little about the desire to find her mother being similar to Puppysmiles', but its completely understandable. She had no idea how long it had been since she went to sleep, so she wanted to find her family like anyone in her situation would. Its a desire to find something familiar, and its really well done in this fanfic and others.

In a way, despite being a cyborg pony, she is one of the more human characters in the fandom.

---Final Thoughts---

Influx is a good fanfic that was off to a good start, it does a good job introducing the main character and the plot of the fanfic in both the prologue and chapter 1. I highly recommend reading it, and will be reviewing it more in the future.

While the change of perspectives on occasion is a bit unusual, its pretty well handled and shows the events from multiple perspective. Its an interesting idea that can be done well, and this fanfic is a great example of it.

I give the Prologue of Influx a score of 4/5.
I give Chapter 1 of Influx a score of 5/5.

Fallout: Equestria belongs to KKat.
Fallout Equestria: Influx belongs to Fallout Brony.

Original Fanfic

Next week, we take another look at a story that explores the idea of a survivor from before the war finding themselves in the Wasteland.