Fallout: Equestria - Freedom: Introduction, Prologue, and Side Chapter · 2:34am Dec 26th, 2016
Video made by me.
So, I hope you guys all had a good Christmas so far, unless you don't celebrate Christmas, then, umm... well, have a good regular Sunday then. Mine is, well pretty good so far, I'm currently on a vacation so can't really use most of the gifts I've gotten so far. Anyway, regardless of whether or not you celebrate Christmas, I've decided to give you all a review.
Honestly I don't actually know anything about this fanfic since its yet another blind review. So short version is its about an escaped slave named Carefree so... umm... wow I don't really know what else to say here.
So just sit back, relax, and read while I try and get through a review completely blind... again.
---Introduction---
Okay... this is kinda short and hard to condense so here you go:
Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria...
...Things became hopeless. A long and bloody war had slowly destroyed the goodness and happiness that everypony once shared. With no peaceful end in sight, the fools of the past used weapons that ruined our once beautiful land with magical fire. It was the end of life as we knew it.
Before the end, small numbers of lucky souls were granted refuge in the Stables. Vast, underground shelters that would protect them from the poisoned world they left behind for generations to come.
Many, however, were not so lucky.
While the megaspells snuffed out millions of lives in an instant, not everypony was granted so quick a demise. Those that didn't perish in balefire found themselves faced with the horrors of the new world birthed from the destruction of the old. Everything became a fight. Fighting off starvation, dehydration, sickness, monsters and even fellow ponies.
Even then, there were survivors. Ponies that managed to eke out a somewhat peaceful existence in the Wasteland.
But wherever there are those with something, there are those who wish to take it away.
Well, this is a pretty short introduction, but not too bad. It doesn't really do much to show the backstory is the only real problem, but for what it is its not bad. It kinda shows the themes and feel of the rest of the story.
Well, with that's done, lets move on to the actual fic.
---Prologue: The End of Innocence---
The fanfic starts out with Carefree remembering his mother and him looking up at the cloud cover above the wasteland and wondering about what is beyond it. Carefree had always imagined wilder things such as lush valleys, its, pretty obvious if you know anything about Fallout: Equestria, which I assume that since you're reading these reviews you do, that is a pretty wild guess.
"Hope lies beyond the clouds, Carefree. And one day, they will deliver us from this wasteland," She said.
His mother seemed to have this idea that someday the Pegasi would come back to the Wasteland and save all of them from the horrors of the world around them. This is either incredibly deluded or she's trying to help her son feel better... I don't know what is sadder. Carefree even has this moment of imagining what it would be like if they came like she said.
Really is a shame that reality didn't match up to the fantasy.
Carefree wakes up the next morning to find out that the Caravan they where with was under attack, his mother had moved him into a store to keep him safe from the attackers. His mother tries to keep him calm, but its obvious that she's worried and scared herself so that's not helping.
There's a crash from the other room, and with that its pretty obvious who was attacking the caravan, Slavers. Carefree's mother hid him in a metal box and told him to not make a sound or come out no matter what. There is a sound of a struggle, and Carefree opens the box just a little only to see one of the Slavers who found him hiding, and then he found out that they had killed his mother.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Anyway, Carefree tries to escape from the Slavers to no avail. As Carefree is about to be dragged off to the wagon, one of the Slavers is trapped when the area around him collapses, the other Slaver tells Carefree that his mother would be saved if he helped, and after some complicated maneuvering, they start to free the Slaver, and Carefree's mother is, actually still alive. But one of them isn't too happy about that, and he goes absolutely insane and starts stabbing into Free's mother.
“Free?” she said softly, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. I looked at her, ignoring the pain that radiated from my forehead to my nose and all the way to the back of my head. She looked at the chain attached to my shackled hoof and then back up at me. “Hold tight.” My eyes widened and I quickly gathered up the chain in my mouth. She rolled over and lashed out with her hind legs. She bucked a precariously balanced barrel. It rolled off its perch of garbage and dropped onto the wood with the sound of sloshing liquid. The wood splintered and cracked. Thrash was thrown from his hooves, the knife tumbling from his mouth as the entire floor dropped away beneath us. I darted at my mother, wrapping my forelegs around her tightly as the chain snapped taut. Thrash screamed as he fell into the darkness, disappearing from sight.
Okay, Free's mother is badass, there's no other way to say it, she's just badass.
Carefree tries to get her to safety, but she dies before he can do so, and then he's surprised to see that the surviving Slaver actually looks pained.
“Get used to it kid,” he said. “Your life’s about to get much worse.” I was flipped right-side up and deposited on my hooves as he turned and we slowly worked our way outside.
Amazing amount of honesty from Random Unicorn Slaver #1.
Free is taken aboard the wagon along with other foals the Slavers had taken named Bucket and Jerrycan. Free tries to learn where they where being taken from the Slavers, but only gets a name, Fortune. Free tries to reassure Jerrycan, or Jerry as she's known, but it feels more like he's trying to reassure himself. Then a green mist fills the wagon and they are rendered unconscious.
The foals are woken up by an armored mare who tells them to keep their mouths shut and fall into line. They start making their way into a ruined town, walking past a stallion that seems to have descended into cannibalism, I choose to believe that isn't a side effect of some sort of disease. It seems at least the Slavers have some decency, never thought I'd say that sentence about Slavers, because they get the cannibal stallion to run off.
And its then that we finally find out where Carefree and the others have been taken to, a place called the Dig, which is an open pit mine owned by the aforementioned Fortune. They are told that they will be working in the fields to harvest food until they have matured enough to work the mines. And we actually learn that the Slavers, despite being Slavers, are actually rather clever in that they have dug up radiation free soil in order to use for growing crops, so props for that.
So then they are taken to see the Doctor...
Video belongs to the BBC.
And by Doctor I apparently mean medical robot that seems to be the Fallout: Equestria version of a Mr. Gutsy or Mr. Handy. It also seems that some sort of infection has settled in, and the doctor also mentions that he, it wants to show the same amount of medical treatment to the slaves, I like this robot. The doctor patches Carefree up, although it says that he will have a scar for the rest of his life. The doctor removes the shackle, and goes about healing Free's leg.
After the Doctor finished, they are taken outside for the announcements, and that's when we get our first look at Fortune... or, actually we're just told that he's a pony standing on a platform, not really much of a look. He gives a brief speech, basically he says that his word is law, obey him and the others, if they do so then life will be tolerable, don't and your life will suck.
Fortune, you've enslaved them to dig up something or another, exactly how much more will their lives suck?
And then they get some advice from Whips:
“Look… I know this is awful. But, try to make the best of things. Keep your heads down, follow orders, and don’t break the rules. Things here can be…” he paused, unsure of how to continue. After a long moment he said. “Things can be okay.”
And with that he leaves, but not before apologizing to a filly that had cried out for her mother. Its, an interesting moment, a moment of humanity (metaphorically speaking) in a sea of horror and torture, its simple, but its a nice touch.
---Side Chapter: There's a Time and a Place---
The side chapter starts out with a log entry from... somepony. It seems to be talking about somepony within the camp who remains strong despite everything that's going wrong. It sounds proud, almost as if the pony writing it is a parent. There is also talk about the pony he's watching pining over someone, though its not clear who it is. It also says that he is nearly ready, but it doesn't say for what or who it is, just that they're waiting for the right time.
Video belongs to Fox.
So its not clear what time period this is in, but the character I'm guessing Free is working and being worked hard by the same armored mare from before who whips him. When she's distracted though, he's approached by a Stallion, it seems that the mare is just being a jerk and wanted an excuse to whip him, geez, what a nice bunch of slavers they are. The Stallion is new, and apparently there's a bit of a running joke because, well, Free is named Free, but the Stallion actually seems to be pretty nice, again showing a moment of humanity.
It seems that Free is often whipped by Lash, the Stallion then tries to do, some sort of trick with a cigarette and a match that I don't really know what the point of it was. And then he asks Free about Jerry, specifically why Free hasn't told her how he feels about her yet. And then Free makes a mistake in basically telling the stallion that they are planning to escape. The stallion, actually takes that pretty well and just walks off wishing him luck.
This is a very strange group of Slavers.
So Free meets up with Jerry again as the work finishes, and they go to get some food, Jerry chastising Free for taking Lash's abuse. Not, really sure what else he was supposed to do, but okay.
So we get a final bit of the journal entry from the strange pony, and it seems that it was the stallion that had spoken to Free before. He apparently had broken protocol in order to talk to Free, but he seems to not regret this decision, believing that it was promising. He signs out with the following:
S.I.O. M
---Character Analysis: Free---
Okay, so once again I don't have a picture of the main character so just, moving on.
Free is, interesting, yeah the name is a bit ironic of course, but he's an interesting character. You don't always see this kind of thing, focusing on a slave or escaped slave and its an interesting idea for a character. Starting it out by showing him with his mother and then how he got enslaved is an interesting idea.
Plus this whole thing with the strange stallion is well done and has an air of mystery to it. I don't really have a lot to go on in these first chapters, but I like where this is going.
I look forward to reading more about his adventures.
---Final Thoughts---
This is a good fanfic that's off to an excellent start, its well done and enjoyable in many respects. Its not exactly the most pleasant of reading material given that it starts out with them as slaves, but it has this hope that things will get better, and ultimately that's the real message of Fallout: Equestria.
I posted this in another blog, but I wanted to include it in this post, its a quote from a Lets Roleplay of Fallout 3 by SpiffySquee, I highly recommend it:
"This world is a harsh place. I have seen so much death, so much suffering. But in time I learned that beneath it is there is still a seed of hope, and good people willing to dedicate their lives to make that hope bloom."
The Introduction gets a score of 3/5, its decent but too short and lacks detail on the backstory.
The Prologue gets a score of 5/5, its good and well done, showing off the main character and giving him a proper introduction.
The Side Chapter gets a score of 4/5, it sets up the plot well enough, but feels too short still.
Before I finish this review, I want to leave you with three things.
Video made by Stable-Tec Studios.
Also at some point I will also be doing general reviews but not on a set schedule like these, I won't be changing my Sunday Fallout: Equestria reviews.
Next week we go back in time to one of the greatest tragedies of the war.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays
Fallout: Equestria belongs to KKat.
Fallout: Equestria - Freedom belongs to WeaponPrime
Video made by me.
Thank you very much for the review.
4356622 You're welcome, I enjoy writing reviews to help other writers, and I look forward to reading more of the fanfic in the future, keep up the good work.
4356794
I welcome you. I am currently working on Chapter 4
4357182 Cool, I look forward to it.
Not sure when I'll be reviewing this fanfic again, I've got a long list ahead of me.
4357185
You don't have to review it. Though I hope you will enjoy it.
4357292 Oh I intend to review more chapters of fics I've already reviewed at some point in the future, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it.
4357293
