Fallout: Equestria - False Guilt Chapters 1 and 2 · 11:29pm Jan 4th, 2017
Video Made by Me.
Well, I know I already did a review this week, but I decided because I did one late then I would make a second one.
So this time around we'll be looking at a fanfic that I've read through it so far and have enjoyed it a lot. Its a rather interesting take on the universe, incorporating elements of mystery and a rather unique take on some of the more familiar factions. Today, we'll be looking at the fanfic False Guilt by VaatiDJ.
I hope you all enjoy.
---Chapter 1: My Name Is...---
“Come on, work you stupid piece of shit!”
Video Made by DNews.
No, I'm not even joking, that's what the main character does, she hits the rusty piece of armor to try and make it work. So anyway, it turns out that the armor had been broken for about a week, and was the only thing she had from her father. She then introduces herself as Dead Hooves, apparently when she was born his spine had been twisted to the point that his lower half had been paralyzed. His father had once been a member of the Steel Rangers until Dead Hooves had been born and he left for unknown reasons.
It turns out that Dead Hooves' father had modified his Power Armor in order to make so Dead Hooves could walk, but it was these modifications that also made it break down a lot. Apparently his mother had died in childbirth so Dead Hooves had never really gotten to know her. And Dead Hooves' father had died 5 years before the fanfic protecting her from a Ghoul attack, Dead Hooves had taken a PipBuck and Shotgun from him as well.
Dead Hooves doesn't live in any special area of the Wasteland instead she lives in a shack in the middle of nowhere that his parents had found. Its important to Dead Hooves as he considers it home and she doesn't plan to leave it, if his power armor ever worked again.
She's obviously is still a bit frustrated about the armor and hits it again, apparently she gets stressed easily, although singing seems to calm her down pretty well. So he begins to sing in order to calm herself down.
Oh little angel, can you hear my voice.
I’m sorry to see you all alone.
For many things you have lost, and many thing as well gain.
I can’t help but here you cryOh little unicorn, why can’t you be free.
To conquer the world high and low.
Yet your body doesn’t let you, and you can’t leave your cell.
You think it’s all over when it just begins.So listen to my song, the song of hope.
That one day it will change, and things will be great.
For this song I made to help you find peace.
This beautiful song of hope.
Its a really nice song, and the fact that she likes it because of a personal connection with her father. He gets up from the bed as best she can, and because she hasn't been able to leave the house, he's running low on food and clean water. So she pours herself a small glass of Hard Cider, despite the fact that he admits his father wouldn't be happy with that choice. She then goes back upstairs to try and repair his armor again, without much success so she just winds up turning on the radio to listen to the news, and that's when we get the first mention of the villain for the story.
“I am here to report that the suspect raiders had believed was the Bloody Angel has been confirmed to be false,” I heard the radio pony announce with only slight static in the PipBuck “As I reported two months ago, a group of raider reported that they might have found the murderer known as the Bloody Angel, who has been reported for killing large numbers of ponies in the past two years. . Survivors of these attacks have offered rewards for the capture or death of this wanted criminal. That is all we have in terms of an update for the hunt to turn that pony in, we will continue to keep you updated as the hunt-”
“So they still haven’t caught her yet?” I said to myself as I laid down on the bed and turned it off, “Starting to wonder if they ever will.”
It was crazy the hunt that was going on to find this pony that has been nicknamed as the Bloody Angel. Even in these times of anarchy, ponies banded together to take this monstrous killer down. I didn’t know much other than what I had manage to catch since I first heard about it a year ago. The Bloody Angel is supposedly a murderous pony who buries their victims where they had died. Many rumors were caught over the news that the pony had been sent to deliver our death and was immortal. That’s how she got the name she currently had, but the part that made it so difficult to catch her is that nopony knew what she looked like. Anyone who has gotten a good enough look at her was killed by her.
Well, that's a pretty interesting idea for a villain, its not quite what you expect from Fallout: Equestria, basically making them a dangerous serial killer. I'll give credit where credit is due to VaatiDJ for this idea and I look forward to seeing how it goes.
And then things get a little weird because the door has been forced open and somepony seems to think that Dead Hooves is the Bloody Angel... awkward. There's a brief moment where she thinks that maybe they're just here to rob her, but honestly I think that this many weapons would be overkill for that. It seems that the attackers are definitely Raiders that are attacking so its kinda hard to tell.
Dead Hooves takes out one of the attacking Raiders, but she's outnumbered and outgunned at this point, and she can't run because of his non-functional power armor. One of the Raiders then gets reprimanded for shouting out and exposing them, so the pony who reprimanded them takes charge and leads two ponies into the house. However Dead Hooves wastes his last bullet on a rock that the raiders threw at her, he closes his eyes and waits for the end to come.
The leader of the attackers seems to have known Dead Hooves' father and had recruited the Raiders to help, and then knocks our hero out.
Once again, the first chapter ends with the main character getting knocked out... am I going to have to start running a counter?
---Chapter 2: Willow Wisp---
So the chapter begins with Dead Hooves waking up and reflecting back on what just happened last chapter. She looks around and finds herself chained up in a cave alongside a white Pegasus mare that looks like she had been badly hurt. It seems that the Raiders had taken the Pegasus thinking she was the Bloody Angel as well, and the Raider tells her that she'll survive, but only if she admits being the Bloody Angel.
Uh, yeah, great suggestion, admit to being the pony guilty of a lot of murders, that'll save her flank!
So yeah, naturally Dead Hooves tells the Raider that she isn't the Bloody Angel, but the Raider isn't exactly buying it. The Raider is obviously a bit of a sadist (okay, that's obvious really) given that he doesn't care if Dead Hooves is the Bloody Angel or not, and will torture her anyway. Yes, because torture is such a reliable way of getting information.
But before the torture can begin, a gunshot rings out as a Raider kills the torturer with a girly looking shotgun. The pony with the shotgun admits that he shouldn't have agreed to this and frees first the Pegasus who is still alive, but she apparently can't talk, and she runs off. The shotgun wielding stallion frees Dead Hooves next, much to her relief, and she tells him that she can't stand well without the power armor, so he helps her and introduces himself as Dread and the Pegasus as Willow Wisp.
Video Belongs to Fox.
Dead Hooves tries to inquire more about Dread's rifle but he just says that its not up for questioning, but he does give it to her for the time being. Dead Hooves wonders how Willow had managed to survive this long, and Dread asks her exactly what she had done to piss off Twister. Dead Hooves doesn't even know and just tells Dread what she knows about what had happened, and apparently Twister has a tendency to stab ponies in the back.
So Dread finally leads Dead Hooves to her power armor which has been fixed somehow, its possible that the problem was a lack of a Fusion Core. Dread picks up a few of the items around the area to take with them and Dead Hooves picks up her shotgun that the Raiders had taken from her house. They then set out to try and clear out the cave so that they can heal Willow without having to worry about being attacked at the same time.
The problem of course is that they don't have enough ammo to take on all the Raiders in the cave so they need to come up with a strategy. Dead Hooves then tells Dread to stay with Willow because she seems to have come up with some sort of a plan, so leaving her armor behind, she ventures out into the cave to execute said plan. She starts looking around the area, finding food and other supplies, she also says that she doesn't know much about the events leading up to the Megaspells, it also establishes that its been 75 years since the bombs fell.
So Dead Hooves reaches the side of the wall where there is a minigun, which seems to be her destination. It also seems that the Raiders are rather organized as the minigun seems to be being guarded by one of them, she tries to sneak it off, only to fall and attract the attention of the Raiders.
I smiled as I slowly took my shotgun out from under my back. “Thanks for the guns,” I said teasingly before aiming my shotgun at the two closest to me. “Now go fuck yourselves.”
So she shoots the two Raiders with her shotgun, and then realizes that the Minigun is too heavy for her to carry, really should've put more points in strength Dead Hooves. When she looks up, she finds herself surrounded by Raiders with their guns pointed at her as she ducks behind cover, ready to fight.
Then all of a sudden a gunshot is heard that takes out several of the Raiders, it seems that Dread had come to her aid. Dead Hooves joins in the fray not long after, firing at the Raiders with her own weapon. She manages to dig out a bullet that had hit her in the shoulder, more of the Raiders go down between Dead Hooves and Dread's guns, and after a few more shots, and Dead Hooves getting hit in the leg, the cave finally goes silent.
Dead Hooves first chastises Dread for risking himself and Willow by coming to her aid, and then Dread points out that the attempt to use the Minigun wasn't exactly smart either. Dread however seems to want to go out on his own and directs Dead Hooves to take Willow to Manehattan to meet a pony named White Light. With that Dread leaves and Willow wakes up, Dead Hooves tells Willow that she'll be taking care of her for now, and Dead Hooves lays down to rest.
I fell asleep before Willow was able to give me her response, reliving a familiar dream of the last night with my father. It was a very sad dream, we were working in our little garden outside, I was in my power armor. We hear something behind us, even though I truely didn’t hear it in the dream, and turned around to see ghouls jump at us. I watched as the killed my father, who could barely get his shotgun out in time. I took it and shot them, both running away at the sound and sight of me. I had ran to my father side, watching as he died there. I only ever heard him say one thing in this dream.
“Remember...”
Well, that's kind of interesting, I wonder what that's going to mean.
And with that, Dead Hooves tells Willow it was just a dream, and reflects back on the fact that she only has a few things left to remember her father.
---Character Analysis: Dead Hooves---
Well, Dead Hooves is an interesting character and off to an interesting start. While its obviously a little cliche for the hero to be an orphan at this point, its certainly an interesting way to do this.
Once again we also have a protagonist/character who is disabled in some way, this feels like its going to become a running joke or something in these reviews. And making her hind legs paralyzed is certainly an interesting idea and way to do this, it also does well to make her an interesting character.
Of course we have the inherent problem that she has a tendency to not think things through and has a bit of a temper. I mean she got angry at her power armor and tried to get a gun that she wasn't capable of using, but still interesting ideas.
Dead Hooves is a well done character that I look forward to reading more of in the future.
---Final Thoughts---
Well, obviously I enjoy this fanfic and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a different take on the universe of Fallout: Equestria, its pretty unique in its own way and does a good job of telling its story.
The Bloody Angel is certainly different from your usual Fallout: Equestria villain, she's not a raider or a slaver or anything similar. But at the same time she seems to have gripped the entire wasteland in fear. This will be interesting to explore farther down the line.
I look forward to reading more of this fanfic in the future.
I give Chapter 1 of False Guilt a score of 5/5.
I give Chapter 2 of False Guilt a score of 5/5.
Fallout: Equestria belongs to KKat.
Fallout: Equestria - False Guilt belongs to VaatiDJ.
Next week, we are hopefully back on our normal schedule with a fanfic by another friend of mine, this one will be blind again so I don't really know what else to say.
Also check out the review schedule on my blog if you want to see what's coming up or just make suggestions.
Video Made by Me.
Thanks for the review dude, glad to see you enjoy it a whole lot.
Also, I think the bigger mystery at this point isn't who the Bloody Angel is but what Dead Hooves gender is. My god, everyone I've showed this story to has called Dead Hooves both 'he' and 'she'. Shall the mystery ever be solved?
Still, the entire idea of False Guilt was to make something not only to make something different, but step outside the boundaries. This is the first story I've written that I have been unable to set on the back burner like any of my others. The twists and turns that the story takes is probably one of the greatest things about it. I'll be looking forward to April for the next review
4369565 Well I assumed that since even Raiders have to have some knowledge of anatomy and the Bloody Angel is referred to as a she, then they'd have at least thought to make sure that they weren't going after a Stallion.