Fallout Equestria: Surviving Light Reviews: Chapters 1 and 2

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Wow, its been awhile since we were last here hasn't it?

This was the second fanfic I ever reviewed, and its still a really good story, the setting and characters work well for what the author wanted to do, and I always enjoy reading it. We even have a shared universe, and it shows sometimes.

Yep, this week I'll be reviewing FaultyScrewdriver's Surviving Light once again. Its a good story and I hope you enjoy it, despite its... stranger elements.

So lets begin.

Chapter 1: Shattered Peace

“I still can’t believe the door is gone. I didn't even get to watch it open.” Butterscotch frowned a little. “Aw well. At least I can drink water without worrying about my bladder mutating.”

Well that's always good.

We start out with Vanilla and Butterscotch looking at the gear shaped hole where the Stable Door used to be, despite being out after curfew, but the guards don't really seem to care. Butterscotch wonders if anypony will ever come by now that the Stable is open to the world, but Vanilla isn't sure, also apparently they had sent scouts out into the world, but they didn't find anything alive.

Also apparently the Stable is built under a train station, interesting choice.

Vanilla notices that Butterscotch is acting kind of strange and asks her what's wrong, Butterscotch says that she wants to leave the Stable. She pushes Vanilla out of the way and heads for the open door. Vanilla runs forward to try and stop her sister, but she only makes it as far as the door hole when she hears her scream, followed by the sound of breaking bones.

She backs up and hits something hard, and when she turns around she finds a mass of black crystals stretching up to the ceiling. Vanilla thinks pretty much what we're all thinking:

What in Tartarus was going on?

She gets surrounded by a cage of the black crystals, and then she sees Butterscotch's head mounted on one of them. She tries to back away from the encroaching shadows, then the shadows start to form a solid mass, one that would be very familiar to anyone who like My Little Pony... which I assume is most if not all of my readers:

The… thing that formed looked like a large stallion. It looked like a unicorn, except its horn was curved, and was a fiery red. Its eyes were glowing a dark red, and it had green smoke trailing out from its eyes. It wore metal armor on most of its body, and it had a red robe on its back. It had a dark gray coat, and a black mane.

King Sombra is back, in the words of Linkara, "Pants to be darkened indeed."

Video Made by StasySolitude

“You've opened up your home to the outside world, pony.” It sneered at me, revealing it's sharpened teeth. “Soon, your home will be part of my empire. I hope you look forward to it.”

Yeah, this is really not good.

Sombra's voice echoes, saying that Vanilla's worst fear is losing her sister, and he threatens to kill her if she ever opposes him. What a nice guy Sombra is! One of the crystals pierces Vanilla's eye, and she wakes up sweating in her own bed. Yeah it was all just a dream, but not a dream that you would want to have.

She checks on Butterscotch and is relieved to discover that she's still alive, but she knocks a small object to the ground, however before she can reach for it, it vanishes in a puff of smoke and she dismisses it as just a side effect of the dream.

She quietly moves into the other room and starts removing her cybernetics and goes to the adjoining bathroom to calm herself down, splashing water on her face. It seems that the cybernetics cause her a lot of pain when she tries to just do something as simple as bathe, which is understandable, and not really a pleasant prospect.

She leaves the bathroom and finds her sister making Blueberry Flapjacks, Butterscotch tells her something ominous, she had a similar nightmare to Vanilla's, only instead Vanilla had died. It seems that both of them were supposed to be their worst fears according to Sombra, and its definitely ominous.

After awhile the two of them are playing a board game with some friends and discussing the nightmares, it seems that they aren't the only ones who had them as there's a rumor going around that everypony in the Stable had one. And then we get a scene that I, honestly forgot was a thing in this fic when Vanilla goes to find Buttersotch's friend Fresh Gardens who is... in the middle of something in Butterscotch's bed... I'll let you figure out what that is for yourself.

Vanilla tells Gardens to get herself cleaned up and go talk with Butterscotch before she goes back to play the game with the others and says that she's going to take the turns they skipped now. Gardens comes back in and starts to apologize to Butterscotch when all of a sudden the alarms start to go off.

Video Belongs to Paramount

The Overmare came on over the speaker. “This is not a test. Hostiles have entered the Stable. The guards posted at the door are M.I.A. If you are in your room, lock all doors. If you are unable to find a place to hide, please turn on your Eyes Forward Sparkle on your Pip-bucks. And avoid red bars that may appear on your E.F.S. Please remain safe until the threat is disposed of. This message repeats.”

*claps sarcastically* Great job Vanilla, wonderful idea to use the Stable Door, best plan ever!

Vanilla and the others turn on their EFS and they find a red bar outside their room. When they rush out to close the door, they find themselves face to face with a Ghoul that then proceeded to jump on Gardens and tear a chunk of her throat out. Butterscotch ran over and bucked the Ghoul as hard as she could, which took it out quickly enough, but the damage to Gardens is already done. She's still alive, but she's in bad shape so Vanilla goes to get her gear so she can help the mare.

Vanilla comes back in and secures Gardens so she can get her to the nearest medical center, but it seems that Butterscotch has run off somewhere. Vanilla wants to go after her sister but she knows that she needs to get Garden to safety first, so she heads towards medical like she said. On the way there however, Gardens insists that she is left behind because she wasn't going to make it, and after telling Vanilla to go find Butterscotch, she dies.

Vanilla doesn't have time to mourn, she starts running again, taking out more of the Ghouls as she does with her electricity based attachment, which of course runs out of power just as another one is attacking her because that would be way too easy. She takes out that one with a drill, and then the alarms shut off, and then a new message plays:

“The threats within the confines of the Stable have been dispersed. I would like to thank all of you who assisted with the dilemma. I would also appreciate it if Vanilla Cream would report to my office, immediately.”

Ooh, somepony's in trouble.

When she reaches the Overemare's office, the Overmare is, understandably annoyed with everything that's happened, so Vanilla is being banished from the Stable until she can find a new door. And honestly, I can't blame her, the Stable 81 Overmare is a rare breed in that she is actually completely reasonable in her reasons for having the hero leave. Now there are going to be issues of course, but it shows that she is willing to explore solutions.

Vanilla protests, saying that she won't survive out there with creatures like the Ghouls that attacked the Stable, but the Overmare is pretty adamant about it and also says she'll be given things to help her survive. The Overmare asks if there's anything she can do and is surprised when Vanilla doesn't want to take Butterscotch with her, only insisting that Fresh Gardens gets a good funeral. The Overmare wishes her luck, but Vanilla isn't exactly happy with the idea of having to leave, but has to live with it.

Vanilla starts to leave the Stable, but before she goes too far she sends one more message to Butterscotch:

Butterscotch,

I’m leaving the Stable and going outside. Please don't hate me for doing it. I'll be back soon. Please don't follow me. I don't want anything bad to happen to you.

~Vanilla Cream

As she starts to make her way out into the Wasteland however, she receives another message, one that chills her. Its of Butterscotch lying on a stretcher with her hind legs torn off.

Great job Vanilla...

Chapter 2: Alone

Ms. Vanilla Cream,
Official Stable records state that your are the closest living relative to Butterscotch Candy. However, the Overmare has banished you from the Stable. Despite this fact, we will keep in touch with you, pertaining your sister’s health.
An hour and a half ago, on the fifth level, your sister was surrounded by threats. Despite her best attempts to fight them off, she was knocked unconscious in the fight. She also received collateral damage to both of her back legs, and it was irreparable.
If it were not for Copper Magnet stepping in, and delivering her here, Ms. Candy would have lost her life.
We amputated both of her legs, to avoid future infection. Fix Ser from maintenance on the second floor has also taken it upon himself to create prosthetic limbs for her.
We will contact you again as soon as Butterscotch regains consciousness.
~ Dr. Lucky Eye

Well, the good news at least is that Butterscotch is still alive, that's generally a good sign at least, while she is badly injured, it sure beats the alternative.

She leaves the outside entrance to the Stable, apparently it had indeed been built into a Train Station as a basement area. She finds herself outside, and its completely dark of course because apparently you can't leave a Stable in the daytime, must be a rule or something. She gets a new location notification on her PipBuck, apparently its called Hoof's Ridge Station. She checks around the station, but there's not a whole lot to discover other than a locked desk and rotting chairs.

She does however find a terminal that is locked, but it has the super original password of Train... no I'm not joking. She uses it to open a safe under the desk to find some bits and a gun, other than that there's the train schedule, but there's not a whole lot interesting there other than mentioning some locations around Equestria, and also a notice from the war:

To all staff working in the train stations spread throughout Equestria.
On the sixth day of the third month, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza of the Crystal Empire and her husband, Shining Armor, will be boarding the 12:31 train. I don’t know why they simply fly in a carriage. Probably don't want to get shot down by zebras, or something. Regardless, I wish for all stops afterward to be set for maximum security until the Canterlot stop at 18:08. Thank you.
~Train Conductor, Ringing Bell.

So yeah, not much useful from the train station's terminal. She checks her PipBuck and finds the gear that the Overmare had given her, naming her cybernetic attachment options the following things:

Electric Pylons: Electro.
Saw and Drill: Surgeon's Tools.
Wings: Pegasus Pride.

Well other than the kind of dark humor of the Saw and Drill attachment, its good names. She finds the leather barding and slips it on. Then we get this kind of funny moment where she's trying to learn how to shoot a gun, only to get it to not work. She finally realizes that she had forgotten to load the gun... wow, real smart of you Vanilla.

Anyway she leaves the Station and comes face to face with, another Ghoul. She decides to test out her gun on the Ghoul, but it takes a few tries to take the Zombie out. She gets back into the station and checks her map, deciding to head to the nearest location to where he is now, the Crystal Empire.

Ms. Vanilla Cream,
Exactly fifteen minutes ago, your sister woke up. She told us her back legs hurt. She quickly found out that she didn't have back legs anymore. She seemed distraught by the news, but overall she seems fine. After about ten minutes, she asked for sedatives. We do not know why she asked for them, since she adamantly refused to tell us, so we denied her request. We believe she may be experiencing terrible ghost pains, however.
Your sister has also not heard the news about your banishment. She has not gotten a chance to check her Pip-buck yet, due to her restricted movement. We would like to know if you wish for us to tell her.
~ Dr. Lucky Eyes

Message received: 03:19

Tell her. Not now, but as soon as she is able to mentally handle the news.

Message sent: 03:22

Vanilla is moving along the tracks at this point, and its not exactly going well for her as she's getting tired, and then she trips, ouch, great start to your journey. She found an empty and unlocked train car and decided that she really needed to get some sleep. So without much other options for where to sleep, she goes to sleep there.

And then she has another dream involving Sombra, who is, actually surprised that she had left the Stable. When Vanilla asks who he is, he relents and introduces himself as King Sombra... no real surprise there. When she asks about why he had put her through that dream last night and did the violent things, he answered that she had done it to herself. When she presses more on what kind of magic he used, we get this, rather... interesting explanation:

Persistent. Fine. I do not use use a magic like you normal ponies. No. I use a magic bred of hatred. The more hatred I have running through my veins, the stronger my magic becomes.”

Video Belongs to Disney

We get a brief summary of what happened to Sombra from the show's backstory... and he says that the elements won't be a threat to him this time. Guess that means he's a bit behind the times, but I digress. Anyway, as agreed she tells Sombra why she had left the Stable, though he's dissapointed that she had just been kicked out and wasn't the survivor of a massacre or something.

Anyway she gets impaled by a crystal again, and this wakes her up. She wakes up to find that its now light outside, and as she opens the door to the train car, there's a screech, and then red bars appear on her EFS compass because of course things can't be easy for her. The voices outside decide to start looking for the source of the noise, and two ponies are heading right for Vanilla.

She tries to sneak away... only to be caught immediately, Solid Snake you are not Vanilla. She acts more on instinct than anything else and shoots at the stallion that found her and kills him, but she doesn't have long to dwell on the fact that she just killed a pony when another one tries to get her to come out.

“Oh sure, let me just hand myself over so you can break your promise. You’ll probably torture me. Or rape me. Or both.”

Darn it Vanilla, snarking is my job!

One of the ponies tries to attack her with a knife, only to get a gun pointed at his head. Vanilla demands to see his boss, and the stallion agrees, only to get shot in the head when they approach. Vanilla manages to get out of the way, shooting at the attacking pony, and we get a kind of strange moment when one of them actually shoots Vanilla and when she chastises him, he actually apologizes and agrees to take her to their leader, and she meets with the other two members of the group:

The stallion led me outside of the train cars, towards two ponies. One of them watched us, with curious, yet insane eyes. The mare. She was a unicorn, and her mane was wild with strands of red and brown spread about everywhere, with no particular pattern. Her coat was a lighter shade of the brown in her mane. Her cutie mark looked just like the happy and sad theater masks, except the sad one was replaced by an angry one. Her eyes were both different colors. Her right eye was red and the left was green. The worse part about her was the large gun levitating just over her head. It had several barrels, and apparently used so much ammo that the ammo belt extended about three feet out of the gun.

The other one stared at us through a visor. The large covered-in-metal stallion was indeed covered in metal. The thick metal armor covered him entirely. Legs, head, body. Hell, even his tail was covered by it. His visor even seemed bulletproof. The armor was a little rusted around the joints. Strapped to his side were two large guns. There was only a single bullet in each of them, but they were large bullets. Missiles. They looked like missiles. I had seen pictures of missiles in books about the war back in the Stable. Those were definitely missiles. Each of the guns had a single word written on them in red paint. Goddesses, I hoped that was red paint. The right one read ‘Fuck,’ and the left one read ‘Bastard.’

What a nice sounding bunch of ponies they are, yeah they're Raiders. Vanilla demands to be let go, but the Raiders refuse, referring to themselves as Crackerjack and Cinnamon Sweet. Crackerjack fires a missile at her, and she avoids it, but her hostage isn't nearly as lucky. She manages to make it into cover, so at this point she somehow has to get away from the Raiders.

Then this happens... this is a thing that happens, word for word:

As I was running, one of the red bars turned green. “Hey, I’m sorry.” I heard Cinnamon yell.

What the hell was going on? “I don’t mean to hurt you, and I’m sorry I scared you! Look, just keep running. And don’t let Crackerjack find you. He won’t leave anything left.”

Yeah, something is weird with Cinnamon Sweet, but she takes advantage of the situation and keeps running towards the Crystal Empire in the distance.

Ms. Vanilla Cream,
Butterscotch Candy has been crying for the past hour. She checked her messages on her Pip-buck, and figured out what happened to you. We were forced to confirm it. We apologize for this inconvenience.
~Dr, Lucky Eyes
Message Received: 06:44
Vanilla,
Yo, Fix Ser here. I heard the news about what happened. That must suck. I don’t think the Overmare should have banished you. Just between you and me, I always thought the Overmare was a bit of a bitch. Hey, at least she let you keep your Pip-buck and stuff, so we can still contact you.
I’m sure you’ve heard the news about your sister too. I’m building her legs. Progress is going great so far, but I might not be done for five to eight days.
Hope you’re able to contact me soon. And please, don’t die on me.
~Fix Ser
Message Received: 10:21
Fix Ser,
I’m glad you miss me. But I also don’t think I’m going to survive for very long out here. I’ve been out here for less than a day, and already I’ve had missiles fired at me. Don’t worry though, I’ll try my best.
~Vanilla Cream
Message Sent: 10:35
Vanil. Please come back. I miss you.
Message Received: 10:54

Yeah, Butterscotch knows that Vanilla had left now, she's apparently not taking it well. But at least things are starting to improve and Fix Ser is making sure that her legs will be done soon.

After awhile of running Vanilla starts to slow down out of exhaustion, she would put her wings on and fly but she doesn't really have that option because she didn't bring her tools with her. She comes across a collection of buildings, one of which seems to have been restored for, some reason. When she enters she finds, a Mr. Handy Robot.

Video Belongs to Bethesda

As it turns out the robot had once belonged to Vanilla's... well its not said how many greats, so lets just say really distant ancestor Scented Candle had built it as a soldier and a maid, a war maid apparently, which is also its name. She looks around the house, its pretty obvious that her ancestor was smart. She also finds a terminal with a 17 character password, geez that's a bit overkill, and also War Maid doesn't know what it is.

She finds a picture of her ancestor with a stallion named Runner who was apparently in something called the Business... mafia probably, you know how the Pony Mafia is. Anyway, she puts the photo away and finds a skeleton on the bed, and she finds a letter and a memory orb next to the bed:

Look here sweetcheeks, I’m sorry. I know ya ain’t ever gonna read this note, since they already made ya leave for the Stable and all. Hell, this note is more for my sake than yours. Look, I’m sorry. I know I was never around. The Business was rough, and I got some ponies who still got some debts to pay. I had Pearl make this orb for ya, but ya ain’t ever gonna see it. It’s the first time we met, from my point of view. So, if you ever do see this note, I want you to see the memory. And I want ya to know that I loved ya. I cheated on ya. I was unfaithful, I know. I cheated on you with the very mare that made this orb. You’re a smart mare, so you had probably already known I was cheatin. And ya probably forgave me for it too. Look, all I’m tryin to say is sorry. And when she’s old enough, I want ya to tell Little Twinkle I’m sorry too. I wasn’t there when she was born, and she needs to know that. Thank you, Scented Candle, for makin my life the best it could be. I loved you with everythin I had, even if I didn’t show it. I hope ya can forgive me.
WIth all the love in the world, Runner

Its a nice little letter from one pony to another, even if he knows the other one won't ever read it. Its a good little message, and it shows that Runner really regretted not being able to see Scented Candle again.

She gets confirmation that the skeleton had been Runner and decides to bury him when she has the time. She found a locked suitcase and gets it unlocked to find Runner's outfit inside it. She finally gets Runner buried. War Maid says that it will make sure that if she's followed to the house, it will deal with the visitors.

Vanilla took one last look back at where her PipBuck now labels as home before attaching her wings and flying off towards the Crystal Empire. The chapter ends with one more message:

Butterscotch,
Sorry I didn’t answer you earlier. I didn’t mean to make you worry. I was busy. It’s pretty crazy outside.
On the bright side, I found our great great great great, yeah a lot of greats, grandmother’s house today. It’s my house now, I suppose. I also got a really cool hat.
Don’t worry. I’ll be back home as soon as possible. I think I already have a way to replace the door. I love you. Be good for the Doctor.
~Vanil

Character Analysis: Vanilla Cream

I snark a lot about how she makes some dumb decisions, but I love Vanilla Cream as a character.

She's smart yes, but she isn't the kind of smart that rubs it in all the time. She makes mistakes and she's willing to own up to them, even if she's technically being forced to.

Vanilla is a good character, and while she's not perfect, its these imperfections that make her a relatable character. Also the idea of making her a cyberpony is handled pretty well, at least not taken to the same extreme as characters like Blackjack.

Of course the fact that she had to leave her home Stable because she had the brilliant idea of using the Stable Door to fix a problem is also pretty unique, even if it was a dumb idea. Her interactions with King Sombra also showcase her nature and, really she's an interesting character despite the fact that Stable Dwellers are a bit overdone.

There's still a lot more to come, and things that won't come into play yet, I hope you look forward to it.

Final Thoughts

I said it before, I'll say it again, I love this fanfic.

Its creative and it includes elements of Fallout 4 (more than you've seen yet) without actually using it too much as a crutch. Its ultimately a pretty original story and approaches its themes and characterizations well.

I highly recommend you go and read this story if you haven't already, its a bit short so far, but it is definitely worth checking out if you have the time. Especially if you also happen to read my fanfics, shared universes can be fun and we slip in references to each other's fics here and there.

Chapter 1 gets a score of 5/5.
Chapter 2 gets a score of 5/5.

Read it Here.

Fallout: Equestria belongs to KKat.
Fallout Equestria: Surviving Light belongs to FaultyScrewdriver.

Next week... I'm just gonna say it so you can prepare yourselves, next week is Project Horizons.

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