Fallout Equestria: Dead Hive Reviews: Chapters 1 through 3 · 10:32pm May 7th, 2017
Video Made by Me
Okay, I'll be honest for a second... I'm not really sure what to say about this fic going into it, I've read it before, but there are some, things that need to be addressed.
As the image below suggests, this fanfic is an Anthro story instead of what we normally see with Fallout: Equestria, and also involves Changelings. I will give the author credit, this is a somewhat interesting idea for a FoE story, so I'll give them credit for that. Its, certainly not a bad idea, lets see how this goes I suppose.
So yeah, this week we are looking at Latrios' fanfic Dead Hive.
---Chapter 1: The Dead Hive---
Just a little more pressure...Just a little more.
...
Just pull the trigger.
...
Pull.
...
Pull, you stupid bug! PULL!
*click!*
...Damnit.
With that, we meet our main character, a Changeling Queen who drops a revolver that I assume she had been trying to use to kill herself and failed. We get a brief description of her and... holy crap we actually have a character who isn't short, seriously, I think this is the first character I've seen who is actually taller than normal... by quite a lot actually.
The beginning really is just basically about the Queen's description and how she got the dress she wears because... reasons. The gun had failed to fire because of age, which she laments on because it had failed.
A Changeling comes in, being the only survivor of the attacks by Radscorpions other than the Queen. This is also where we learn the Queen's name, Deciduous, and the surviving Changeling asks if she's alright.
"Alright? Alright?! I just lost all but one of a hive of several hundred thousand to a horde of giant scorpions! Of
course I'm not alright!" she slammed a fist into the wooden side table, the surface of the meek little piece of furniture shattered under the force, and little but splinters remained of the top as the unattached legs and the revolver clattered to the ground. The shock from the impact managed to set off the dud blasting cap, the high-powered round throwing the pistol into the air from the recoil, shooting off and tearing through the bodies that cluttered the ground beyond the throne. One of the scorpions, evidently not quite dead, gave a shriek as the round tore one of its pincers from its body. It flailed violently for a moment, and then went still. The two of them winced as their ears rang, the heavy-duty bullets were loud, enough to wake the dead even.
The drone says that its at least worth something that Deciduous had managed to save one of them, but she says that she shouldn't be called that because there is only one Changeling left. The Drone inquires about Deciduous and she points out that she had just tried to take her own life, and points out that what good is a queen if she can't defend her own hive.
Okay, this is actually a really good idea, its an interesting counter-point to Chrysalis, who while she did say she had been interested in helping her hive, had ultimately been questionable in her reasons. Deciduous obviously cares about the Changelings under her leadership, which makes it hard for her to handle the loss of them.
The Drone then points out that they had sent other drone teams out into the outside world, suggesting that there might still be survivor's of the Hive out there and even a joint Pony-Changeling Settlement in Flutter Valley, and also a mention of Queen Chrysalis... fun. There's a moment of relief because there's a very real possibility that there are survivor's of the Hive out there somewhere. We also learn that Daring Do had once used the hive for refuge from a sandstorm and she gave Deciduous the pistol that she had tried to kill herself with.
The Drone then gives a bit of interesting news, it seems that some of the eggs in the hatchery had actually survived the Radscorpion attack, so they go to check the eggs. At first there doesn't actually seem to be anything different, but then after she sends a ping through the hivemind and gets three responses, so she starts to dig through the sand in order to find the survivors.
Levitating the egg into the air in front of her, the autumn-haired changeling steadily sent a stream from her large stores of love energy to the egg, feeding the unattended nymph untill she felt it give a suitably strong response for an egg so far into its incubation period, all the while keeping a close eye on the pit, and the other two eggs still beneath the sand. Keeping the first egg floating over her head, she returned to digging.
It took a few minutes of careful scraping away of the sand and gently moving those she hadn't been quick enough to save before the last two were found, both nestled closely to one-another. A motherly smile worked its way onto her face as she scooped up the two spheres in her arms, holding them close as she fed them the love energy they needed, much like she did the first.
The three eggs fed to her satisfaction, Queen Deciduous allowed herself a sigh of relief as she sat back on the hatchery floor, lowering the first egg to join the two in her arms, pressing close to her body as she could manage without risk of damaging them. Her teary eyes stung as she watched the unborn changelings, fearing that one would suddenly die right then and there. But she held her composure as best as she could, watching the nymphs within, her slit eyes taking in even the slightest movements the embryo in each one made.
Five. All that had survived out of so many thousands, was five, not two.
Its a good scene and it really shows off how difficult things are for these characters, and the hope that this means that there is hope for them after all.
I want to nitpick a minor detail here, if she's a Changeling Queen, what's stopping her from making more Changelings? Or since this is an anthro story does she need someone else for the, uh, deed?
She turns to see the Drone who had, well, a lot of supplies that had been used by the teams sent out. The drone suggests that they leave in order to meet up with one of the teams that had been sent out years ago, its a good idea and Deciduous agrees to it. They decide that the best place to go is a village near Saddle Arabia.
Watching him leave, Deciduous straightened up, taking one more look around the hatchery. “I can only hope that someday this image, this horrible and distressing image, will become no more than a bad memory... ” With that, she turned and walked out, heading for her bedchambers to prepare for her departure, and to think on the morning’s events.
---Chapter 2: The Badlands---
The chapter starts with Deciduous looking at the pistol that she had tried to kill herself with last chapter and we get a bit of a description of it, and its a pretty nice weapon, even if its a bit oversized... but I spend my off time watching comic book reviews so I'm pretty sure oversized in this universe is nothing compared to anything from the 90s. Apparently though that's for Deciduous' benefit because, well, like I said she's big (I'd make another 90s joke here but its not that kind of big), so it doesn't look ridiculous in her hands like the other weapons.
Okay, I've got one comment here, this story doesn't really need the Anthro elements. Its not a bad idea since, well, we don't see that very often in Fallout: Equestria if at all, but its really not utilized very much in this fic. Yes you get things like references to hands, but quite often they use telekinesis, like if they were normal ponies or Changelings.
I will however give this fic some props because, well, most fics don't discuss this idea of bullets not always working after 200 years, heck you don't even get that in the games. The Drone who we don't have a name for so I'll just call them the Drone, comes in and says that the Changelings have been buried and all the preparations are complete and they're ready to head out to find any of the surviving members of the Hive out there.
Deciduous says that she wants to say goodbye to the dead and they head for the burial room, and, well, I'll let you read it for yourself.
Queen Deciduous could feel a crippling weakness in her knees as she entered the chamber, what was meant to be a seemingly bottomless pit for the dead’s remains to be moved seemed distressingly small for such a high influx of bodies, the pit neared full, only a few feet from the overhang that reached out from the doorway, bodies lay crumpled and broken, not a single hint of movement to be seen. Clearing her throat and choking back her flow of tears, she spoke to her subjects one last time.
“My changelings... It is… I am... such a disgrace. For living on while the many thousands of you now lie dead. I only wish... I only wish I could’ve saved more of you. I must now leave, in the hope that I can recover those who survived this slaughter. I shall not collapse the hive, as my mother had once told me to do should it fall. I will return in future to rebuild, so I shall merely seal the entrance, only a changeling born of this hive will be able to enter or leave.”
Her eyes began to mist up, and she was straining to keep herself upright “Farewell, my Changelings, my subjects. May I rebuild the hive, or else meet you in the forever after.” Turning, she hurriedly exited the room, stumbling on her hooves in her instance on leaving as soon as possible.
And with that, Deciduous and the unnamed Drone leave the hive and out into the Badlands.
An hour later its... yeah out in the Badlands, its about as pleasant as you expect since, its called the Badlands, seriously. She says that they're heading north while the Drone comments that Saddle Arabia and the village is to the East, and across a sea, so the Drone is confused, and she explains that the only way out without flying is either to the north or south, and they can't just fly because of the eggs, and they'd find themselves under a really wide area of the said sea, so, fair enough.
The Drone agrees that it makes sense at least, and there's also a note that says to avoid Hoofington, so I guess this means Project Horizons exists in this universe too. There's a path winding through the badlands and they decide to head that way since that will be the best way to get out of the Badlands, if, you know, its still there, and they start heading north.
About six or seven hours later they are running out of energy from all the walking, and of course its getting late since they left around noon, so they find a settlement that had been abandoned for a long time, and it gives them a place to rest. The town is pretty much in bad shape since, well, its been a couple hundred years so I don't really know what else to say here, and also there's a sandstorm coming in because, well there's no point to give them an easy time.
However the Drone has passed out at this point, and she picks up the Drone and heads for one of the buildings by using the classic lockpicking tool of a bullet and drags him inside just as the sandstorm begins. She barricades the door and rests the unconscious changeling against the wall.
The drone finally wakes up again after awhile to the sound of the Sandstorm outside. Deciduous is relieved that he's awake of course, and there's a nice scene of the two together with Deciduous comforting the Drone and telling him that there's no need for him to be so dramatic when he tries to apologize. They start to cook and eat their food and after they eat the Queen tells him to rest. Its also at this point that we learn that they're in the Robronco Replicas Museum, and as they relax together, Deciduous begins to sing.
”The cold hands,
The sad eyes,
The dark foalish silence.
It’s so late,
But I wait,
Through the long night with you,
With you.
The warm tears,
The bad dreams,
The soft, trembling shoulders.
The old fears,
But I’m here,
Through the long night with you,
With you.
Remaining soft as she hummed the tune, she continued. Her voice picked up pace.
Oh, what has it cost you?
I almost lost you a long, long time ago,
Oh, you should have told me,
But you, had to bleed to know.
As quickly as it had picked up, the tempo dropped again, almost immediately starting the next verse.
All your past sins,
Have since passed,
You should be sleeping,
It’s all right,
Sleep tight,
Through the long night with me,
With me.
Once again the tune and pace picked up for another change, only to drop down once more as it did before.
No, I didn’t start it,
You’re broken hearted from a long, long time ago,
Oh, the way you hold me,
Is all that I need to know.
It’s so late,
But I’ll wait,
Through the long night with you,
With you.
With that the Drone has fallen asleep, and she assures him that she will be there if he needs her, its a great scene and really shows off these characters.
She wakes up the next morning with the Drone still asleep, she thinks about how her large height usually means she kind of looms over the other Changelings. She lets him rest and goes to investigate the rest of the museum, and throws aside a bottle cap since she doesn't know that its money in the Wasteland. She doesn't find much in the building and heads up the stairs, finding a display of PipBucks, including one that's pretty oversized.
She picks out the PipBuck 2000 MkII-L and she attaches it, and a jolt goes through her arm as she falls unconscious.
When she wakes up and we switch to the first person view for once, and the usual, readings start to go through over the screen:
When I opened my eyes again, I was staring at the ceiling. In the corners of my vision however, I could see words appearing. A bright amber-yellow silhouette of an alicorn appeared in the top-right corner of my vision, but I couldn’t follow it with my eyes, as it kept moving no matter how I shifted my eyes. It was broken into segments with lines pointing to my limbs and torso, all marked ‘OK’, though strangely enough, the wings portion of it was marked ‘???’.
More text flooded my vision;
Pip-buck 2000, Mark II-L - Initialising...
Initialising SATS Ver. 0.7 - Complete
Initialising Inventory Management system - Complete
Initialising Body Condition Monitoring - Complete
User Compatibility Error; Wing Type; Unknown...
User Compatibility Error; Subject pony type; Unknown...
Unknown user detected - Alerting authorities, please wait...
Authorities unreachable at this time, sending ping...
Emergency Ping software not found...
Adjusting compatibility to suit new user...
Error; Power source status; Insufficient…
Error; Pipbuck software out of date! Please update…No compatible update software found...
Cancelling future update check…
Eyes Forward Sparkle now initialising…
Munitions Level Monitoring - Activated
Medical Supplies Monitoring - Activated
Magic Levels Monitoring - Activated
Alert; Magic levels above normal threshold...
Seek medical attention if this is not normal...
Initialisation complete...
Have a very safe day.An amber-yellow pony appeared over the text, giving a thumbs-up and a wink before vanishing.
Huh, I guess this universe does have a pony version of Vault Boy... which for some reason doesn't come up often in this kind of fanfics, I have no idea what to say honestly.
The Drone arrives and says that he had been worried about her because she had fallen unconscious, and she briefly wonders why there is a museum out here, but okay. She checks out a terminal, which is said to have been an attempt to compete with Stable-Tec, but not very effectively. The Drone helps her get it unlocked and the chapter ends there.
---Chapter 3: Barricade---
Sand, sand, and yet more sand.
By the maker, how I hated sand…
The five or so hours of walking through it after leaving the strangely-placed museum didn’t help my opinion of it much, either. The noon winds sent coarse walls of orange into my face, tangling it with my hair and leaving blockages in the holes of my hooves, leaving a yet-more irritating itching sensation.
Lets see, Anakin talking to Padame about how much he hates sand, a C-3PO clip, or Darths and Droids? Darths and Droids it is.
Image Made by the Comic Irregulars.
Kneel before Valorum!
Anyway, they have left the town and Deciduous is messing with her new PipBuck and trying to figure out exactly how it works, checking out things like the radio, though she can't find much in the way of radio signals, including a song that, I can't remember the title of but, yeah. Then we get this, actually pretty funny line:
A cheery whistling solo followed, much like the one at the beginning of the song. The ease of which its sound and rhythm managed to drag me along was borderline terrifying, yet I felt powerless to resist it. Was this feeling what happened whenever the ponies broke out into song, as I was told they did before the war?
If it was, how had I not encountered it before? I’ve had seven hundred years or so, yet never had such things happen when near me before. Maybe my radio was cursed or something? Or maybe this was simply my first time actually noticing it? I had sung just the night before, Maybe it was a pony thing? It’d probably be best to just go with it being a pony thing, at least for now. The less thought about spontaneously bursting into song and dance, the better.
I very rarely see Fallout: Equestria joking about the tendency of My Little Pony to break out into song, nice job.
Yeah, Deciduous finds herself singing along with the radio, which I admit I've found myself being tempted to do sometimes as well. I'm not going to quote the whole thing, but you get the basic idea here. She turns off the radio when the song is over so that she doesn't keep singing along with the radio.
They reach the wall or, Barricade as the map calls it, which is basically a fortress wall. The drone knocks on the door and its answered by an elderly pony with a shotgun, who calls Deciduous an Alicorn, yeah that figures. He shoots at Deciduous and gets her in the stomach, well, she's dead, I guess the fic is over, had fun with the review guys.
Oh its not over is it?
Anyway, yeah, she's alive but bleeding and a bit damaged since, she did get shot in the stomach, and she comments that she really should've been disguised before falling unconscious.
So, we get a bit of what I assume is a flashback to where she meets with Daring Do, and there's some jokes between the two about their names because, well, they have kind of odd names. Seriously, you named Deciduous after a type of tree, strange name for a Changeling Queen, at least Chrysalis made sense.
She wakes up in, some sort of building that she doesn't recognize, but hey she's alive. She tries to figure out exactly where she is and what's been going on, and the Drone comes in happy to see that she's okay. She was healed by the local doctor, and then the Drone commented that he wants to give himself a name.
“BAHAHAHAHAH! A name? That’s all? I was expecting you to want to run off with the eggs or some equally absurd and illogical idea!” I gave him a rough pat on the head, which he seemed to enjoy just a little bit. “Little drone, I do not die so easily. I’m not at a hundred percent yet, to be sure, but a single shotgun- uh shot? -isn’t going to kill me so easily. There’s no need to be so dramatic.” To be honest, it probably could’ve had I not been brought here.
She of course asks where she is, and he says she was taken into a town, and a doctor who looked like she was half Zebra entered the room, and when she asks about it, the doctor says that she's strange too. She asks what she was doing out there of course, but instead she asks about why they helped her, and a mention that there was a concern about Alicorn abductions, which is why she had been shot.
She gets a basic description of what's been going on with the Alicorns, and she tells the half Zebra the basic story she has and where they're going. She talks with the Drone over the Hivemind and he assures her that the eggs are okay. As the half Zebra keeps talking, something comes to Deciduous as she thinks about the Drone's idea of having a name, and agrees that it would be a good idea, suggesting Carapace, which he likes, she also puts him in charge of protecting the eggs.
And we end the chapters with the newly named Carapace commenting that the half Zebra who we don't know the name of has been staring at her for a few minutes.
---Character Analysis: Queen Deciduous---
Well, there's not a lot to add to what I've already said, but I actually love this character.
Its pretty obvious when we look at her that she's almost kind of supposed to be a good counterpart to Chrysalis in the show, who may or may not appear in the fic in the future. Its pretty clear that Deciduous cares deeply about the Changelings in her Hive because of how she reacts to the loss of most of her hive.
Ultimately, she's a good character, even if she kinda got shot, but as far as characters go she's actually really cool. She wants to do the right thing by her people and give them a chance to thrive in the Wasteland. She's a good character and I would love to read more about her in the future.
Its ultimately a good representation of Changelings in Fallout: Equestria, and its handled very well.
---Final Thoughts---
I love this fanfic, there's really not much else to say about it and I'd love to review it again in the future... but there's a bit of a snag.
Yeah, this is actually all of the fic that's out so far, this is honestly a first for me, I'm completely caught up with a fic in a review, and its the first review I've done of the fic, so, awkward.
I'd love to see more of this story in the future, its an interesting take on the Changelings in Fallout: Equestria, and while I feel like there's not a lot of emphasis placed on the anthro element, I'd like to see a lot more of this story.
Of course alternatively if you want a story about changelings in Fallout: Equestria, you can always read Chrysalis, but I digress.
Chapter 1 gets a score of 4/5.
Chapter 2 gets a score of 5/5.
Chapter 3 gets a score of 5/5.
Fallout: Equestria belongs to KKat.
Fallout Equestria: Dead Hive belongs to Latrios.
Next week, we get another blind review as the time has come to open the gates of hell.
Video Made by Me
Hey Ruin, if your going to do a character analysis of Quantum, I made a vector for him here:\
https://derpibooru.org/1389640?q=oc%3Aquantum
4524721 Cool, thanks, I'll keep that in mind.
Thank for the review. Although one minor note about Deciduous' name; the word Deciduous also roughly means 'to change' :3
4529162 Oh, okay well I didn't know that, nice choice of names then.
4529177 Amusingly enough, that was actually a coincidence. I initially came up with the name when I was just trying to think up a name for her based on her colour-pallet.
X3