Fallout: Equestria Reviews: Chapter 5

Video Made by Me.

Well fillies and gentlecolts, we're once again back where we started, its time for yet another review of the always awesome original fanfic by KKat.

Yeah, there's not much need for an introduction and honestly I was almost hoping to use my copy of the third printing of the fanfic for this review, but for some reason it still hasn't arrived yet. I blame the Postal Service.

Anyway, lets get started on Fallout: Equestria.

---Chapter 5: Calamity---

Video made by Miracle of Sound

Okay, normally I skip the quotes, but I felt this one deserved a mention:

“Friendship. Friendship never changes.”

Its a good quote, its obviously based on the classic "War. War never changes" line from Fallout, but at the same time it gives it a My Little Pony Twist. Given the events of the chapter itself, its also appropriate as well as for the fanfic in general, since really that's what Fallout: Equestria is about, this idea that even after the end of the world, friendship is still magic.

So lets get started on the chapter itself.

LittlePip wakes up and realizes that she's still alive after getting shot at last chapter. She goes to check her PipBuck's date and time option, which alerts the other ponies to the fact that she's awake, including the Stallion who shot her. She seems to be in some sort of clinic or something, so at least she's not a prisoner.

The Pegasus, Calamity, tells her to take it easy, but she gets scared because, well, he did shoot at her. One of the other ponies looks at the doctor (Candi is her name) and we get this bit of dialogue:

“Oh, she’ll be perfectly fine. Ah mixed up the last healing potion she needed and gave it t’ her less than an hour ago.”

“Mixed?” The grey earth pony raised an eyebrow dubiously.

Candi smiled. “Why with apple schnapps, of course! Ah find the medicine always goes down better that way.” I couldn’t understand why the grey pony facehoofed. I felt perfectly fine now. Better than fine. And pleasantly warm.

The guests get pretty much kicked out of the room and LittlePip laments on the fact she had searched for some sign of civilization, but there's not really anything she can do about it.

Its also at this point that Candi decides to comment on how handsome Calamity is, to which LittlePip points out that he had shot her, a lot. Candi, I don't think that Calamity is LittlePip's type, now you on the other hoof...

Nope, not fantasizing about those two... moving on!

Anyway, after a couple more days she leaves the clinic to find herself in New Appleloosa, and we get our first look at real civilization in the Wasteland:

I gazed over the railing at the walled village. Multiple lines of what I had realised were railroad tracks converged into a town made up largely of dozens upon dozens of virtually identical homes built from old passenger cars, many of them stacked two or three high. Most still had their wheels. Heavy metal boxcars formed a ring around the town, with a massive gate on either side. Armed pony guards walked around the tops of the boxcars, keeping their eyes on the wastes outside. Inside, scores of earth and unicorn ponies trotted about their daily lives. The place was dirty, rusty… and altogether wonderful!

She asks the dark colored Stallion from before, Railright who runs the town, how they got it all built and he mentions that they had one of the Unicorn ponies do it. Of course as it turns out he's messing with her because it was actually done using the crane, but he suggests that she talks to, well, Crane... wow, really thinking outside the box on these names.

So Railright gives her the grand tour, and that's where she finds Absolutely Everything, and we get this sign:

Yes, I do deliveries!

No hooves, nasty stingers? No service.

Ask me about special orders! I won’t answer, but I’ll get right on it!

Wasteland Survival Guide! Available now! First copy for every family is free!

And that's where she meets with the same zombie pony from Ponyville who gives her a smile and a squishy hug. She shows off the store, but it seems that LittlePip isn't the only pony in here. Yeah, Calamity is there too and he apologizes for, you know, shooting her since that was kind of a jerk move.

Its also at this point that we get formally introduced to the zombie pony, Ditzy Doo, or Derpy but, you know, written really early on so we call her Ditzy.

Video made by Kanashiipanda.

LittlePip realizes that Ditzy had written the Wasteland Survival Guide, and the fact that she had been the one to deliver it made her a bit suspicious of Watcher. Ditzy gives our hero another copy of the Wasteland Survival Guide, and we get this bit:

I opened my mouth to say something, maybe that I already had a copy (although considering there had been several pages torn out of the copy on the raider’s table, having another could still be quite helpful). However, whatever I was about to say got derailed by a strange realization. “You… don’t talk much, do you?” Could zombie-ponies talk?

Ditzy Doo stepped back and opened her muzzle wide, giving me more a look at the inside of her mouth than I ever wanted. Calamity focused my attention, “Ditzy Doo’s tongue was cut out by slavers a few decades ago. She gets by without it real well though.” So then Monterey Jack’s warning had been cringingly accurate.

Real smooth LittlePip.

Ditzy writes on some paper, saying that it had helped her become good at writing, so that's good. She then offers to help her get some better armor.

And then LittlePip finds out that Bottle Caps are what is used as currency in the Wasteland, and she comments on how absurd it is, but at the same time that it makes sense. Ditzy is at this point upgrading LittlePip's barding back at the store, and also Ditzy gives her information on how to make a Bottlecap mine.

Video belongs to Bethesda.

Its also at this point that we learn that Ditzy is what's called a Ghoul not a Zombie Pony, so, yeah no eating of brains unless she goes feral. We also learn that Calamity doesn't live in New Appleloosa, instead he lives in a shack a ways away.

“But ma! I wanna go see Derpy!”

So yeah, that name does exist in universe as well, but its just a nickname. The quote comes from a colt that wanted to go see Ditzy, and his mom chastises him for wanting to go. LittlePip asks her about Ghoul ponies and we get this, brief description of them:

“Well…” The mare looked about furtively, then lowered her head, whispering, “Y’know they’re all like tickin’ time bombs, right? Ah mean, you can see what bein’ a ghoul is doin’ t’ their outsides. Imagine what it’s doing t’ their brains. They all go mad sooner or later. Dear Ditzy, she’s lasted a good long time an’ she’s only a li’l crazy for it. But someday… Ah just don’t want my boy t’ hurry that along none. Or be there when she does finally turn on us all.”

Well, she's not wrong, but she could be a bit nicer about it, Ditzy is a nice pony and probably won't go Feral for a long time.

Anyway, the mare and her son runs off after that, and Calamity confirms that its the truth, but that they don't always go feral like that. LittlePip isn't really afraid of Ditzy at this point, but she does feel sorry for her.

So they go to talk with Crane who is loading barrels onto a train car that is still on the tracks unlike everything else. He's pretty cheerful and is happy to meet LittlePip because of the ponies she had saved before. He asks her what spells she has, and she says that the most she can do is telekinesis.

Crane says that he'll teach her everything he knows about heavy lifting if she does a small favor for him, and its one heck of a favor:

“We been havin’ a small bit o’ trouble with the things that’ve been crawling up outta that ol’ Stable west o’ here. From what Ah hear, y’all are might brave an’ no slouch w’ slingin’ a firearm. Jus’ get down t’ the Stable an’ close the door. I reckon we can clear out the varmints up here if somepony locks off their breedin’ grounds.”

Sounds like a fun time, take the foals!

Anyway, Calamity has decided to accompany her at this point because he feels he owes her one for the whole... shooting her thing. He says that he also doesn't want her to go down there alone because of stories he's heard about Stables, and of course LittlePip points out that she had come from a Stable and likely so did a lot of ponies or at least their families.

Its also at this point that we of course learn that Ditzy survived the war, yeah, she's that old. LittlePip asks what her story is and Calamity gives her the cliffs notes version.

Calamity snorted a laugh. “So long ah couldn’t even guess at most of it. Ah do know she was flyin’ outside Cloudsdayle when that first megaspell hit it. She was caught at the very edge of the magical energies that wiped the entire city out of existence. Been a ghoul ever since.”

And that's when it starts to rain.

LittlePip of course being from a Stable and having no knowledge of a thunderstorm freaks out and Calamity says that they should find some shelter. Then there's a crack of thunder, further freaking out our hero.

Video belongs to someone.

She briefly thinks she sees a pony on a hilltop that may have qualities of both a Unicorn and a Pegasus, but its not very clear.

As the rain continues and a nearby river starts to flood, they find a nearby cave and Calamity lifts her into the air over the water and carries her to the cave. As fate would have it, they've found their destination, Stable 24. After some struggling, LittlePip manages to get the door closed, and they find themselves inside the Evil Scary Stable of Spookiness.

“You realize we just shut ourselves into the Evil Scary Stable of Spookiness, right?” I teased my self-invited companion as he stared about the place in wonder.

What, did you think I was kidding? The fanfic clearly labels it as that.

Calamity says that he trusts LittlePip's judgement and after a brief description of Calamity's Battle Saddle and how weapons work in Equestria. Yeah, there are a lot of weapons, but its basically what you expect from Fallout.

LittlePip figures that she can probably navigate the area pretty well since she lived her life in a Stable, so she takes the lead as they start heading down into the Stable. Also, for some reason there's dynamite in one of the storage rooms... I'm not sure why to be honest, but okay. LittlePip tries to lockpick it to no success, so they move on.

While the Stable isn't in the best shape obviously, its at least somewhat functional as they start to make their way around it.

And its about here that we get a bit of a bomb dropped, pun not intended, it seems that the Sun and Moon are moving around on their own for... some reason that's actually never explained. More on this later, even though again its never really explained, and the Pegasi aren't scheduling the weather so its all gone a bit wild.

There's some indications that this Stable is a bit unusual, such as the fact that there is only one set of bathrooms in the living quarters, also its connected to an aquifer instead of a water talisman, so things are a bit strange. There is a very brief flash of red on the EFS, but they don't know what caused it. Another difference is that mares and stallions have different sleeping quarters, which just makes it all a bit stranger. The strange red spot plays around a bit more with them before vanishing for good.

They go to the school, more of the red bars appearing and disappearing as they go, and its about here where things start to get, well, even weirder. It seems history in this Stable has been subjected to Rule 63, as all significant ponies have been changed to a Stallion, yeah, this is a bit odd.

So yeah, a lot of things have been changed and altered, which is freaking poor LittlePip out, and to calm herself down she goes to check the nearby terminal.

Had a real surprise when we tested the young unicorns on their magic today. I had all my little ponies bring in their pets and show me how they could make them levitate. Simple enough, although a squirming animal can add a level of difficulty for foals at this age. I had to let both Butter and Peridance each borrow the class mascot, since neither have a pet of their own. Peridance was thrilled, but I think Butter is terrified of the snake, even though she’s been told it’s defanged and harmless. Needless to say, Butter didn’t do very well.

The real surprise was little Quanta, who has been struggling with even minor levitation all year. Now I know these things have never been recorded in girls, but I can’t imagine any other explanation: we had a full magical epiphany occur right in our classroom. Quanta not only levitated herself, but she let out a flash of energy that affected all of the pets in the room. Most just panicked and had to be recovered, but some (including our mascot) seem to have vanished completely. And strangest of all, the arcane flash seems to have transformed Carrot Tail’s ugly old cat into… well, an even uglier old cat.

It only lasted a moment. Quanta seems fine. Didn’t even realize what she’d done. Of course, parents had to be called, and Carrot Tail is traumatized. It will be a miracle if I can teach these foals anything for the rest of the week. Meanwhile, I’m going to write up a proposal to have another unicorn stallion watch over these tests from now on. Just as a precaution.

The second entry that stuck out was four days later, and it was the last entry on the terminal:

I expected a few parents to keep their colts and fillies home after the excitement at the beginning of the week, but by now they should be letting them back. Instead, attendance is at its lowest yet. Over half my students have skipped their classes today. If things haven’t turned around after the weekend, I’m going to have to start calling parents. And if that doesn’t work, maybe even the Overstallion.

The mention of an Overstallion is what really confuses LittlePip since she was expecting it to be an Overmare, as she tries to explain to Calamity with little success, actually it seems like she insulted him a bit by suggesting that a Stallion couldn't lead.

I'm not going to make any jokes about politics here.

So yeah, they leave the school and in the maintenance room the find, a poster of a stallion, uh... being fawned over for fixing a leaky sink... words fail me right now.

So lets just see what our heroes say:

Carefully, so as not to step on another social mine, “Do you see… why I’m upset? This isn’t like, give it to the best pony, who cares about tradition. This is…”

“Ayep. This is manipulation. Alla these posters been here since before ponies trotted up into this Stable to avoid the apocalypse.” He turned and fixed me with a look. “It’s like sayin tha’ a job’s only fit fer either a mare or a stallion.”

I got the point.

“An’ that’s only true fer cookin’.”

I stopped. My ears shot up and for a moment I bet they could have been steaming. “What?! What’s that supposed to…” And then I caught his sly look. “Oh. Ha ha. I guess I deserved that.”

So yeah, Stable 24 was built to be a male dominated society in contrast to the matriarchal society of Equestria... an odd choice and an odd execution, but hey compared to what Vault-Tec did its fairly benign.

So LittlePip sits down and gets into the logs of the Maintenance Pony, I'm going to skip over most of it and get to what is actually relevant. The short version is that the Stallion who left the logs had a relationship with a mare and there's a stallion named Greyhorn who hasn't been showing up for his shifts... and there was also an accident with the pets.

But here's where it gets important:

Entry Five:
Still no Greyhorn. Talked with some others, and they haven’t seen him either. Suggested I check medical. Would be just like him to find some way to fall and impale himself on his own horn.

Dammit, there’s that scratching sound again. Something’s managed to get into the ventilation system. I’ve removed several of the covers on this floor. Hopefully, whatever it is will fall out and I won’t have to send some colt crawling in after it. Did I mention how much I hate children?

Double-dammit. I just spotted the thing staring down at me. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was Carrot Tail’s damn cat. But they caught it and put it down yesterday.

Tripple-dammit! The damn thing just bit me! I swear, I’m going to send a colt up there after it with a flamethrower!

Ooh, I finally get to use a clip I've wanted to use:

Video belongs to, someone.

So it seems that whatever is in this Stable is drawing cues from the Xenomorphs because, well, they're in the ventilation. Its vaguely cat-like, with reptile scales at the same time... what a fun creature this is. More of them jump LittlePip and one gets shot off her by Calamity. Its also at this point that she realizes that Calamity regrets almost killing her.

And the creatures are now gone, for now, they've survived the first encounter with them at least.

The next encounter isn't as fortunate because Calamity gets bit by one of the creatures before they are stopped again. Yeah, things aren't looking great, but for some reason they don't like water. There are also more skeletons in the area, and then they get attacked again because, well, its a survival horror chapter, why should they have an easy time, and that was when he got bit.

Calamity at this point says that they should continue to the clinic, because as it turns out these things are poisonous and he collapses.

Welcome to Stable 24, have fun, bring the foals!

Chimera

from the personal notes of Doctor Brierberry, Head of Medicine, Stable 24

I’ve chosen to call this new species “chimera” for what I feel are suitably obvious reasons. The creature is a result of a wild magical burst from a rather exceptionally gifted filly named Quanta. In a flash of uncontrolled magical power, Quanta managed to fuse several creatures within her vicinity into a single being -- a fully functional and completely new life form.

The initially created chimera took several days to molt before revealing its true nature, during which time another filly, Carrot Tail, was attacked by the creature. She was rushed to the clinic, but perished within hours from an unknown magical toxin injected into the child by the creature.

After molting, the chimera subsequently attacked a maintenance worker by the name of Greyhorn. This time, both the chimera and its victim were fully mature. Based on the case of Carrot Tail, we treated Greyhorn with antivenom spells and potions, but to no avail. Greyhorn lasted three times as long as Carrot Tail, and was in extreme agony for most of that period. It was only after Greyhorn’s death that we learned the key component of the chimera’s make-up.

As you will be able to see from the images I am having attached to this document, the feline and serpentine elements of the fusion are quite obvious. (See images C-1 and C-2) What we initially didn’t realize, couldn’t have suspected, is that there had been some manner of insect in the classroom when Roe cast her spell, and that too was infused into the creature on a deeply inherent level. You see, the fangs of the chimera aren’t so much like the fangs of a rattlesnake, but more akin to an insect’s ovipositor.

The behavior of this species is extremely aggressive, attacking any suitable host within which it can inject its eggs. Over the course of a single day, those eggs will mature within the host, after which a litter of new, baby chimera will dig their way out of the infected pony, ultimately killing the host if the pony is not already dead. In the case of Greyhorn, five new chimera erupted from his body less than an hour after he was pronounced dead. (See image C-3) You can imagine the look on my assistant’s face. (But you don’t have to. See image C-4)

Fortunately, from the case of Greyhorn, and the baby chimera specimens he provided us with, we have been able to devise and conjure an anti-chimera potion. Unfortunately, some of the herbs required were in tragically short supply, so there is a high probability that we will not have sufficient quantities for everyone. The Overstallion is keeping one bottle locked away in his office, along with the recipe. Meanwhile, I am storing the rest in the medical refrigerator here in the clinic while I wait for the Overstallion’s decision on how to implement dispersal.

This is a disturbingly good idea for a monster, and I have a comment I'd like to make on it.

As I'm sure you guys have noticed from my use of various clips, I am a colossal nerd when it comes to science fiction, and one of my favorite shows is Stargate SG-1. In Stargate there was an episode called Bane, I won't bore you with all the details, but in short there was a bug creature in it that when it stung you, your body would break down and more insects would be formed from your body, this is very similar to the Chimeras in Stable 24 and I have to wonder if this was an inspiration for them or if its a coincidence.

That or the Xenomorphs.

Video belongs to MGM.

But I'm getting off subject... holy crap this is terrifying, and it means that everyone in the Stable died because of these things and Calamity might be next. It seems that the fact that they can't swim, and that the River happens to be right there, is what's keeping Equestria safe, thank Celestia for small favors.

Of course the antidote isn't in the clinic since, why make this easy, so LittlePip has to get to the Overstallion's office above, but she has a plan... which Calamity calls insane. Calamity even tries to get her to abandon him, but LittlePip has the best response to that:

Now I got to play cross. “I’m not leaving my friend behind.” I reloaded Little Macintosh.

Friendship never changes indeed.

Calamity questions how she's going to do it of course, but this is LittlePip we're talking about, she's still inexperienced at this point but she is a freakin' badass. She's gonna sneak up there using a StealthBuck.

In a scene that reminds me of every time I try to make my way past Deathclaws using a Stealth-Boy in New Vegas, LittlePip is making her way through the Atrium. She finds the antidote, the recipe for it, and a recording that she figures she'd listen to later. They manage to make it back to the storage room without any issue thank goodness, she manages to get the Dynamite box open with no problem after reading a book about lockpicking.

She ran around the Stable a lot, got what she could, and blew up some of the Atrium, with the plan of blowing up the cavern to let the river in. Its, actually a pretty good idea and makes logical sense.

While we don't see it happening, its pretty much assumed that it gets blown up. Calamity and LittlePip discuss the whole thing and that the antidote would help since its implied that some of them may have gotten out before.

When Calamity comments that she hadn't grown up in Stable 24, she has this to say:

He was right, of course. I don’t know what I was looking for or I had expected to find. But I’d let Stable Twenty-Four become a personal affront. Stable Twenty-Four had never been my home. I had no relation to it at all. The only threads connecting the different Stables were two hundred years old, dead and buried in a history mostly forgotten. Stable-Tec hadn’t existed in a long, long time. I had no allegiance to it, and the long dead couldn’t bear any responsibility to me.

Well, unless you're in my fanfics and Scootaloo is still alive... awkward.

The chapter ends with LittlePip taking out the recording and wondering if they should listen to it.

---Character Analysis: Calamity

I'm gonna be honest, I really like Calamity as a character.

He's strong and loyal, but at the same time you get the impression that he has a darker past that he's hiding even this early on. He regrets shooting LittlePip last chapter, which was a definite mistake, and you get this feeling that he really does want to help and make up for his mistake.

We'll learn more about him as the fic progresses and I look forward to reviewing it more. He's a good character and is certainly interesting enough to warrant attention.

---Final Thoughts---

Is there anything else to say? I love this fanfic, while this was not as plot heavy since it didn't progress towards finding Velvet, its a good chapter that does some nice worldbuilding.

This is the chapter where we first get the real indication about what was going on in the Stables... and its not pleasant. This'll be expanded upon later, so look forward to it in future reviews.

This'll be interesting, I hope you all look forward to that.

Chapter 5 gets a score of 5/5.

Original Fanfic

Fallout: Equestria belongs to KKat.

Next week, we leave KKat's work and delve deeper into the darkness as we tackle Project Horizons once more.

Video Made by Me.