Fallout Equestria: Influx Reviews: Chapter 3 · 10:16pm Aug 6th, 2017

Video Made by Me.

Yeah, I'm not very good at sticking to my schedule am I? Sorry, things have been crazy lately with getting moved to my new apartment and everything.

Still, we're back hopefully, and we're re-visiting one of my favorite fanfics as we delve once more into a wasteland of machines and mysteries in Fallout Brony's Influx.

Lets begin.

---Chapter 3: Explosive Welcome---

The pink steam engine and its colourful assortment of passenger cars puffed away from the station, leaving me standing on the platform. I wore a long hooded cloak that kept my body entirely concealed, and was enchanted with an invisibility spell so nopony could see me. The last thing my mission needed was for somepony to freak out from seeing me before I made it to my target. The large crowd of passengers from the train began to disperse, and I began to move to prevent somepony walking into me. I looked up to see my destination: the spire of the Crystal Palace beyond the gate to the Crystal Empire... Something in the back of my mind was telling me I was born here, but that didn’t make any sense since I'm a machine.

She passes through the shield detection spell, keeping to the city's backstreets so that she doesn't accidentally bump into anypony, which would obviously give her away. The scene itself seems to take place during the war and the Crystal Empire seems almost, oblivious to the ongoing war.

She spots a pair of ponies named Strawberry and Chocolate Eclair, she seems to know they're important to her somehow but isn't clear on exactly why. She seems very confused by this whole thing but gets a notification about the Neural Process being stabilized before continuing on her mission to get the Crystal Heart, knowing that if she's not careful she'll just wind up getting caught.

She finally discards the cloak and grabs the Crystal Heart and begins to make her escape as the skies start to shimmer and ripple. Naturally she gets confronted by Shining Armor who demands that she return the Crystal Heart (I can't imagine why), she tries to escape but finds herself surrounded by guards.

Before Shining Armor can make any sort of move though Cadance arrives, and of course since you can't fight an Alicorn easily she realizes that the mission has probably been failed by this point.

A powerful gust of wind tore through the street, which was then followed by a biting chill in the air as the artic winds that the shield spell kept out came in unobstructed now that the shield had completely collapsed. Snow began to fall into the city and then three distant booms were heard. It seemed only the royal couple and I had heard them as only the three of us looked up to the sky beyond the city limits.

Three missiles are heading right for the city, and Shining Armor teleports away to try and create a shield but its too late, even if the heart is returned the shield won't form in time. The Crystal Empire is about to be destroyed because of her and she realizes it with a twinge of regret.

The first missile goes off course, but the second one hits the palace and sends a wave of balefire through the city. Shining Armor and Cadance burn in each other's embrace as Crystal's body is consumed by the fire. She then sees her mother who tells her that she's disappointed in her before dying as well as the world is consumed in flames.

I bolted up on the bench gasping for breath from the nightmare that had just plagued my dreams. I couldn't believe I had just dreamt that; I could have been responsible for destroying the Crystal Empire. My birthplace for Luna's sake. I certainly hope I wasn't used for anything like that in the five years I had been unconscious. I just didn't have a clue if I’d just been sleeping through whatever had been done to me, or if I had been functioning. I certainly hope not. Being a bio-mechanical zebra was so going to be a pain in the flank.

Yeah, it may have just been a dream, or it may not have been, its not very clear. She may have been reliving a memory, and I'm not sure which one would be worse.

If it is an actual memory... that raises a lot of questions that I'm not sure I want to know the answer to.

She looks at her PipBuck and remembers that the Doctor had said that it had been connected to her cybernetic systems, so she concentrates on switching it to the status tab. For a moment she thinks it doesn't do anything until it switches over.

And then she nearly jumps out of her skin when Fruity wakes up with a snort. He wakes up with a start when he realizes that Crystal is awake and alright.

"I was so worried for you," He said, sitting back with relief washing over him.
"You were worried, aww that's so sweet," I smiled playfully, and teasingly to try and lighten the mood. "It's nice to know you care."
Fruity blushed beet red. "Um, well, yes of course, um you are my friend after all."
I smiled warmly at him. "Thank you Fruity, I'm fine."

Kiss already darn it!

Anyway, Fruity leaves to see what's for breakfast and Crystal reflects on what's going on a bit, commenting that she's glad she met Fruity in Manehattan, and also that he's cute when she teases him. But now her power is running low and she needs to eat gems in order to replenish it. She realizes that its a result of the reconstruction that had to be done after the whole, running into a flaming train car thing last chapter, and she has no idea where she's going to find gems.

But since there's a light crystal in a lamp, that problem is solved quickly... well that was rather anti-climactic. We get a brief description of it and its apparently fit for consumption so, yeah she eats it and for some reason it tastes like bananas... that's strange. Anyway it gives her a boost up to 16% power.

Then Fruity comes back, apparently he saw ponies dressed in coats carrying barrel fed combat shotguns. They decide to stay out of their way for the time being, and breakfast won't be for about 3 hours. Its also at this point that we learn a bit more about Fruity of course.

He shifted on his seat so he could lie down on his back and for the first time since I met him, I noticed his flank and his cutie mark, or lack thereof. Instead of a cutie mark he seemed to have had the Ministry Mare Rainbow Dash's cutie mark's outline stamped on his flank, and it looks like it was burnt on.
"What happened to your cutie mark?" I asked with confusion, or rather blurted out.
He let out a deep painful sigh. "I lost it when I became a Dashite," He said with pain in his voice.
"Dashite, what's a Dashite?"
He let out another painful sigh. "A Dashite is a pegasus that has gone against Enclave Law and is cast out of the clouds and forced to live on the surface in exile."
"Against Enclave law? You're a criminal?" Cried out in shock.
He bolted up right and looked at me with fury in his eyes. "No, I am not a criminal Crystal. The worst I ever did was put Mutfruit in some of my cocktails, that was it. I swear. The term Dashite originally was what pegasi who willingly left the Enclave to return to the surface called themselves, and even marked themselves. But the Enclave made a Dashite a punishment, branding and casting out pegasi that broke their laws repeatedly."
"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to offend you Fruity."
He took a deep breath calm himself down. "It's...it's ok. I'm sorry too; I shouldn't have snapped like that, you don't know about the Enclave after all."
"Still, I'm sorry, it wasn't my place to accuse you like that," I said apologetically. "So, what was your cutie mark?"
He gave a weak smile at my question. "It was a pair of cocktail shakers to symbolise my talent in drink mixing and making," His small smile turned into a frown and he looked out the window to the rolling grey clouds that were getting lighter from the rising sun behind them. "I miss my job."
"What was your job?" I asked, hoping to see that smile come back a little more while he talked about something he loved doing.
Thankfully, his smile did come back, if only a little. "I was a bartender at a local cocktail bar. I was rather popular there with my showponyship with how I could mix drinks together and everypony, mostly, would comment on my cocktails being the best in New Reignno." Then his smile disappeared again. "That was until I got busted for serving drinks with Mutfruit in them."
"I'm sorry," I said sadly for bringing up bad memories for him, again. To avoid making things worse, I decided to change the subject away from his past.

Wow... kicked out for serving drinks with Mutfruit, seems a bit extreme, but it is the Enclave.

She asks about the Crystal Empire though apparently there's not a lot of information, just rumors that it had tried to help Equestria but was abandoned. He asks her more about her life in the Stable but obviously she has to lie.

They go to the dining car after awhile and take a seat at one of the tables to eat and she grabs another light while Fruity is distracted with getting the waiter's attention. They ask for menus and Fruity comments that he just hopes they have something edible given how often he finds stale food. Thankfully they have what Crystal wants and Fruity winds up ordering the same thing.

They continue their way through Equestria, when the three stallions that Fruity mentioned before arrive. One of them scowls at Crystal and approaches the table, referring to her as "Little Stripe." Basically he says in no uncertain terms that she's not welcome here because she's a Zebra, what a nice guy. He also insults Fruity and punches him in the face, saying that if they don't leave he'll throw them off the train.

Thankfully they get saved by the train's Marshal who insists that its neutral ground and if he continues to harass our heroes, he'll be thrown off the train. He leaves but not before saying that Crystal better watch her back, oh so subtle. Apparently they aren't the only ones who have been harassed by those three and he says that they won't bother her again.

They ask if they can join them, wanting to thank Crystal for saving their daughter, the mother blaming herself a bit but the Marshal doesn't think its her fault. They give them caps and gems as a thank you for saving their daughter and a gun called Lucky 13, and we get some info on it:

"Colt-Army .357 Magnum Revolver, six shot cylinder revolving pistol. Weapon has been modified with a longer barrel and refurbished materials increasing weapon's condition and overall damage."

In short, its a pretty nice gun. The couple thanks them once more before walking away, they get their breakfast, Fruity tells her that its all 200 years old making her gag and he just laughs.

After awhile they hear an announcement that the train will be stopping at Trottingham to refuel and the passengers can get out and stretch their legs for a few hours. There's also a mention of something called Ponyville (or Pon'evil) and all passengers are told to stay in their cabins, ominous, but hey it's a Raider town. There's a description of life in Ponyville, but I'm sure you already know what kind of stuff is in a Raider town, and the trip passes without incident.

Once in Trottingham they leave the train and Fruity offers to teach her how to shoot, a sensible thing to do. They set up some tin cans and she takes a shot, which catches her off guard, but she recovers and even took one of the cans out.

Watch out for a crazy old stallion who's cans you just shot!

Video belongs to Fox.

She manages to get it done pretty well and they get back on the train after awhile, getting a brief view of what's left of Canterlot as the train steams on. She decides to go on a walk on her own after awhile, eventually she has the misfortune of crossing paths with the stallions from before, yay...

He says he's going to kill her and throw her off the train before trying to punch her, only to have her dodge the attacks. When he finally lands a punch however, she smacks his leg away, which breaks it because of her strength. He then tries to shoot her, which goes about as well, and she knocks him away, he runs off with his cronies saying that it isn't over.

Wow, cartoonish villainy much?

Anyway, Crystal heads to find Slate and Tulip (the couple from before), she gives Slate the shotgun saying that its been dealt with. There is a brief moment where Crystal is filled with pride when she sees Tulip with her daughter and is happy that they had been reunited because of her.

She returns to the cabin to find Fruity asleep and wakes him up with a slam of the door, he asks if she's okay because of the bruise on her cheek and she tells him what happened.

The next day passes without incident as they near the Marejave, which interestingly enough is not covered with clouds for some reason, but I digress.

"I suppose the rumours of the SPP Towers not working this far west are true," He said with another yawn.
"The what?" I asked, totally confused.
"You don't know about the Single Pegasus Project?"
I simply shook my head. He then went into a lengthy description about how the project was created during the war and was designed to control the weather. Apparently, it was supposed to hurl hurricanes and other terrible storms at the enemy which would have been very effective. It was also designed to better the weather for Equestria, or it could be used to do what it has been doing since the world ended: create endless clouds to blanket the land and blot out the sun. I was amazed to learn that the clouds around the towers had solid properties to enable the growth of crops to support the pegasi communities. But that then begged the question, why was this region clear of the clouds and I voiced that question to him.
"Hmm, I don't rightly know to be honest, but I heard that there had been some problems with the western towers, and that some hadn't even been finished before the bombs fell," He shrugged.

Curiouser and curiouser, I wonder why they hadn't been finished.

But before anything else can happen, the train screeches to a halt and there's an announcement to abandon the train, which has been... well I don't know what happened but its not good since the locomotive is probably going to explode. They run out of the train and get a good safe distance away as the locomotive explodes, a chunk nearly taking Fruity out but she manages to save him in time.

Apparently a problem had come up in Pon'evil but the conductor didn't want it to be fixed when he should have... so yeah, pony error caused this. They start to head towards Tom City and reach it as the sun begins to set, they head into a store where Crystal is nearly shot again for being a Zebra, but it seems that something has happened recently.

The stallion kept the gun pressed to my face for a moment before finally pulling it away. "Sorry, but with the last bunch of zebras you can't be too careful. Anyway, welcome to my humble little shop," The old colt said, doing a one eighty in personality; now, he seemed like a happy go lucky sort of pony. "Bastard's the name, or you can call me Right Bleeding, all my friends do, well, did."

Wait, Tom... Bastard... Zebras causing trouble... did this suddenly turn into a reference to Project Horizons?

Anyway, Fruity changes into a more of a western look including a stetson and Crystal gets her own new outfit. They pay for it even if its a bit overpriced and head back out of the store. That's when more hostile targets show up, specifically large lizards since we can't ever just have a normal day, and the chapter ends with them reaching the locked doors of the Marejave Astronomical Space Agency.

Yeah, definitely feeling like a PH reference.

---Final Thoughts---

Well, this chapter was a bit odd at some points but not in any really bad way, it was an enjoyable chapter for an enjoyable fic. We get some progress towards the next goal, and all and all it was a good chapter.

There's not a lot to say really, there's still a lot of ground to cover with this fic and its got a lot of interesting ideas and worldbuilding. We haven't even met the next main character yet and she'll be interesting.

Chapter 3 gets a score of 5/5.

TFallout Equestria: Influx

A mare wakes up to discover she is in the Wasteland and not who she used to be. Determined to discover the truth she heads out into the wasteland. But the truth can be disturbing.