Time to finally read this story and see what it is all about. I can already see from the title of this chapter that it suffers from the Disney School of pareting, why is it never the father that dies in the backstory but always the mother? Are we men really not good enough to be emotional bagage?

So while this chapter is really well written does it have one major flaw. While the loss of a mother is one that all can connect with on a deeper level, do we not know the characters at all, and the whole chapter just seem surprisingly hollow. There are nothing as such wrong with in media res stories, but the point of in media res is that we are thrown in the middle of a story, not at the start of it like we are here being shown the origin story of Fear. Had this been the second or third chapter, people knowing Fear a bit more, and actually having a change to wonder about why the fudge he have his mother on his back would this be way more effective than it is right now.

Nitpicks:
"using one hoof to balance against her shoulder," Seems like you are missing an "it" here
" The bullet pinged off the dirt floor." With them being outside should it just be ground
"gritting his teeth and grinding them into powder. " I am pretty sure that your and should be a comma, or that you should shift the tense of grinding.
" forms of him bleeding out desperately and his dead mother being used as a fleshlight in front of him coalesced in his mind," You forgot to start your sentence with a capital letter, and for some reason do I not think that a colt his size would know what a fleshlight is, sure he would maybe know what rape is, it is the wasteland after all, but not a fleshlight.
" He couldn't let that be what happened to him." Just using "happen" would give you a better flow.
"The colt eventually loot the bodies like taught and struggled to drag his mother back to the prewar bunker they had been staying at." Missing a "would"

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Thank you for your input. :O

The reason I chose the mother is because his father isn't in the picture currently for a reason I'll reveal in the future. It would be spoilers to tell you that reason right now. Besides, Storm always favored Fear more solely because she was full of anxieties and sometimes refused to act because she was concerned about the long term ramifications of her actions. I suppose I can at least tell that much. Fear was her inspiration to act a little more recklessly in life. It's too bad we never see that, but for now we also don't know that, as I explain in the chapter 2 Author's Note. I explain in one of the later chapters through Fear that even he understands how private his mother was. I'll probably detail why in a later chapter.

I really appreciate your input, and I made the appropriate changes.

Hopefully chapter 7 and onward will give you the father figure you're hoping for.

I really like this first chapter! It feels extremely intense. A lot of things happened and I immediately feel for Fear and what he's gone through. I'm looking forward to seeing what the next chapter brings. We've got a background, now let's see if the rest of the story is as good!

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I'm glad you were able to feel for the characters. I had a person once tell me that they couldn't empathize with the character at all because they hadn't gotten to know them but...? I guess that's just a subjective thing? I'm glad you liked it a lot and saw what I was going for! Looking forward to hearing more from you.