👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 Congratulations on finishing a fanfic of these proportions.

This was definitely a hell of a ride Elbow and a great way to cap things off! Go forth and enjoy your rest for now, you deserve it.

Whew, what an absolutely wild ride you've crafted here, Ellie. Excellent work, easily worthy of ranking among the big five.

...even if it didn't have mutant alicorns.

Ah well, I got a great big evil belly laugh out of Primrose getting strapped to an AutoDoc bay, so it evens out. Sucks to suck, bitch.

Wow. that was a great ending. Seems appropriate that the protagonist found SOLUS - and solace. The entire story was well-plotted and well-written, and pretty much as good as anything I've read from a professional author lately. I laughed, I cried, I kissed 5 hours sleep goodbye! :D

An excellent chapter that gave an excellent ending to the story. Not a second didn't have me hooked and satisfied, especially with Aurora managing to grab Primrose and how she went about doing it.
However.
What of that daemonic entity coming to life below the earth? Is there going to be a sequel dealing with that?
Primrose's 'end' was very poetic as well.
Though we've yet to see how Tandy is, after all, many loose ends or unknown resolutions I would say need to be seen. Beans, Chops, etc, would be interesting to see how they landed after everything.
Ninja edit: Don't think I didn't know about that Fallout 2 reference.

Wow what an ending
The food problem may be fixed by getting some seeds from Appleblooms stable
I hope we will see Rainbow going to that stable in some form :Y

“How does Renewal sound?”

**Cinemare Sins voice** Roll Credi-oh.

A lovely end to a harrowing story; and far more happy endings than I think most (and certainly I) expected from a Fallout piece :P I was 100% certain Roach was a goner chapters ago.

Cozy Glow/Primrose was such a fascinating villain for the heroes to contend with, and the final confrontation was far more dramatic than its lack of typical climactic actions sequences might have otherwise belied! And her fate was...earned. And also more than a little ironic :P And such a wonderful callback to the first chapter! I absolutely love when stories come full circle like that. **Chef's kiss**

I await the sequel with giddy anticipation, though I will admit that I didn't see any particularly glaring loose ends. At least none that left me in the lurch. Also looking forward to the smut :P Which I assume one vignette will involve Aurora and Fiona...and perhaps a hot mic in her new tower ;)

Actually, never mind on the sequel/loose ends front: Where's the precious Bean?! Will Chops ever see the Bean again?!

...That came out a little dirtier than I intended. But obviously the Adventures of Black Beans the Pirate must be told!

Take care, Elbow; and good writing!

Well, there goes my free-time. An 80k chapter just landed on it's head like a cartoon anvil.

11755497
Thank you! I think next time I'll try to keep it under half a million XD

11755498
I'm glad you liked it! The break is going to feel so nice, I almost don't know what to do with myself now!

11755601
I mean... maybe we should call it the Big Six?

I've been waiting to write that scene for three *years*. Auuugh it felt so good. You had no idea how worried I was that people might get bored during the Mariposa chapters with Eshe. That setup was so important...

11755602
I'm glad you liked the way things wrapped up, I knew I was taking a risk by not committing Aurora to a fantastical shoot-em-up boss battle, but the way her tet a tet with Primrose and her method of getting into that transmission room felt so much more satisfying.

11755863
x3 My reply is going to look like a freaking SCP entry. Spoolies!
- I was a little (very) worried that folks weren't going to like the way Aurora and Primrose finally came to blows, and I'm absolutely relieved that the response has been so positive. I've been leaning heavily on realism in the story, especially with Aurora's development, and it just wouldn't have felt believable to me for her to become a sharpshooter extraordinaire. ^_^ Having her not only utilize an element of her escape from Stable 10 in the very first chapters, as well as throwing it all back in Prim's face as a lesson she taught her without knowing it felt so good. And the abruptly ended fight felt right too. So happy folks have been on board with that!

-The gore-creature in Mariposa has not been forgotten, trust me! I included those cryptic little scenes for a reason which will be explored thoroughly in the second book I have planned. ;) No spoilers, though.

- Beans makes a brief appearance at the very end of Chapter 50, but I didn't think the two of them becoming fast friends in spite of Meridian's stance against Chops feeling believable. At least in the timeframe the chapter covered. Chops is another one of those loose ends I'd like to explore more in the next book, though now that I think about it, he does deserve something of a mention before the end of Renewal. I'll need to think about how I could fit that in. Probably not its own scene, but maybe an expositional mention in the last one with Aurora. We'll see. Suffice to say, I think Chops would have chosen to be a part of the construction effort at Stable 10. Seems like something he'd do as a form of personal penance.

11755915
I feel a little bad that I wasn't able to work out a way to fit that into the end of the chapter. I'll either have to make an edit and slip something in there to address it, or more than likely it'll be covered at the start of the next book when I start cracking on with it. Suffice to say Applebloom and Scoots haven't been forgotten.

11756012
I'm glad you liked the way it ended and especially the callbacks to the first few chapters! I'm a big fan of stories that make their way back to the beginning in some way, too. It adds a nice bit of emphasis on the journey that has just ended by drawing focus to how far we've come. Having Aurora use her knowledge as a member of Mechanical was something I knew I had to do, because it made the most sense to her. She started her journey by wreaking havoc with Stable-Tec's doors, and ended it much in the same way. Also, nice of her to rub Prim's nose in it for having been the one to indirectly teach her those skills in the first place.

As for loose ends, there are a few. Namely, the gore-creature at the bottom of Mariposa. What's it up to? Will it escape? Who knows! Find out next time on Ponyball Z!

And I suspect we'll see Beans again soon. :3

11756051
I regret nothing! Book report is due by next week!

4 years, damn does time fly! Great story, loved every second of it so bravo good sir!!

11756586
Thank you! I'm still absorbing the fact that I'm not under an arbitrary deadline this weekend! XD

Wow. That was an incredibly satisfying ending to this... I guess first act, of Aurora's adventures and one heck of a rollercoaster. Part of me still refuses to believe that Ginger is dead... That she must have found some way to escape the explosion herself and is just recovering somewhere... But I've pretty much resigned myself to accept that she must truly be gone. I noticed there are some loose ends that still need tying up, so I eagerly await the second act of adventure for Aurora and Co.

Get some much deserved rest and thank you for this amazing story. See ya in several months. 😉

Got big vibes of this meme during the MoT segment.

11757392
I'm glad it resonated with you as much as it did me. I've been cracking open this chapter on and off for the past day or two, rereading certain scenes for the satisfaction of seeing them there in front of me instead of locked up in my head. ^_^

As the author I can confirm Ginger is truly gone. She died in the explosion saving Aurora, and I wouldn't feel right about trying to reverse that. She was a good person for Aurora and vice versa, but the last scene of the last chapter is all about moving beyond grief and embracing the life in front of us. How's that for mushy.

11757425
Oh this is perfection. xD

A dark but fitting end for Primrose. I've always appreciated this story for its fresh take on the subgenre. The final confrontation with primrose boiling down to a one-sided beating given to a weak pathetic mare when she can no longer hide behind her schemes really highlights the value of that starting from scratch to me. No giant battle, no engines of war or aliens or spirits or goddesses or anything like that, just a weak manipulative mare finally running out of lies. I'd say I'll be sad to see this one go since It's one of the stories I always look forward to an update on, but it sounds like you've got more plans in the future so instead I'll say amazing work and looking forward to more.

Congrats on ending this epos - it was a wild ride, some time story becomes too slow and mundane for my taste (I even dropped it once but after a while feelt that story calls and got back to enjoy it again); in the end it is one of the FoE gems to dive in ). Thanks for the story!

11758337
That's an excellent way to phrase it. Primrose had simply run out of lies. She never did her own dirty work, never learned how to fight, and when the house of cards she built to enshrine herself in a veil of power began to tilt she didn't have the practice necessary to make a saving throw in the moment. Like Aurora said, she was an idea person who let the grunts do the heavy lifting. Once that veneer fell away, that was it, and she found out real quick how little a locked door would protect her from someone who she indirectly taught to open it.

I'm really happy with the way it came together in the end, and while Renewal is finally finished, it has more stories to tell. Give me a few months to rest and recuperate, freshen up the old thinking muscles, and I'll be back to work writing something new. And maybe a little shorter. ;)

11758812
I'm glad you made it to the end and enjoyed where it wrapped up! I totally agree, there were some stretches where it could have been a little snappier with the action. That's something I'm going to work on improving once I start up the next project. ^_^

11758936
It was a rough one to write, let me tell you. Building Apogee's story up to the point where she finally achieves her dream was a rug pull that hurt to write. <3

11759095
I'm happy to have a fresh reader joining the club, and thank you for the kind words! That's high praise from anyone. ^_^

Whew. The absolute bittersweet and exhausted feeling that comes from finishing a wonder work like this always hits hard. I've enjoyed the heck out of reading this story over the years and this was a fantastic and gargantuan chapter to end it on!

Loved the section with Primrose and Aurora and the aftermath of it. I'm glad it wasn't a more typical boss fight-esque sequence—the entirety of it was very satisfying. I'd be curious to see the dreamscape again with all four of them and Construct Cozy and all!

Congratulations, once again, on finishing this absolute behemoth. It's been amazing, and I'll certainly be eagerlypatiently waiting for whatever stories you put out next! Now I'm gonna be sitting here for a long time just thinking about this story, hah. Thank you for the story, and enjoy that mark of completion on the front; you've certainly more than earned it!

Now... feels wrong to point out some tiny mistakes after all that, but I gotta do what I gotta do!

The meat was a little gamey and was so heavily salted it could have been pickled had been practically pickled, but it wasn’t strictly inedible.

Too much pickling!

The scientists recently freed from captivity inside the former Enclave’s bunker had expressed disappointment that they didn’t have optics powerful enough to witness the gradual redshift of SOLUS’s rapid departure.

Missing 'of'.

He’d been sent here on Elder Coronado’s behest, though rumor was Coronado was on the fast track to replacing the Steel Ranger’s heretofore do-nothing High Elder.

'sent her' to 'sent here'.

As Fiona scrounged the ten caps each to cover their portions, she found it interesting that an earth pony was doing work in New Canterlot that didn’t involve an iron collar or standing between the traces of a heavy wagon. More disorientingly, the display board of the cart bore a sloppy oil marker drawing of a yellow lemon with a black smiley face slashed across the rind. The words “LEMON’S IGUANA POKIES” crowded together around the edges.

oh no

Oh this was a megalith of a chapter. I am so happy, got ya a lil something for your troubles of writing this absolute gold bar of a story. Thank you, truly!

Alrighty now, WHEN'S THE SEQUEL EH? I simply cannot wait, your skills at writing are just too good!

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It took a little bit of cajoling to get Shino's permission to include them in the story, but once he did I felt like I had to do them justice. Apogee's mini-arc was one of my favorites to write and I'm glad you liked it! Heck, glad you're enjoying the story so much in general, it was a monster to finish!

11760314
I'm still coming down from having spent four years dedicating all my free time to writing it! I mean, I started writing this a year before the pandemic lockdowns!

I know I've said it before, but Primrose's end was something I'd been worrying about over the last year or so. The expectation for any Fallout story arc is to end with spectacular explosions, gun battles, et cetera but none of that really fit Aurora. I started her story leaning hard into her weaknesses, and while she overcame her inability to fly and gradually found the confidence she'd lost when she left her Stable behind, becoming a crack sharpshooter was never something she was going to master overnight. It felt so much better to bring everything back to where it all began, with a door standing in her way and her mechanical expertise being the key to open it. It had a bit of poetic justice to it, after everything that happened.

x3 Of course now I have plenty of time to go back through all the error notes I have and make some fixes to all the typographical brain farts I left across fifty chapters!

11763254
Heyo, I appreciate that! This story was a monster to overcome and so worth it in the end. My current gameplan for the sequel is to knock out a few solid chapters well before I start publishing anything. That way I have a little bit of fat on the bone in case life becomes extra "lifey" and there's a bit less pressure on me to hit deadlines. I won't assign myself one for the start of the sequel, but it's already in the planning process! I'm just settling on who the initial cast of characters are and what the story is going to wind up being.

Also you're the first to catch that, nice! ;) Bonus points if you can tell me where we first saw Lemon and her suspicious sweet meats.

Took a few days but finally made it through the last chapter. It's been an incredible journey, thanks for writing this EBD.

11765761
Congratulations for making it past the finish line! Thank you for sticking it out through all the highs and lows. More to come, once I squeeze in a good break, but I think I'll try to keep the next one down to only half a million words. ;)

11765882
Looking forward to it! I hope you have a good break - you deserve it after finishing something like this.

I'll take the time to re-read through haha

Bucking fantastic story from start to finish.
You almost had me thinking Cozy would win, I just wish I could see her punishment over the next century plus. Lol
I feel sad Aurora won't have kids of her own, though.
Great work!

11765058
I ninja edited my previous comment but I did notice that.
Not sure when she popped up before the final chapter though.
I'm fairly certain it was F01 that one was in, I recall shooting the vendor near the Cathedral after doing some digging and finding it out, but it could have just been because I didn't like him. Then the town started shooting me in return so I redid the quest. It was also done in F03 somewhat with the Andale cannibals.
Speaking of cannibals, I'm guessing we'll see more of the ponies that initially tried to bait Aurora on the road in the next story?

Well, here we are again. And similarly to when I find myself staring at an author's note at the end of a journey, I find myself doing it again, but this time I'm a little misty-eyed. I try to give myself a buffer of a few chapters so that I can happily move on to the next one, and I'll admit I really felt it when I saw that green checkmark. Took a bit to steel myself to tackle that eighty-thousand word monolith, but I'll say it again. Here we are.

I think you paced this story extraordinarily well. From the slow introduction to the world, the characters, the journal entries, and even the dream world. Everything blended together in a way that just scratched my "worldbuilding" itch considerably more than memory orbs had from the original Fallout: Equestria. The breaking points in perspectives acting as cliffhangers in the narrative were paced in such a way that I sometimes even just found myself giddy from how that little segment would wrap up, but equally excited to see what else was taking place. I dunno, I just haven't really felt this engrossed in a while, so I really do mean it when I thank you for everything you've made here.

I mentioned back around Chapter 43 that your story had kept me company during a transitional phase in my life, and it has continued to do so, even after all this time. I'm not sure if it's just recency bias, but I really do think you've crafted something that I can earnestly say has become one of my favorite stories on this site. I can truly appreciate how much of a labor of love this has been for you, and it shows in every character you write. I was shocked to see you had a sequel in mind, as I think you've put a neat little bow on top of everything. Not to say I'm complaining, but that's pretty exciting! I know you're not inclined to the contrary, but absolutely take time and kinda just decompress.

I could go on to shower you in praises with individual scenes, this, that, or another thing... I could nitpick random grammar or typos, and maybe I should... But I don't ever really leave comments so I don't know the first thing about comment etiquette and I'm not looking to break out the spoiler tags or the quotes. It's ALL good. Thank you.

11766862
^_^ Primrose definitely got what she had coming to her, the little shid. I'm glad you enjoyed it from start to finish!

11773927
That's one of the directions I have in my notes, yep! The sequel won't be as huge as Renewal, I hope, and right now I'm leaning toward dedicating more page time for the raiders, Epicureans, and traditional wasteland degenerates. I would have liked to give them some attention in Renewal but with so many plates spinning at once, adding yet another character arc into the mix would have been one too many. Just spitballing here, but I would think the collapse of F&F Mercantile as well as the Enclave would provide plenty of space for the heretofore corralled raiders to operate a bit more freely. Might be interesting to explore that further. :)

11775552
Oh, you know it baby! Hugh Howey's Silo trilogy has easily been my favorite set of books in the last decade. It's what inspired me to take a crack at writing again, and heavily flavors Aurora's character from the outset. If you've seen the first season of the show and haven't read the books, dear Horselord read them or find them on audiobook. They're so freaking GOOD.

11775916
I'm so glad you made it to the end and found it as satisfying to read as it was for me to write. It surprised me how difficult it was to get the details leading up to the finale just right, compared to how quickly the epilogue scenes just fell into place. It was a hell of a long road to walk and for all the little cracks and potholes along the way, it was so worth the journey. Your comment gave me all the affirming warm fuzzies, thank you so much. <3

Pacing was easily the most difficult part for me. Back when I started writing Aurora's first morning waking up in Stable 10, I had no idea where the story was going to go. I knew Roach would be waiting in the tunnel, and that was about it. I literally ran into the narrative blind, because if I kept waiting for all the notes to line up perfectly I wouldn't have started at all. Initially I didn't want to write a story with flashbacks at all because I didn't know how I'd tie them into the present-day story without it being jarring. That's why I had Ginger find Teak's diary, originally! Then after a few chapters I realized there was no way I could sustain that forever, and so I bit the bullet and transitioned her diary entries into flashbacks with Rainbow Dash and expanded gradually from there. At the time I felt like my pacing was akin to throwing darts while simultaneously falling down an escalator, and yet somehow it all came together into a cohesive story! :D

As for worldbuilding, that's always been huge for me as a reader and even more so as a writer. It's hard enough to read a book and not know where the characters are or why it matters. Writing a story without a solid frame of reference is an even bigger pain in the tuchus. The tricky bit for me is knowing how much detail is enough and how much is too much. I think I lean toward too much at times, heh. I swear you can watch my ability to keep things brief dissolve with each chapter! I'm glad you enjoyed being absorbed in all that detail!

As for the planned sequel, I'm still fiddling with the details so I can't say anything too definitive. It'll be taking place some time after the end of Renewal, and while Aurora and the gang will still be around, they won't be the main cast of characters for the next story. They'll most definitely make an appearance - how could they not? - but I don't want to spoil their happy ending by immediately throwing them back into the fray. It'll be someone else's turn to brave the wasteland. ^_^

It has been a pleasure to read this^^ Great work

Finally got the chance to sit down and read the whole thing from start to finish.

Once again, this fic has nowhere near as many likes as it deserves.

I'm a bit shocked that Gingers death stuck. I was seriously expecting her to show up again at some point. Also, nice fake out with Roach getting shot. You had me going there for a second, just like you did with Julip. I was dreading reading that final chapter as It drew closer, just waiting for some last minute gut punch to hit at the finish line, but everything turned out pretty ok for Aroura in the end.

Something I'm curious about. What ever happened with that ribcage monster thing in Maripony? Is it still wandering the grounds, until it stumbles on primrose some day?

Well, I had to gather my thoughts after finishing this story.

Wow.

I mean, what is there to say that hasn't already been said? This story is awesome! It's scary, it's tense, it has cute moments, moments that make you cry. Very well done! 11 out of 10! Hope to read more!

Also, hope to see that scene between Aurora and Fiona in the hotel maybe written out completely? Because man, that got quite uh, heated(and interesting). :)

Bahaha, I am the 420th like/upvote

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I had played around with the idea of bringing Ginger back in some capacity or another, but I couldn't really find a way to do it that didn't feel forced or wouldn't do a disservice to her sacrifice. I knew after Chapter 40 popped that there would be some lingering expectation for her death to end up being a switcheroo, but the question I couldn't answer if I had her show up again is where she'd gone in the interim and why. Figured it was just a bit more impactful for death to mean death in this story, cause then when Roach ends up taking a bullet it gets ya all scared for him. ;)

As for your question about the Mariposa creature, it's still down there pik-pik-piking away at that concrete. Once I start work on my next story, I suspect you might see a lot more of that creepy crawly.

11784622
I'm glad you enjoyed it! As soon as the idea for that ending popped into my head way back when I was still planning Eshe's story arc, I knew that would be the most satisfying for me to write. It just makes sense in its own cruel way without having Aurora dive into an epic, difficult-to-believe gunfight of doom. ;)

I do have some plans on the side burner for some Aurora/Fiona shenanigans in a side-fic, or possibly an extended chapter or two of their night in New Canterlot getting frisky. We'll have to wait and see what bubbles up first. :D

11787032
Holy mackerel, thanks for catching those goofs! I went ahead and edited Chapters 10 and 19 to bring Ginger's canonical age down to 13 years old when she left home, but let me know if you spot any more mentions of her being sixteen when that happened. ^_^ I like consistency and for some reason the author got a little wild and crazy with the backstory as she wrote this sucker out, haha! Also fixed the goof with Aurora's prybar and Ginger's jacket. I swear, who pays this author!

Glad you're enjoying the bits with Twilight and Discord! Those were some fun scenes to write and I honestly wish I'd found a reason to include more of those. Discord is just flat-out fun to write in those rare instances where he of all creatures is taking the situation at face value. Everyone loves Q's shenanigans because it hits that much harder when he stones up and lays down the law.

Safe to say Meridian's just a big girl because she pulled the lucky genes from one of her folks. Big ol' urf pony, all natural! No mutations to speak of ^_^