Part of this fic's draw is in how it makes you care about Equestria -- the setting itself and the ponies that make it up. If you haven't invested in MLP at all, you're going to miss out. Going in for the Fallout side of things only is sort of like having a cake and only eating the frosting.

 

Any crossover is going to be much more fun to read if you're familiar with both sides of the source material. That said, I think Fallout:Equestria still works even if you haven't seen a single episode of MLP. You'll miss a lot of the jokes/references to the show, but the basic story will hold up fine.

 

I have never played a Fallout game and have only watched a few sporadically of MLP. You do not need to know but the basics of either universe to enjoy this. Period.

And, it is incredible. The writing is great, the first person perspective is funny, the battles are climatic and engaging. The characters...are, well, some of the best I've ever read. They are not the deepest I've encountered, but damn it if I didn't fall in love with them. Except for Steel-hooves. Never really connected too much with him. And, I'm not gonna lie. The part with Ditzy-Doo, those who read know which one. I cried. Not just watery eyed. I cried.

Several other times I got watery-eyed as well. Which speaks to this fanfiction's strongest point. One so many people tend to forget while writing, published and fan-fiction. Tone. Followed closely by theme, the two go hand-in-hand here.

The wasteland personified and all of its horrors are ever-present. Not just background words we gloss over. We feel the impact. See how it effects them, the theme coming in, tying the tone to the characters and thus us. Then, when the characters felt hope, I felt hope. In that tone, connected with the characters by the themes they followed and fought for, I empathized the most with them. I'm actually in awe of this author's ability to do that.

That said, it is not without flaws. Battles tend to blend together. Character arcs seem to go on a roller-coaster. I skimmed several thousand words worth of prose. The romance angles could have been handled with a defter hand. The main-character's especially. However, how she acted was brilliant, it's just that it seemed forced a lot in their interactions. (Plus, I laughed at the teasing she received.)

Also, anybody else keep thinking the protagonist was a guy? With the first-person perspective I kept getting confused, then a moment I'd be reminded it was a she. Maybe I was a bit too immersed?

And, going from there, the pony-on-pony moments, the rare three or four times, left me feeling squicky. Thankfully, it was nothing explicit, just mentioned in passing.

The problems with the ending I think stem from the fact the author tried that new style to tell it. Showing people snippets, breaking the feel of awesome we felt. Still, the ending was incredible and suited it just fine. Though, was a bit confused on her virtue. First tied into her Pip-thingy, then to the other? The logic seemed strained.

One final note. The back-history told through the memory orbs and how everything got fucked, was great. I kept looking forward to see each new glimpse into the past. And the ending, for that one pony, yeah, that's appropriate. I also hope there isn't going to be a sequel. I like the way it ended. Unless it tells of another set of characters.

So yeah, this ranks up there in the most epic, awesome, favorite, fanfiction of all time for me. Right up there with Children of an Elder God. Never thought I'd be able to say I found another that equals it. (Both are flawed, but damn if I haven't fallen in love with both.)

5/5

 

*shrugs* If that's the case, fine. I was just using my own experience as a comparison. What matters is that you enjoy it I suppose.

The e-book version is complete now, if anyone was wondering. I'm going to be rereading it soon on my e-reader. All at once this time, without the aggravating wait between updates where I sometimes grew a little fuzzy on the details. Maybe I'll have a different impression of the ending by then.

 

See, I had the advantage of actually reading it in one go....well over a week anyway. It did help in understanding things. And I really can't imagine rereading this beast anytime soon. Maybe in a year or two, but definitely not anytime soon. It's just so long. Good, but long.

 

Yeah, it's a monster of a story; according to TV Tropes, it's actually longer than War & Peace.

 

Glad you brought that up. Forgot to mention that in the review. I'm not entirely positive, but I'm pretty sure there were dozens of tropes in there mentioned by name. Plus the internet speak sprinkled within the text. Not a deal-breaker, but was definitely annoying when I encountered them.

Still, longer than War and Peace? Wow, I believe it.

 

Still had the same problem as before the epilogue went up: absolutely no closure. The epilogue basically says "And then we started rebuilding. The end (of this story)." As others have said, weak end to a strong story.

 

Damn, I enjoyed the shit out of this fic.

And there's a final, 10-years-later afterword now. Just a lil'bit more closure.

 

A little more? A fucklot more. I'm extremely satisfied with that ending.

 

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with the ending; the epilogue and afterword combined did a good job of resolving what happened to the main cast and where Equestria is going to go from here.

I admit, I'm still curious about what ever happened to Rainbow Dash, and who the bearers were for the two other Elements of Harmony. I don't particularly object to those things being left out, since it is realistic for Littlepip to not get all the answers and this is her story, but I'm still curious.

Also, I suppose we need to change that [WIP] tag to a [Complete] tag.

 

Okay, I have read the story in about 3-4 days and I haven't played any Fallout game and I know basically zero about it, so I don't know which parts of the story were adapted or made up and which characters were "original" or simply converted from Fallout characters into ponies but I have to say, I loved the hell out of this story.

It is easily among the best stories of fanfiction I have ever read. The characters, the story, the writing, the world-building, the action and the humor were all great.

It even tugged the heartstrings at times where it needed to. In fact, it managed to convey emotions really well.

Especially the characters were handled outstandingly. As iLost said, maybe not the deepest characters of all time but deep and complex enough that you actually liked every single one of the main ponies. And more importantly, you cared for them.

So yeah, a few complaints but all rather minor. The pony love scenes were a bit squishy but as mentioned, thankfully they were brief and non-graphic, so I could live with them. Skimmed a bit of prose here and there and and the ending, while satisfying, left me a bit disappointed, if only because I really, really wanted to know what happened to Rainbow Dash. I can understand why we weren't told, but it still bugs me. I mean, sure, you don't always learn everything what happened to someone, especially someone who was exiled in a post apocalyptic world as Rainbow Dash was but damn it, it feels like a loose end to me.

Overall, solid 5/5. Great story.


Also, say what you will about the fanbase of MLP, creepy though as it might be at times, they are dedicated as shit. They are making an audio-book adaptation out of this and even some sort of webcomic. (Not sure which one of them is finished or how far along they are. At least the audio book is rather advanced)

Damn. I mean, Harry Potter (and Naruto), being the far bigger fanbase for way longer didn't have fans cranking up audio versions of the bigger stories or having people make web-comics out of them.

And I will not lie, there are Harry Potter and Naruto stories that I would love to have as audio books.

 

I started reading this two days ago. I have since finished it, frothed at the mouth, and delved into the wasteland of Fallout. I've owned Fallout 3 since the release of the Game of the Year Edition, but never played it beyond the tutorial Vault level.

Reading Fallout Equestria made me fall in love with the game. It conveys the spirit of the series perfectly, melding the mother of dystopian post-apocalyptic settings with Equestria almost flawlessly. Once you accept the possibility of the world going so wrong, so quickly, and suspend your disbelief for a moment, it really opens up. There are constant sparks of in-universe history which tie it all together to a surprising level.

It's not perfect by any means. Perhaps reading it in a single sitting didn't help, but there were one or two moments near the end which seemed to drag a little.

Even so, I devoured it in its magnificent length, and went on to start playing Fallout 3. The warped reflection inherent in both; aspects which are the same yet not the same, are fascinating. I found that I kept going to find more things which were familiar, and exploring the many ways in which they had been bastardized to fit the ponyscape.

Characters were all distinct personalities, and all had vivid backstories.

This is at the pinnacle of its genre, whatever that might be. Crossover redo fic?

Knowledge of Fallout isn't essential before reading this, though it may make it slightly more enjoyable. It's much more important to know who the characters are in MLP:FIM.

5/5

 

So I finally got around to reading this. I'm about 25 chapters in and can safely say I will not be sleeping much for the next few days.

I'll admit I didn't expect much from this fic, despite the praise it's gotten. I'm not really a fan of grimdark stories when it comes to MLP (I prefer comedy), but even in the space of the prologue and two chapters I'd decided I loved it. Littlepip is a brilliant lead character and I never found myself thinking that her lesbianism was out of place or just in there for kicks, which is doubly strange for me.

On top of that I think the author has played to the Fallout theme fantastically. I've been playing New Vegas pretty often since I lost reliable internet, which is part of the reason I took this fic up, and this brings to life the post-Apocalypse that the games have never really been able to do for me. I'd never thought twice about killing Powder Gangers or Legionnaires, even from the start, but Littlepip's adaption to the Wasteland is both believable and realistic. Well, as realistic as you can get with magical, talking ponies.

Velvet Remedy was a bit of a bitch at the start but I eventually warmed up to her and am looking forward to the moment when she finds out Fluttershy's part in the Apocalypse. Calamity is just awesome, with his back story looking pretty interesting, if sparse at this point in the fic. Steel Hooves started out as fairly cool and mysterious, but I've become more attached to him than Velvet or Calamity, mostly because of the memory orbs.

That, however, is one of my minor complaints. For a supposedly rare creation the cast seem to stumble over a large number of memory orbs. Part if it can be explained by Steel Hooves knowing where to look, and the rest by Littlepip's curiosity, but it does seem to me that they come across plot important information as and when the plot requires, rather than organically. Albeit the author does a good job of this in the first 15 chapters or so, with most of the orbs being found out of order, requiring a bit of deciphering and cross-referencing to put into place. That doesn't seem to be the case later on though and was most obvious with the orb showing the first megaspell being used.

Still, if there's one thing I can point to and say that I love more than any other part of this fic, it would have to be Littlepip's addiction to Party Time Mintals. Everything from the first use to her kicking the habit to Calamity's guilt over giving her the first one to Pinkie Pie's story is so supremely well done that it just tugged at my heartstrings every time it was mentioned. Pinkie Pie's final message especially.

It was vaguely horrifying, in a way. I've seen a few people falling to addiction in much the same way as Pinkie Pie (admittedly with less apocalyptic consequences), and seeing it in print like this was... distressing. Served to draw me in very well though, and made me care about the lead character a whole lot more than I'm used to in fanfiction.

All in all, I'm finding this to be a very good read, and well worth the 5/5 it has been given so far. Since it's completed I'll wait until the end before rating properly, but if it stays at the same standard I can't see myself giving it less than full marks.

EDIT: I've been listening to the audiobooks on Youtube while I'm at work, but I wouldn't suggest it to anyone else. James Marsters has apparently spoiled me, because the two readers I found could only voice one character; a teenage, male, American. Not good for first person POV from a female character. I'll keep listening because it's better than being bored, but only because of that.

 

So I finally finished it and I've got to say this is the best fic in the fandom. There is no doubt in my mind that I will not read a better My Little Pony fic, ever. This is MLP's Game of Champions, its Wastelands of Time, its Broken Series. Sure, it had a few rough parts and I found some things to be too convenient for the protagonist, but it feels like a real novel. Like if I saw this in a bookstore I'd be more than tempted to buy it.

Now, reviewing the story from chapter 26 onwards.

Speaking generally, my favourite part has to be the way all the plot threads were brought together in the end. It's very rare that I read any non-published work that can do it with any reasonable degree of skill, especially with the doorstopper length this got to. The choice of Element Bearers was fairly obvious from the get go, though I must admit I spent a lot of time trying to work out what Element Littlepip could hold. I liked the martyr plot she ended up with though; it was a very suitable redemption for her character after the gradual blackening of her character over the course of the story.

SteelHooves' death was like a kick to the gut, but I can see why the author chose to do it. He needed to show that the next arc was serious business and the death of a main character was the best way to do that, and to be honest, the hellhounds had been fairly lacklustre as the hyped up monsters to that point. Still liked Littlepip's retaliation, though that was basically the biggest magical attack she used for the rest of the fic, which was disappointing.

Gawd was awesome. Her kids were not. Xenith and Xephyr weren't too bad though, especially when they took down Stern.

The Black Book was interesting as a source of temptation but I think it was destroyed/buried too quickly for me to really get a feel for its power. The blood manipulation was fairly cool. As well as that, I think I'd have preferred it to get a greater hold on Littlepip, a la Frodo and the Ring, only for her to give it up after a great struggle. In story I didn't get the feeling that she had to fight too much to give it up, even in the face of a balefire bomb.

On that note, I've got to hand it to the author for the memory gambit to kill the Trixie Goddess. I found everything to do with that storyline to be well crafted and logical; from the Goddess' personality to its creation and the Zebra prophecy. The last especially was enough to make me think the Zebras may have been somewhere in the right area with their fear of the stars and Nightmare Moon. The best part of it though was the finish of Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle's background plot. Reading through that part was a huge moment of catharsis for me and I was both saddened and relieved by it.

Now for the Enclave. They could have been done better, but I think that's mostly because the author tried to cram what was effectively an entire story's worth of characters and development into too small a space for them. Calamity had too many family members and rivals that got introduced within a couple of chapters of each other; they needed more time to establish their characters rather than just their job descriptions. Autumn Leaf especially was just a one dimensional bad guy, though the confrontation with Calamity's father served as a fairly good tie up for his development arc. The other two were just meh. I can't recall if they had any more than a couple of scenes between them.

The Wonderbolts fight scene in the Everfree Forest was good, though I felt they really dropped the idiot ball when they didn't just bloody the gang a bit then pull back until the forest got them. The plan with Life Bloom (or whatever his name was) and Calamity's memories was good in theory, not so much in practice. Then again, it played well to the way Calamity's plans usually go. They all nearly died even before the Wonderbolts actually attacked.

I'm disappointed that Littlepip didn't try to telekinetically throw one of the Raptors, though cyber-dragons (and Spike) were enough to make up for the lack. The assault on the SPP Tower created a couple of awesome mental images too.

Now, if the Enclave was disappointing and overcrowded, Red Eye was the exact opposite. He was such an affable bad guy that I was almost wanting him to become a new God. The author really knows how to write a charismatic villain. From the very first transmission over the Spritebots I could tell he was going to be a great villain, and the way he was built up as a foil for Littlepip was very well done. Hell, when he tried to convince her to join him in becoming the new God of Equestria I almost wanted to see it happen.

Littlepip's speech to him was a good one though, and I felt his end was suitable. Except for him forgetting that Littlepip is a freaking unicorn and has Goddess strength telekinesis. That was a bit of a copout, I think. I'd have emphasised how exhausted she was at that point some more, so it didn't seem as such an easy victory.

Autumn Leaf's death was also well written, despite him being fairly one-dimensional. Felt good to see Littlepip put him down like she has so many other monsters.

Last but not least, Celestia. I liked this scene. Celestia's guilt and loneliness were pretty palpable throughout the scene, but it still felt very much like the empathetic Alicorn from the series. Her trying to talk Lil'pip out of using the SPP was believable, despite what was happening outside. Littlepip's determination to stay, for Equestria and for Celestia herself, was a good end for the story.

And for all that, I should probably end by explaining a little bit about PipBucks.

5/5