In which I give in to the hype.
Okay, I've never done something like this before, so forgive me if the format I chose here is annoying. What I'm going to do here is write my thoughts on a chapter of Fallout Equestria as they come, then give a summary of my opinions at the end of a chapter.
Prologue + Chapter 1
- Okay, the intro makes no attempt at hiding what's in store here, but it doesn't exactly tell much either.
- So, PipBucks appear to be the gadget to end all gadgets here. I know that all of the things it can do are what the Pip Boys do in the Fallout games, but that's a lot of useful abilities that other characters don't have, especially the edge in combat. (Why would that functionality even be built in to them, anyway? At least in Fallout, the people inside the Vaults were never meant to leave. Why build in combat assistance for a device meant to assist in everyday work in the Stable?)
- Unicorn Master Race, eh? Not a fan, but what are you going to do?
- At least they're smart enough to recognize that living in a bunker is plenty depressing. Most post-apocalyptic stories either ignore it just have the characters go completely insane with no attempts to stave it off.
- Obvious crush is obvious, not that there's anything wrong with that.
- You know, ditching the best survival tool you have is probably a bad way to go about going out into a very hostile environment.
- CMC 3 BFF? Real subtle.
- Ahhh... skeletons. I see we're off to a great start
Thoughts on Prologue+Chapter 1:
Well, it's certainly well written, but I really wasn't expecting otherwise. Aside from my musings over the Batman level of gadgetry in the PipBucks, I really couldn't think of anything wrong with it. Of course, the story's hardly started, so we'll see how things go.
Chapter 2
- How does she even know what sounds he's hearing? I doubt insects were a subject taught in Stable School.
- Sweet Apple Acres? Where in the world is that thing getting its map data from? If it had old records on file all this time, why didn't anypony look at them?
- Chekhov's Terminal, I presume?
- Looks like slavers. This is going to end in blood.
- ...or immediate capture, that works too. The blood can come later.
- How does a pony get a talent for cheese in the Wasteland? Come to think of it, how does Pip even know what cheese is? How much useless (for life in the Stable) knowledge did they teach these ponies?
- Ah, human profanity. At least I hear that Pip gets creative with hers later on.
- And there's the blood. Reminds me of that famous scene from Scanners. You know the one.
- Pip is a competent fighter? That was fast. I guess having that gadget helps, but it doesn't exactly teach you how to pull off roundhouse bucks.
- Are you feelin' lucky, punk?
- At least Pip also wonders how his map knows everything, too.
- That's one lazy sniper. It had all the time in the world to kill them on the bridge.
- And the CMC were the first Overmares, as if that wasn't made obvious enough by the passcode last chapter.
Thoughts on Chapter 2:
And so the bloodbath begins. Pip learns fast. Almost too fast. A good bit of Fridge Logic too on how she could know so little about the outside world yet still know about the little things, but lets just assume that they can somehow synthesize cheese in the Stables. Still not a fan of exploding ponies, but it'll only get worse from here on out, so I'd better get used to it. It's certainly entertaining, but I do hope it doesn't rush Pip's development here.
That's all, for now. I'll probably continue later, but I make no promises. Peace out.
Comments
storyyeller
Since: Dec, 1969
May 18th 2012 at 8:52:46 PM
When did they blow up ponies? I was under the impression that Zecora's extraction was arranged in order to cause as little harm as possible. If anypony died, it was an accident.
Sereg
Since: Dec, 1969
May 19th 2012 at 3:03:24 AM
The zebras think that Luna was just using a cosmetic change and pretending to be on Celestia's side. They do't trust her for reasons relating to the history of their culture.
Not all of New Appleloosa is united in their opinions. Those in charge deal with Red Eye, but the common folk don't all agree with him.
Yeah, I didn't think any ponies were harmed by the attack.
I actually didn't see Applebloom's death as crueler than Diamond Tiara's, but okay.
Th school had automated defences because of the war, but nopony considered it likely that the school would be in particular danger before those events, so with the defences, they were thought to be safe.
I hope that you like future chapters more.
Seraphem
Since: Dec, 1969
May 19th 2012 at 5:48:49 AM
What Sereg said.
also, since when has war always started because of logical, sensible reasons? And yes as we've all said before most of the problem in the past are the result of ponies and zebras making decisions that ended up biting them in the ass, and yes with hindsight are easy to see why they were wrong. That's just life, it's easy to pick apart somepony's decision looking back with tons of information that they didn't and couldn't have at the time, but for me at least, I can understand why they made the decisions they did when they did, they feel like perfectly natural decisions...always the smartest ones? oh buck no! But perfectly reasonable mistakes that have been made time and time again throughout history? yes.
PerpetualLurker
Since: Dec, 1969
May 19th 2012 at 10:14:05 AM
This story has yet to provide me with anything to make any of the stupid decisions appear to be reasonable at the time of them happening, and that's not even counting all of the plot contrivances that the story has to jump through to lead to those stupid decisions. The zebras were supposed to be a modern society. How the hell does a modern society break down into a holy war without the slightest bit of evidence to support it. The massacre at the school was inexcusable, considering that the entirety of the stated reason for it happening was that no one there spoke the Zebra language, even though it's an extremely prestigious school. Nearly everything responsible for escalating the war simply would not have happened in a moderately realistic scenario, and it looks to me that events played out the way they did because the author needed to come up with some way to apply the Fallout setting to Equestria.
The whole "New Appaloosa works for Red Eye" deal still smells of a retcon just to slam another mistake on Pip's conscious. If it wasn't, then they wouldn't have made the very heavy point of insisting that Red Eye wasn't the leader of the town, without the slightest shred of a clue suggesting anything otherwise.
As for "hindsight is 20/20", while that is true, common sense is also pretty damn good. None of that had anything to do with my problems this chapter, though.
Sereg
Since: Dec, 1969
May 19th 2012 at 11:50:06 AM
On the conrary. ALL the evidence suggested that Luna was evil. The zebras were never there to see Luna's cleansing. They saw no reason to believe that the individual their culture feared above all others had redeemed. Some people complain about the zebras, but they're forgetting that Luna nearly wiped out all life on the planet once, that their culture is especially tied to circumstances which would result in fear and distrust of Luna (as you'll see) and which they had no evidence to believe otherwise.
As for the remarks about why the school didn't teach the zebra language, why would it? It's clearly not a part of standard Equestrian curriculum. Twilight doesn't speak zebra and she's Celestia's personal student. Schools don't usually alter their curriculum based on neighboring countries.
PerpetualLurker
Since: Dec, 1969
May 19th 2012 at 12:36:43 PM
I'd say the fact that the sun is still rising in the morning is great evidence that Luna was Luna. Not to mention the fact that Celestia herself vouched for her sister, or did they think that she was evil too? They also could have simply voiced their concerns rather than jump straight to "destroy the world". And again, they weren't a backwater tribal society. They had advanced sciences and everything. Such religious fervor should not have been able to overcome rational thought and diplomacy.
As for the school, it's a prestigious academy. Students tend to get to choose their classes later on. I didn't learn much Spanish or French in high-school, but I sure as hell could have if I wanted to, and I went to a crappy public school. The zebras were their primary trading partners. You're telling me that teaching the language of their closest neighboring nation simply wasn't available to students at the most prestigious academic facilities in the world, and that none of the (presumably) talented faculty there were ever taught the language? Schools absolutely do take their neighboring countries into consideration when deciding on what languages to teach. Why do you think Spanish and French are the standard language classes to take in America? We're bordered to the north and south by French and Spanish speaking countries!
Seraphem
Since: Dec, 1969
May 20th 2012 at 4:10:10 AM
It was a magic academy, not a general eduction academy, everything taught there was about magic. Secondly this is all hearsay and fifth hand story telling, given how fast things degenerated during the incident it's entirely possible there WERE ponies there the spoke Zebra, there just weren't any of them ponying the walls when the caravan arrived, and things went to Tatarus before one of their translators could get there.
"Holy War" is just the best description we have for it, it had nothing to do with any actual religious beliefs, but a deep deep seated cultural mythos, (and yes there is a difference) to the Zebra anything even remotely related to the stars was seen as one step below C'thulhu, they saw NMM not as some Evil Overlord Omnicidal Maniac, but as a servant to an Eldritch Abomination, the fact that there was no night that never ends just meant she was being more subtle, waiting until she had them all ponies and zebra alike under her hoof. They saw extinction as better then being rules by something related to The Stars. Even those that could except she wasn't NMM anymore still saw her as having been corrupted by The Stars and at best there unwitting pawn instead of willing herald.
Such religious fervor should not have been able to overcome rational thought and diplomacy.
.......really? Ideally yeah, would be nice, but last oh...5000 years of history have proved that ain't true.
Sereg
Since: Dec, 1969
May 20th 2012 at 6:28:12 AM
Pretty much what Seraph said. Plus, the zebras are aware that Nightmare Moon was defeated. They thought that she was lying to Celestia in order to bide her time for when she could take over and look, this is the best oppertunity she's had in years. I understood the zebra beliefs well enough to know that if I believed them, I'd be as desperate. To the zebras Luna was basically Hitler with superpowers.
As for schooling, I know that my country doesn't teach Shona for instance (of course my country ha eleven oficial languages, so it might not be the best example) but as Seraph said, it's a specialty school.
