So, I read chapter 25 of Fallout Equestria, and then I read through chapters 26 through 28. Mainly because it was either that or studying taxes. Given how difficult the subject is, I should probably have stuck with taxes.
Admittedly, I don't feel like giving the whole "plot point by plot point" thing that I usually do and as such I will simply give the broad strokes.
So Littlepip goes to Fillydelphia, goes undercover as a slave, meets Red Eye, picks up a new party member, escapes from Fillydelphia, is tasked by Red Eye with killing the Goddess, returns one of the objectives to the Steel Rangers, spend chapter 27 mostly on character interactions but I don't really care because I don't like anyone in this group, and then they rush to her stable because said Steel Rangers are attacking it.
During the chase scene there's this bit:
Yeah, violent death. The rocket has serious anger management problems. Had quite a history, ever since it was a delinquent cherry bomb. Quite tragic, really. Driving away his spouse. Awful for the kids.
The new party member is Xenith. She's a zebra, and I guess she's the best party member by default, given she hasn't annoyed me. The story kinda tries to hard to establish her as being "cool", though, what with the martial arts and alchemy and stuff. Honestly, I was more interested in that raider couple. They were actually kind of interesting. And then they got killed off. Oh, you're tricky, Fallout: Equestria, you almost tricked me into thinking you had a sense of humanity. The story has a bit of a habit of this - introduce characters who are potentially interesting, and then shoo them off to the side or kill them off.
Guess I can't say that it treats the subject of racism poorly anymore, though. I was kind of getting sick of how the characters were constantly hammering in how terrible the zebras were. Gives SteelHooves a brand new opportunity to be a racist jackass, though.
In chapter 25 we get a bit where Littlepip admits to the problem that I've been saying the whole time: she's a vindictive, self-righteous twat who kills everyone she doesn't like. Now that the character has had this realization, I look forward to seeing how she grows and develops doesn't change at all as a result.
Maybe that's why these chapters haven't irritated me - the story's simply dropped any and all pretenses. The story has pretty much flat-out admitted that the protagonist is terrible and is never, ever going to get any better. Though there are still a few odd bits, like how during the escape she expresses unease at the thought of killing dudes that aren't directly attacking her, despite this never being a problem during those other times she's killed dues that weren't directly attacking here. Or when she's reluctant to use the zebra assault rifle on the Steel Rangers because that'd be horrible, despite using the same weapon on dudes a few chapters before. To be fair, though, in that case it was simply dying of bullets and fire, rather than bullets and fire while in a suit of metal armor, and said anguish lasts for about five minutes.
Other stuff happens. Chapter 25 gives us a delightful amount of threatened/attempted rape, and the whole ordeal in Fillydelphia is noticeably missing that whole thing from the game involving the slave revolt and the baby who's immune to the special radiation sickness... Well, at least the story didn't pawn it off to another character, tell me to hate that character, and then kill that character off.
Also, SteelHooves, disgusted by the actions of the Rangers, decides that he and some others are going to start a new group, and they paint Applejack's cutie mark on their armor. The mental image is kind of amusing. Racist Zombie goes on about the Oath and stuff, but it doesn't really hold a whole lot of impact with me because we have been introduced to a total of one Ranger who isn't an asshole. And no, the dudes who were locked up in the stable do not count, because we were not introduced to them, they are merely props until they actually have names or characterizations. Similarly, Littlepip is all shocked and horrified and talks about the folks that died, which might have better if we'd actually known any of these folks, but we don't because the story spent no time establishing anything in this stable before moving out of it. We also see Littlepip's mother for a bit, and she's kind of a bitch. Velvet punches her.
Another funny bit is when they approach Ponyville, they realize that the Rangers are really well-armed and that taking them on is dangerous. Of course, Velvet suggests diplomacy. This works on a total of one Ranger before the group enters the stable, sees dead bodies, and remembers that approaches other than violence are fucking stupid. As such, the story further solidifies its stubborn refusal to solve conflicts in ways that don't involve an action scene. Littlepip's only real use for speech checks is manipulating her friends into doing what she wants, anyway.
Seriously, story. Do something else. Have the characters blackmail someone, bribe them, do an ingenious letter-switching ruse, trick the baddies into going into a vault, anything. This has moved beyond "I am a pacifist and I dislike the endless cavalcade of violence." It is not simply ugly and unpleasant, it is boring. These action scenes are just downright dull. They consist of the characters going into each individual room, shooting the bad guys in there, and then repeating, blah blah blah blah blah on and on and on for pages and pages. It gets old. And I swear Calamity is downright gleeful at the thought of killing SteelHooves' colleagues. That's just fucking creepy.
Also, a bit where Velvet gets on a stage brandishing a shotgun, shouts "No! This is my stage!" and then starts shooting, but the shots glance harmlessly off the armor. Huh. Even when she picks up a weapon she's ineffectual. I can't tell if that's funny or sad.
Though in a bit of a credit to the character, there was a nice bit in chapter 25 where she sees those two raiders being attacked by slavers who are trying to rape one of them (oh boy, because we totally didn't have enough of that) and she intervenes, because of course, it's only alright when the protagonist brutalizes ponies she doesn't like. But seriously, I actually liked this bit, because even if it's got that usual thing where the heroism is pretty much just incidental to the parade of violence, this is probably as close as this story is ever going to come to her showing mercy to someone she hates.
Red Eye's been introduced, and he's pretty neat. He's basically a composite character of the Lieutenant, John Henry Eden, Ashur, and the Lone Wanderer. Possibly Caesar, but I could be wrong about that (shocking, I know). His neatness is somewhat diminished by the fact that a lot of his speeches are kinda taken word-for-word from the games. I mean, seriously, he took one of John Henry Eden's radio deals and just switched "The Enclave" with "Unity." I mean, I don't want to cry "plagiarism," but it kind of diminishes the fic when it's something the author didn't actually write. Admittedly, the changed contexts for the speeches kind of work in neat ways, such as the speech about Eden's rosy childhood actually meaning that he's from a stable. But I swear, if Red Eye starts talking about baseball...
Of course, we get a fair bit of Not So Different between Littlepip and Red Eye, and she has this sort of grudging respect for him on account of him having a plan to pull the Wasteland up that looks like it might work. And of course, the antagonist respects the protagonist to an extent, as well. The prospect of someone ever calling this character out on her bullshit is too much to ask.
Oh, and Homage makes an appearance over the radio, too. Now she's making cracks about giving her multiple orgasms.
I can just imagine some pony in the Wasteland, after hearing just one of these broadcasts too many, putting a bullet through their radio because they're sick of time being devoted to notes from DJ Pon-3's "assistant." And seriously, is that it? That's not even creatively annoying, that's just dumb. And the other party members snicker and tease Littlepip about it, which would probably have more impact if it were actually funny. Also, Homage is now calling her "Light Bringer." Totally not the messiah, guys. Fucking wonderful.
Derpy and Silver Bell get mentioned again, which is nice - they direct the mercenaries from chapter 18 to come to Littlepip's aid in the stable. Friendship, I guess.
There's also stuff with Xenith and SteelHooves bickering about the war, more stuff with Littlepip in memory orbs - there's actually a funny bit where she sees a memory with Luna and Celestia in it, and she comments on how while Celestia seems regal and stuff, Luna is "cute," as in you could fantasize about her (if you were a pony). Ah, the joys of season 2, where they redesigned Luna. Luna Eclipsed was not kind to you, story. This is probably the most egregious thing Littlepip's done, though. I can take the wanton brutality, self-righteous hypocrisy, and prioritizing the deaths of enemies over the well-being of friends, but implying that Princess Celestia isn't cute? No. There can be no forgiveness for this.
And... yeah. That's about it, really.
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