"Well, it was Tuesday. Figures."
— The Lone Wanderer, commenting on fighting abominations alongside a sapient winged-unicorn thing.
Ten years have passed since the Lone Wanderer left Vault 101.
Years of going through both the Capital Wasteland and the Mojave Wasteland have left our hero living up to his name. After being abducted by aliens yet again, he finds himself somewhere... Different.
Equestria is an OK place to live. Here's hoping our hero can see that.
It Must Be Tuesday
is a crossover between Fallout and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic written by Explodium. Starring a Lone Wanderer who has also taken the place of the Courier, it seeks to give a tired hero a reward for all his good deeds.
Note: The story is so far only 11 chapters long. Events that would be considered very minor spoilers are still important parts of the fic since it's still short. Thus, lots of spoilers up ahead.
It Must Be Tuesday provides examples of:
- The Ace: The LW. A combat master, scientific, mechanical and cultural genius, charismatic speaker and a Messianic Archetype...
- Broken Ace: Who has faced all the trauma and hell of TWO Wastelands, and lost all his closest friends because of that.
- Ace Custom: The LW's Power Armor has been modified with over ten years of experimentation at Big MT, and his plasma rifle has had all manner of tech modded into it. Of course, his Power Armor then loses its force field generator and his plasma rifle gets totaled when he crash lands...
- Afraid of Blood: Rainbow Dash is like this.
- Aliens Speaking English: Averted. Neither the Zetans nor the ponies speak English (although it's possible the Zetans do understand english, they just don't speak it to the Wanderer).
- All-Loving Hero: The Lone Wanderer does his best to help people, and Three Dog certainly calls him one. This line in the alien ship seals it."He was the type to help everyone. Those abominations were going to kill no one."
- Always a Bigger Fish: When Isaac is escorting the ponies back to Luna, he gets ready to take out an abmonination that starts to leap out at him... only for it to get smacked down by a deathclaw.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Luna and Isaac team up to protect the Mane Six from aliens. Isaac ALMOST misses his shots due to how impressed he is with her.
- Badass Bookworm: Twilight is this. The LW is also quite smart.
- Berserk Button: Betrayal, for the LW. He seems to hate Colonel Moore for this very reason, as she seems to have ruined a lot of peace talks he attempted. This is because he's lost A LOT of friends. Leading him on really puts a bitter taste in his mouth.
- Bag of Spilling: Modified power armor, Stealth Suit mk2, minigun, Novasurge, plasma rifle and Cosmic Deathclaw knife. To any player, this is practically an endgame armament, enough to bulldoze anything in your path. The Wanderer loses nearly all of them after he crash lands in Equestria.
- Benevolent Precursors: Celestia calls the LW Wanderer because of his resemblance to creatures that helped elevate ponykind to sentience and sapience.
- Big Damn Heroes: Right as the CMC are about to get devoured by abominations, in steps the Lone Wanderer, Novasurge ablaze.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: How the story got its title. With all the weird shit happening in Equestria, the LW goes along with it as he remembers it's that time of the week again."Well, it was Tuesday. Figures.
- Companion Cube: The Stealth Suit Mk2 was one until it got scrunched by a Deathclaw.
- Composite Character: The Lone Wanderer has also gone through the Courier's adventures in New Vegas.
- Cyborg: The LW has the mechanical heart and spine from the big MT, as well as the cybernetic eye implants from doing Harkness' quest.
- Dead Fic: Hasn't updated since 2013.
- Deadpan Snarker: Both the LW and Twilight.
- Eldritch Location: A minor one. One of Celestia and Luna's defensive measures around the castle is a hallway that completely disappears off the LW's map as though it weren't there. Whispers and dark hallways devoid of life bring him unfortunate memories of Point Lookout and the Dunwich Building, which really ARE creepy to many people.
- Empowered Badass Normal: The LW, a kid in a Vault. Now a messianic cyborg who heals faster in sunlight, is resistant to radiation, has night vision and is recognized as one of the most badass people in the Mojave and Capital Wastelands.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Due to his resemblance to old myths, the ponies call the Lone Wanderer... Wanderer. Justified, as they only understood his real name after a month of tutoring by Twilight.
- His Name Really Is "Barkeep": He IS the Lone Wanderer... Downplayed, as his real name is Isaac Shepard.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: Despite all he's seen, the LW still doesn't believe in magic. He even lampshades that it's slightly ridiculous he feels this way while he's getting a physical from talking unicorns. It's also slightly strange given that he mentions Dunwich, not to mention all the other crazy stuff that he's been through.
- First Contact: An entire chapter named and devoted to this.
- First-Person Smartass: The LW definitely knows how to snark, but he keeps it to himself most of the time.'Twilight: I remember the first time I came to Canterlot Palace as a little filly. Do you have places like this where you come from?''Isaac: Well, I’ve seen some pretty lavish places, but nothing so…spectacular. ("Or clean, or not infested with ghost people or mutants, or not slightly nuked…")
- The narration lampshades that when Isaac is confronted with a deathclaw, most people would be soiling their pants. Isaac decides instead to have an inner monologue about how unfair the universe is.
- Heartbroken Badass: The Lone Wanderer really is alone now, having lost his companions... even Dogmeat. And in the middle of the story, he loses the stealth suit too. Really shown in the hospital scenes, when he has nothing to do but brood over his past.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Applejack nearly dies saving her sister from abominations, but fortunately the LW had a stimpak ready. And then HE nearly dies after getting torn apart by an alien-enhanced
Deathclaw and then being exposed to magic. - How We Got Here: Chapters 8 onwards begin and end with snippets explaining the years between Fallout 3, New Vegas and this story.
- Ineffectual Loner: Not the usual type. The LW, having lost all his closest companions, often keeps to himself. He's lost some of his trust in people, and wonders if making friends is worth it if he'll keep losing those that he makes. He isn't against companionship, however, and certainly isn't antisocial.
- Interspecies Romance: Luna is fascinated by the LW. Applejack is also quite taken by him after he saved her sister and her in the forest.
- Killed Off for Real: Poor Stealth Suit.
- Language Barrier: Equestrian is different from English. Thus, Isaac has a difficult time talking to the ponies at first. Almost gone after a month and a half of tutoring by Twilight.
- Lonely at the Top: Though both DC and the Mojave love him for all the good he's done for them, Isaac has lost his closest companions already . Gets worse as he loses the Stealth Suit in chapter five, and has nothing to do while recovering from his wounds but remember the past.
- Mildly Military: The LW helped the NCR win New Vegas, and aside from that he's the Star Paladin of the DC Brotherhood.
- Mood Whiplash: Congrats on making a successful First Contact with ponies, LW. Now have a fistful of alien abominations.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Twilight feels horrible about using her magic to disintegrate the abominations... she would have been horrified if she learned that she nearly killed their savior.
- She has yet another round of this when she learns that the abominations used to be humans.
- Pinkie also has this when she scares the LW due to her party cannon.
- Nightmare Sequence: Poor LW. He has these nearly every time he goes to sleep.
- Worse still he doesn't even need to be asleep to slip into these as he, understandably, has rather severe PTSD. He nearly lost it when he first saw Celestia since being crowded by all the scientists reminded him of being on the operating table in the Zeta. He's even traumatized by the party cannon.
- Noodle Incident: The Wanderer is initially hesitant to talk to the CMC even though they're adorable because he's somehow encountered rad-bunnies. All we know is that "those things were nasty."
- No Name Given: The protagonist is just called the Lone Wanderer. Actually, his name is Isaac Shepard.
- Oh, Crap!: The LW's reaction, and pretty much every player's reaction, to the alien-enhanced Deathclaw.
- Power Armor: Having spent years at Big MT, the LW's power armor can generate force fields and can even hold his stealth suit. So of course, he loses the force field part when he crash lands in Equestria...
- Poor Communication Kills: Applejack bucks the LW because she (understandably) thinks he hurt Applebloom. He really didn't, but... Well, Language Barrier.
- Fluttershy nearly dies because the Wanderer was being held in place by Luna's telekinesis, and he couldn't calm the princess down.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: It's a miracle LW hasn't gone insane from going through both the Mojave and Capital Wastelands. His nightmares certainly disturb him. But in the end, he still tries his best to save people.
- Ship Tease: The LW, with Luna and Applejack.
- Shock Party: Pinkie Pie uses the party cannon to try to cheer up Isaac, but she aims it at him, causing a Nightmare Sequence.
- Shout-Out: The Lone Wanderer's real name is Isaac Shepherd.
- These Hands Have Killed: In a flashback, this is how the LW felt about killing the guards as he left Valut 101.
- More like these hooves have killed for Twilight.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Luna, towards Pinkie, when she's oblivious to the LW's Nightmare Sequence due to the party cannon. Pinkie's own reaction when she realises it is My God, What Have I Done?.
