Finding Rainbow Dash: A Reflection

It has been quite a few years since I made my first attempt at writing a Fallout: Equestria fanfic. I figured it would be appropriate to give what I have come to think of my story Finding: Rainbow Dash since I first started putting virtual ink to paper so to speak.

The Story

I have always taken pride in the fact that this was my first foray into actually attempting to write anything inside the universe Kkat created. I always felt that the Fallout: Equestria universe was a big enough sandbox where I could write a story that was based in the universe she created but wasn't necessarily attached to it in any significant way other than obeying some of the rules Kkat established with her story. I chose to place the first story in a post-Littlepip wasteland. I figured it would make for a more interesting story in seeing how Littlepip's actions have affected those who live in Equestria. Finding Rainbow Dash takes place about fifteen years after the original Fallout: Equestria story. The rebuilding of Equestria is well underway but I chose to show that the wasteland is still very much a dangerous place with various factions still vying for power. Prior to writing this I had never played any of the Fallout games which was a mistake I corrected later on when I picked up Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 3. So I had to rely on the Fallout wiki a lot to get a general sense of the look of the world Kkat created and what some of the factions therein would be like. I also incorporated my knowledge of military history into the world by showing that while the rebuilding of Equestria has certainly made some progress it has been slow going much like how Germany recovered from the First and Second World Wars or how the South recovered from the American Civil War. It takes a long time to reestablish societal functions like law and commerce when people or in this case pony's have been doing as they pleased for 200 years.

The main difficulty I had in actually creating the basic narrative structure of the story was who would be the main character and what would their purpose be. Kkat's story had sparked my imagination in terms of how they had created the Fallout: Equestria world with Littlepip visiting many locations from the show and how the war had ravaged them into twisted versions of their former splendor. But there were things especially when it came to certain characters that we never found out because Kkat left it up to your imagination to fill in the blanks. So that made the first thing in what I wanted to do with the fanfic very clear. I wanted to fill the blanks Kkat left in the main story. Mostly concerning the final fate of Rainbow Dash. While I know Kkat has their own personal head-canon on this matter which was something I learned later on, I wanted to tell a story about what Rainbow Dash was up to on the Last Day. But the basic problem of how this was going to happen still plagued my story development. Eventually I settled on a character who was haunted by a shared past with Rainbow Dash specifically the actions of an ancestor that had marked his family and the story developed into one of seeking Rainbow Dash out as an act of redemption for old sins.

Airborne became the main protagonist of the story and in someways I modeled him after myself. Airborne is innately curious about Equestria's past and sometime his curiosity gets the better of him causing problems he doesn't need. I chose to make Airborne, a Pegasi because in part I loved Kkat's character Calamity but also to have some common ground with Rainbow Dash as well. While a Dashite, Airborne has retained his cutie mark due to circumstances that caused his departure from the Enclave. Airborne isn't a perfect character and is flawed sometimes not always reflecting what could have been better but at the time I was pretty jazzed about creating a character for a story I was really pumped to write. The overall story I am still pretty happy with despite the glaring grammatical errors which are still being refined but for my first attempt at writing something based in a universe I hadn't created it wasn't too bad.

The Characters

As I stated before Airborne isn't perfect. I have heard him be called a cardboard cutout which to be fair he has some of that quality but he isn't entirely that bad. I think had my story telling skills at the time been better people reading the story might have sympathized more with him but that is why I need a good editor and I have developed some since I last wrote anything after a long hiatus. The other cast of characters that rounds out the plot centers around Starshine, Airborne's closet friend and later love interest. I envisioned her as a descendant of Blossomforth from the TV show. Darkstar and Celestial were kind of a dynamic duo who had spent much of their time as mercs in the Equestrian wasteland. Celestial was more visibly scarred by her experiences as she had her tongue removed so she doesn't tend to speak at all. Darkstar was someone who's loyalty towards his traveling companions ultimately proves to be his most redeeming quality otherwise he is pretty much a shoot first ask questions later type of guy.

Like I said this story was about finding out what happened to Rainbow Dash. She had to figure into the story at some point as Airborne uncovered what happened to her but the circumstances of the story led me to set a large portion of the plot within the boundaries of the Crystal Empire which was a location Kkat mentioned but never explored within the main story. The Crystal Empire's role in the war was one of initially neutrality to the warring powers. While it did send medical supplies to Equestria I imagined Cadence trying her best to keep her people out of the fighting. For a pony who's power it is to spread love this made perfect sense for something for her to do. Eventually though circumstances forced the Crystal Empire to get involved in the fighting. Things kind of begin to fall apart for the Crystal Empire and they don't do so well as the war drags on. In a situation resembling the First World War the Crystal Empire's forces get bogged down into a war of attrition against the Zebra Empire. Casualties are high and very little is gained. On the Last Day, Princess Cadence meets her fate as does her husband Shining Armor. The war transforms the Crystal Empire into a frozen wasteland which I thought was interesting because in the show we see it snowing but none of the Crystal pony's seem to be affected by the cold. The cold itself becomes an obstacle for Airborne to overcome as does the swarms of ghouls who now inhabit the Crystal Empire and the few remaining Crystal pony's have banded together to form various raider groups.

The Final Verdict

Fallout Equestria: Finding Rainbow Dash isn't a perfect story. It has a lot to be desired in terms of revised sentence and dialogue structure. Along with some more character development on the part of the main cast of characters. But for my first real attempt at taking a stab at writing something within Kkat's universe it isn't that bad given I have read much worse attempts at Fallout: Equestria fanfics. I am proud of the fact that the story which was the first entry in The Airborne Chronicles has become the single most largest thing I have ever written and certainly has demanded more of my creative energy that I have ever thought possible. In some respects I could not have imagined myself ever writing something like this mostly because prior to reading Fallout: Equestria I only considered myself a passing fan of My Little Pony and wasn't read to jump onto the Brony bandwagon. After finishing Fallout: Equestria I was fully onboard for this zany ride on the Brony express. It has allowed me to meet a lot of really creative and talented people whom have helped in various respects with my development as a writer. So I definitely thank everyone who has made it possible for me to even continue the story of Airborne in the Fallout: Equestria world. Even though that story has yet to finish I am hopeful that when it its complete people will enjoy Airborne and want to re-read his adventures in the world of Fallout: Equestria.