Environmental Hazards

Many environmental hazards make the Equestian Wasteland a contaminated landscape, poisoned by the many spells and projects that struck Equestria during the Great War.

Common

Balefire radiation

Content in this section is linked to content from Balefire radiation. Please edit that page to modify this section.

A ubiquitous presence in the Equestrian Wasteland, balefire radiation is the magical residue of larger, more harmful spells that used balefire. When a living creature is exposed to balefire radiation, it accumulates in its body over time. While a creature can withstand small amounts of radiation poisoning without severe consequences, it can cause sickness, mutations, and death if allowed to build up without treatment.

Balefire radiation possesses a strong necromantic component, and prolonged exposure can cause mutations of varying severity. While many radiation-caused mutations are harmful, some may be neutral, and a few can even be advantageous to the host. Sometimes, a pony or zebra who survives severe radiation exposure may become a ghoul.

Killing Joke

Killing Joke, normally only found in the Everfree Forest, is a generally lethal, poisonous plant that is able to cause instant transformation in those that touch it. Directly descended from Poison Joke and similar to its ancestor in many respects, this corrupted version still plays ironic jokes on those that come in contact with it. However, these jokes are lethally dangerous, as opposed to the (relatively) harmless tricks of Poison Joke. It almost always bases its effects on the fears, distresses, and distastes of its victims, and it is very likely to act upon the smallest of off-hand comments, no matter how long ago or how insignificant the comment seemed, so long as said comment involves something of great distress to the victim.

Killing Joke is a vine-like plant that maintains its blue coloration making it easy to distinguish but it is able to move and burrow fairly quickly in order to reach victims, actually employing traps to bring creatures into range while remaining hidden.

Killing Joke has only one known competitor - a plant called Phantasmal Flower. Both plants feed on psychic energy but the flower is able to choke out Killing Joke like a weed, preventing it from spreading into areas where the flower is present. The flower is not harmful to other creatures.

A cure exists for the curse of the Killing Joke and can be administered to anyone who has survived its effects.

After the Day of Sunshine and Rainbows, the killing joke is used as an ingredient in a potion which allows some alicorns to turn male and be able to procreate.

Known Victims

Jokeblue's Mother

Jokeblue's mother was afflicted with the curse of the Killing Joke, and later died while giving birth to Jokeblue, who was named after the plant.

Xenith

Xenith's stripes were turned into gaping wounds, based on an offhand comment where she mentioned that she felt like an earth pony whose stripes were great wounds.

Fluttershy

Prior to the war, Fluttershy once stated that she would "like to be a tree". Very soon after the Last Day, after Rarity teleported her to Zecora's Hut, she encountered some form of Killing Joke in a grove and was transformed into a large tree, a form she has existed in for two centuries after the war's passing, up until the end of the Wasteland Conflict where a cure was found by Velvet Remedy and she was restored to her original form.

Unnamed Hellhound

One hellhound was caught in the Killing Joke's trap, turned into a pony, and was likely slain by its fellow hellhounds. It is very likely that this hellhound, like many other hellhounds, felt a strong sense of animosity towards pony-kind.

Gutshot

Always being second best shooter was very frustrating for him and he, probably, once jealously wished to be just like the best markspony, his brother, Calamity. Since Gutshot & fellow Wonderbolts were hunting for Calamity and his friends, it put him at risk of being killed by his companions or the Enclave.

Regina Grimfeathers

Regina made a statement regarding her recently deceased brother. "It should be Kage here, not me." The killing joke, caused a gaping wound to open up in her breast, just like the one that killed her brother.

Known Victims in Project Horizons

Warning! The following information applies only to its associated side story, and is thus considered non-canon in the Fallout: Equestria universe. Goliath Goliath was turned into a giant. It is unknown what motivation the Joke had to turn him into a giant. Morning Glory Morning Glory was turned into an exact likeness of the Mare of the Ministry of Awesome, Rainbow Dash, who was villainized by the Enclave due to her desertion of the pegasi nation during its secession from Equestria after the Last Day. Glory's Joke form almost guaranteed that she will never be accepted by her countrymen again, already having suffered a fall from grace in the eyes of her nation by falsely being branded a Dashite. Pisces and Capricorn Pisces and Capricorn were two ponies turned into seaponies due to a joke they made about what it might be like to be aquatic creatures. Scotch Tape When Scotch Tape came in contact with the Killing Joke, her lungs were filled with chlorine gas, a reminder of the fate that befell Stable 99 after Blackjack's act. Rampage The Killing Joke attempted to bury Rampage alive, since it was unable to actually kill her due to her regenerative abilities. Blackjack Blackjack was afflicted with a curse that caused explosions every time took a step. The effect wore off over time, after Blackjack used it to her advantage in combat; she surmised that the Joke no longer found it funny afterwards.

Known Victims in Silence

Warning! The following information applies only to its associated side story, and is thus considered non-canon in the Fallout: Equestria universe. Zero In Chapter 11, Zero suffered from both deafness and blindness that makes up for his already-mute voice upon being afflicted by the killing joke, resulting him into being completely defenseless and is the only victim that had been affected by the killing joke. This, however, was actually a nightmare while he was resting up. Zero's unfortunate fate from a nightmare is a homage to the Three Wise Monkeys.

Taint

Taint, originally named the Impelled Metamorphosis Potion (or I.M.P.), is a viscous, rainbow-colored liquid designed by the Ministry of Arcane Sciences under the direction of Twilight Sparkle. It is a mutagenic agent, and was originally designed for transforming unicorns into more powerful alicorns. Its transforming capabilities require a very careful dosage, and the process of its formulation is extremely delicate and demanding, leading to many flawed batches being discarded. For this reason, indiscriminate contamination (especially if mixed with radiation exposure) is more likely to produce deformed monsters, as it has already happened for several species around the Wasteland, such as bloatsprites, floaters, hellhounds, and the hospital horrors.

Taint is not shielded by air filters, and professional medical care is required to purge it from one's body after exposure. Any effects and mutations that have already taken place, however, are not easily reversible with post-Apocalyptic medical procedures.

Barrels of discarded taint often bear a yellow diamond-shaped label with dark purple warning symbols and the following text:

“

Toxic Magical Byproduct. Property of the Ministry of Arcane Sciences. DO NOT TOUCH, BREATHE or STARE AT.

”

Taint in Project Horizons

Warning! The following information applies only to its associated side story, and is thus considered non-canon in the Fallout: Equestria universe. Blackjack would later discover in the Hippocratic Research Facility in Hoofington that the Impelled Metamorphosis Potion was a product of Flux, a biomagical substance developed and produced by Hippocratic Research and commissioned by an internal Office of Interministry Affairs project titled Project Chimera.

Canterlot

Canterlot is a distinct case in the Equestrian Wasteland due to the fact that it was never attacked by a traditional Balefire Bomb, but rather by a bomb that released the pink cloud upon detonation.

Pink Cloud

Pink Cloud is an entropic, necromantic, pink-hued gas that was originally released by bombs deployed by the zebra empire induring the Great War to strike Canterlot and eliminate the two Princesses, Celestia and Luna. It has a deadly effect on living beings, seeping into flesh and lungs, rotting it and melting it, and potentially liquefying bodies into heaps of organic matter. Even slight exposure can lead to severe complications, including organ failure and the permanent fusing of skin to objects in close contact, including clothes, PipBucks, jewelry, and even the ground or a chair if a victim remains still for an extended duration of exposure. It is almost always lethal, though in rare instances a victim can be turned into a particular variant of ghoul known as a Canterlot Ghoul.

Protections

The Pink Cloud effects on contact with skin, and, much like Taint, cannot be filtered by re-breathers, gas masks or any other sort of air filter. Damage from Pink Cloud poisoning can be healed by way of normal healing potions. Water absorbs the gas extremely well, and as such, rain is able to purify the air of a short period of time, while creating deadly pools of poisonous water. Pink Cloud does not diffuse into water normally, but instead will form rivulets or ribbons of the substance that are pink in color.

Environmental Effects

The Pink Cloud has been slowly absorbed by inorganic matter--buildings, furniture, the earth itself--and is being slowly released into the air, causing Canterlot and several nearby cities (such as Zebratown) to still be severely hazardous despite the length of time since the gas release. Stables that have endured long-term exposure to the pink cloud were eventually breached due to corrosion. Pink Cloud also tends to concentrate in closed spaces where it does not get dispersed by the natural environment; such pockets are much more deadly than the open air due to density, making the cloud even more lethal than usual.

Sources

The largest continued source of Pink Cloud in Canterlot was a dragon that served as Canterlot's royal treasury guardian and a source of the dragon hatchlings that were gifted to the students of Celestia's school (including Twilight Sparkle's assistant, Spike). When the dragon was exposed to the Pink Cloud, she began to produce it through her snores, preventing it from ever dissipating so long as she lived.

During the Wasteland Conflict, an insane alicorn residing in Canterlot Castle managed to cast a remote activated spell that would turn the dragon into something smaller, significantly lessening the amount of Pink Cloud created. Littlepip later activated this remote spell, which was tied into the fireworks switch for the Grand Galloping Gala inside Luna's bedroom in Canterlot Castle. The spell turned the dragon into a mouse, who later accompanied a Canterlot Ghoul named Lionheart in battle against the Grand Pegasus Enclave during Operation: Cauterize.

Broadcasters

The pink cloud is also the responsible of the necromantic broadcasters phenomena: Inside the pink cloud's area of effect, Sprite-bot and PipBuck broadcasting signals have been weakened and corrupted, to the point where their signals has now a necromantic component and are able to kill a living creature entering its sphere of effect in mere seconds. Notable symptoms from exposure are severe headaches and bleeding eyes.

Pink Cloud in New Pegas

Pink Cloud The origin of Pink Cloud as a weapon of mass destruction is traced to one of Doctor Trueblood's projects, presumably related to his Bio-Arcana work. Initially developed as a pesticide, the Cloud was meant to protect crop yields and industrial sites against major insect infestations.  Trueblood instead arranged to co-opt it for deployment as a bioweapon against the Zebras, without telling the original developers of his intent, resulting in a Zebra associated with development being entrusted to deliver the project notes.  He fled with them to his homeland, providing copies before his recapture by Equestrian commandos. Trueblood subsequently conducted the first test of Pink Cloud at Luna's School for Gifted Unicorns through a compromised Zebra loyalist, an act which also served the purpose of cementing war fervor.  Equestrian hatred for the Zebras skyrocketed, Luna ascended to the throne upon Celestia's abdication, the Ministries were formed, and Trueblood's allies were able to create the Office of Interministry Affairs in their wake.  With Luna's rise to power likewise solidifying Zebra resolve, this was the turning point which ensured the war would be seen through to its bitter end. However, the use of Cloud at Littlehorn made its further development by the OIA extremely dangerous to all involved.  It took the rest of the war for Trueblood to finally arrange mass-bombardment testing, to be carried out on the Casino Royale resort southeast of New Pegas, but by this time the Zebras were able to develop and deploy their own version.  The effective end of the war made the Royale test largely moot, but Trueblood's work continues to render large sections of the resort completely uninhabitable.

Pink Cloud in New Roam
Black Cloud In the catacomb subway tunnels of New Roam, Goldwreath and company encountered clouds of microscopic spores that would explode as spikes once established in one's lungs. Predator explained that Black Cloud was but one type of a number of such gaseous weapons developed by the Zebras which included Pink Cloud.

Other Hazardous Locales

Whitetail Woods

The Whitetail woods are notably much more poisonous and radioactive, than other parts of the Equestrian wasteland. This is due to a number of poisonous megaspell missiles that Princess Celestia personally shot out of the sky, upon Luna's death. Specific native wildlife if any in the region is unknown.

Everfree Forest

The Everfree Forest is home to a number of deadly hazards, besides the more famous threats like Killing Joke. Everfree also contains other deadly fauna, such as plantlife that can fire projectiles to kill aerial prey and a unique type of fungus that infects and consumes living organisms, making them extensions of itself. 

Environmental Hazards in Side Stories

Project Horizons Enervation Enervation, a unique hazard found only in the Hoofington region of the Equestrian Wasteland, is a necrotic field of radiation that can taint healing potions of their healing properties and weaken and kill lifeforms passing through it. The worst of the enervation fields are found directly within Hoofington and the surrounding area, but the underground is also notorious for having hidden enervation fields. They are produced by small, ring-shaped devices of unknown origin (one was found within a department store in Hoofington, and another within Tenpony Tower, though this one was initially inert). It is extremely unwise to pass through an Enervation field with any kind of injury. The enervation will begin to rot and liquify/putrefy exposed flesh and tissue (such as severing Morning Glory's wing). Alicorns cannot enter the Hoofington area because the enervation fields are emotionally and sometimes physically harmful to them; they claim to hear horrible screams and screeches when exposed to enervation (with the exception of the strangely resistant Lacunae). Flux Flux is a bio-magical substance in the form of a viscous liquid, and is the base material used to create numerous products, including the Impelled Metamorphosis Potion. Its main usage is to forcibly mutate objects and living beings, and it was developed by Hippocratic Research and distributed widely throughout Equestria during the Great War. Flux is obtained by forcibly extracting the liquid from the body of Discord, the spirit of chaos, through the use of needles. The process is painful for Discord, and increasing or decreasing the extraction rate can cause Discord varying amounts of pain. It is extensively used in Project Chimera for the fusion process. It was also used to create animal combinations, such as the Nightstalker and the Scorposprite. These animals were sold as pets despite still in the testing phase and not ready for public distribution. Flux can also be used to create Blanks, supposedly soulless clone ponies with animal-level intellects who are generally used as organ donors and test subjects. Flux contamination is shown to cause the body of creatures to bloat out to disgusting proportions when applied liberally. This happened to some of the blanks (who were dubbed "fatties" by Precious) and a griffin who experienced rapid, uncontrolled growth which resulted in death due to his constrictive armor. This fate appears similar to that of Ambrosia, the Enclave soldier who was exposed to large doses of I.M.P. when Littlepip destroyed Maripony. Flux contamination also mutated the plants outside the Project Chimera testing facilities, which transformed into various predators, including deadly cake trees, plants that shot out sharp spines, and a unique unnamed mutation of poison joke. Raider Disease The Raider disease is a unique virus found exclusively in Hoofington and the Zebra Homeland. The disease was originally only found in the Zebra Empire's territories and appeared during times severe famine. Zebra would turn to cannibalism to survive the famine and begin to develop cravings for meat. Infected tribes and villages were quarintined and then burnt alive to prevent further spread of the virus. After the last day, the virus eventually found itself in the Hoofington area, which was located dangerously close to the Zebra Empire. The disease has remained contained within Hoofington since it first appeared and is named after the Raiders who are the main victims of the disease. The virus is primarily transmitted by ingesting infected meat, the disease builds up within the stomach and spreads to the rest of the body. The Raider disease results in Raider like behaviour from it's carriers. The victims begin to lose their sanity due to a gradual spongification of the reasoning parts of a pony or zebra's brain. Victims will often giggle away maniacally and begin craving protein i.e, meat. A victim of the disease will gradually deteriorate mentally and often bite themselves in desperation, to feed their hunger for meat. An infected pony/zebra will also exhibit Raider-like behaviour, enjoying depraved acts like rape and murder, they also show little regard for their own safety or well being. Infected pony/zebras will attack non-Raiders on sight and have only been shown as listening to and obeying Reapers, such as Deus. They are also used as living weapons by Burner boys, who set them alight and send them charging at enemies. The Ditzy Doo Chronicles Sandstorms Particularly arid and desert regions, such as Appleloosa, are notorious for violent sandstorms. These sandstorms pick up radioactive particles as well as sand and dirt, which can do extensive damage to flesh and tissue, peeling it off of living creatures. Shield spells are an excellent way of repelling sandstorm assaults. Sandstorms are noted as being able to last for days on end, due to a lack of pegasi, properly managing Equestria's weather. Wasteland Jewel Firerain A hazard that plagues the area around Neigh Orleans, the weather seems to have been directly effected by the Megaspell that detonated in the city. Its considered extremely dangerous, even a few minutes of exposure can either kill you or turn you into a type of Ghoul called a Burning Pony Ghoul. While the exact cause is unknown, it seems to be slowly spreading north and cannot be controlled by S.P.P. As a result, it was regulated for two centuries by the Enclave up until their fall.

Notes and Trivia

• Many of the environmental hazards featured in Fallout: Equestria were inspired by analogues in the Fallout universe.
  • Balefire radiation shares many of its properties with nuclear radiation.
  • Taint (or I.M.P.) is very similar to the Forced Evolutionary Virus (or F.E.V.) in that it causes similar mutations and was used in controlled experiments to create super-powered versions of its creator species: I.M.P turned ponies into alicorns, while F.E.V turned humans into super-mutants.
  • The Pink Cloud is inspired by the Cloud, a red-tinted vapor that fills the Sierra Madre Hotel and Casino. It only appears in Fallout: New Vegas - Dead Money.
  • The Canterlot Broadcasters are also a reference to the broadcasters in the Sierra Madre that generate a frequency that will detonate the player's bomb collar.