Fallout Equestria: Shaping Shadow

Fallout Equestria: Shaping Shadow is and ongoing Side Story written by Mindrop. It Chronicles the life and change of Shadow Flare, a cloud farmer, as he goes from his small community into the Enclave military and then below. It also chronicles the changes of the wasteland leading up to the original story. It begins around ten years before Little Pip begins her adventures.

*Some of the information given below may be considered a spoiler and others may have a slot, but be left without information until they are introduced in the story.

Synopsis

The Enclave survives because of it's cloud farmers. Shadow Flare was raised on one of the oldest and largest cloud farms known as a homestead, way in the north at the edge of the Enclave. Shadow Flare has the heart of a farmer, but not the size. Shadow Flare stopped growing at a young age and looks like a small mare. His voice isn't much better. Still, he does his best, no matter what, to do his duty and feed the Pegasus Race.

The Enclave is running low on raw materials and the wasteland below has more than enough. Shadow Flare found it his duty, his fate, to not only join, but to help the Enclave begin to first reach below the clouds. What they do below will impact the wasteland forever, good or bad. What he does, shapes the wasteland for Little Pip and beyond.

But hardship and struggle isn't just below in the wasteland, but above as well. A broken heart, and a lost love, is universal.

Setting

The story's setting changes as time goes. The first setting is Shadow Flare's home, the Turnip Homestead. The second is Fort Wind, where a lot of the Enclave's military training happens. Third is the wasteland, based out of the Rosemary Outpost.

Characters

Shadow Flare

Born in the northern reaches of the Enclave, to the Turnip Homestead Cloud farm, he is small for even a normal pegasus. Crisp white coat contrasted with a jet black mane, Shadow Flare is often mistaken as a mare, both visually and with his voice. When he joins the Enclave Military, he is sized as a mare for uniforms. Size aside, he is cloud farmer in every other way.

Community and family are the most important things in his life. Duty to the Pegasus Race comes in a close third. To his family and community, their duty is to feed the Pegasus Race. Shadow Flare doesn't know when to quit and gives it his all. Endurance was part of growing up. A job had to be done, no matter how skilled you were, everything was given until the job was done. Shadow chose to pursue the military in part because he was having a problem finding his place in the community. He was not much help on the farms.

Shadow Flare grew up doing acrobatics. He is more familiar with his hooves than his wings. His father, Lance, began training Shadow at an early age. The acrobatics are trained through obstacle courses forcing Shadow to think quick and act fast. They do not stay on one level, but go up and down.

Shadow Flare earned his Cutie Mark on the obstacle courses. Three arrowheads with a sword in the center of each. Each sword has three lightning bolts cutting across it. It represents the key to acrobatics and life. Speed, Power and Agility. Each key aspect helps Shadow Flare excel in the military. They stand out perfectly against his white coat and compliment his black mane.

Shadow Flare's foundation is his family and his community. With them as his foundation, he can push himself to the limit and hold it there. While he may not be suited for life in the harsh cloud farming where his family lives, Shadow Flare learned the essential skills for farming. Those skills go beyond plants and into work ethic. He is stubborn, doing what he has set his mind to, when he needs to.

Shadow Flare builds friendships and deep connections with the soldiers he trains and works with, like the community back home.

Cardinal Spitfire

An actual descendant of the Spitfire, Cardinal Spitfire joined the military the same time as Shadow Flare. She has the same drive and much of the same upbringing as Shadow Flare. Initially set against Shadow Flare, she sets it aside when there is more important things to deal with in training. Paired up with Shadow as battle buddies, she quickly helps push their team and then unit further and to set new records.

Cardinal Spitfire is named for her heritage and her coat. A cardinal coat with a soft yellow mane. He Cutie Mark is a lighting bolt who's head is a flame. She is small for a mare and slightly smaller than Shadow Flare.

Size Comparison

A size comparison between Shadow Flare, Cardinal Spitfire, a typical male Enclave Soldier and Marble Falls.

Images are from Brisineo or creat on generalzoi's pony creator.

New Creatures

== Quarry Geckos ===

New Factions

== Super Ponies ===

== Dahlia’s Dragoons ===

Enclave Groups

Enclave's Unit 731

Little is known about 731. All that is known is she is based out of the cloudship transport, Red Dawn, rather than being based out of a military base or Thunderhead Class cloudship. 731 is rumored to do anything, nothing and even be a myth. Shadow is told by Marble Falls that she believes Unit 731 is connected to the Wonderbolts in an unknown way.

Third Fleet

The Third fleet is an odd assortment of half a dozen retrofitted cloudships. It has no known purpose other than to be the fleet for their odd ship types. The Red Dawn is a member of the fleet, a Battle Cruiser. The Fleet also has a ship classified as a Corvette, another is a Monitor and the other three are Net Layers.

New Technology

Pegasus Power Armor Variants

Over the years, the Enclave has developed several variants of Pegasus power armor. The original model is designated as the Mark 1. The Mark 2 was developed about 50 years after the sealing of the clouds to increase their power armor numbers and prove they could do it without help from the Ministry of Wartime Technology.

The Mark 2 is a stronger and hardier variant than the Mark 1. It had the advantage of time and use to see where to improve it. It also had the advantage of abundant resources for it's development and production. The Mark 2 is considered the pinnacle of the pegasus power armor variants and it is the most aesthetically pleasing.

The Mark 3 was designed with resource protection in mind while boosting the number of power armored soldiers. It is the weakest of the variants but still provides the wearer with superior armor to basic plate armor. Because it was designed to use as little resources as possible, it is ugly armor. Functional but ugly. Mark 3s make up half of the pegasus power armor in the Enclave.

The Mark 4 was released a few years before Shaping Shadow begins. The armor was designed for specialized use and produced in lower quantities. Few consider it better than the Mark 2, although it does edge out the Mark 2 on all tests. The Mark 2 is still considered better, in part because of aesthetics. While it does not have the beauty of the Mark 2, it has a sharp, intimidating image.

Pegasus power armor from the war are still being used. The power armor is almost always painted black or a dark green. Most power armor is used by heavy weapons units and other units designated to be the first in. Aerial Combat Units sometimes use power armor, but often chose medium plate armor.

The Wonderbolts all use power armor, although the model is up to the individual. All of their armor is painted with their colors. Any power armor used by the Wonderbolts has been further fine tuned and enhanced. Most prefer the Mark 2, but the Mark 4 is gaining acceptance. No Wonderbolt would be caught dead in Mark 3 armor, even modified Mark 3.

Novasurge Battlerifle

The Novasurge Battlerifle is an improved variant on the original. It sacrifices rate of fire for an even more powerful blast. Only 7 were produced, one for each member of the Inquisitors and then the prototype model for their first officer.

Technology #1

== Star Dust ===

New Locations

Major new locations found only in Shaping Shadow. (Under Construction)

Wasteland

Stable 68

Sanctuary

Zebra Village

Toxic Trench

Baltimare

Dry Dock City

Fort Strong

Equestrian Navel Academy

The Glowing Sea

Kifopiga

Kifopiga (Ki-foe-pee-gha) Is a Zebra Fortress. The name means Death Fortress with the action of Trap. In other words, Trapping Death Fortress. It is south of the Macintosh Hills where a Megaspall chamber was hidden. It was the focus of one of the last battles of the war. The Megaspells were launched as it was happening. It did not cause the launch of the spells.

Fallout Equestria Characters

Autumn Leaf

Autumn Leaf is a hot shot First Lieutenant who is being fast tracked for leadership. He appears at Fort Wind and oversees part of the training there. He is stationed at Fort Wind to learn the training side of Leadership. While he is still a Lieutenant, he has been in this personalized program for some time and will be promoted to Major as soon as it is over. He is the only one set to fast track his time as an officer to higher leadership roles, which will land him as a Colonel when Little Pip meets him.

Other Characters

Officers

Red River

Wind Whisper

Unit 12

Pony Patrol

Cloudships

Red Dawn

The Red Dawn is a cloudship from the war that the Enclave still uses. She is a Fairy Class troop transport that was converted to carry heavier guns, and reclassified as a Battle Cruiser. She was is not a Sky-tank, being slightly smaller and a different class. While she can hold her own, she can not match a Rapter's firepower.

Since she was made during the war as a transport, she is fast. The Red Dawn is the fastest cloudship the Enclave has. There is a prestige to being the Captain of the oldest operating cloudship.

The mysterious Unit 731 is based out of the Red Dawn.

Solar

The Solar is the newest cloudship produced by the Enclave, only being a year old at the start of the story. She is a Rapter, a rare thing to be produced due to the mass amounts of resources, like steel, needed to create them. She is first seen next to the Red Dawn at Nellie Air Force Base.

Flash Magnus

The Flash Magnus is a Wartime Cloudship which was destroyed in battle. It's Captain was Rumble. It is a regular Cloudship, used to transport soldiers only carrying light guns and armor.

Princess Luna chose the Flash Magnus to disable Kifopiga's Megaspell Chamber. It was armed with special armor piercing shells for the mission. The Flash Magnus was ripped apart by Kifopiga's artillery on it's way to the spell chamber. Captain Rumble and the crew kept the ship together just long enough, to fire one round at the Megaspell Chamber and complete it's mission.

Buttercup

The Buttercup is the flagship in the 3rd Fleet. She is an experimental design and classified as a corvette. Fast and light, she has the best acceleration in the fleet, hitter her top speed four times faster than a Raptor. Her size to gun ratio is heavy. The corvette class is based on speed and maneuverability while still carrying enough firepower to stand on their own in a fight.

The corvette class was supposed to become the main patrol cloudship in the Enclave, but that was dropped when the size to resources ratio was seen and canceled. They opted to use more general ships like Sky-tanks to patrol.

The Buttercup could, in theory, take on a Raptor. As the smallest warship, she can out turn and evade the slower Raptors while being able to point her sizable guns at the Raptor at all times. Tracking a skilled corvette crew is extremely difficult.

The Buttercup has a compliment of 85 officers and crew, but is understaffed like the other ships in the 3rd. Her bridge crew consists of four.

Historical Characters

Rainbow Dash's Shadow

Captain Rumble

Admiral Cloud Chaser

Princess Luna

Old War Weapons & Armor

Naval Gun

Anti Air Gun

Pegasus Bombs

Applesnack Submachine Gun

Apple Jack Rifle

RD-44 Rifle

Zebra Type 38 Rifle

Zebra Type 92 Machine Gun

Zebra Type 41 Combat Knife

Type 94 Mountain Gun

Type 98 Cannon

Type 96 Anti Air Guns

Type 26 Revolver

Type 14 Pistol

Type 98 Sword

Xyuzunto Saber

Type 95 Uniform

Type 2 Combat Armor

Behind the Scenes

NOTE: Since this story is ongoing and the written/edited chapters are ahead of the releases, trivia facts will be updated ahead of the releases so that nothing is missed. (I, Mindrop, love to point out the fun facts in any of my stories. And dispel any coincidences.)

• Fort Wind is, in part, named after Retired Wonderbolt Wind Rider from Season 5, Episode 15, Rarity Investigates.
• Mareland Joint Operations Base is based on Lackland Air Force Base which is part of Joint Base San Antonio, where all branches of the U.S. Military have personnel stationed there. It is the second largest Joint military base in the U.S..

• Fort Strong is based on Fort Strong from Fallout 4.
• Equestrian Naval Academy is based on the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis Maryland, just south of Baltimore.
• Ponypsco River is based on the Patapsco River which Baltimore is centered around.
• Dry Dock City is loosely based on Rivet City from Fallout 3.
• Sanctuary is based on Sanctuary from Fallout 4.
• Vault 68’s location is based on Vault 111’s location from Fallout 4, outside and above Sanctuary. 68 also is one of the author's special numbers.
• Super Ponies are based on Super Mutants from Fallout, specifically Fallout 4.
• Crystal Kiss is accidentally based on Lily Bowen, a companion in Fallout: New Vegas. Editing brought the correlation to my mind.
• Stable 50’s experiment is based on Vault 81 from Fallout 4 and mixed with the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV/F.E.V.) from Fallout 4. 
• The Glowing Sea is based on the Glowing Sea from Fallout 4.  
• Baltimare is, in part, inspired by the Commonwealth from Fallout 4.  
• Quarry Geckos pay homage to the Geckos from Fallout New Vegas  
• The books Cardinal Spitfire gets in Chapter 35 are real books with minor adjustments to name and title to fit with the MLP theme.  
• The cloudship Red Dawn has no correlation with the movie.  
• Radar Barracks pays homage to Radar from the T.V. show M.A.S.H..  
• F. Oatbrien is ponified William F. O'Brien. The poem "Better to try and fail than never to try at all" is quoted in its entirety.
• The SEED School of Baltimare is based on The SEED School of Maryland.
• Zebra weapons were given numbers. "Type ##". These a based on the Japanese Imperial Army's Weapons. This includes the weapons numbers being assigned by the calendar it was developed.
• The cloudship Solar is named for the USS Solar, a Buckley-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy in WW2.
• Unit 731 is named for the Japanese Imperial Military Unit 731. In name only.
• The Applesnack Submachine Gun is designed after the Thompson 'Tommy' Submachine Gun.
• The Apple Jack Rifle, or A.J.R is designed after the Browning Automatic Rifle, B.A.R..
• The RD-44 rifle is designed after the German Sturmgewehr 44 Rifle.
• The candences are real candences.