Fanfic / Fallout Equestria: A Child's Hope

All I'm trying to get across to him is that if he doesn't know things, he's gonna die. Plain and simple.

—Terminal

Stable 14 is an okay place to live. It's a large system of safe and comfortable rooms underground, sheltering ponies for countless years. Living within this Stable is Cobalt Blue, an earth pony colt who lacks a cutie mark and the ability to stay focused. He spends his free time crawling around the vast complex of Stable 14, trying to combat his boredom. But, of course, he has to stay inside the Stable; leaving it and heading out into the Horseshoe Wasteland (assuming it even exists) would be breaking the rules. But yes, Stable 14 is an okay place to live, and nothing will ever change that...

...until Cobalt’s tenth birthday. When a sudden block in the ventilation system is blamed on his little adventures, he finds himself trying to escape his own mother - along with everypony else inside. They've gone crazy trying to find and punish him for putting all of their lives at risk, and his father isn't there to protect him. Grabbing everything he can, Cobalt escapes the Stable and runs away into the Wasteland. Now he truly has no future; no cutie mark, no friends, and no idea where anything is. But it IS a new place, and he does so love exploring..."

A Child's Hope is a Fallout: Equestria fan fiction written by RLYoshi (the writer of Death Battle Equestria) that puts a unique spin on things by telling the story through the eyes of a child rather than an adult. It can be read here.

Tropes present in this work:

• Abandoned Hospital: Inverted with Winterstar. The entire town's population lives inside the hospital because the rest of the town was burned down, and they see no need in rebuilding.
• Alliterative Name: Full Force and Hopeful Horizon. Since they're siblings, it makes sense.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Cobalt is easily distracted if he's off his Bitalin, and even somewhat when on it.
• Big Damn Heroes: After a failed attempt to sneak the slaves out of a raider camp...
  Raider: (after Cobalt escapes) Horse apple fuck! We had him! We had them! (suddenly gets his head blasted off)
  Force: And now, you have us.
• Boring, but Practical: Cobalt's toy gun is utterly useless as an actual weapon, but it's good for shooting unicorn horns to interrupt their magic or shooting lightbulbs.
• Break the Cutie: This is happening to Cobalt over the course of the story, and has been confirmed by Word of God to be pretty much the point of the story; show how the Wasteland would affect a child who can survive as well as an adult.
  • Happens to Hope during her imprisonment at a raider camp. However, she's soon back to being cheerful after getting back home.

• Cursed with Awesome: Being off his Bitalin makes Cobalt easily distracted and unable to focus. This also allows him to notice "wavy air" that signifies a pony being turned almost entirely invisible by a StealthBuck.
• Deadpan Snarker: Terminal.
  • Cobalt actually becomes this if he's annoyed enough.
  Terminal: What could possibly be more important than packing properly?
  Cobalt: Running for my life from ponies trying to kill me.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: A young colt who was just freed from slavery is shot while hugging his mother, announcing the approach of the raiders.
• Disappeared Dad: Just like in Fallout 3, this kickstarts the plot.
• The Dreaded: The Intangibles. They're feared as being almost unstoppable, with any town they plan to attack being considered as good as gone. Most of them are taken care of at Winterstar, with assistance from Cobalt.
• Establishing Character Moment: The first thing Gentle Touch does is help Cobalt get better after getting lost in the Wasteland. She later becomes an almost motherly figure to him.
  • In the prologue, what does Cobalt do? Go off on a tangent about the words "diary" and "journal". Naturally, this shows how easily distracted he is.
• First-Person Smartass: For a ten-year-old colt, Cobalt is rather snarky in his thoughts.
  Force: Do you know where [your father] is?
  Cobalt: (thinking) If I knew where he was, I wouldn't be looking for him. (out loud) No.
• Gilligan Cut: When Cobalt is trying to free slaves from a raider camp...
  Cobalt: (holds up a screwdriver and paper clip) Everypony stay quiet. I've got this.
  (scene change)
  Cobalt: (having trouble with lockpicking) ...okay, maybe I don't got this.
  • Subverted in that he successfully opens it a second later.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Cobalt can perfectly target a unicorn's horn with a toy gun. However, this doesn't seem to extend to any other firearms he picks up.
• Meaningful Name: Gentle Touch is kind, compassionate, and a medic - to some degree.
  • Ten Mill, or Millie, is a former Intangible and the group's first dedicated fighter.
• Mood Whiplash: Cobalt gets the slaves out of the raider camp, and a young colt happily hugs his mother, cheering "Mommy!" And then he gets shot, dead instantly.
• Parental Neglect: Cobalt's mother, the Overmare of Stable 14, clearly does not care about him. His father averts this.
  • Abusive Parents: A block in the ventilation system, blamed on Cobalt's sneaking around, leads his own mother to order the guards to hunt him down and shoot him.
• Pet the Dog: While fleeing the Stable, Cobalt is chased by a guard who gets swarmed by Radroaches. Cobalt chases the Radroaches off with his toy gun. The guard gets up, looks at him, and then leaves. "Not a trace of the kid. Let's check the reactor level."
• Rape as Drama: The raiders are very heavily implied to have been raping their child slave captives. Including Force's sister.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Fresh out of Stable 14, Cobalt's already picking up guns and shooting ponies, despite being ten years old.
  • Justified; it's the Wasteland, he never aims to actually kill (except for the Unstoppable Rage below), and he seems to prefer getting out of situations without using a gun anyway. In fact, aside from a toy gun, he's only ever shot at other ponies on two occasions. It's even implied at the beginning of chapter 7 that, despite having real guns with him, he still uses his toy gun to shoot bloatsprites.
• Unstoppable Rage: After the Mood Whiplash above, Cobalt gets so pissed off he starts shooting at raiders with a shotgun, aiming to kill for the first time, until he runs out of ammo and realizes he doesn't know how to reload.
• Would Hurt a Child: Most of Stable 14 is willing to hunt down Cobalt, believing he endangered their lives. It's implied they have no qualms with killing him on sight, even though he's ten years old. Luckily, some of them have a heart.

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