The North Equestrian Wasteland is an okay place to live. It's frozen thirteen months of the year and the wildlife is a little mean, but at least the soda stays cold. Taking residence underneath this wonderful nuclear-winter wasteland in opposite Stables are Minty Candy and Twintails, a unicorn and pegasus, respectively, who both happily enjoy their lives within their underground homes and haven't any reason or want to explore the frozen world above.
And then things start going wrong.
Minty gets put on the run after hearing something he really rather shouldn't have, and Twintails finds himself off on a search for a necessary replacement part for his Stable's reactor before it melts a hole through the ground. Soon running into each other on the outside and with little else for the both of them to go about doing, both young stallions set off to explore the wide, wild wasteland they've been living beneath all this time. However, what they find may be far more than they bargained for...
Occupational Hazards is a Fallout: Equestria fan fiction written by both the-furry-railfan
and MintyCandy. It is available in it's entirety on Fimfiction.net here.
Tropes present in this work:
- Aerith and Bob: Nikolai, Tom Neighrer, and Nova, to some extent, count as this in a world populated by such characters as Minty Candy, Twintails, Moral Fringe, and Titchbreeze.
- Alliterative Name: Megaspell Mary, and Twintails to some extent.
- Completed Fic: As of September 13th, 2014.
- Death from Above: Featherweight and Buzzy's primary mode of operation. The Enclave cloudship 'The Tsetse' and the kinetic bombardment satellite as well.
- Doorstopper: Clocking in at just over 250,000 words.
- Elsewhere Fic: Set thousands of miles north of Equestria, near the arctic circle.
- Endless Winter: Of the Nuclear variety; there is no apparent plant life in the northern wasteland, and snow is deep enough to reliably bury even alicorn bodies.
- Expy: Moral Fringe is very much so one of SAS Captain John Price, all the way down to his mustache and hat.
- Fun with Acronyms: North Equestrian Artillery Megaspell Outpost, EQUestrian Aerospace Defense, The Sunrise Castle Air Base, The Old Gang.
- Fantastic Nuke: The North Equestrian Wasteland happens to be home to several undetonated warheads of both Balefire and Megaspell types. No less than six separate detonations are caused over the course of the story.
- Great Offscreen War: More of an offscreen Curb stomp, the first attack on Pripytrot.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Gamma Ray does this to ensure the Stable has a chance of being evacuated. Likewise done with Minty Candy and Twintails in the climax, to buy their friends more time to escape the NEAMO explosion.
- I Call It "Vera": Megaspell Mary, Nikolai's Tesla Cannon 'Ivan', Twintails' Balefire Egg Launcher 'Kindness', Minty's Gauss Rifle 'Jolts'.
- Ironic Name: Featherweight.
- Kill Sat: A kinetic Bombardment satellite is used to destroy Stable 76.
- Meaningful Name: Twintails, Bloodbeak, Razorwing, Buzzy, Moral Fringe.
- Mood Whiplash: Things are fine in the lives of Minty and Twintails, they're able to relax and live their lives with their lovers, and the only thing they had to worry about was a broken radio dish. Then Megaspell Mary wipes Emerald Ridge off the map.
- More Dakka: Both Twintails and Minty get progressively heavier weapons over the course of the story. The same can be said for Featherweight when the battlewagon is revealed.
- Nuclear Option: The destruction of the Tsetse, as well as Megaspell Mary.
- Parental Abandonment: Twintails and Minty Candy. Featherweight & Buzzy, and Nikolai fall into this too.
- Parental Neglect: Twintails' father sent his best sniper after his still-pregnant-with-him mother. It turned into a Mercy Kill afterwards, though.
- Shout-Out:
- The films and shows mentioned in the theater;
- The four 'bloops' and dialogue of Featherweight before and following his attack run on the entrenched ponies in Pripytrot is pulled almost entirely from World in Conflict.
- Spin-Offspring: Fallout: Equestria - Empty Quiver stars the daughter and son of both of the main couples. Don't think too hard about how two pairs of stallions can have foals.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Given Twintails is an aficionado of watching footage of balefire and megaspell weapons effects tests, once up in the wasteland this trope is inevitable. Especially so once the Balefire Egg Launcher and TOG enter the picture.
- Tank Goodness: The TOG II* and War Mare.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Featherweight and Twintails thrive off of this trope. Balefire eggs for killing bloatsprites? Why not!
