Empty Quiver is a side-story co-written by the-furry-railfan and MintyCandy. It follows the tales of a pair of lifelong friends lost in the area north of Vanhoover, Night Strike and Static Charge, and their discoveries and encounters in this significantly greener new locale. As the days pile on, though, returning home starts to become more and more difficult.
Much like Occupational Hazards, the story is written in single-page installments, accompanied by a related picture depicting a scene from the various relatively short chapters.
Setting
Empty Quiver is set a decade following the end of Fallout: Equestria, in the area due north of the remains of Vanhoover. In stark contrast to the frozen wastelands they call home, the north Vanhoover wastelands are significantly more green and temperate, and even the most intense pockets of residual radiation are mild compared to the craters and constant fallout that make the far northern wastelands what they are.
Characters
- Static Charge - Son of Minty Candy and Cross Stitch, unlike his fathers he was born an earth pony. He prefers not being seen, dealing with issues up close and in non-lethal manners, utilizing a specially-designed taser disguised as an umbrella.
- Cross Stitch - Minty's husband, and Static's father. Still a seamster, still very kinky.
- Minty Candy - Living in Mooscow after the end of Occupational Hazards, his life hasn't been as visibly affected as Twintails by the events of the story, though the age of his prosthetics and augmentations is beginning to show. He still keeps his gauss rifle in firing condition, though he rarely uses it.
- Featherweight - Twintails' husband, and Night Strike's father. Still massive, still a strong hunk of a stallion.
- Buzzy - Night Strike's aunt, more matured and larger now, still as snarky and blunt.
- Night Strike - Daughter of Twintails and Featherweight, and also a pegasus like her fathers, she inherited Twintails' love of massive explosions, and his grenade rifle. Much like her parents, her methods are rarely those of stealth, much more happy to take a direct route of derping all problems in the face with an assortment of forty millimeter shells, including several flavors of shotgun rounds in that caliber. Has an obscene addiction to Sparkle-Cola, specifically Sparkle-Cola RAD.
- Twintails - Settled down following the events of Fallout: Equestria - Occupational Hazards, he still keeps his love of explosions, and the TOG II. However, the years haven't been especially kind, and the events of the story have left him suffering from the scars left on his psyche, often becoming distant when reminded of his actions.
- Saberclaw - Gryphon, daughter of Bloodbeak and Razorwing. Mildly psychotic.
- Sugar Flare - Static's half-sister. Much like her mother Nova and Static's father Minty, she's attracted to Static. It's definitely creepy.
- Crash Dive - An ex-Enclave pegasus taking residence in an old lighthouse following her separation from her unit during Operation: Cauterize. Jaded, xenophobic, generally doesn't prefer the company of others much at all, unless they're also pegasi. Addicted to Med-X.
- Scouring Charge - A Steel Ranger from 'Bad Company', separated due to hostile emotions between the rest of the wasteland and the particular company. Immensely proficient with explosives, and loves watching things blow up.
- Aerith - A dark-blue Alicorn one decade free from Unity, liberated from a slaver's camp located along the coast in an old gun bunker. Rendered mute on account of having her tongue cut out at some point, she is proficient with small arms and sniper rifles, and enjoys wearing a wide-brim fedora.
- Pressure Cooker - An earth pony, serves as one of Little Vanhoover's medics. Works in repairing small steam engines on the side.
Locations
Unlike the northern Equestrian wastes, the area north of Vanhoover is significantly more traversable and lush with greenery.
- The Lighthouse - Crash Dive's home, a pre-war structure built on a small island and connected to the shore via a water-level land bridge. Only accessible by land during low tide.
- The Valkyrie - The location of the crashed aircraft. Very close to the lighthouse, the crash tore up a minefield on the shore past the land bridge.
- Maple Creek - A small town a few kilometers inland, located along a river. The structures suggest it as being a pre-war logging settlement, and the occasional smell of maple sugar implies it as also producing candy.
- Jericho Beach - A small pre-war military supply depot, located on the fresh-water Vanhoover basin. The structures are somewhat corroded after years of disuse and neglect, the water exposure resulting in heavy degradation of the metal barracks and any equipment in the depot.
- Clearwater - A pre-war town located along the Vanhoover basin shore, completely uninhabited despite being surprisingly intact. Suffered from strange attacks by mutant creatures before the bombs fell.
- Hopeville - Another pre-war town located along the shore of the basin, and one of the larger post-war settlements in northern Vanhoover. Contains both a hotel and a functional hospital.
- North Vanhoover Hydroelectric Dam - a large dam connected to the Vanhoover reservoir. Restored to functional status by the group.
- Bridleshade - A pre-war town, laid to ruin during Operation: Cauterize. Formerly home to Molly Manticore's Pizzeria; now home to a massive mildly radioactive crater.
- Seahoof Armory - A large pre-war munitions and materiel storage facility. Unraided due to the local wildlife, and general inaccessibility following the war.
- Coastal Gun Bunker - A coastal defense bunker system once housing a 20-inch gun, replaced at some point before the war with a warship-scale Tesla cannon. The main base of a large slaver operation - formerly.
- Little Vanhoover - A settled portion of the former city, containing a built-up residential area and a functional shipyard. Boats and fish are its main exports.
- Vanhoover Crater - The impact crater of a balefire bomb, now acting as a heavily irradiated hole in the ground prone to flooding during heavy rainstorms.
Behind the Scenes
- Again, many of the locations mirror or share names with those of real-life places; Jericho Beach and Seaforth Armoury are both real locations near Vancouver, Canada. Despite what some may suggest, any relation between Clearwater and Eau Claire, Wisconsin, is entirely coincidental.
- Night Strike's grenade rifle 'Thumper' is based in no small part off of Thump-Thump, which was in turn based off of the M79 Grenade Rifle. Static Charge's umbrella, on the other hand, bears more resemblance to a piece of spy weaponry from the cold war than anything specific.
- The Valkyrie's overall design is heavily influenced by the Avro Vulcan, while drawing the VTOL capabilities from the Hawker-Siddeley Harrier.
- Molly Manticore's Pizzeria is a not-so-subtle reference to the game series Five Nights at Freddy's.
- Scouring Charge is loosely based off of SAS Sergeant John "Soap" MacTavish of the Modern Warfare series. His preferred weapon 'Sunburst' is directly based off of the Red Glare from the Fallout: New Vegas Lonesome Road DLC.
- The 600mm siege mortar that Shining is based off of is the Karl-Gerät, a mortar of similar caliber developed by Nazi Germany. Likewise, the strange half-track vehicle that Static finds in Seahoof is a direct copy of the SdKfz 2 Kettenkrad.
- Boomer, the 40mm automatic grenade launcher, is based off of Mercy from Fallout: New Vegas. Similarly, the Solar Burst grenades are described as having a yield comparable to that of a balefire egg, making them a likely nod to the Holy Frag Grenades. Finally, War Crime, being an automatic sniper rifle, is a close copy of Bozar, albeit chambered for the significantly more lethal .50 BMG rather than 5.56mm.
- Aerith's preferred close-range weapon is the M1928A1 Thompson submachine gun, otherwise known as the Tommy Gun or 'Chicago Typewriter'. For longer range situations, she carries a M1 Garand, mounting a scope.
- The 37mm autocannons found in Seahoof are identical in caliber and purpose to the M1A2 37mm autocannon mounted on the M15 CGMC anti-aircraft halftrack. Similarly, the 'steampipe' machine guns they find are nearly identical to the Lewis Gun.
- The 17-pounder tank gun Night Strike makes repeated references to when speaking in annoyance is most likely the one mounted in the turret of her fathers' TOG II, due to her familiarity with it.
- The XF/A-1 designated Harrier is a near-direct copy of the Hawker-Siddeley one, albeit mounting tesla cannons in place of autocannons.
External Links
- Static's beginning arc on FurAffinity.
- Night Strike's beginning arc on FurAffinity.
- Entire story on FiMFiction.