I am not certain where you would have to be living to know that My Little Pony made a comeback in a serious way with My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Unlike other shows that are targeted for pre-teen girls, this new My Little Pony has gained a following amongst older men. I’m not certain who came up with the term “Bronies”, but it is probably the best description of this new generation of My Little Pony fans.

As someone who has children of my own, I find that My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is one of the only shows that I can watch with my children that does not feel dumbed down. In fact, I am often amazed at the intelligent levels that Friendship is Magic goes, and the characters are also pretty well done. There are a few episodes that I find to be kind of “girly”, and this includes the recent Equestria Girls movie where the pony characters become human. However, there are some episodes that are downright epic in scale, and can be compared to great fantasy literature, which is currently not a genre that regularly appears on television except for Once Upon a Time and A Game of Thrones.

My Little Pony can be found almost everywhere on the Internet today thanks to viral videos, fan forums, and fan fiction. One of the most popular fan fiction is Fallout: Equestria, which is a mix of the popular Bethesda Fallout 3 video game and My Little Pony. Perhaps you never would have thought to mix those two, but the story has gained quite a following online.

I had an opportunity to talk with the author, who is simply known as Kkhat to see what the creator had to say about it. You can read the full interview after the jump.

1) So, I just have to ask this question: How did you decide to mix Fallout 3 and My Little Pony together?

I have a strong love for both Fallout and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The inception of the idea was an artwork by Dan Shive called “Pony Vegas”. It was a wonderful piece, playing on my twin loves of Friendship is Magic and the Fallout series of games. But at the same time, it didn’t make sense within the context of the show. The picture prompted me to try to figure out how you could make the combination of Fallout and Friendship is Magic make sense both chronologically and thematically. I wanted to share Friendship is Magic with my friends in a Fallout online community, and thought that such a story would be a perfect vehicle to do so.

2) Is the character of LittlePip based on someone you know?

Littlepip wasn’t inspired by any person. Instead, I created the character around a set of requirements I had for the story’s protagonist. For example: I wanted Littlepip to be an accessible character, and I wanted her to start out as an underdog so that the reader could empathize with her and root for her. Part of the way I did this was by making her very average, giving her no special talents and only a modicum of skill. I also started her out as relatively impotent magically, at least compared to any unicorn on the show.

Additionally, I left most of her physical details, such as her coloration, unspecified so that the reader could envision her however came naturally — her small stature, her cutie mark and the fact that she was a unicorn mare were the only initial physical characteristics I supplied.

I made her naive and sheltered, a Stable Dweller, so that she would be experiencing the Equestrian Wasteland for the first time along with the reader. Likewise, I wanted her to be a unicorn because of the roles that both the pegasi and to the philosophy of the Earth Pony Way would have later in the story.

I gave her several vices and negative qualities that would trip her up throughout the story. This served not only to help make her a more-developed and realistic character, but helped me avoid the pitfall of creating a Mary Sue. (In fact, part of designing Littlepip involved looking at several of the characteristics of a Mary Sue and saying “okay, let’s do the opposite of that”.)

3) Certain characters in Fallout Equestria seem to reflect the main characters on Friendship is Magic. For example, Calamity resembles Applejack. Was this deliberate?

Yes. I wanted to design Littlepip’s first two companions to be evocative of the show. While they needed to be unique, well-rounded characters who were crafted with their plot arcs in mind, I also wanted them to echo back to the show in a way that helped the readers really feel they were reading My Little Pony characters and not just people who happened to be ponies.

To do this, for each completely unique characteristic I gave Calamity, I also gave him a characteristic from Applejack and one from Rainbow Dash. The resulting gestalt gave me a character who was recognizably My Little Pony while making him a character significantly different from any of the characters in the show. Velvet Remedy was created through a similar process.

4) I realize that Fallout 3 has a kind of a dark humor aspect to it, often satirizing “Duck and Cover” mentality. Mixing My Little Pony with Fallout 3 brings the ponies to a level that will not be seen on Friendship Is Magic. I don’t think I am giving anything away when I say that Fallout Equestria goes into some pretty dark places. Was there ever a time when you realized that: “Oh, I’m really writing something dark here”?

Oh very much yes. But Fallout: Equestria isn’t a story about darkness — it’s not about blood and mutilation, sadism and death. Instead, Fallout: Equestria is a story about standing up against evil no matter the cost. It is a story about lighting candles in the darkness. About the value and vulnerability of virtue, and the necessity and strength of friendship.

None of which really works as powerfully or successfully without darkness. You cannot stir a reader’s soul with a tale of lighting candles against the slight dimness. As the character from the show Pinkie Pie would point out, the call to stand against evil isn’t very compelling when the villain is The Dreaded Bringer of Cotton Candy and Chocolate Milk.

I believe that darkness, when utilized to a more poignant and noble end, can be a beautiful thing.

5) Why did you use a one word paragraph for every chapter. Did you ever feel limited by that, along with the quotes at the beginning?

The one-word opening for each chapter allowed me to immediately set a theme or to grab the reader’s attention and draw the reader in. It was a stylistic choice that was limiting at times, but I was very pleased with the results.

The quotes for each chapter were either taken from one of the episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, or was a quote from one of the Fallout games. In the case of the latter, the quotes were then reworded to fit into the Equestrian Wasteland setting. The quotes were often used to provide foreshadowing, or to reinforce connections.

6) Now, you had some help editing this work, right? Did your editors come up with things that you didn’t think of?

After the first few chapters, I had several wonderful individuals offer to proofread and edit for me. This was no small task considering the size of the story and the speed at which I was writing it. We spent about ten hours a week in proofreading sessions, many of which went late into the night. My two editors sacrificed days off and proper sleep to see that this story was the best it could possibly be.

My team didn’t influence the plot and content of the story itself, but they ensured it was readable.

7) The story is quite long, and I have seen a hard copy that is five volumes. Did you ever think that perhaps the story was too long, or perhaps not long enough?

The story is definitely longer than I anticipated when I started writing. Fallout: Equestria was written with a “five arcs” structure in mind, and the fan printing was broken up into five volumes according to that. The story was written as a serialized novel, a type of writing that tends to produce extremely lengthy works. I do think it is too long in the sense that its length frightens away many people who might otherwise read the story. (Imagine if either the Lord of the Rings trilogy or the Harry Potter series had been written as a single tome!)

There are definitely elements that I wish I could have expounded upon more than I did. But both the size and pacing of the story, particularly in the escalating final volume, didn’t allow for that. There is certainly room for more stories to be told.

8) Tell us how you planned out this story.

Fallout: Equestria was envisioned as two stories in one. First, you have the standard hero’s journey of the protagonist. But this was combined with a sort of “in medias res” story about Equestria itself, from the start of the war to the path it was set to follow after the protagonist’s journey is over.

The very first element of the story that I worked on was creating a timeline which transformed the Equestria of the cartoons into an Equestria Wasteland in the style of the Fallout games. I didn’t want to just transport ponies into a post-apocalyptic setting. I wanted the world of the story to be grounded in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and to evolve out of it in a way that would come across as a possible (if extremely unlikely) future rather than an alternate universe.

After that, I laid out the bare-bones of the story, plotting out the major arcs and subplots. I think of my writing method as a “connect the dots” approach. I created a skeleton for the story, listing major plot elements, vital scenes, thematic points, Chekhov’s Guns and so forth. Those would be my “dots”. When I sat down to start writing, I knew all the most important “dots” for the overall story, which one to start with and which one to end with, and what the overall picture was going to be. I’d start writing at the first “dot” and proceed towards the next.

This way, I didn’t know everything that was going to happen. I had room for inspiration to take control. This kept the story fresh for me. I believe that if I had already known everything that was going to happen, writing the story would have become tedious.

I did not only for the story as a whole, but for each chapter as the story progressed. After each chapter was posted, I would read all the comments that came in and take a couple days to digest them. I would then spend the slow hours at work brainstorming and creating a list that included scenes I wanted, conversations that needed to take place, and critical plot points that needed to be touched on – creating the “dots” for the next chapter.

9) I heard that you maxed out on comments on Equestria Daily, is that true? Isn’t the Fallout Equestria in another place on the web now, and generating a lot of comments there?

Yes. In fact, a second webpage had to be created to handle the wealth of reader feedback.

When I started writing Fallout: Equestria, I was posting it on a Fallout gamer community website. I doubted that I would get many readers, if any. I was hoping for a handful of dedicated readers whom I might introduce to the joys of Friendship is Magic through the story.

Later, I started posting to Equestria Daily because the story was suffering from a lack of feedback. But even there, all I was hoping for was a dozen or two readers, and I was praying that I would get some who weren’t shy about giving me feedback. I was, after all, fusing together Fallout and Friendship is Magic, two universes that most people couldn’t imagine having anything in common, in a story that was both epic and completely serious. I was rather surprised I had any readers. I certainly didn’t expect the story to blossom like it did under the amazing amount of support and response that I got from the brony community. The outpouring from the brony community vastly exceeded my expectations, leaving me stunned, humbled and unimaginably grateful.

10) Are you pleased with any of the fan art and/or spin-offs that have stemmed from Fallout Equestria? This would be a time to put them in the spotlight.

I won’t pick favorites. But I will say that I am in awe of the creativity, talent and generosity that so many fans of Fallout: Equestria have displayed, giving back to the community by creating works of their own inspired by this story. I am honored that my story has inspired so many.

11) Is there anything else that you want to say? Anything that you want to talk about that I didn’t think of?

The brony fans of Fallout: Equestria drove me not only to continue writing, but to try to make the story the best possible version of the story that it could be. I was so overwhelmed by the positive responses, the art, the music, the side stories… and just the sheer love I was feeling from this community… that I knew I needed to do right by all of them. I needed to do my best, and always strive to do better. I owed it to them.

To them I say: I love you all. This story is as much yours as mine. Without you, Fallout: Equestria wouldn’t have been possible. What I will cherish most, however, are the friends I have found in this community over these last few months. Friendship is magic. Thank you so very much.