The Ones That Stick With Me · 12:26pm Jan 26th, 2014
"Are you ever going to write a sequel to Fallout: Equestria?" I'm willing to bet that's the question I've been asked more than any other. 
There are a few reasons why I have sworn to myself not to write a sequel. The first is simply this: the epic story that I really wanted to tell has been told. It wouldn't be right to try to top it just for the sake of doing so. And, as a fan once stated, any attempt "would lack the scale and gravitas of the original." More importantly, as I've said before, I don't want to step on the toes of all the other wonderful authors who have used Fallout: Equestria as a jumping-point for their own Wasteland stories. Many authors strive to keep their stories as canonical as possible to Fallout: Equestria. The absolute last thing I would want to do is to discourage someone from continuing their story by suddenly rendering it "impossible in canon".
However, none of that logic and best of intentions has kept my creative mind from dreaming up ideas for stories set in the world that I created with Fallout: Equestria. Most of these are flights of fancy whose appeal evaporates in under a month. But there are four story ideas that have persistently knocked on the door of my mind. For most of them, I'll occasionally mull one over for a week or two before shelving it again. (Mind you, even if I decided to, none of these ideas are fully formed enough to start writing, each lacking crucial elements.) For the first, I found another way of bringing the story to life. And the last? I know another skilled author is already telling their own tale of what would be a vital part of that story, and I just learned a couple days ago that another part of it is about to be tackled by one of the community's incredible artists. (It is that news, in fact, that stirred up these stories in my head again and drove me to make a blog post about them.)
So I have no idea if this will be interesting to anyone else, but if I don't at least write about them, they're going to eat my brain. 
These are the story ideas that have stuck with me:
Fallout: Beyond Equestria
Radiation -- ghouls need it to live, Red Eye's engines need it to run. But the Gardens of Equestria have eliminated all radiation from Equestrian lands. The afterword Ten Years Later ends the story of Fallout: Equestria with the shadow of a new energy crisis on the horizon. Set decades after the Gardens of Equestria, this story starts with an ambitious and dangerous proposal to build and detonate a megaspell in a geographically secluded part of Equestria for the purpose of creating an irradiated zone. But when (a very elderly) Fluttershy (the only pony who can reconstruct megaspell technology) politically kills the proposal, an private entrepreneur decides to circumvent the NCR Council and mount an expedition into the heart of the zebra lands to find and retrieve a balefire bomb. Fallout: Beyond Equestria follows that expedition into the unexplored places beyond the Equestrian Wastelands. But in the zebra lands, things are not as they seem. And the new threat which has taken hold there is ready to turn its eyes towards the expedition ponies' homeland.
This story is actually being told. With this one, I have a great plot idea, and a setting that allows all manner of new world-building... but no ideas for characters. And that made this perfect to be reworked as a Fallout: Equestria roleplaying campaign. You've already seen bits of the tale in my Crystal Empire blogs (part one and part two).
Fallout: Above Equestria
Lucky Strike is a pegasus, a non-citizen civilian, and a provider for his family. When his wife needs medical treatment, despite being a pacifist, he is driven to join the military in order to gain citizenship... just weeks before a "megaspell terrorist attack" plunges the Enclave into war with the world beneath the cloud curtain. The story would first follow Lucky Strike and the fellow recruits of his squad in the first days of the war, then Lucky Strike and his family as outcasts struggling to survive on the surface, and finally Lucky Strike and those who soar with him as heroes in the Pegasus Civil War.
This story would play a lot with perceptions of the events in Fallout: Equestria from the point of view of those on the other side of the original story's final conflict. It would also allow for a lot of development of the Enclave and pegasus society. A major thematic element in this story would be family. And one of the ideas that I've toyed with is introducing an alicorn character in part two (based loosely on an RPG character) who would have some very different concepts of family -- both from Unity and from her previous life as a raider. This story has a lot of conceptualized scenes and characters, a solid beginning, some strong moral themes and great potential for world building... but only the sketchiest ideas for the plot arc and character arcs. It's nowhere near something that could be written. (I'm also not a real fan of the title.)
Fall and Rise
Littlepip inspired the ponies of the Wasteland to rise up and make things better. The Wasteland Crusaders were young, idealistic ponies who took up the call for heroes. On the other end of the spectrum, the two heroes "Lion & Mouse" served as a counterpoint to the Wasteland Crusaders -- powerful, weathered veterans with a more cynical, vigilante agenda. In that, they served their purpose in the story well. However, they were introduced late in the story, with little "screen time" and no character development -- they were already at the end of their personal, unseen story arcs. This story would be their story. Primarily, it would be Lionheart's story, beginning in the sunny days of an Equestria at war, and culminating with The Battle of Dragon Mountain.
This story is by far the least developed of the ideas, and has change both title and concept several times. One concept was to tell their stories through the eyes of others, each chapter being a snippet of someone else's life at a point where she or he crossed paths with either Lionheart or the dragon who would become Mouse.
The Search for Harmony
The closest idea to a direct sequel, but a radically different style of story, The Search for Harmony would be a slice-of-life story following the adventures of Calamity, Velvet Remedy, Ditzy Doo and Homage as they search for the final two Bearers for the Elements of Harmony. With occasional guidance from Littlepip (who is searching for promising candidates though the surveillance systems of the SPP), and the aid of the Life Bloom back home, the four will travel to all corners of Equestria in their quest. In the course of these adventures, they get involved in quests and situations stemming out of the consequences of Sunshine & Rainbows and the beginnings of the Pegasus Civil War, and have to deal with the ramifications of events in the original story. Along the way, they form the bonds of friendship that are key to the magic of the Elements.
This story would focus on the growth and development of the characters. The format of the story would be a lot like the television show Lost. Each chapter would focus on one of the four characters, and be told with present-day events inter-cut with scenes from their past. Calamity's chapters would explore his past growing up, his time with the Enclave, and his Wasteland experiences before meeting Littlepip. Velvet Remedy's chapters would explore her life in Stable Two, as well as events in the story from her perspective, including events that Littlepip wasn't there for (such as everybody else's adventure while Littlepip was alone in Fillydelphia). Ditzy Doo's flashbacks would span experiences as far back as show-era Equestria. And Homage's would tell tales of her adventures with Jokeblue, Tenpony conspiracies, and how she became worthy to be the next DJ Pon3. These chapters would help show how each of these characters became who they are, and the trials of their virtues that forged them into suitable Bearers of the Elements of Harmony.
The story would also include occasional "Interludes" that would shift away from the four to look in on Life Bloom as he struggles with the massive bulk download of two months of Littlepip's memories and all her associated commentary. (Life Bloom is, after all, the only pony who has the magical talent to view those memories without taking two months to do so.) These Interludes would also detail Life Bloom's decision to create both The Book of Littlepip and the Repository -- the latter being a historical archive featuring the entirety of Littlepip's two months of memories divided amongst hundreds of memory orbs -- and the Twilight Society intrigue surrounding the hotly contested decision to make the Repository open to the public. (After all, The Book of Littlepip would certainly become a very inconvenient truth for a lot of people, and there would be plenty who would try to reinterpret, cast doubt or deny the events altogether no matter how widespread and overwhelming the collateral evidence -- we have holocaust deniers in the real world -- so Life Bloom and others would insist on having an available source of empirical evidence for any who wanted to check the veracity of The Book of Littlepip. But knowledge is power, and some ponies won't easily give up the chance to hoard it for themselves. Worse, Homage gave Littlepip a tour of the secret places of Tenpony... and while most of that happened between scene changes in the book, the memories are continuous, and that makes letting outsiders see them into a security threat.)
Obviously from the write-up, this last idea is the one that I have entertained the most. 
I havent even finished reading the original Fallout, so I forced myself to barely skim some of these summaries. Still, from what I did read, they seem like pretty good premises.
I wish I was equally full of good and compelling ideas.
p.s.
...nom nom nom...
I'm little curious to see what non-Fo:E stories you'd ever come up with, but that's just me. What you have here is pretty compelling in and of itself. I don't read any other F:oE fics, but I'd definitely try some of these.
I like the second story and the fifth.
1761016 Me too.
Blue Moon sounds amazing. There are simply not enough Homage fics.
I really like the last story as well.
I like all the ideas so far, Blue Moon would be quite intriguing, seeing as it Involves or might involve, Homage and Jokeblue.
Quite and interesting concept. look forward to see if you really do intent to make these.
Those all sound like excellent premises, though as with the others, the first and fourth sound particularly intriguing. I would personally love to see a rendition of the fourth, and IMO, the fact that it would be stylistically/thematically distinct whilst remaining faithful to the original makes it all the more interesting. New material that would not only provide new insight into the tale we already know and love, but show what happens afterwards as well (and possibly even answer a few pesky questions)? Yes, please.
Sworn against it or not, I can’t help but hope you might decide to give one or more of these ideas an actual shot someday, whether in long-form or just via a few shorts or side-stories. Anything is good coming from you, really.
(Bonus points if said story(s) include a cameo by a certain masked ghost …)
what no I'm totally not obsessed by the awesomeness of your headcannon I mean it no really you can't prove anything
Despite any flaws it may have had, Fallout: Equestria had a heart. You can literally feel the love that went into that story when you read it.
I don't care what your next story is about, I don't care if it's even fallout related at all... but please do not lose that spark. Write it because you want to write it, and I promise that it'll always be a story worth reading.
All this being said, the second and fourth stories sound the most interesting. If you ever started writing any of these, I'd be one of the first to jump on board your bandwaggon.
I just wanted to point out that you should NOT feel pressured to refuse to add to your own creation, just to keep others happy. You're the one who created the original, you can do with it what you will. Then again, it's your choice if you wish to not touch it.
Just my opinion.
I would read any of those stories; the premisas are intersting and with your talent I guess all off them have potencial to become wonderful fics, so if you ever write any of these I think that many people would enjoy the stories.
Awesome! Those do sound like interesting reads and ideas. And I guess that third idea might be called a simi-sequel?
Either way don't keep those ideas bottled up, write them out and who knows what you might make. When your ideas do come out on FIMfiction, I can't wait to give them a read.
Hmm, they all sound like awesome ideas, but if I had to pick one, it would probably be Fallout: Beyond Equestria. I always like the ones that cover a different part of the world than just Equestria.
While I dearly hope someone adopts these ideas, I'm ambivalent as to whether I want you to realize them. On the one hand, you obviously have a proven track record of making these kinds of stories work. On the other... well, you've noted the opposing arguments yourself.
In any case, fantastic ideas.
Interesting, I do wish I could write out even brief summaries of the quintillions of ideas having a brawl in my brain, I say do what you want, 'tis your life, your story, and your universe, and if anyone says otherwise, inject them with a syringe full of air and run away. I go now to play some new vegas, cya whenever I get back.
I would love to see any of those ideas written into stories.
Granted you said one of them already is kind of getting told as an RPG, maybe some litle summeries of the plot as that goes?
But yes, any of those would be amazing stories, as would anything you wrote. FOE related of not. You really shouldn't worry to much about making other works non-canon, since, well that's just the nature of fanfics. No one, or at least no one should, be upset if the show adds something later that renders a previous fic unable to mesh with canon. As long as it was as close as could be when it was written, it shouldn't matter to much.
Or you end up like way, way to many things in FOE, and manage to get made even closer to canon by later additions. Up to a point of course.
But yeah those are all great ideas. And of them, the last is the one I would most like to see. Even if it does quash my headcanon that Lifebloom really is the Element of Magic
As to not being as epic as the original. Again, why should it be? Do something smaller, more personal. Not every 'sequel' has to top the original, and often trying to do so is what leads to so many sequels sucking. Keep it varied.
Okay enough rambling. You are an amazing writer, and really hope you are able to write some of these, or any other story, at some point soon. I know I would love to read them and gush about how epicly amazing they are.
Forgive my ignorance but what is this roleplay game you keep talking about?
1761169 Fallout 3...just for you.
So, I know this is kind of off topic, but over the past two months, I've been really slowly rewriting the FOE TTRPG books. First, it was in an effort to make a more realistic fallout setting for just fallout, but stealing ideas from the FOE TTRPG. Now I'm writing addons for it that convert it back into pony. If you've ever played a heavily modded version of fallout, think that. Still in beta/alpha, but if you want to take a look at it for shits and giggles, let me know.
Also, I am all for you writing a prequel or something.
You could also write something post cloud-splosion, but that could turn into more of a slice of life thing....
I REALLY like the idea of The Search for Harmony, and I would love to see that.
I'd definitely read all of those.
Anyone else finding themselves getting immersed into the descriptions of these stories?
Seriously, how is that even possible...
1761169
1761255
The Fallout: Equestria tabletop roleplaying game. You can find it here.
There groups running games over IRC every day. (The game I run is on Wednesday.)
I would love to see more from you Kkat. I read FOE in one sitting, spanning 2 days and a bit over 12 hours... I am not ashamed to say by the end even my thoughts had the same structure as your writing. So I am a big fan, and I would like to see more of Velvet, Calamity, Homage and Little Pip. Especially how Pip and Homage are managing their on and off relationship.
But as long as you expand upon FOE anything new is highly appreciated
1761142
... or maybe that's the reason why the story keeps jumping over to Life Bloom in the Interludes.
1761393
That looks really cool. Where/how do i join a game?
1761426
The forums at Fallout Equestria Resource has a thread for people who are looking to star or join a game, as well as threads for running games and threads for rules discussion and development. The online games are run in side rooms of the #FalloutEquestria IRC on Canternet, which you can also find on that site.
I admit that I find myself most interested in the Above Equestria idea, since the Enclave has fascinated and kind of horrified me since I got the full scope of what they're about. I'm dying to know what it would be like for the average citizen of the clouds, especially after they learn the truth about their government. Guilt and redemption are two of my favorite themes. What kind of pony would pick which side in the civil war? Will there ever be a happy ending for the pegasi as a race?
Don't feel too much pressure to write this particular story first, though. I'll read this story no matter who writes it. Other commenters, this is your cue to send me links!
Go ahead and maybe start one or two of them, write some, and if it doesn't really click when writing them, don't write them. Or wait until later then add some here and there. I'll sometimes write things like that and I've had a few that haven't clicked, but am still going back to them, adding a few words or sentences here and there to see if it will click, ya know?
Just an suggestion, but it does help sometimes.
So, I just found this:
th02.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2012/071/3/5/fallout_equestria_movie_poster_concept__wallpaper__by_yamamoto114-d4shtm9.png
What do you think kkat?
The original is perhaps the best book I've read (Probably the longest too- not that I mind, it is really good after all). I'm not a fan of Mlp, nor am I one of fallout. I knew just enough for the story to make sense, though.
When I finished earlier this week (It took me a record five days to read, with about eight hours or more a day- gotta love flu season.) I was sad because I realized I read all .63 million words and had none left- I did try finding some sort of sequel but I had little luck finding anything I knew would be comparable to the original, even though there are more than likely many out there. (Internet why can't you sort by rating? That makes it much easier to find good stories). After seeing this blog post, I think I found the next step.
I can't help but wonder if the 42 reference in the totem amount is intentional, it among other things of the sort made it enjoyable. (Oddly enough we're reading 1984 soon for school, which I've already dabbles in. That reference was good too)
If only I could refer my friends to it without looking like a brony... (I'm quite sure they would enjoy it too) I'll work on it.
1761016 I second this. I'd like to see if you could do an equally lengthy, equally epic tale involving something else horse-related.
I think Fallout: Beyond Equestria would be the best because it explores new areas of the Fo:E universe with new characters. Search for Harmony would be a close second for a sequel and Above Equestria sounds like more of a side story/sequel. Fall and Rise is kinda eh, since you might step on some author's toes and tbh, i didn't care how little fic time Lion and Mouse got. They were awesome!
I do really like the last one as a story.
1761515
U wot m8.
Aside from that, I's recommend a story called Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons. You could probably find it on Equestria Daily with a quick use of Google. It's not the same thing as kkat's work, there are notable differences in writing styles (somehow FoEPH is even darker) but it is set in the same time frame and universe. It's getting to be just as long, too.
1761568 Yes, I'm not really a fan of the show, although by no means am I a hater on it (Maybe if I were younger I would like it). The reason I made this account (about an hour ago) is that I was a fan of the story. I do have to thank you for the lead though.
1761666
I am currently reading the Fallout: Equestria side stories Heroes and The Hooves of Fate. I can strongly recommend both of them.
Oh, I would so love to read any of these, but the one that catches my attention the most would have to be The Search for Harmony!
*sigh*
I make me want to write the Fallout idea I've sat on for years in favor of writing other things. I don't know how you actually imagined Unity to work for the individual alicorns, but the idea was that some time before Little Pip left her vault one of the alicorns lost her horn and her connection to Unity, and was unable to get it back. (There's a long explanation for how all that works.) She has to find her way and a personality in the pre-Little Pip Wasteland while dealing with severe separation anxiety and abandonment issues.
1761568 Actually Project Hoizons is about twice as long! As of it's latest chapter, it sits at 1,324,708 words, whereas the original has 607,357 words.Twice as long, and twice as dark in my opinion
1761666 You might want to check out one or all of these as well: Fallout Equestria Pink Eyes, Fallout Equestria Guise of Chaos, Fallout Equestria Heroes, Fallout Equestria Murky Number Seven, and Fallout Equestria Toward the Future
I actually like the last idea very much! It'll help answer some questions and explain some characters backstories that I've always wanted to know such as Homage
And is anybody else as excited as I am to see what Piecee01 has up his sleeve for Blue Moon? Because that looks very very promising
1761901
1761393
Seems like the war of the "Swedish subjugation of Norway" against Mucovy has a ceasefire until June now!
(My army thanks you for the reprieve, though, since Swedish occupied Moscow is cold.)
Though at this rate, it may well be until next January. (Especially if the use of megaword for length measurement applies to them too... or even kiloword
)
I want to see what you write next and I'm not even sure I want it to be Fo:E, but damn do these premises sound interesting.
1762052 Yeah you may want to start with Pink yes, it's one of the shortest. It and Guise of Chaos are the only two on that list that are finished too, if that helps you decide where to start
Oh come on, kkat.
Seriously? Spike my intrest in a follow up story again, even though you say youll never write one
Awwwwwww
Hey again K. You know what; so long as you actually find a primis for another FOE fic and are happy with the plot, charectures, and general idea for it; that should be all that matters. I do understand wanting to please fans, but if they truly are real fans they will like whatever you do. I`m not going to be all fangasmish and try to tell you what primis I like most; because ultimatly, that is your choice. I`ll like it simply due to the fact that I know it will be epic as hell.
Kkat,
I would go with "The Search for Harmony."
Not only is it more fleshed out, but it's more of a slice of life rather than an adventure fic. Anything that has to do with adventure is going to be compared to the original. Probably unfavorably. What you describe is more like an extended epilogue, which will compliment rather than compete with the original.
OMG "The Search for Harmony" sounds sooooo good! I would love to see that come to fruition.