Plans for San Palomino Blues (Rewrite or Brand-New FoE Story)

I know it's been a long while since I've updated San Palomino Blues, and I'm very sorry for that. Unfortunately, I've lost a lot of the motivation to keep on going with it because, in all honesty, it's not that great of a story in terms of quality. The pacing feels too quick and rushed, there's tons of teenage angst, and I hadn't planned ahead enough, which led to certain plot points happening faster than intended and new plot points being made up on the fly. It makes sense that it wouldn't be that great; it was my first story, I was still learning, and I was an angsty, edgy teenager when I first came up with the idea for the story. Still, that doesn't change that fact that it's not good. I know I said I wouldn't drop this story, but it seems like I won't be able to fully keep that promise.

However, there is still hope. While I've lost the motivation to keep going with this story in particular, I still want to write a fully completed Fallout Equestria story, and I want to make sure it's done right. So, I came to the decision to start my FoE story over from scratch. These leaves us with a couple of options: Either I go with a rewrite of San Palomino Blues (only this time it's more thought out and has less teenage angst), or I come up with an entirely fresh and new Fallout Equestria story. I've come up with a few ideas for other FoE stories that I could right, but I'm not sure which one to pick, so that's why I'm going to list them off and ask you guys which one sounds the most appealing. They are as follows:

1.) San Palomino Blues Rewrite
This option is, as the title says, a full rewrite of San Palomino Blues. As previously stated, I'll start over with less angst and more thought put into it. I'm also thinking of adding new/different characters while only keeping a select few, as well as coming up with new factions. I'll definitely be coming up with a new antagonist, because not only did the name 'Martyrs of Despair' sound super fucking cringy, but it was a flat-out rip-off of the Los Iluminados from Resident Evil 4. Think about it: an evil cult controlled by a parasite that wants to destroy/take over the world for no reason other than "They're evil". Funny thing is, that similarity had been completely unintentional. I didn't even have Resident Evil on my mind while writing the story, but I looked back at the story recently and realized "Oh my God, I straight up copy and pasted the Los Iluminados into my story by accident."

Something I will be keeping (if you all decide on the rewrite and not the other new ideas, that is.) is the moral this story is trying to teach. Like I said earlier, I came up with this story when I was an angsty teenager, and I hadn't originally come up with a moral or anything; I'd just been trying to write a dark and edgy story. However, when I'd actually gotten around to writing my story and published the first chapter (I was starting to grow out of my 'edgy is cool' phase by this point), I quickly had the realization that the story was terrible, angsty garbage, so I had to make several changes on the fly. One of those changes was adding a moral: "You shouldn't let the memory of lost loved ones weigh you down, but you shouldn't just 'move on' or 'get over it' by hiding away the memories and forgetting about them entirely. You should remember the time you spent together, and use that as a motivator to keep on living for their sake."

As you may have guessed from reading the story, Bunny has lost a lot of people he cared about, whether it be from death or abandonment. His 'solution' is to try and just forget about them entirely and pretend like they never existed. This also leads to him shutting people out and not getting close with anyone out of a fear that he would lose them too. Over the course of the story, Bunny would grow to realize this is wrong and that he should cherish the time he spends with those he cares about rather than shut them out. This would serve as both Bunny's character arc and the moral of the story. If you're interested in a San Palomino Blues rewrite, this is what you can expect from the story.

2.) Traumatized Special Ops soldier from the Great War gets frozen for 200 years just as the megaspells go off, and he wakes up in the wasteland.
Those of you that are fans of the Fallout games will recognize that this is extremely similar to-... ok, let's face it, this sounds like a total rip-off of Fallout 4's plot. While that is where I got the idea for the 'pre-war soldier get frozen for 200 years' part, the rest is original. There won't be any searching for a kidnapped infant son, no Minutemen, no Institute, none of that. Instead, the plot will be about a special ops soldier trying to overcome his trauma and redeem himself for the sins he committed during the war. I also want to include the events of his time during the war in the story, seeing the horrors he experienced and the bad things he has done (I was also considering having him develop a bond with Fluttershy during the war, but I haven't decided if this bond will be friendship or romance, I'll leave that up to you guys to decide). Including both his time during the war and his time in the wasteland leaves us with two options.

Option 1: Split it into two stories, Part 1 and Part 2. Part 1 would cover his time during the war, all the battles he's been in, the missions he's been on, his friendship and/or romance with Fluttershy, and then end with him getting frozen in a Stable for 200 years just as the megaspells drop. Part 2 would cover his time in the wasteland, including his search for redemption and inner-peace (He also has to stop an evil plot that's connected to his time during the war, but I won't go into too much detail on that to avoid spoilers). Option 2: Have both sides be included in a single story, with his time during the war appear as flashbacks, similar to what I was doing in San Palomino Blues. The first half of each chapter would be a flashback and the second half of each chapter would be the present. I'm personally leaning more towards option 1 because writing San Palomino Blues has shown me that balancing both the past and the present at the same time is extremely difficult. Not only is it tough to match them up in terms of pacing, but it forces the reader to follow two plots at once, which can be really confusing.

The one bump in the road that makes writing this story difficult is that I need a full timeline of events that happened during the Great War. That way, I can find a way to work the special ops soldier into the story without contradicting canon Fallout Equestria lore. Unfortunately, no matter where I look, I can't find anything that gives me a full summary of all the important events that happened during the war, or what order they occur in. It may just be that I'm not looking hard enough, but I haven't been able to turn up anything like that. If you guys know of any sources that can give a clear picture on the timeline of events during the Great War (Both what happened and when) then please let me know. Whether it be a YouTube video, a wiki page, a diagram someone made, anything like that.

3.) Human gets reincarnated as a pony in Fallout Equestria.
Pretty self-explanatory; a human from earth gets reincarnated into the world of Fallout Equestria and goes on their own journey. Someone on Reddit had given me this idea when they recommended it as a suggestion for a FoE story. I'm not sure if it's been done before or not, but I couldn't find any other FoE stories that went with this idea, so I figured it would be a nice addition to the list of possible new story ideas. Now, I'm not sure if the person getting reincarnated should be me (making it a self-insert) or if I should come up with an OC. I wouldn't mind making it a self-insert, but I'm already currently writing a self-insert story in the form of "Legend Slayer", so I'm not sure if that would be too much. Making an OC has some benefits for possible protagonists; the human that gets reincarnated doesn't necessarily have to be a brony. It could be any type of person, whether it be an average joe, a scientist, a soldier, a criminal, there's plenty of backgrounds to choose from. I haven't thought much about the rest of the plot, just the fact that a human gets reincarnated into FoE, but this is the basic idea of what to expect if this story interests you.

4.) Noir-style Detective Story
Fallout in general, not just Fallout Equestria, has always had a dieselpunk/atompunk aesthetic combined with post-nuclear apocalypse. Since the dieselpunk/atompunk genres take inspiration from the 1940's and 1950's era, when most noir mysteries and crime dramas take place, I figured a noir-style mystery wouldn't feel out of place in Fallout Equestria. This is especially true considering Fallout actually has a noir detective in the form of Nick Valentine from Fallout 4. Unfortunately, there's a catch: I'm not all that confident in my ability to write mysteries. I've tried coming up with mystery stories before, and it led to the realization that writing a good mystery is very difficult.

First of all, there can be zero room for plot holes, no matter how small, if the whole thing is going to make sense. Obviously, having no plot holes in a story is essential no matter what genre, but for mysteries, it's extra important to be sure that there are no mistakes. The reader is usually piecing together the clues and trying to solve the mystery as they read, so they'll be paying attention to every little detail. This means they'll more easily notice if certain parts of the story don't make sense, and if the mystery doesn't make sense, then the whole thing falls apart. You can't rely on suspension of disbelief as much as you can with other genres. Second, the mystery can't be obvious enough that the reader can figure out "Who dunnit?" right from the get-go. If they can, then there's no real point in even reading the story and solving the mystery, is there? At the same time though, it can't be too difficult to figure out or come out of nowhere. The clues have to build up to something, and the solution to the mystery needs to pay off. There has to be a balance between the two, where the reader can solve the mystery as they read, but only figure it out towards the end, when the truth is revealed. It takes a skilled writer to pull that off, and I'm not sure if I'm at that level yet.

Despite all that, I feel like this idea has potential and I wouldn't mind trying to write it. I would also need to decide if the story will be one long mystery, or several smaller self-contained mysteries/case files, but I will leave that up to you guys to decide. If this story idea interests you, then one of those two types are what you can expect from it.

5.) Something Else
If none of these ideas appealed to you, then I can try coming up with something else. If you have an idea for a Fallout Equestria story you'd want me to write instead, then feel free to share!

That's everything that I came up with. Feel free to leave your thoughts down in the comments and let me know which you would like to see. Personally, I'm very interested in the 'Traumatized Special Ops soldier gets frozen for 200 years and finds redemption in the wasteland' idea. About the only thing holding me back is the lack of a timeline for the Great War. However, I still want to hear what you guys want. It might be a long time before I actually get around to writing one of these stories because a.) I've currently got my hands full writing both "Legend Slayer" and "Devil May Cry: Demons in Equestria", and b.) I would need time to plan out the story ahead of time before actually writing and publishing it. Still, I do intend to eventually get around to writing a Fallout Equestria story, whether that be a rewrite or something new. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I'll talk to you all later!

P.S. for those waiting on the next chapter of Legend Slayer, it's almost finished and should be published soon. I try to set my deadline for finishing a chapter at least 1 month after the previous chapter was published, so it should be done by June 4th at the latest. I might go a day or two over, but you can expect it sometime around then.