I'm making this thread sticky so we can keep track of it easier. What I'd like to do here is to make a list of all the Fallout: Equestria things which are in the story. The hope is to remove as many of them as possible, and anything which does serve the story we might be able to reimagine or rename it. I'll give a few examples.

* Rad Away is mentioned in chapter four. Can remove.
* Nyx's PipBuck can be changed from a computer bracelet on her foreleg to some other type of multifunction tool such as an implant.
* StableTec doesn't have to be called that. Apple Bloom could simply have her own private gadgetry business which contracts with the military.
* The Underground Hideout doesn't have to be a prototype Stable. Could be Apple Bloom's idea for giving Nyx a safe and secure home.
* EFS doesn't have to work like in Fo:E and Fallout. A general threat detection spell with intensity and direction is fine.
* Celestia wouldn't necessarily have to abdicate the throne entirely, but putting Luna in charge of the military as well as general leadership temporarily could have the same effect.
* The war could be caused purely by the zebras' superstition regarding Nightmare Moon. No gems/coal dispute necessary.
* The Ministries don't need to exist, but we can give Twilight a research institute and Fluttershy a hospital to run.
* Megaspells aren't necessary to follow their Fo:E development cycle, but they could still be used to immunize ponies across Equestria from the plague
* Littlehorn can probably stay as is. We can give the pink cloud a pass as well since that's tied in with Littlehorn.
* Ironshod Firearms might be able to stay as-is. It's an obscure reference.
* The black book doesn't necessarily have to be a black book or go by that name. As long as it's some object which carries the same properties.

A lot of it is up in the air at this point because the whole idea is still rather fresh. The story's overall health will go up the more it is distanced from Fo:E and any expectations of events taking place in the same manner as they do in that story.

5866956 , Call me "worried over nothing", but if you keep going through this process of changing older stuff after it's already up and running, how are you going to have time to just... write the story?

5866985

The progress in the story has become increasingly constricted largely due to the external restrictions from material irrelevant to the story. There's a lot of development continuously underway. Recent months have shown a lot of progress. But that development goes quicker when unimpeded by constantly trying to make sure it lines up with Fo:E.

This phase of the project over the past three months is, at minimum, a tripling in prose quality due to recent skill advancements. Chapter seven is nearly finished in its rewrite. After this, we'll focus on the prologue and bring it up to the same standard. Since there's some rewriting scheduled in the near future anyway, that is the most optimal time to remove unwanted elements from the story.

Future chapters are still being conceptualized as well, though at most, they will be outlined until it is their turn to be written out. For an example, see Chapter 17: The Battle of Withersberg, which has some decent progress in its outline. Though I am only able to focus on one thing at a time, and we are due to be publishing another new chapter soon. Hence the focus on chapter seven, which is looking really good.

Everything is working together simultaneously to try and bring the story to the best possible status in as efficient a manner as possible. As such, it's not necessarily a matter of linear advancements in writing chapters after one another. I'm fairly confident that removing burdensome aspects to the story's development process will accelerate things overall.

5866985

After some consideration, I think you're probably right in that at this time, it's not a good idea to actually remove these Fo:E elements. A lot of them are woven too deeply into the narrative to just yank straight out. At the very least, though, we should be able to document them so when the time comes, it's easier to clean them up.

5866956
Memory Orbs. Though these can easily be renamed or repurposed, considering the downright sinister applications the MoM applied to them, any reason will be better.

Healing potions I think you can get away with. They're a generic 'adventure' item in DnD stories and the like and your's are significantly different from the original anyway

I was thinking with EFS, rather than having that be a part of a PipBuck, it could be an experimental threat detection spell which Nyx is developing herself. It could go something like this:

Nyx casts the spell with her horn, and there's some sort of delay before red vapor begins to coalesce in front of her in a circle, forming solid red contact markers in the direction of enemies. Maybe this takes 5-10 seconds to finish casting, at which point, there would be a "map" of sorts having manifested physically and showing hostile threats.

This makes her spell unique to the Nyx² universe rather than being like Fallout. And it is far less likely to be overpowered. Nyx is already powerful, so having a built-in enemy detection HUD is a little over the top. It would be much less useful if she has to keep moving, and it would be entirely useless in the middle of a fight.