This was a good read. Hope to see more stories from you.

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Hopefully more come to mind.

I'd considered a prequel story splitting between Gritt and Crimson as the protags. Gritt's side would cover his upbringing in Fillydelphia, the four years he was stuck under post Red Eye warlords following the events of Fallout: Equestria, and him getting out and going freelance. Crimson's would go into his early life with Gawd and Stern, and his descent into becoming a monster under Red Eye.

I'm currently reading Longtalons to get more context on that setting. I might read Murky Number Seven but it's one MILLION words long and I am very intimidated by such a massive text.

Washout in heavy armor: Can consistently pull off Rain-booms if she tries.

Washout in light armor: Can pull off consecutive Rain-booms and utilize them in complex maneuvers.

Washout in no armor:

It took me a long time, but I finally finished the story and I'm glad I did. It's good to see that things mostly worked out for Rosegold, Gritt, Hippogriffia, and most of his companions. Washout, of course, would have to live on in memory only.

I also really liked a lot of the ideas portrayed in the story, from fleshing out Hippogriffia in the Fallout: Equestria setting, the setup and resolution of their conflict with the dragons, to the Pearl that has obvious connections to hippogriffs' ability to transform into seaponies, to fleshing out griffon culture and history, to some of the new ideas like seadogs, and tying in elements from Fallout 4 or references from New Vegas that didn't make it into the original story.

One thing did puzzle me though, and it's possible I just missed something since I read the story over a protracted period, but I was surprised that Knight was able to self-destruct like she did since she said earlier that she'd tried to find ways to destroy herself. Was that something she picked up after defeating Cozy?

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One thing did puzzle me though, and it's possible I just missed something since I read the story over a protracted period, but I was surprised that Knight was able to self-destruct like she did since she said earlier that she'd tried to find ways to destroy herself. Was that something she picked up after defeating Cozy?

Yes, she made that modification then without mentioning it, knowing Rosegold would have protested it. Cozy's body provided unique materials and code that allowed her to make such a change without her talismans overriding it.

It is only vaguely mentioned, but Knight wandered the wasteland a century prior to current events. She did what she enjoyed, helping people. Until she stumbled onto a zebra settlement. She couldn't handle the guilt of what followed, and came to the conclusion she was too dangerous to exist. After numerous attempts to destroy or alter herself, she resigned herself to isolation in the sub-lab she was created in.

The close call she had outside Glyphmark reminded her that she would never not be a threat.

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No rush, but I think you'll really like Pushing Daisies. It's much shorter than The Storm.

The most basic synopsis I can give is; I made Vault 108 depressing.

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I have to ask. Who was your favorite character?

In Longtalons, mine has to be Kasimir. He just seems so real. His motivations are relatable and understandable, and I admire him trying to do what little good he can get away with in such terrible circumstances.

Carmelita is a close second for her snarky attitude.

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While Rosegold had a good character arc and seeing the perspective from a hippogriff was cool, I think I'd have to pick Knight as my favorite for a few reasons. I'm fond of academic, support, and healing characters in general, as Kaz from Longtalons probably made obvious, but the juxtaposition of her also being a deadly combat robot makes it even better. I wouldn't say she was naïve exactly, but there was an understated innocence or at least willingness to look past mistakes and forgive that I'm also very fond of.

I'd guess Rosegold was your favorite since he's the POV character for the story, but sometimes that can change as you write. I'd agree that Kaz was my favorite for Longtalons, and I certainly enjoyed writing Carmelita more than most characters, but I think I found Heidi edging her out as my second favorite by the end of the story.

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Knight edged out as my fave over Rosegold by the end. It's why I couldn't have her stay dead. I couldn’t do that to the deadly metal cinnamon bun.

3rd would be Gritt, because I was able to connect so much of the original FOE to him, and give those events another perspective like you did with Longtalons.

If there's a character I wish I'd done more with, it's Purser. Aside from a few moments, she was admittedly relegated to keeping the Gilded Gull from falling apart. I guess that's why I made not having agency part of seadog culture. It wasn't until Rosegold made her captain of her own ship that she was ever in control of her own life.

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Facing the Darkness again without Knight was Rosegold's final test that he really had changed.
__

“That got her! She crashed right into that abandoned village. Made a hell of a crater, must have busted into a cavern of some kind. Wait… New contacts! Bat ponies!? All forces, engage! Have a squad confirm our kill!”

Lilith… They’re not a match for Enclave soldiers.

“What do you mean there’s no sign of a body? Soldier, several-ton dragons don’t just vanish!”

“There’s no dragon down here, sir. Just some kind of weird mural thing. Wait… Something’s coming out of it!”

The chatter became screaming, then static. The Raptors’ radar blips winked out on our scanners. All eyes fell on me as the Vetera’s command center went silent. Novabeam's expression turned from confusion to worry as she saw my eyes go wide and my breath become rapid. They couldn’t understand how a dying dragon could disappear, then reappear and immediately destroy two cloud ships. I, however, knew exactly what happened. The Darkness had a new host.

The Vetera's crew:
media.tenor.com/_BiwWBWhYucAAAAd/what-huh.gif

Rosegold:

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I agree about Purser, and have to admit that I frequently forgot she was part of the story until she was mentioned. Unfortunately that can happen when writing, especially if you don't have a solid and detailed plan for each character going in, and even then it can mutate in ways that take your plans off of the rails.

I've never been able to write details outlines for stories so I know how it is. I'd argue Isaac was the worst casualty of this in Longtalons, but Isaac, Leigh, and Serge all suffered a bit from lack of spotlight and plans. Sometimes it's okay though. Not every character needs to be that important.

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I was glad to see it make a return, actually. It's been a very long time since I watched the cartoon so I don't remember if it was a reference to something there, or some other FO:E story, but I was worried that it was something you were going to just mention in that one spot in the story and then it would never end up mattering again.

Serving as a bookend for Rosegold's arc was also a good use for it in that regard, though if he was the only person really familiar with it he might have done what he could to stop it anyway since it would have ultimately threatened everything. He certainly faced it with a much more selfless attitude than he otherwise might have though, and I'm sure at the beginning of the story he would have just found the destruction of the Enclave as convenient.

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He certainly faced it with a much more selfless attitude than he otherwise might have

One would really have to admire the cojones. In terms of destructive capacity, the Shadow Dragon was effectively a sentient mega spell, who had been spending the past several hours curb stomping one of the wasteland's strongest military powers. Rosegold proceeded to get on the radio and say "Square up. Here's where you can find me."

I'm sure at the beginning of the story he would have just found the destruction of the Enclave as convenient.

Most certainly, considering his thoughts on using the Pearl to deal with them pre-implant.

“Once I have the entire Pearl, I’ll help you. If it's that strong, beating the Enclave will be a breeze.” I chuckled. “I could just turn them all into earth ponies and watch them fall out of the sky.” The thought tickled me, such a ‘superior’ race stripped of what makes them strong before plummeting to their deaths.

Despite having the most reason to hate the Enclave, even Slash's reaction to that was

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A little lore dump as to why Knight specifically ended up a healer...

At the time of her creation, Cozy was terminally ill. She'd been staving off her sickness by gradually replacing failing organs with cybernetics.

When Knight’s soul began to take shape, she subconsciously recognized that her creator, her mother, was sick and dying, and wanted to help her.

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Since we don't really know how robots think in FO:E or indeed how they could even acquire a soul, that seems plausible enough to me. I figured they came in different levels of sophistication, with the most complex ones out of necessity being designed to think like a normal sapient creature. That would probably inevitably lead to them being able to make up their own minds on what they wanted to do to some degree, no matter what they were built to do.

I imagine Cozy would have done things differently to encourage a more militaristic mindset for Knight if she knew that would happen, but ultimately that may not have changed much if Knight was intelligent enough to realize what was going on, as she clearly was.