Bookplayers post-season 4 headcanon patch (specific spoilers are under spoiler tags.) · 3:39pm May 10th, 2014
So, the finale does require a change to my default headcanon. I tend to assume my fics take place "vague amount of time after the canon which has aired so far" unless noted otherwise in the fic, and I keep a default headcanon which can be set aside for writing fics that would work better with a different set up. This would mess with my default headcanon unless I wanted to switch to setting fics before the finale, which I don't.
Besides the fact that once again we have a season ending with a large canon change and not a hint about how this might play out in episodes next season. I wish shows published a "fanfic bible" to just let us in on stupid details like this that no one really wants episodes about.
My new default headcanon is below the spoiler, feel free to use it yourself or alter to suit your needs.
This whole "castle in the middle of Ponyville" thing is going to mess with my fic ideas. (At least Twilight isn't the "Princess of Ponyville" or anything, that would just be weird.) Until canon proves me wrong, I'm going to headcanon thusly:
The castle is the base of operations for spreading friendship. Twilight is also going to make it a replacement library, because she kind of got the old one blown up. Twilight will have it open to the public and set aside some rooms as a public/personal library. She'll live there of course, but she'll believe (even insist) that it belongs to all of her friends and they're welcome to consider it their home as well. Most won't take her up on it, because they already have homes, but it will be an option for fics set in the future.
She might also keep a small staff of ponies to clean and such, probably hired from local ponies, but I doubt she'd have permanent guards. If anything, a cute fic could be about her needing some guards for the weekend that an important pony is coming to stay, and rounding up ponies from town and slapping some armor on them.
I also won't rule out the idea of future fics where Twilight gets a home of her own (a la The Homesteading) and considering the castle her "office." There are a few reasons she might want to do that (a castle seems like it might be a little too big to really be comfortable living space, it would cost a lot to keep running, and she might not want to raise foals there.) Of course, that would depend on the pony she ended up with.
So, that's how I'm thinking, unless it makes sense to do something different for an individual fic. Anyone else have any thoughts on that, or headcanons of their own to share?
Thoughts about finale
BEST FINALE EVER
I... entirely agree with everything you have said on everything.
Plus two rooms set aside for Applejack and Rainbow for sexors.You'll see mine as it unfolds. A fair amount of the finale rolls right in with what I'm doing, in a peculiar way.
2095749
…with Rarity sneaking into Applejack's room, clearly
2095788 You know it's true.
Ambris and Bookplayer and all of us know it's true.
2095801 No.
Twi/Dash/Jack are preparing an imperium. Well, Twilight is, because she's smart enough to do it. They're all just along for the ride.
The library tree:
Has always been my favorite example of earth pony biomancy, and Ponyville's still an earth pony town. They'll just plant a seed, all take turns looking at it real hard for a couple months, and viola! Good as new!
Mike
2095835
That's also possible, but still begs the question of where Twilight and Spike will live. That has a kind of tonal effect on a lot of slice-of-life type fics. Not to mention being a little annoying because if you wanted other ponies to stop by for reasons other than Twilight, and happen to stumble on Twilight doing something, that's a bit harder if she's living in a non-library castle.
Of course season five will probably give us answers, but there's a lot of writing to do between now and then.
2095875 I'm also glad for those of us who want to dabble into action/war stories she now actually has a fortress of sorts, and despite her Dragonball level powers in the show, it was clearly a one shot weapon. So that's nice too.
Regarding your spoilers...
Big mac in armor. Yes please.
2095801
2095835
I'm actually wondering if the tree is truly destroyed. Previous uses of Rainbow Power (tm) have resulted in a World-Healing Wave - which cleaned up all of Discord's mess and fixed Rarity's tail. It's possible this time it repaired the damage Tirek did, including the library.
Nah, Twilight won't even bother making it a public library. She's learnt by now that everyone in ponyville is so illiterate they won't ever even want any books.
I really like the idea of the castle belonging to all the mane Six; each having their own room, coming and going as they please, etc.
Since you put spoiler tags on your post, I'll put them on my comment.
To me, the episode left very much in question just how accessible that Rainbow Power is. They probably have to be together to do it (I say that just because of Twilight's "I think we need to do this together!") but really, I don't actually know that for sure. Also, do they have to return to the big Crystal CastleHouse to power up? Do we even know for sure that they continue to have access to that power at all? I mean, the box is empty now.
So yeah, I have a bunch of questions there. But oddly enough, they don't bother me so much. I look forward to hopefully seeing some interpretations of it in fanfics between now and then, and I also look forward to just going with it when Season 5 comes along and we (probably) get some clarification.
In any case, the finale left me happy.
P.S. - I am SO looking forward to and hoping for some action from that Circle of Thrones in the future.