Some Potential Stories - 09/02/14 · 5:21am Sep 3rd, 2014
Introduction
Here are some story ideas I've been kicking around. Some of them have short segments written, too short yet to post even as single chapters.
Celestial Mechanics Teen Adventure Celestia, Luna, Discord, Mane Six around YOH 15
The time has come at least for some long-overdue maintenance on the kludged-together geocentric Solar System that Celestia, Luna and Discord created around 4000 years ago to save the Earth from Destruction. Alicorns (and one Draconequus) Assemble for the most-momentous act of grease-jockeying our star system has ever seen! Just be careful of what has taken up residence in the 11-dimenisonal clockwork over four millennia -- and watch out! -- lest a spanner in the works trigger a second Cataclysm ...
And a Pretty White Tail-Bow Teen, Sex, Gore Adventure, Romance, Sad, Tragedy Other Characters 15-5 Years Before The Megan
Young Wind Whistler and Pathfinder are lovers, meeting for Festival once a year when the Big Brother Pegasi come to visit. The smartest young Ponies of their cohort, they dream of growing to adulthood and finding allies for Ponykind and averting the annihilation of their species. When an ill fate befalls Pathfinder, Wind Whistler is left to carry on their dream alone -- and to find a way to use her wind dancing to avenge her lost love.
His Mark On History Teen, Gore Adventure, Dark, Tragedy Other Characters YOH 1500
For centuries the Speakers of the Running Water, a small nation of Ponies dwelling in the Bloody Mountains of southeastern Taura, have been dominated by the Griffon Empire. But now young First Strong Messenger prepares to strike a heroic blow against his nation's oppressors. Come, watch his thrilling struggle against foreign domination, as he makes his mark on history!
But is he a pawn in a greater game?
(about 3300 words written so far).
Diamond Bell Teen, Sex AU, Slice of Life, Romance, Sad Rarity, Fluttershy, Mane Six, Original Character YOH 1496-1504
What if 14-year-old Rarity had been able to bear, instead of losing, her child? This is the story of Rarity and her business partner Fluttershy, of the fashion design house they found -- Rare Wind, and of the colt which Rarity raises with a little help from her best friend. And also, peripherally, of Golden Harvest "Carrot Top" Carrot and Ditzy "Derpy Hooves" Doo - the bearers of the Elements of Generosity and Kindness.
(about 2000 words written so far)
A Long Morning at Sweet Apple Acres Teen Adventure Big Mac, Apple Bloom, Other Characters
When Nightmare Moon returns, the Sun does not rise, and creatures erupt from the Everfree. Big Mac must lead the defense of Sweet Apple Acres, lest the monsters devour his family and the forest reclaim their farm. Can one big red stallion make the difference in saving the Apples on the Longest Night?
(about 1950 words written so far)
Conclusion
Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas on these story concepts? How do they strike you?
Hmm--well, of course, what I most want to see is Pinkie Sense and Sensibility! My choice from the ones you mentioned is probably A Long Morning At Sweet Apple Acres. I'd like to see what Big Mac was up to while his sister was off saving Equestria.
2423978
I really should finish Chapter 3 of PSaS, especially as I have one of the best scenes in it written already.
I think there's a lot of story potential in ALMaSAA, because it introduces my version of a lot of Apples, including Green "Granny" Apple Smith (an old friend and comrade of Inkwell's), Apple Strudel the literally lethal chef (he's an ex Night Watch agent who can compound poisons and explosives out of ordinary kitchen compounds), sweet lil' Apple Fritter who is an utterly-deadly battle-fatigued veteran of the Gulf River War (with major survivors' guilt as much of her unit was wiped out), and of course Big Mac who is as always Made of Awesome
Even ditzy Apple Bumpkin is tough by any normal standards. My Apples are a Badass Family.
Thus making her even more awesome than she already was.
A long Morning at Sweet Apple Acres. Big Mac rocks. Only sad part is no Pinkie with him.
Speaking of which I also vote for Pinkie Sense and Sensibility lol.
Diamond Bell sounds very interesting...especially because it'd let us see the rarity/fluttershy dinamic in a whole new environment and light.
Although I have a feeling what fluttershy would get out of it (if bad thing has happened already) is that males always defect.
Celestial mechanics sounds most interesting, I guess. The rest don't really grab me from the description.
I'd be interested in reading Celestial Mechanics, and maybe His Mark on History and A Long Morning at Sweet Apple Acres.
I'm also going to vote for Celestial Mechanics.
They all sound fascinating for different reasons. I'm most interested in Celestial Mechanics, and best pony's tangential presence in Diamond Bell intrigues me.
That being said, you do have a number of active stories waiting for updates as it is. I can certainly sympathize with the allure of new projects, especially if your muse is as easily distracted as mine, but still...
2424393
Yeah, my problem is that I now work full-time, ideas come to me on the train, but I can't really work on existing stories during the commute. Maybe I should print some of the half-completed ones out and carry them around with me so that I can write them during my commute.
I have more story ideas than these five, too -- I was just listing the ones that were either partially-done or particularly-unique ideas.
I should finish the ones I have already posted chapters on, though, Scoots2 is right about that. Soon I will have been writing for fimfiction a whole year; I've assembled a decent corpus of work in that year, and most importantly I've been proving to myself that I can start and finish long writing projects. Four complete novellas (Dragonshyness, Nightmares Are Tragic, Collateral Damage and An Extended Performance), two longer short stories (A Robust Solution and Fluttershy Is Free) and four short stories ("A Meeting By Moonlight", "Sun Atoms," Thirty Seconds Over To-ki-rin" and "Feeling Adrift.").
At some stage in this plan I'm supposed to start writing my stories in my own world -- the inspiring tales of how our descendants (and those of a lot of other species too) conquer the galaxy in the Terran Confederation stories; and the less inspiring ones about how our history duplicates itself as we expand outward in the American Mandate stories; and the Ver stories about a high-tech civilization in the Late Cretaceous; and my projected science fantasies about the High Eldren (the race that in my fanfics I blame for crafting the Pony Kinds), and my Cthulhu Mythos anti-horror stories and -- you get the idea. I've been thinking and writing for a long time now. And I'd eventually like to write and publish something that's truly my own.
The little sapient technicolor ponies have set up housekeeping in a portion of my brain, though. And they want their stories to be told as well.
It's a conundrum.
2424393
Best pony? Um, Fluttershy? She's more than tangental -- I basically assume that with Rarity coming back from Fillydelphia early, at a time when Rainbow Dash isn't back, she and Rarity become best friends.
Actually, the timing is such that Fluttershy never goes even slightly Lone-Mad and has Rarity's good advice, so the thing with Nosey never happens. Fluttershy's still shy, and Rarity's experience gives Fluttershy a different reason to be careful of stallions, but this is "shy" and "careful" rather than "becoming a crazy hermit."
Fluttershy's life is much happier with Rarity around as constant company, the occasional responsibility of helping to take care of Diamond (especially in the early years) and the regular necessity of public exposure (though she doesn't like that). While she's still a wallflower outside modeling for Rarity (something she gets into slower in the ATL) she's a more well-balanced pony, emotionally and mentally.
Rarity is the one who is suffering greater emotional stress in this arrangement. She has to take care of a child, and she has to start and run her business with a lot less formal education. Not that she would trade Diamond for some alternate world in which he died in her womb and she had less commitments on her time.
2423995
The way I figure it, there are probably dozens of untold stories of Granny Smith's life in which she basically comes off as awesome. One of the things I liked about "Family Appreciation Day" is that it showed that older family members were not always old and feeble (and I don't know how "feeble" Granny actually is anyway).
Green Apple (to give her the name she was known as in her childhood and maidenhood) was smart, brave and beautiful. I would not at all be surprised if she wasn't the head of a group of friends in some ways similar to the CMC. (She seems to understand the ethos of -- if not the precise plans of -- the CMC just fine today). As a young mare she would have been exactly the sort of character I would make the heroine of an action-adventure series, eventually with romantic overtones. Granny Smith is awesome.
2424415
Best pony is relative, though I did mean a Bearer of Kindness.
In any case, again, I empathize with the struggle to find time to realize all of your ideas, especially when balancing it against work. Best of luck.
2424427
Oh, Derpy! I love Derpy too!
I'd love to read A Long Morning At Sweet Apple Acres. Heck, you could probably do a whole series on what the various Ponyville ponies were doing on that rather dreadful day. I can see it as being like that one issue of Marvels by Kurt Busiek where the narrator/reporter is a witness to Galactus' first attack on Earth. He wanders home to see his family before the end and along the way sees all sorts of people and how they react -- everything from playing kids to quietly despairing old men to some businessman giving all his money away because what does it matter now.
That and I just plain like adventure stories, and since actually SEEING Big Mac facing off against the Everfree monsters was something readers were cheated of in My Little Balladeer, I'd love to see your take on it.
Celestial Mechanics- Sounds fun, and I'm sure the group's interactions will extremely enjoyable to read.
And A Pretty White Tail-Bow- I enjoy sad stories, so this'll probably be one of my favorites. I'd also really like to see Wind Whistler as she was.
His Mark on History- I really only got that somepony is fighting back to the invading griffons. Sounds cool, but I'll have to hold my judgement until it comes out.
Diamond Bell- Hmmm... AU? Why not? I'm sure it'll make me sad, but oh well. I like sad.
A Long Morning at Sweet Apple Acres- Probably will be another of my favorites... especially since we get to see the other Apples be awesome.
I wishe there were stories with Discord past that would not include other alicorns. Or at least not Celestia and Luna. He lived for eons and only met them in a brief moment when he attacked them. Yet every headcanon have them sharing entire past before being stoned. Its redundant and its boring. Just like Discords only chaotic action being chocolate rain. I wish for some creativity. At least make those alicorns ancestors of Cadance or something. Or at least explore his life when he lived in same land as Tirek and Scorpan
2427045
I don't know that Discord ever did live in the same land as Tirek and Scorpan -- that Tirek knew about him doesn't mean that they were compatriots.
2424604
I've thought about it. In addition to Nightmares Are Tragic (Mane Six), I've done An Extended Performance (Trixie) and someday intend to finish A Long Night at the Hippodrome (Piercing and the Hippodrome crew). A Long Morning at Sweet Apple Acres would nicely cover a canon gap -- we know from the show that there were a lot of Apples on the farm at that time, and geography means that they probably had an interesting time of it.
Big Mac has also never gotten his due, perhaps because of the deliberate focus of the show on female characters. He's a classic heroic type, and he grew up being the protector of one of the show's heroes, and I think he's pretty awesome in his own right. In the one story I've written where he gets some significant screen time, Collateral Damage, he's just a colt (two years younger than Cheerilee) but he behaves heroically: he leads little-filly Cheerilee and Berryshine out of the Everfree, and then befriends Cheerilee at school, letting her begin to emotionally-heal.
I actually have vague plans to write a series about a young Big Mac, with a group of friends including Cheerilee, Applejack, Landscape Carrot, Carrot Top, and Berryshine. They are all within six years of each others' age, and the larger age differences are between siblings, so they might very well be hanging out together with the older children protecting the younger ones.
2424005
Well, in my main timeline Big Mac and Pinkie don't fall in love, though she becomes his good friend just as in canon. My take on this, inspired by Alex Warlorn, is that Pinkie becomes fully aware that there are worldlines where she married him (quite possible as Pinkie has always liked Big Mac because he reminds her of a more cheerful version of her stepfather Igneous, and he's always liked her for her, well, Pinkie-ness) and that Big Mac was a very kind and loving husband. In my main line Big Mac eventually resumes his colthood love for Cheerilee, and this time she returns it, because being two years older works the other way socially when you're thirty, as opposed to thirteen; Pinkie meets and falls for Cheese Sandwich.
But yes, it could have gone other ways. Easily. Though Pinkie Pie is limited by her own nature -- she needs somepony who is not only smart, kind, loving and so forth but who can deal with her extreme weirdness. Big Mac and Cheese Sandwich exemplify two opposite ends of how somepony could deal with this weirdness -- Big Mac is very emotionally stable and hence could act as her anchor, while Cheese Sandwich is weird in almost exactly the same way as Pinkie.
2427052
Its still better than "Discord spend entire youth with Celestia" headcanon that i hope will perish in S5. Just becasue we don't know anything about other creatures from the past doesn't mean that one we know about had to spend time in the past.
2427425
I got the idea that Discord was raised with the Two Sisters from Alex Warlorn. It works well for dramatic purposes, as it gives them history together, making their conflicts personal. And note that every one of the three beings involved has at one time or another been at war against each of the other two. Celestia and Luna overthrew Discord, and then Luna tried to overthrow Celestia.
That's especially sad given that Celestia and Luna are sisters, and that in my fanon backstory Celestia and Discord were lovers -- and Luna wanted to be Discord's lover. No hate is more dramatic than love turned to hate.
The Mechanics interests me the most.
But I imagine you'll get a zillion readers if you do the Long Morning one.
2437255
Well, I've actually started the Long Morning one, and had done so before I wrote this post. And I had better really have a good grasp of how the toy Solar System works and relates to real-world physics before I write Celestial Mechanics.
Note: CM has to happen or the Shadow Wars would have a horrifically bad ending even if the Good Guys won. Remember on what I blame the scope of The Cataclysm? Basically, if they can't get the gears fixed, the Shadow Wars would have to end just like Macross: Good Guys win, but a horribly Pyrrhic victory.