Musing on a Possible Fluttercord/Secret Garden Scenario · 10:44pm Jun 3rd, 2015
I just got finished listening to The Secret Garden on audiobook and the Broadway musical soundtrack back-to-back. For those of you not in the loop, my pal misskoifishpony and I have discussed how we’d love to see someone do a PMV set of this musical with Sweetie Belle as Mary Lennox, Scootaloo as Colin Craven, Pinkie Pie as Martha, Spike as Dickon, Discord as Archibald Craven, and Fluttershy as Lily Craven.
Anyway the reason I bring this up is that I got to thinking on how one would go about doing an MLP-version of the Secret Garden, and, for those of you not familiar with the story, one plot point involves the fact that Archibald and Lily (technically her name was Lillias in the book but same difference) used to spend a lot of time together in the titular garden, until Lily fell out of a tree and got hurt bad enough that she died, at which point Archibald locks the garden up because it reminds him too much of her.
Now if we did an MLP-version of this with Discord and Fluttershy as Archibald and Lily, what if the garden was sort of a mashup of regular plants and a bunch of weird things from wherever Discord lives? So they can have a place to hang out together that’s got a bit of what they both like in it. Then what if one of the more chaotic creations in the garden ends up hurting and killing Fluttershy? How would Discord cope with the fact that one of the things he loves (chaos) ended up destroying the other thing he loves (Fluttershy)?
Just a scenario, albeit a very sad one, that I thought could be interesting to explore. Any thoughts?
P.S. Making progress on chapter 17 but sadly not quite ready yet. On a side note I also noticed that in a few days it will be a full year since I uploaded the Draconequus with the Dragon Tattoo’s prologue on fanfiction. Yikes!
Ooh I really like this idea.
Out of interest, would the story focus more on this past or be more about Sweetie Belle in the present?
3121233 I'm not really sure. I mean in the book it's pretty much focused on the present and Mary but in the musical there's a good deal of focus on the past and the adult characters as well. I guess it'd be pretty much up to whoever was writing the story and which way they'd want to go. Which would you like?
3121262
I quite like the idea of the past, and a build up to why he lost her, even though it would rip my heart out, but I'm something of a masochist that way. That could still work in the present with a long enough flashback though.
3121281 Personally I think I like the idea of putting some focus on the past too. *laughs sheepishly* Of course part of that might just be because I don't really have many ideas on how to adapt the rest of the story. This little part just popped into my head and I thought I'd see what my fellow writers (you included) thought of it.
Oh, I actually just had another thought. What if Spike and Sweetie Belle go into the garden and instead of it just being dead, it's gotten a little ... well, you can probably use your imagination as to what some of those plants are like.
Yay our idea is out to the world of Fimfiction!
Daww thanks for calling me a pal
FYI to the readers and writers reading this blog. I also set up a story challenge on my Fimfiction account and my Fanfiction account, and one of my story ideas is for someone to do an MLP version of The Secret Garden with this cast only with a addition of other characters like Tirek as Archibald's brother. Anyway, Shark I love the idea of the garden reflecting both Discord and Fluttershy and how the chaos of the garden lead to Fluttershy's death and how Discord shuts out his chaos and the garden becomes more chaotic over time instead of dying. With Discord blaming himself, we can have Tirek blame Discord and his chaos because he loved Fluttershy too and all. What do u think you guys?
3121305
Triffids!
Oh, I almost forgot to add: I'm all for a good balance, in terms for this story, between the past and the present because both sides truly make the story complete
3122247 *goes to look that word up* Yikes! Somehow I wouldn't be surprised if some of those were lurking about. I'm not sure how that would factor into the whole plot with the kids helping the garden regrow, but, hey, it might be fun if they had to brave some monsters to do it.
3121763 Thanks, glad you like my little idea for the garden.
At the time I posted it, I wasn't really thinking of the whole two brothers part of it (since that's just in the musical, not the book) but we could probably work that in somewhere. Still even if we didn't include that, I think Discord could heap plenty of guilt on himself. I mean we could have the story start out with the garden being his and Fluttershy's one special private little corner of the world where she's got all her plants and animals, and he can just sort of let all the chaos out, and then for something like that to happen... Man, that'd be pretty rough on the poor guy.
Another idea I had today that kind of build off the others was "What if the garden doesn't look all that big from the outside, but you go in and it's like a jungle in there?" Or maybe a wasteland with crazy killer plants running about. Who knows?
And maybe when Spike and Sweetie Belle go into the garden and start trying to tend it, it reminds the garden of Fluttershy and that ... calms it down a bit, shall we say? I don't know, I'm just flinging out random ideas now.
3126034
Sniff Sniff
Anyway, I love the idea of the garden being bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, perfect for Discord's magic. It would look boring and locked on the outside, but inside it's a huge jungle. Also, I love love the idea of the garden responding to emotion like it was a person. Maybe the garden feels bad for accidentally killing Fluttershy, and it feels guilty too. It's both sad and angry. It needs the love and support from Sweetie, Spike, and Discord to heal it and go back to it's lively and positive self.
True dat, our poor baby Discord would unfortunately provide the heap of guilt in the story
3126351 *snickers at the thought* Aww, poor garden. Sitting there all locked up and upset with no friends, no one to talk to.
Still, if the show's writers can have Discord make a gravy boat scamper around like a dog, and if I can give him tattoos that seem to have a mind of their own, it seems only logical (at least in an illogical logic sort of way) that a garden he's been working his magic both in and on might turn out that way.
And it could make a interesting little parallel to the whole idea of Discord wrapping himself up in his grief over Fluttershy instead of trying to open up to anyone. Both he and the garden need to let go of their guilt, and realize that Fluttershy wants them to heal and move on.
3128231
Why?!
Oh man, just talking about this story just makes me want to write it
3128263 Hey, if you want to write it, you're more than welcome to. And you're free to bounce ideas for it off me if you want to as well. (If I get any more ideas for it, I'll probably continue to pitch them to you if you don't mind. You may use or discard them as you see fit.)
3128389
Oh did u see my new User pic OC and my blog post about it?
Well, I would want to but I don't have time to write it now but I'm happy for someone to write it and happy to bounce off ideas with you any time
3128648 Yep. I noticed the new profile picture. Very nice. Congratulations on getting that.
3128695
Yeah, Dusk did a great job on it
Aww thanks, glad you like it