Pegasus Device What Ifs · 8:51pm Feb 7th, 2022
I’ve had something on my mind in regards to the Pegasus Device stories, and it occurred to me today that my intended project would be drastically assisted with the help of your questions.
Before we begin, though, I’m going to take a moment to finally define (for everyone but especially myself), what I mean by certain terms.
Rainbow Factory stories are those that focus on Rainbow/Scootaloo as main characters (RF, Rainbow’s Factory, and Weather Worker’s Song).
Pegasus Device stories are those focused on Cloud Cover as a main character (PD and PD: Reckoning).
These are both contained within the Rainbow Factory Universe (or Factoryverse, if you’d like).
Now I’ve clarified for myself, I’ll begin the point of this blog post.
I would like to do a series of small vignettes in the Factoryverse based off background or historical events implied or suggested by the stories. In general, I had been considering Pegasus Device stories, but RF ones are also valid. These would not be main lines of plot, but worldbuilding more than anything.
Some ideas I’ve had include:
- Cloud Cover interviewing RD on just how the Mane 6 split up
- A parent of a recent failure watches the news releases and reacts to it
- The perspective of one of the MTR ghosts over time
But what about you folk? What do you want to know about this universe? Or do you have any “what if…?” questions that can be explored in a short story?
Let me know. I’d love to see what I can show you.
How did Rainbow Dash’s first processing go and how did it affect her mentality from Weather Workers Song to R’sF and RF?
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Oh, this is good, and can be fit in with one I already have planned…
I want to see what an average dinner is like at the Rainbow Dash household.
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Pre or post RF incident?
How did previous managers of the Factory and Corporation differ in their approach to things compared to the likes of Rainbow Dash?
What does retirement look like for employees once they've grown too old?
What does orientation for new hires or those promoted into the factory look like?
What did the construction of the original factory look like? What was it like for those who were there?
How was Spectra Extraction discovered, and why did they continue with it when they found out how it worked?
I've... Had a few ideas/questions over the years.
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These are some brilliant questions, thank you! Can definitely fit a lot of these in.
The biggest question I have is this: what happened to Dash in the aftermath of Pegasus Device? Along with just who knows about it and how they reacted
As for What ifs, I kinda want to see what would have happened had Scootaloo originally passed the exam.
Do Fluttershy and Derpy know why they've been spared, and if so how they reacted
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Maybe a cool fic idea would be both pre and post.
I can’t remember to much of the Rainbow Factory story(s), but maybe do some smaller stories regarding how the Main 6 and or Cutie Mark Crusaders all view the Pegasus Device?
Like how would twilight a literal new princess feel about it? Would Celestia try to explain everything or did she try to manipulate her.
Heck how does Candence and Luna feel about it?
How would the CMC react to seeing different members of their class slowly disappearing.
Why was fluttershy spared?
And just to throw this last one out there:
Do places like the ones from the first movie know of it?
I know it’s a lot but I just got back into Rainbow Factory and is really curious about all that stuff.
The story of the first failiures to be ever processed
The "colorless" ponies kept alive in the factory...
How did Luna not sense their nightmares after her return?
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…
fuck
The one I have always thought was a neat idea sense a youtuber by Melody Requiem did a SFM is what if Scootaloo killed or somehow took over the factory from Rainbow Dash, and became the new manager
(long text incoming. Sorry, I was too excited XD)
Oh, thank you for bringing this idea, Aurora! That sounds so awesome! ^^
I always love to see more background facts, see how world outside main story events is explored, see different perspectives on the same events, delve into the past to see origins, etc... No matter what book or film series I read or watch. :) In my opinion it is always good and adds more depth into fiction, makes it more lovealable and interesting. :D
When I read RF and PD for the first time 5 years ago, I immediatelly wanted to know more about this universe, about its history. See different perspectives, know what happened between these stories, know the long-long past, study Pegasi society outside Upper Rainbow Factory walls and know what happened to the main cast of TV show besides Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash.
Back then, I combined all questions I wanted to know, and splitted them to six main directions, six main themes. (And even had plans to write fan stories about them). With earliest point in chronology is ancient days of Rainbow Factory, and latest point is events of Pegasus Device.
Half of them are about world within The Factory walls:
- Events between Rainbow Factory and Pegasus device. construction the new upper factory and "new" Corporation, life of Rainbow Factory's workers and failures from both old and new factories under rule of Rainbow Dash from perspectives of some characters from PD and some others who can fill the blank spaces so we would be able to see every aspect of life inside factory walls, to see all places.
- Events before Rainbow Factory. Rise of Rainbow Dash. From moment when she learned about The Factory, and to The Incident. Her double life of being Ponniville's Equestria's hero and friend of Mane 6, and worker of the darkest place in Equestria. Scootaloo-Dash relationship from first meeting to flight exams from Dash's perspective. And as bonus: Opportunity to see life of The Factory under rule of previous CEO, and learning the life of Pegasi society.
- Events of long past. Life of ancient Equestria, Pegasi society, ancient Weather Factory, and - the creation of first Pegasus Device, and how Rainbow Factory turned into the place we all know.
and half of them are about world beyond The Factory walls:
- Life of Scootaloo before events of RF. Her growth, her late relationship with CMC and relationship with Orion. Her days of being in Flight School. Scootaloo-Dash relationship from early meeting to flight exams from Scootaloo's perspective.
- Fate of Cutie Mark Crusaders minus Scootaloo between events of RF and PD.
- Fate of Mane 6 plus Spike minus Dash between events of last "canon" TV episodes for RF universe and events of PD. Life of Equestria outside Rainbow Factory walls.
Some of these things were described in recent stories, but there's still much more to learn! :D I would love to read about at least one of things I described above.
And if I could pick only one thing...
I think I would choose something from the long past. Let's delve the deper into Claudsdale's mythology. :3 Delve into the past and see some events of old ancient Rainbow Factory. It can be anything. Somethng from days when Celestia or unicorns created rainbows. From days of creation first Pegasus Device. Or some random day from long-long history of The Factory, from perspective of failure or worker. (about the latter I tried to write fanfiction for recent contest, but failed.)
And for the last: I would like to thank you again for making recent contenst. Because we would able to see some of these events at least in form of good fanfiction. :)
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These are some really fantastic concepts to explore!
I can’t promise I’ll get to them, unfortunately, but for sure a lot of these I’ll be considering :)
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Hm. Maybe the factory itself is "sealed off"? Isn't the factory in some sort of thunderstorm? Maybe it has some anti-magical abilities that prevents the connection from the inside to the dream-world? So nopony inside can actually dream.
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I also had the same question when I read RF and PD.
As I remember, at the moment when these stories were written, Sleepless in Ponyville episode was not released yet, so Luna's abilities were not canon yet, and I thought Aurora won't include it into RF universe. But since it happened...
Even back then I theorized that Upper Rainbow Factory has some kind of anti-magic protection, so no unicorns could discover its secrets. That Pegasus nation invented anti-unicorn protection methods long-long time ago , in case if war between pony nations ever happened. So, just maybe, this anti-magic protection worked for everypony within the factory, and their dreams were closed for Luna's observation.
But since "dream world" is kinda complex concept, and maybe simple anti-magic barriers couldn't work when pony's mind is inside dreamworld lands.. I came to another theory: Since Luna's return, everypony inside Upper Fatory, or rather, everypony who knows about Upper factory's true nature started to take a special drug that makes them stop to see dreams completely. And by everypony I mean literally everypony, not just colorless failures. Because if Luna enters the dream of factory worker, secret can be exposed too. This method also solves a problem for those workers who temporarily exits the factory for work reasons, and for those very few who retired.
I think I might have mentioned this somewhere before, but there was a buttload of potential for worldbuilding in the very first short story with the implications that Cloudsdale's Flock mentality seems to harken back to Commander Hurricanes' idea of Pegasopolis as hinted at in the Hearthswarming Play. Taken a step further, what if there was some monumental event in Equestrias' own past that had sewn the seeds of The Flocks' rise to power?
Picture this, dear readers: it is just around 500 years after the events of Nightmare Moon, Celestia has been struggling to hold Equestria as a nation together for so long while also balancing out a few crisises that were occurring between disparate groups, be it a relocation crisis brought about by refugees from the vanished Crystal Empire who were left behind being persecuted against by Unicorns, or a radicalized group of Ponies launching a string of attacks against Hippogriff churches designed to worship a Phoenix God that they claim is responsible for moving the Sun (along with these Hippogriffs considering Princess Celestia as nothing more than an Apostle to this God), Celestia is left unawares of a growing grass-roots movement within the Pegasus communities who are growing concerned over their cultural identity slowly dying.
A treatise is drafted and the nation of Cloudsdale manages to achieve partial-independence from the Surface except in matters regarding national defense and Weather Production, in-exchange for having any Pegasus born on the surface to automatically be handed over to them. And for a time, this would be seen as the norm with Surface-born Pegasi receiving an education on their own heritage in order to carry with them their Tribes' legacy. But as a philosopher once said: "The Road To Hell Was Paved With Good Intentions", at some point, a cult begins making its rounds throughout Cloudsdale whose intentions are to reshape Pegasus Culture from the inside-out to become a violently-twisted parody of itself.
Instead of simply taking newborn Pegasi from the surface, they also instigate a similar law towards Cloudborn Pegasi to have them be raised by state institutions with the goal of living up to the warrior ideals that they claimed were a part of Commander Hurricane's doctrines. If the youths had proven themselves to Cloudsdale, than they would be allowed to return to their parents again. If not; than they would be sent to the surface and banished from Cloudsdale.
As more time would pass, these doctrines would further change from simple exile to outright banishment from Equestria altogether while also drafting up newer laws that allowed for Herding to be seen as the new norm for Pegasi. In Cloudsdales' lexicon, the terms for "Mother" and " Father" have now been replaced with clinical terms of "Parent" and "Donor" respectively, on top of the Herding norms further destroying the concepts of Core Families to have them also include Half-Siblings. Now in many cases this would be considered okay, but with further technological growth now left unchecked due to a lack of Unicorns; this would have led to Cloudsdale staking surface claim on large tracts of land with the express purpose of testing newer types of weather to deliver across Equestria.
Eventually, these claims to land were offered by Princess Celestia, only to have those same offers becoming conflicted once Celestia promises a tract of land to a family of Earth Ponies. Cloudsdale would eventually unofficially annex the township of Ponyville as test subjects for Weather conditions along as a form of "shore leave" for higher-status Pegasi to have their way with.
The situation from here-on would start to deteriorate as more Surface-born Pegasi are sent away to live out their youth in Cloudsdale. And unfortunately; this also includes Cadence. Without the last living member of the Imperial Family: there is no Princess of Love, Twilight Sparkle would have a much different upbringing, Equestria would have one less Alicorn, and the fight against King Sombra for domain over the Crystal Empire would not go as smoothly as originally...