After several suggestions, ah decided ah'd take the initiative on startin' this thread. We know somethin' has displaced our heroes, now we need ta figure out what.

If ah may be so bold, ah'd like ta put forth an idea a' mine that could do everything we've already discussed while lettin' us tell the story any way we want it, ignorin' all continuity an' physics as we need to. Ah call it: The Weird.

In a universe at the far end of reality, the witch sisters unleashed the Smooze, threatenin' to devour everythin'. But jus' as it was gettin' started, who should show up but Discord himself! As he moved in fer a better look, somethin' truly unexpected happened. The Smooze covered him, head ta toe, and started ta absorb his power. Feelin' a little sick an' a little mad, he snapped his fingers an' sent it away, ta drift between worlds.

This stuff, this Smooze-Discord hybrid, clings ta things an' makes 'em... weird. Weird things look normal, but they don't act like it. A tree might grow cooked fruit, or a wall might decide not ta be solid fer a minute. Mostly it's harmless stuff. But the Weird can also work like a portal when it wants to, which six ponies from different universes find out when they get dumped off in a place that's drippin' with the stuff. It can make ponies act like they ain't got any sense, or make 'em betray themselves. An' in large enough quantities it can do some real damage...

2148202 I like you.

Not sure though. It would kind of kill the sense of drama at certain points like that...

I would say use someone like Pages of Harmony! Twilight, but that might be a bit too dark

But I like this idea

It is an interesting idea. I can't deny that if we do go with some big super-threat that some combination of multiversal chaos embodiments makes sense.

As was mentioned in the other thread though, the big question we should tackle first is: do we want some massive villain? Or would we rather tell the story like this is some strange sort of accident or disaster with no true will behind it and the Crossover-Elements are just trying to fix things up again?

I say it's all Decade's fault!

2148611...

Are you replying to anyone?

2148467

In the Lunaverse thread, Fizzy Orange brought up the "Grand Black Hole" from Transformers: Cybertron.

Essentially, it was caused because something that should have existed...didn't, creating a paradox that threatened the entire multiverse.

So if we use that as a base, it could be caused by a Universe where the elements of Harmony (Or whatever their counterpart is) didn't exist, creating a paradox that can only be solved with the power of multiple copies of the elements.

2148750 Maybe they need to 'seed' that universe with Harmony to re-establish balance, to do that they need multiple sets of Elements of Harmony (or something to do with that 'Harmony Tree' spoilers have been talking about) to do it. Essentially taking a little tiny bit of each element's power to fuel this unbalanced universe.

2148621 Nah, I was just making a silly reference.

I agree that it's interesting. Probably not overpowered enough to be a Villain Sue, which is good. Not a "Negaverse" concept of a Mane Six member (or canon "good guy" character), which is also probably a good thing. I don't think anyone's really done the Smooze or a variant of it as an actual Big Bad that the Mane Six face, although it has been referenced plenty of times as an "old foe" that Celestia, Luna, or previous generations have had to deal with. Since from what I've read it is considered one of the lesser G1 antagonists when compared to Tirek or Grogar, giving it a power boost via Discord is probably necessary to make it a real threat.

2148467

An "I just want to go home" fic is reasonable. It isn't too far fetched that a random group of six (exapmple: C!Vinyl, M!Daring Do, F!Big Mac, L!Cheerilee, H!Rarity, and D!Fluttershy) might have difficulty getting their elements to work together. Vinyl might expect Fluttershy to need her birds for it to work, for example, and wouldn't know what instruments the rest play. L!Cheerilee might have some reservations about Big McIntosh due to the Apple Family Trust in her universe (although that was more AJ than Mac), and a bunch of them might be confused over who represents what Element, and figuring out how to "make them work again" might be more difficult than any eldrich abomination they could face.

2148782 that makes them sound to sympathetic, though.

People still say that we should treat Changelings with more respect

2148833 Make who sound too sympathetic? By 'they' I meant our heroes. The 'bad guy' in this scenario would be more akin to a natural disaster than a real person you can punch in the face.

2148202 So this Weird thing would act a bit like a virus or a plague that infects universes? And we'd need to put some super Element of Harmony team together to cure the multiverse?

2148879

The 'bad guy' in this scenario would be more akin to a natural disaster than a real person you can punch in the face.

You say that like it's a bad thing...

2148884 ...I'm the one who brought up the idea of a natural-disaster-like bad guy in the first place!!

2148975 Okay, I'm confused.

maybe we should take it from the top

2148879
Ya could think of it that way, or as a force a' nature of sorts - it's kinda like a mostly-mindless mass a' pure chaos that does strange things in small doses but scary things when it clumps together.

As ah imagine it, it could fill just about any role we wanted it to... an' imagine what a world completely covered in the stuff would be like.

2148978 Dramatic Spoon mentionned my idea of the Grand Black Hole, saying a world without Elements of Harmony is falling apart and threatening to pull every other world along with it, and I suggested that the heros' mission would be to seed 'Harmony' into this world that is so unbalanced. That they need multiple sets of Elements of Harmony so they can leave a tiny portion of each set's element in this seventh universe.

And in parallele I was making a silly comment about blaming Decade.

Who I totally blame for this confusion.

ONORE DIKEIDO!!!

2149014 I guess the Smooze IS an underused villain. What do you propose the heroes have to do to stop it?

I like Discord-Smooze. It's one of the more iconic G1 elements and one of the best G4 villains. *Refuses to acknowledge 'Keep Calm and Flutter On* :p

2149023
Ah usually blame Conner. He doesn't think it's funny, though.

As fer defeatin' it, haven't worked that far ahead yet. Ah came up with this mostly ta keep it from bein' a straight copy a' any major crossovers (since we already made the comparison to On A Cross and Arrow if it's just about gettin' home, an' a hunt fer the missin' pieces would be the same as Sweetie Chronicles) without havin' a conventional villain, an' as such ah'm still workin' out the particulars.

2152059 If we go for that idea maybe the person who gathers all our heroes would be that particular Discord who lost some of his power to the Smooze. He could lament it by pointing out that because of that he has, say twice the same leg.

"I'm horribly disfigured! Look at me! I'm...I'm...PARTIALLY SYMETRICAL!"

Before we go any further figurin' out mah idea, why don't we do a little fleshin' out a' the other possibilities?

Striker's Hasbroverse bein' a part a' this means we might be able ta use the "Universal Black Hole" he mentioned completely straight, if we had a better idea what we were gonna do with it.

Ah'm not totally opposed to a threatless escape/survive scenario either, or to a conventional villain, an' we oughtta scheme out some specifics on at least one way each a' those could work before we really decide for or against.

2152198 I don't like that. Not one bit.

I LOVE it!

*Ahem* Okay, here's an idea I'm gonna throw out. I'm gonna combine some ideas here...

A seventh reality exists with Discord, the Smooze and a pony population. The Smooze has overrun almost all of this world. There's no hope, little chance for it being beaten back. This is affecting Discord, natch. Let's have this incarnation be... I dunno, true neutral? Chaotic neutral?

Minor aside, the biggest experience I have with RPG's are 1. the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon from the 80's and 2. buying some old Star Trek and Star Wars guides. So if i got the terminology wrong, I apologize and please correct me.

Anyway... Discord contacts Bonniecorn and Fausticorn and asks for help. They see this world and agree. They seek out the six realities, gathering the Elements and possibly some side-characters such as Pokey, from the Lunaverse, various Spikes, Uncle Orange from the Manehattanverse, some Bonbon's and possibly some CMC groups. For the chaos, of course.

They're all gathered at Megan's house from the Hasbroverse, because it already has a stable inter-dimensional gateway and therefore easier to bridge realities. Cue of course the normal shenanigans ad possibly Megan emptying several rounds into Discord's body. Bonnie and Faust show up and explain things. The Elements, being the Elements, agree. However, one from each group seem to 'resonate' with the seventh reality. Cue technobabble and their Elements are flung randomly into various realities.

This would lead into each Bearer going into that reality to retrieve it, since they're the only ones who can track it down and take it back. Keep it local, too. Have the other Bearers stay behind because...

1. Don't want to risk all of them.
2. Local, so not too dangerous.
3. Only the Bearers can actually sense their Element, so the others really can't do too much.

At the end, the Elements are retrieved. Rainbow of Light is fired into the seventh reality and cue huge party. Maybe have Bonnie and Faust say this may not be the only time they're pulled together. All go home...

And maybe an epilogue where we go back to that seventh reality and we see six foals, getting along under a tree?

Anyway, rip this apart. Ignore it. I admit it's half-assed at best. But, there you go.

Hmm, I've thought of something that's a bit more minimalist but would cut down on confusion somewhat.

Something has caused a collapse of multiple worlds. Some evil force, or strange disaster has torn these worlds asunder and scattered the fragments.

All seems lost, if not for one fact. A single, select pony from each of these worlds somehow escaped the destruction. Now adrift in a strange chaos between realities, these six are trying to pick up the pieces, find out what happened to their worlds, and try to figure out if anything can be done to restore them.

So think of it as a bit of a Kingdom Hearts flavor. The confusion of keeping track of so many different characters would be drastically cut back, with the drawback that each verse only gets to use one of their elements. Could lead to some nice character moments though. The surviving Element of Magic realizing they have to connect with a group they know next to nothing about. The Element of Loyalty wondering why they got to escape while the rest of their world was lost. Any and all of the Elements finding out how different they are in other worlds and wondering what it might mean about them as they are now (The whole, "if I'm like that there, does the potential exist in me to be like that here?" worry).

Obviously this idea's most major flaw is each writer only really getting to use one character, but I'm throwing this up here just since this is the sort of thread for that stuff.

2152692 That... seems a bit too grim to me, Bed. Sorry.

2152387

Ok, so if I got this right, here's what we got so far:

1: Black Hole: Reality Broke, because of a Universe where the Elements never existed.

2: Smooze: the rebooted G-1 villain.
I could have sworn there was another Fic that did use them as the villain, but I don't recall it.

In that universe, apparently the only thing holding the Smooze at bay is...a Reformed Discord?

3: Villain Mash-up: Be it Chrysalis in possession of Sombra's horn, or a Discored Lavan that proved to be a bigger threat, it's something.

4: a Character turned evil
-Nobody seems to like this idea, so we'll ignore it.

5: No villain.

2152469

I like it.

I like the idea of a universe where the elements didn't exist more. Just the thought of that instead of a physical threat seems more threatening. This causes reality to warp and thus the story begins, and must be completed before all of time and space completely collapse.

2152758

No offense taken, I was just tossing up my thoughts.

2154127

1 & 5 are my favorite options thus far, though I suppose they're kinda one and the same. Also I've seen a fic or two that had Smooze in it. Hell, my first fic on this site (long since taken down, sorry folks!) included it.

2154316

Like I said above, I'm liking this sort of idea the most. The big question will be which elements are used, how they fix it, and what happens if they run into the "Non-Elementverse" versions of themselves (if they even exist).

2154316: I also like this idea. It could be fun to try imagining a world without the Elements, coming up with ways in which it is suitably creepy/'off'.

2154447
Yes, a world of eternal chaos, eternal night, and overrun with dark magic and crystals. Pretty much all of the evil things that happened from the beginning, and lasting to now. The Mane 6 of that verse are either Discorded, corrupted by Sombra, or just trying to survive in a savage land with no hope in their universe to help. Celestia and Luna never had the elements to combat these threats, so Celestia fell in battle and Luna still became evil with Discord and Sombra running amok.

2154447>>2154459

No, not Discorded.

Broken.

2154459: I'm not even sure I'd go that extreme. It could be almost normal at first, just kind of... off. And then, as we focus on each character and their quest to find/restore their Element, we see more and more problems. Until the world is nightmarish by the end and they have to use the Elements to save it.

Like, in a world with twisted Loyalty I could see maybe a city like Omelas? (Reference to a short story by Le Guin, in which a city achieves incredible prosperity -- health, wealth, culture for almost everyone -- as long as one individual child is kept locked in a dungeon and neglected). Betrayal of one for the good of all could be a neat twist on corrupted loyalty. And the Loyalty 'quest' could be freeing the kid or something.

In a world with twisted Laughter, maybe the standard city-where-joy-is-forbidden. Or alternatively, where everyone laughs because they take nothing seriously. Prank? Laugh! Stub your hoof? Laugh! Get punched in the gut? Laugh! Some horrible tragedy happens? You have to laugh anyway! A city where nopony takes anything seriously -- maybe they aren't able to -- with the result that cruelty is brushed off. And the Elements have to find some way of waking them up to restore Laughter.

Things like that.

2154519
That sounds good, and could be thought out about.

In the seventh world, the CMC wanted to do something nice for Princess Luna's birthday, so they went back in time to keep her from ever turning into Nightmare Moon in the first place. CUTIE MARK CRUSADER TIME TRAVELLERS, YAY! (They got the time machine from the same place that rents industrial strength hairdryers and Alicorn Amulets.)

As a result, the Elements of Harmony never got together...

2148611 DECAAAADE!

But seriously, throwing in my two bits on the idea for a villain. A powerful sorcerer and his selves from across the multiverse teaming up. Sort of like the Council of Kang, but with evil wizards instead of evil time travelers. I always feel that a good multiversal threat needs a multiversal foe who can actually menace the multiverse.

2162830

...So the Parliament of Dooms?

I'm really reluctant to have an OC villain, though..

2163779 Same, here. Too much work creating it when we've got good villains already.

2162830>>2163779>>2164651

We could always have a 'Council of Discords'.

Discord:"I think we're more of a 'Conclave'."
Discord:"I've always been partial to the term 'League' myself."
Discord:"I always saw us as more of a secret clubhouse."
Discord:"So you mean like a lodge? Sounds a bit tacky don't you think?"
Discord:"We could always call ourselves the Discord Continuum!"
Discord:"It's been done."
Discord:"What about Team Discord?"
Discord&Discord:"Too Pokémon/Twilight."
Discord:"Something with some gravitas like the Senate of Chaos?"

then again that might not be a good idea...

2164700

That sounds like it would have a lot of infighting.

2164700
Let's call it a "Crucible".

2164700 I dunno. That many Discord's would seem a bit... samey to me.

2164761>>2165018 Yeah it would be lacking a bit in originality and I don't think they would be able to focus for long enough.

If we go for an OC villain (instead of the Grand Black Hole idea) it should be something outright villainous and uncomplicated. Not a tortured soul, or a misunderstood one, or anyone with a redeemable trait. Just an outright evil prescence that find harmonious universe offensive.

2164831 Crucible of Chaos could work.

2165589
Ah do favor the Black Hole, though. Functionally a valid part of the multiverse, and it carries with it a sense a' how wrong things are without the Elements.

2165981 Maybe if this thing becomes popular we could have a story completely about Discord TRYING to become a multiversal baddie and failling.

It would be hilariously hard to follow because everything would be 'said Discord' without any attention to WHICH

2166050 Okay, that's awesome.

2166050 "And after I turned myself into a sandwich, everything went downhill for there, which is rather impressive when you consider we were at the bottom of the multiverse."

"Um, that's an...interesting story Discord, but what does it have to do with weather or not you want tea...if you don't mind me asking..."

"Absolutly nothing. And yes, I would love some tea."

2167253 To make it even more chaotic we could all write a small part of it, but only get to see the last line of dialogue of the previous part someone else has written, creating an insane mix of dialogue between multiple Discords. It would probably make the old goat proud XD

2167309 If I weren't asexual I'd probably love you right now.

Okay, I think we're gonna have to come to some sort of consensus on what the threat is/isn't for us to move forward.

2198929>>2165981>>2164761>>2154519>>2154359>>2148224

Okay, I think we're gonna have to come to some sort of consensus on what the threat is/isn't for us to move forward.

I agree... we could put it to a vote to narrow it down a bit:

All in favor of an Abstract Concept like a Black Hole, Just Trying To Get Back Home, or For Want of the Elements type storyline, please give a Thumbs Up to this comment.

All in favor of an actual antagonistic physical Big Bad, such as Discord, the Smooze, Changelings, or something of a more tangible nature please give this comment a Thumbs Down.

Since I can't upvote or downvote my own comment, I can abstain for now and serve as a tiebreaker if necessary. Sound Fair?

2199186 Ah... might wanna change that voting method. Too many down-votes and your message gets hidden. And people might think you're trolling or something.

2199203

Good point... although if the number of downvotes exceeds the upvotes to that extent, doesn't that make a clear winner? I think there has to be at least a 4-5 vote differential toward the negative for the post to be hidden. I don't know about anyone else, but I tend to peek at hidden comments to see what the "troll" has to say anyway.

Now it's 5-6 in favor of Abstract over Tangible... I can keep an eye on it just in case and update as needed.