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Hai, question:

We have 2 folders, "After the Creation" and "The Very Beginning".

Am I correct in assuming that "The Very Beginning" stories are about watching the world-building, and "After the Creation" stories are about looking back on the world that was built?

Or is there a more lenient interpretation of those injunctions? If a story shows The Very Beginning, and the process of the world-building resonates strongly or is a driving force, is it After the Creation?
How much of a story's overall plot/narrative/word-count must be during the world-building process for it to be "The Very Beginning"?

For example, in my upcoming story I devote 1-2 chapters to The Very Beginning: 1 to ancient times and maybe 1 to pre-modern times.
The overwhelming bulk of the story is slated to occur in modern-day Equestria; by any measure, After the Creation.

What say you?

3889170 So what I was thinking was that "The Very Beginning" meant that the actual story of the creation was told from a first person direct account. Stories in those folders should be ones that narrate creation from actually being there.
"After the Creation" is for stories that have a modern day someone telling of what happened in the very beginning.
I did not specify, but I will, that the story must have at least one chapter stating and detailing the events. If the chapter tells of an account from a first-person perspective the very beginning and the rest of the story is in Modern times, that story would go into "The Very Beginning"
Thanks for asking!

3889450 Hmm, see, my story has neither of those.

My story is all third-person, and it mainly follows Twilight and Applejack in Ponyville, in modern-day Equestria.

Celestia, Luna, and Discord were, of course, "there" at the Beginning; hell, they were there BEFORE the Beginning. And the narrative of the Beginning is third-person, but it kind of "follows" Discord, though at arm's length. (...I am having difficulty expressing myself here...)

Plus, the bulk of the story's chronology/time is overwhelmingly set in Modern Equestria; I wasn't planning on having Celestia, Luna, or Discord take a first-person trip down Memory Lane, though they might discuss things from that time and reminisce occasionally, and the ramifications of what happened in pre-modern times shaped Equestria as it is in the modern era.

I suppose, using best judgement, it would be classified as After the Creation.
..And I guess that's what my job is for! *purpose*

I meant to say it can be in third-person also.
3889540

3889551
Brief exercise: How would you classify the very first scene of MLP: FiM (S1E1), where Twilight reads the story of Nightmare Moon?

3890957 I would not classify it as to be in this group. There are many things that occurred before that story that is to have thought to have taken place such as Hearth's Warming Eve. That story does not technically tell of the Beginnings of Equestria I don't think.

At the risk of redundancy (or being a donkey), I will state: I'm assuming your primary interest for this group is "stories whose focus are the times before modern--or even pre-modern--Equestria"; stories that happen to be set in the modern day--unless they dedicate a fair amount of time (i.e., at least 1 chapter) to talking about the origins of the world--don't really fit here.

I made up a few situations, re: chronology and narrative structure, to help me figure out where to put some stories.
(You'd think it would be easy with only two folders. [Lol])

A) Story is set wholly in the period “The Very Beginning”, and the storyteller tells it as it happens in 1st person – The Very Beginning

B) Story is set wholly in the period “The Very Beginning”, and the narration is in 3rd person – The Very Beginning
E.g. Equestria From Dust

C) Story is set wholly in the period “After the Creation”, and the storyteller tells it in 1st person – After the Creation [something like a memoir]
E.g. Celestia: “I remember when the world was young; the Earth was strong and fair, the Sun was hot and bright…” (*I just came up with that line to give myself some context.)
E.g. Wouldn't it be a hoot if, say, Discord was to sit down with the CMC and tell them about how the world was made? And his story was told in flashbacks from his perspective.

D) Story is set wholly in the period “After the Creation”, and the narrative is 3rd person, with the storyteller reading a history – After the Creation
E.g. The Hearth’s Warming Eve pageant, where the Main Six and Spike perform the history of the pony tribes.
E.g. S1E1, Twilight Sparkle reads the History of Nightmare Moon.

E) Story chronology is spread evenly over The Very Beginning, the Middle, and the Modern Day – The Very Beginning (e.g., any story that starts with the creation of the world, or of Ancient Equestria, and unfolds over centuries)

F) Story chronology occurs overwhelmingly in modern times, though has at least 1 chapter detailing the origins of Equestria – The Very Beginning (exception) (e.g., Long Night, Dawn Breaking; the story is about modern AU!Equestria, though 1-2 chapters at the beginning detail ancient and pre-modern Equestria, and the world’s beginning is the foundation for everything that comes after.) These are going to be a little ticky-tacky for me to classify.