All the stories in this group seem to have one problem — they stop right after they start. Thus, I feel I should not start publishing a story until I at least outline each chapter. Care to help with that?

The story starts in the Everdawn Basin. Dust defeats Gaius. Then he is hit by extreme weakness. He realizes that since Gaius and his army are gone, Life Thread sees him as the biggest threat to living beings and shuts him down. He says goodbye to Fidget and accepts his fate, drowning in lava.

Here are my assumptions:
a. Gaius did not start this war out of hatred for Moonbloods, but to protect Warmbloods. There were some fatal accidents with pieces of ancient technology, but Moonbloods would rather die than reveal their secrets, so eliminating them became the only option. Capturing ancient devices was a bonus. Cassius supported the idea wholeheartedly.
b. Being killed has woken up Cassius. He had to admit this war had hurt Warmbloods more than anything Moonbloods could do in peacetime. Recalling Jin's life he saw how Moonbloods and Warmbloods lived side by side in some villages. By the time they reached Gaius, Jin and Cassius were firmly in agreement — the war has to stop, even at the cost of killing all of Gaius'es army.
c. The spell that created Sen-Mithrarin continues to pull souls of the ones that died fighting to protect the most important thing in their lives, and still want to fight for it. Now it's a soul of a pony, who lived in the times of King Sombra. The soul is attached to Crystal Empire, thus Sen-Mithrarin is pulled through a teleporter.

Dust wakes up as an aquamarine quadrupedal Earth Pony, wearing his old Cynthak-made magic cloak. Ahrah followed him through the teleporter, but the trip transformed him into a matchet with a handle convenient for pony's teeth. They are in a glade surrounded by evil-looking thorny bushes, reminding of giant black brambles. Ahrah claims to not know where they are relative to Falana and to no longer feel the Life Thread. Dust confronts him about concealing information earlier and accuses him of arranging PaBop's death to teach Dust humility. Ahrah gives a cryptic reply — either it was not his doing or it was not arranged. Ahrah claims he only knows what Dust's souls knew, and what he's going to recall soon. They are in a place called Crystal Empire. This should be a barren plain covered with snow, and he has no idea what those bushes are. Dust swings the sword experimentally and finds he's still highly proficient. He can't spin it for "Dust Storm", though.

Fidget follows the trail of Ahrah, passes the teleporter unchanged, decides that now that she's alone, she has to be the responsible one, tries to remember the place to search for a teleporter back. As far as she can see there are black thorny bushes. Plus a beautiful crystal palace sticking from beyond the horizon. Plus distant mountains. She notices a clearing, where a pony in Dust's cloak is trying to chop his way through bushes — and bushes are fighting back. Fidget drops some fire. It burns bushes with frightening speed. The sword shouts to put the fire out. Fidget in desperation starts shooting energy blasts, and somehow that helps.

Introductions are in order. Fidget finds Dust's new form irresistibly cute and huggable. Ahrah reminds her of the little girl that tried to grab her in Mudpot, but Fidget seems to ignore it. Fidget tells them of the crystal tower she saw. Dust absent-mindedly says that it's Heartsone, the last surviving city of Crystal Empire. Then asks Ahrah what the hell was that. Ahrah explains that Dust has absorbed one or more extra souls, of someone who lived and died here. The memories will return eventually, but for now Ahrah can't even tell how many souls are there. They piece together that there used to be many pony-populated city-states, each with its own king or queen, forming a loose empire. Some slowly advancing disaster forced ponies to abandon their cities one by one, until only Heartstone remained. Then King Sombra came to power, promising to turn the tide. The solution seemed worse than the problem. Then the city jumped in time a thousand years ahead. Then Sombra got killed. Then the city lived a few happy years under the new prince and princess. They conclude the new soul belonged to a pony, who died fighting Sombra. Also Fidget gets a brief lecture on ponies.

The trio spends some time cutting a path to the next clearing in the direction of Heartstone. Fire is effective, but there's a risk to set the whole plain on fire. Thunderbolts, as they found the hard way, heal bushes and make them angrier. Energy blasts stun bushes briefly, but don't do significant damage. In other words, Dust does most of the work. In the clearing they find a curved red horn. Dust experimentally sticks it to his head, and gets unicorn powers. Ahrah warns him that this must be Sombra's horn. Fidget finds wearing a piece of a dead horse appalling. She asks if Dust is going to find wings of an evil dead pegasus and attach them too, but Ahrah assures her it won't work that way. Now Dust can use "Dust Storm", but he knows nothing about magic and can't duplicate Fidget's spells.

Fidget scouts around and notices a group of ponies chopping their way through bushes. Dust quickly reaches them. Before he can start explaining who they are, Fidget says they are botanists gathering rare plants. Their commander — Shining Armor — comments that they are too well-armed for the job. Dust replies there's no other way with the kind of vegetations they've got here. Some pony recognizes Fidget as a "Drabadanian flying mongoose", which he once saw in a book, but nobody knows where that is. Dust decides to tell the partial truth — that they were teleported from Falana and were trying to reach Heartstone. Nobody ever heard of Falana, and the exact location of Heartstone is a subject of debate — nobody remembers where it was, Crystal Ponies' still haven't fully recovered from their memory loss. Shining doesn't trust Dust and Fidget very much, but he needs all the help he can get, searching for ponies stuck in this bushes. As long as Dust is in the front row, they'll cover his sides and tail. Fidget volunteers to scout around (she feels useless in a fight). Shining is surprised bushes don't attack her — they can't send pegasi for that reason. Dust doesn't know why and doubts Fidget can explain it herself.

This is where my drafts end. Further are just outlines.

Fidget returns and reports finding a unicorn foal. Ponies start chopping their way in that direction. Dust doesn't notice that he gets far ahead of the rest of the ponies and that bushes cut him off. Then he runs into someone small sitting on top of a large crystal druse, who shoots blobs of darkness. Dust dodges, but one blob hits Fidget, rendering her mute and flightless. The attacker proves to be a white unicorn filly in a black cloak, who breaks down in tears, that she can't do anything right and everything she does only hurts somepony. Dust, Fidget and Ahrah manage to calm her down. Dust even finds the Fidget doll under his cloak. Cue explaining to Fidget how a flock of sheep can fit there. Dust promises to take the filly to her parents. She confides to him a secret why she ran away from her parents. She ends up falling asleep on Dust's back under the cloak. After that the bushes disappear in the ground and snow starts falling.

Dust brings the filly to Shining Armor and tells him how this unhappy filly with too much magical talent caused this mess. He also says that her parents made her kindergarten life a living hell, by calling her Flurry Heart. (The story is set several years after season 6.) Shining Armor promises to sort this out. He and Dust rush to the city, while pegasi guards search the plain for any lost ponies.

This is where plot outline looses coherency. Below are just separate ideas.

Crystal Empire is threatened by bad weather. Crystal Heart protects it, but the opposing forces are getting stronger steadily. Dust vaguely recalls Sombra having no less than two plans to neutralize this threat for good.

Dust's information about Crystal Empire is a thousand years out of date. He is recognized as a valuable source of historical data on the weather.

Nopony recognises Sombra's horn.

Twilight and Starlight have set up a weather research lab in the mountains not very far from the city. When Dust approaches, he mistakes Spike for an imp. Fortunately, he doesn't attack.

Twilight mentions the bad future where Sombra started a war. Dust insists that could not have been right. This was one of Sombra's plans — prepare for war, declare a war, then surrender. The ponies' joy would give Crystal Heart enough power to permanently improve the weather. Starlight questions what was Dust's position in the empire to know such a closely-guarded secret.

Sombra's smoke form was a part of the other plan. He was already unhinged enough to try it, and it drove him completely insane.

Sombra tried to power Crystal Heart by negative emotions, since they are easier to generate. That didn't work, but he prepared a backup plan in case a lot of love was needed on a short notice. Make his subjects' life bad, then make it good again.

Dust discusses the events of the crystalling episode with the ones who were there. Several times he sarcastically suggests what he thinks would be the worst course of action, and each time this proves to be what ponies did. Celestia and Luna personally clearing the sky instead of sending an army. Having no backup heart. Having no copies of manual. Dust decides he hates being right.

When a group of ponies can't understand Dust's explanation after several attempts, he casts some unknown spell in a fit of rage. It covers Shining's horn with black crystals. Stoically calm Shining says that the crystals will fall off in a few hours, but Dust needs some serious help, lest he becomes another Sombra.

Dust still has Haley's transmitter, and it works. First call would be "from beyond the grave" to even the score. They can pass small objects, they can flirt, but Dust cannot use it to travel to Falana.

When Fidget saw Dust was quadrupedal, she said that now everybody would assume Dust is her pet. She was wrong, ponies still call her Dust's pet.

In the end Dust wakes up as a bipedal pony somewhere in Archers' Pass.

Any suggestions?

Can you suggest scenes that would mirror scenes from the game?

Same question in other groups:
http://www.fimfiction.net/group/41/crossovers/thread/293570/dust-in-the-crystal-empire-suggestions
http://www.fimfiction.net/group/207400/dust-an-elysian-tail/thread/293080/anybody-here-wanna-help

5675481 sounds like an interesting concept and your right, many of the stories here end before they begin, i say do it, we need more dust on this websight

and this group ain't dead, just in a coma until Dust: an elysian tail becomes popular and stories are made of it again.

5675883 The concept alone is not enough. I've got the idea of how Dust got there, and that was enough for the introduction. I've got the idea that Dust has to trace Sombra's path, but that alone doesn't seem to be enough. Any suggestions?

5676111 hmmmm, not really, i'm not the creative type, thats why i only read on this sight,

but, no idea's? improvise, hell it worked for trump it should work for this right?

5677350 The process is slow, this is why I asked for help. What unusual situations can you imagine, involving Dust, Fidget or Ahrah in Equestria? Anything goes, I just need a few more starting points. Or a few dozen.

5677775 perhaps a Fluttershy meeting Fidget moment?

uuuhhh ... Rainbow dash vs Dust ironpony competition?

i'm just pulling shit out of my a$$ right now

hmmmmm, fidget doll? dust helps the Demons cutie mark crusaders? dust vs crackle? dust vs changelings? Lions, tigers and bears?

we need more members on this group for shit like this

5679539

Fluttershy meeting Fidget

Too many possibilities...

Speakink of Fluttershy, she likes rabbits, doesn't she? What would she do when Dust activates the transmitter in her presence and Matti answers? Crack shipping?

And would she understand him?

The only problem is to make a reason for her to be in the Crystal Empire. Or for Dust to go south.

Rainbow dash vs Dust ironpony competition

Dust's body comes from some kind of alchemist or artificer. Not the one who'd get much physical exercise. All amulets and rings he was wearing drowned in lava. Maybe something was left in the cloak, maybe not. If not, the only thing he would have is his tenacity.

More importantly, why would Rainbow Dash challenge him?

fidget doll?

Goes to Flurry Heart.

dust helps the Demons cutie mark crusaders?

It's set years after they've got their marks. Then again, they might be helping some other pony and get carried away.

Speaking of marks, what is Dust's mark? Would he have one? And is there a canon mark for Sombra?

dust vs crackle?

Now, that is an interesting idea. What do we know about her?
Can't fly. (Didn't notice wings.)
Four legs, but no arms, meaning she has to use her mouth.
Slow?
Stupid?
Some fan art depicts her keeping her sizeable hoard in the open rather than safely hidden.
Survives among dragons and keeps her hoard despite all her shortcomings.

How can she do that?
Being much smarter than she shows? Works, but requires extra explanation.
Being fast on those stubby legs? Not enough yet.
Having a thick hide? Trolks come to mind.
Having an efficient breath weapon? Like knockout gas.

None of that gives reasons for confrontation with Dust. What could it be?
Fidget picking a few coins from her hoard while the owner was away?
Dust needing an item from her hoard? Perhaps, it's something made by Sombra or earlier. Perhaps, it looks tasty for a gemovore, but is too hard to chew and causes indigestion. Thus, it spent the last millennium in one dragon hoard or another.

Dust could've been just passing through. Or he recalled the use of the device and went searching for it. Or Twilight could've sent him. Maybe even went with him.

It it's a device, what does it do?
Something that sent Crystal Empire to the future?
The device that can answer many questions about Sombra?
Sombra's horn? What if...

Fidget sees a pile of gold; picks something magical that stands out to her senses; Crackle wakes up/returns from watering hole/whatever and starts chasing her, ploughing several convenient paths through bush-covered plain; Crackle is surprised her gas doesn't affect Fidget; Dust tries to beat her — the sword bounces off, the dragon ignores him, Ahrah says the power of Harmony doesn't want this dragon to die; Dust tries to reason with both Fidget and Crackle, while riding on Crackle's back; Fidget gives up and drops the horn; Crackle tries to chew it, fails, spits it out and walks away.

I will not say that Crackle develops a fetish for riding, but I'll write it down just in case. Maybe she enjoys the tickling of heavy hooves on her skin. Maybe Dust wakes up wearing heavy horseshoes.

Horn and an artefact Twilight needs seem mutually exclusive. But Dust can meet Crackle twice!

And what if Crackle was on the edge of the affected area when Empire went to the future? Maybe she suffers from similar memory loss, thus the goofy look. Maybe she appeared a few years earlier. Since a dragon's exterior depends on his/her emotions, like greed, maybe their development is also affected by the norms of their society? Modern dragons walk on 2 legs and use 2 arms for grabbing, they sprout 2 wings when they get older. Celestia raised Spike the way a modern dragon would, but what if their practices changed drastically in the last thousand years?

dust vs changelings?

I try to avoid changelings. Too much contradictory fanon

Lions, tigers and bears?

In the game Dust only fights sentient enemies or wolves guided by sentient enemies. Probably, no. Unless Trixie performs with something dangerous and that something tries to get away.

Totals: ideas for 2 gag chapters (that need work), possible side arc, possible stage of the main quest. Not enough, but good :)

P.S. Notes to self: 1. Crackle is angry at the two ponies who wore a dragon costume, because since then dragons occasionally try to tear the costume off her. 2. Dust ends up in Ponyville when he tries to get false teeth suggested in another group. They fell asleep and passed their station. Ahrah didn't wake them up because "you needed your rest". 3. Fluttershy is surprised to hear Matti speak instead of grumbling: "Wow! You can talk!"

5680512 yeah i'm not the best for idea's uuuh

And is there a canon mark for Sombra?

uhhhh

nope

what is Dust's mark?

eeeeh?eh?eah?

Fidget picking a few coins from her hoard while the owner was away?

seems the best
unless there is an item he needs
if not crackle, garble

and thats all i got for now
i'll keep thinking