The first thing any pony AU... well, actually the first things any pony AU needs are the Longest Night Longest Day equivalent and the Boast Busted equivalent. But the next thing after that is a place to discuss story ideas.

I'll get the ball rolling with a story I've started on, working title The Super Speedy Clothing Weavy 3000. As you might guess, it's a Flim-and-Flam-centric fic, in keeping with the "villains become heroes" theme of the Rainsverse.

I've read numerous fics pointing out that if the brothers simply marketed the devices they invent as part of their cons, they could make a legitimate fortune. So in this fic, Flim and Flam are two unicorn commoners whose gift for artificing and invention is curtailed by their lack of funding and noble patronage. So they wander the roads of the Heartlands, selling minor devices and trinkets to get by and trying to find a patron who can provide the necessary materials and publicity for them to give their inventing skills full rein. Eventually they make their way to Ponyville, and petition Adagio for support, offering the designs for an automatic clothing maker as a proof of concept. Adagio and Starlight agree to pony up the bits, and the brothers have a shot at bringing their dreams to life. Of course, it won't be quite that easy...

5918858 Naturally, it won't go that smoothly. :-D Still, yeah, this DOES sound like a darn good fic idea. :-D

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Well I have a idea for a possible story. It' basically Bridle Gossip with elements of the "lost deer episode." One day a pair of wandering Deer and a young Earth Pony colt they adopted arrive in Ponyville. Naturally the citizens of Ponyville are a little wary of the stranger newcomers. However after the Doe Rosemary gives a remedy to sick foal, most start to warm up to them. The Deer's son, Pine Oak, starts to take a shine to Starlight and her friends. Unfortunately every filly and colt except Pine Oak succumbs to a unusual illness. Eventually all of Ponyville believe the deer are responsible. Starlight believes they're innocent and have been helpful. Adagio reminds her that Scorpan wanted to help too.

Here's general picture of what the deer and the colt looks like,

Rosemary would be this verse's answer to Zecora. She's an expert healer with a vast knowledge of Herbs. Also the Buck on the right is Redwood, Rosemary's husband. Additionally he would have a friendship with Iron Will that similar to that of Samurai Jack and the Scotsman.

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Those are both neat ideas for fics and would make great additions to the AU! I particularly like the idea of the deer being more Scottish in nature.

So long as we're discussing future fics, I might as well mention the next fic that I'm working on for the Rainseverse. The current title is One Tin Pegasus and is mostly focused on Lightning Dust and her attempt to rebuild her branch of the Everfree Rangers. Things start off okay with a bunch of eager recruits (including an adult Scootaloo) but things start to go south when one of The Heartland's nobility stops by.

I haven't quite worked out the details on her yet, but I want her to have some kind of title like "The Bloodly Baroness of Bathandwells" or something else intimidating like that. Of course, Lightning Dust is concerned that she's another corrupt noble coming to trick control of the Ranger's out of her. Then Adagio gives her the scoop. That the baroness is known for *not* being corrupt. To the contrary, she's almost puritanically unbreakable and earned that "Bloody" title for dealing with every noble that tried to interfere in her business with trial by combat. She has a judicial champion that does the actual fighting of course.

But either way, she's come to take direct control of the Black Rook Lodge because she doesn't trust Lightning Dust to not just create another corrupt incarnation of the lodge. Now Lightning has to rebuild the lodge while keeping it from being stolen out from underneath her.

I do eventually want to do a fic with the caprataurs as the main antagonists, something almost along the lines of true military fiction, with battle, tactics, strategy, and everything.

I was originally planning on doing it as a Mirror Pool story. One of the caprataur tribes would have discovered the Pool and be using it to create waves of disposable troops, and the Knights would have to find and seal the Mirror Pool before the caprataurs could wipe out Ponyville. Grey nixed the idea, though.

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Ooh, I like that idea! Sounds like an awesome read.

5918858 I can see one problem with this idea as presented, and it's the same problem with any story incorporating the idea of mass-produced clothing: Ponies spend most of their time naked barring special functions and nobility, and the nobility want unique items.

True, we do have Canterlot Boutique as an example of ponies going wild over a single design and demanding it in massive quantities, but that is a pretty obvious exception to the norm that we have seen on the show.

My suggestion for refinement of the idea in reflection of this is simple: The device is able to near-instantly fabricate any clothing design provided to it once, but isn't able to make additional copies from the same design more than once a week or more than five times due to the magic reading degrading the paper (able to be circumvented by making more than one hard copy of each design of course). The result is a device that has a niche market: clothing designers whose abilities do not include the ability to actually create what they imagine either due to lack of physical skill or crippling injury; the 'I have ideas but I SUCK at turning them into something real' type of person.

The market would be smaller, but they would still make a ton of bits on maintenance if not sales. Anything with moving parts suffers degredation over time, and ponies don't likely have access to things like Teflon or titanium to create less friction or better durability.

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I have some thoughts on this, but it's getting late where I am. I'll comment tomorrow once I get off of work.

I DID have some ideas, but I, unfortunately, lack the time and energy to write the stories myself.

At any rate, I DID consider thinking of stuff for Trixie and Sunburst, considering the two of them are Starlight's canon best friends and Starlight is one of the main characters of this series. However, because of that, I figure GreyGuardPony already has plans along those lines, so I decided to skip it.

Anyway, here are a couple of ideas I had that anybody who wants to try them can tackle:

One of those ideas involves three different situations cropping up at once and the Element Bearers having to split up into three teams of two in order to deal with them (VERY loosely inspired by the Cutie Map missions in the past two seasons, but obviously MUCH more serious and with all three stories happening at the exact same time). No details on the situations yet, but, well, that's what brain-storming is for, right?

The other idea involves the Element Bearers trying to help out a teen dragon named Garble (in keeping with the theme of those who are usually villains being heroes, Garble is still cocky and dumb, but, at least here, he has a decent heart deep down AND he isn't bigoted toward ponies) as he tries to save a couple of his friends who were dragon-napped by a mysterious force.

Again, just vague ideas that I lack the time and energy to tackle myself anyway. But, well, that hopefully leaves a lot of leeway for anybody who likes the ideas enough to tackle them to write the stories their way.

Of course, if nobody likes the ideas, I profusely apologize for wasting everybody's time.

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So, when it comes to the pass production of clothing, you are correct that the economics of scale aren't as important in a society where clothes aren't worn by everyone. But making the existing designs faster is something that'll still have some use and that's where the brother's can get in on things.

Though, the more I've thought about it, the more it occurs to me that the main opponent of the Flim-Flam Brother's device shouldn't be the nobility...at least not en-masse. Trade Guilds were very much a thing back in the Medieval and Renaissance eras. Perhaps the main group that's been trying to ruin the Brother's business is the Honorable Guild of Tailors and Weavers, who have been honorably sabotaging every business deal that they tried to make.

That could add another angle of temptation for Suri, since the Honorable Guild of Tailors and Weavers could always offer her some manner of sweetheart deal to help sabotage the brother's device.

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Ironically enough, I hadn't considered Sunburst yet. He's just kind of slipped my mind in general. Something I'll have to mull over.

Dragons are in a similar state at the moment. I don't entirely know what I want to do with them yet, mostly because I'm torn making them an equivalent to some post Roman Empire culture, or to keep them rarer and more....well, monstrous and dragonish. It's a tough call to make, really.

I do like your idea about the party split at some point though. I'll keep considering the possibilities there. Though if anyone else has any ideas, I'd be happy to hear them too.

5923821 And let us not forget the complaints levied against the brothers by the Guild of Tinkerers, Hackners (a hackney being a four-wheeled cart with two horses), and Machinists for their 'unorthodox' designs, meaning they actually work reliably and don't fail nine times out of ten in the prototype stage so more time is spent on aesthetics rather than overengineering the devices to NOT fail catastrophically (which can in turn feed into a general populace that doesn't trust a new machine that doesn't look overbuilt and clunky so that if it does explode the parts are too heavy to move). This would still be a somewhat corrupt objection, but from a foundation of honorable intent rather than greed. They also aren't members.

Also, I'd personally change the guild you mentioned to Weavers & Tailors so that there can be a GoWT/gout joke at some point, or mention that it used to be in that order until they got sick of the puns.

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Yeah, the brother's initial plan is that their machine will basically produce clothing along the existing lines, but faster and cheaper. In fact, one of their selling points is actually that their machine will let ponies who otherwise couldn't afford clothing have some, opening up whole new markets.

And I really like the idea of the Guild of Weavers and Tailors being one of the main antagonists in this story. What if Suri is angling for admittance into the Guild (her first shop was a dramatic enough failure that she never got in, maybe?) and thinks that if the Guild think that she's supporting the brother's idea, they'll be furious.

Bit of a spoiler, but my plan for the endgame is that in a parallel to the Celestiaverse episode, the machine will produce clothes that look downright ridiculous or ugly. For a moment, it looks as though the brothers have lost everything. But then Suri points out that their machine would be perfect for mass-producing utility clothing (all-weather cloaks, padded/leather armor, and the like).

5930150 I just want to point out that the only reason their debut episode ended in them failing was because they specifically disabled a special Quality Control function which was rejecting every apple at full power due to said full power mode inhaling entire trees rather than just the apples, and thus the apples were damaged and contaminated. The machine worked PERFECTLY up until that point, and their cider was clearly high-quality based upon Granny Smith's expression.

As for 'ugly' patterns resulting from that disabling of quality control. Two words: Camouflage Armor.

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The idea I was shooting for is that there are two Quality Control circuits in the device. The first ensures that the clothing is cut to perfectly fit its wearer, and that one works just fine (though I may have it blow out in the middle of a demo due to the brothers running into budget issues and having to use suboptimal materials). It's the second circuit, the one that's supposed to automagically pick the right color and style of dress to look good on whoever may happen to be in it, that won't work.

The idea is that fashion isn't really something that can be reduced to a mathematical equation. You can program a system to take a body type and automagically cut a suit of clothes that fits it perfectly, but good taste in dress isn't so simple to define. Especially since the brothers don't seem to have the best eye for fashion themselves.

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What about having dragons (or rather, at least some of them) become barbarian warlords/ independent nobles? I.e. in addition to collecting hoards, dragons in this verse collect minions. Some will grab a tribe of ghuls or caprataurs or diamond dogs, and send them out to raid villages for wealth. Others might essentially move in and declare themselves Lord of some small town or cluster of isolated villages, demanding tribute but also offering protection against monsters. There would presumably be plenty of towns and villages that were settled under Old Equestria, but are left outside the area the Remnant Kingdoms control.

5948401 Aha, now I see it...

Still, the end result being camouflage armor that really works well can be achieved by limiting the color selections to greens and browns near forested areas and other colors as appropriate to the destination of the finished unit. The concept is less useful with ponies in general due to coat colors being FAR more varied than skin colors, but the core idea of disguising the outline of the body is still solid.

So... I just realized that I should probably ask: What are the rules on homosexuality in the Rainsverse? Are we going with a medieval idiom where homosexuality is taboo? Something more like the Lunaverse, where the majority of ponies are straight but the minority who aren't are unremarked on? Something in the middle? I know this can be a very controversial subject, so I figured it would be better to get an official ruling on the matter.

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So, I'm getting a little more ambitious in my writing, and considering starting a second story at the same time as Super Speedy. This would be the Rainsverse equivalent to Boast Busted, focusing on Trixie and the Lunar Kingdom.

I propose that Trixie Lulamoon is, in the Rainsverse, a high-ranking noble of the Lunar Kingdom. I propose that she is traveling to Canterlot at the head of a trade delegation, and stops over in Ponyville for a night or two because it is on the way. She is grandly dismissive of the Knights of Harmony, claiming that if she had been blessed with an Element, she wouldn't have let Chroma get away. Then either she goes into the Everfree looking for an Ursa, or one comes out for some reason (possibly sent by Echidna). Trixie attempts to fight the Ursa, fails dramatically, has to be saved by the Rain6, and is forced to apologize for her rudeness.

Working title idea is Busted Boasts.

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Whoops. My bad Void. I completely missed this question.

I'm pretty pro-LGBT representation, so I really hadn't planned on gay couples being taboo in this setting. One could argue that it isn't that historically accurate....but I don't care! Especially since I've been kind of toying with the idea of having Adagio wind up in a romance with Sunset Shimmer in the future.

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While I appreciate your enthusiasm on this one, I'm gonna pull universe founder rank on this one and veto. ...At least the idea of using Trixie for it. I have plans for using her in conjunction with that kind of bayou-esq village we saw in the episode with Apple Bloom and the pies...I can't remember it's name at the moment.

Either way, it'll let me play around with cajun Trixie. And cajun Trixie is best Trixie!

Admittedly, the basic idea could work with another character. But I would suggest that you not stretch yourself too thin when it comes to stories though. Take it from someone who knows. I probably started a few too many stories at the same time and now I'm feeling stretched a little thin.

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Well, it’s your universe. I’ve already made the necessary edits to Super Speedy Warp’n Weavy. I must admit, though, that I hope you don’t decide to go ahead with an Adagio/Sunset ship. I was particularly looking forward to being able to write Adagio, but I’m strongly heterosexual myself, so it’s harder for me to write a homosexual character. Especially since Adagio is a noble, which makes her marriage and heirs hugely important to the plot.

On other notes, there have been several things I was wondering about:

1: The Elemental equipment. I really like the idea of the Bearers being able to summon and dismiss their Harmonic gear like Shardblades, so I was wondering if you’d made a definite decision on whether they would work that way. I also like the idea that in addition to being able to call the Rainbow of Light when working together, the individual Elements also provide their bearers with weapons that even the most powerful enemies can be harmed by. Again, just want to make sure that that is how they work before I put anything along those lines into a story.

2: Cutie marks. We know three of the R6’s talents: Adagio’s is sonic magic, Sonata’s is cooking by ear, and Suri’s is tailoring. But I don’t think Starlight’s talent was ever exactly defined, beyond that it has something to do with magic, and I have no idea what talents Aria or Lightning have.

3: Scootaloo. This is more a suggestion, but I think Scootaloo would be really good as one of the new Ranger candidates for One Tin Pegasus. Since obviously the Trio won’t have their Celestiaverse marks, might I suggest that Scootaloo’s talent could be fearlessness? Seems to fit her general personality, and would be excellent for an aspiring Ranger.

4: A cast list: I know this is a bit silly, but I’m having a lot of trouble keeping track of which background ponies are part of Adagio’s guard, which are Sonata’s employees, which are Starlight’s assistants, and so on. Any chance we could get a cast list?

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Well, if it's any consolation, if I do the Sundagio thing, Adagio will end up being Bi rather that flat out gay, since she was rather enthusiastically making out with Blueblood in the first fic. Not that I feel it would really make that much difference to how she's written, since she is still a pony that likes power and sometimes struggles with the idea of friendship. ....Still, I haven't really made that call yet one way or another, so no need to panic yet.

In regards to the other stuff....

1.) If we were to go this route, these are things I'd like them to earn down the road. They are, most importantly, still the Elements of Harmony and are primarily magical items that empower ponies and their connections with their friends. The fact that they've taken the form of weapons already makes them pretty different from the Elements we see in a lot of other AUs. For now, let's just keep them as weapons.

2.) Good point. That was a little bit of a mistake that I made in the first fic. For Starlight, it is magic. She is the town mage in addition to being the town mayor after all.

Aria's cutie-mark remains musically inclined since it has a forte symbol in it, so I like mixing the idea of sound into her job as being in the weather patrol. She feels out storms by ear and has a particular love of booming thunderstorms. ...She's also good at mimicking bird calls, though that's not strictly related to her special talent.

Lightning Dust's special talent is a little more esoteric. She's fast and nimble like a lightning bolt. But going fast isn't what makes her happy. Lightning is driven to compete and be the best. The Everfree Rangers are a tough post. A lot of recruits wash out because they can't handle it. Lightning pushed herself for it. So, her special talent is effectively her drive to be the best. To be as brilliant as a lightning bolt. ;)

3.) Way ahead of you there! Scootaloo will be making an appearance in One Tin Pegasus.

4.) I should go ahead and make a general setting document beyond just a cast list, but I'll at least get the latter up this weekend.

Well, even though I'm not going to have the time and energy to write any stories myself, I DO have an idea for Sunburst for anybody who is interested:

Much like canon, he was Starlight Glimmer's childhood best friend. ALSO much like canon, he is highly intelligent, but his power level is only around that of the average unicorn. So, while he has a lot of brilliant theories, he lacks the power to put them into practice.

Unlike in canon, however, Sunburst got into a bit of a scrape with some nobles (the author who likes the idea can pick the nobles he got on the wrong side of) and ended up getting put into indentured servitude as punishment (he is basically given every dirty job the cruel nobles can think of just to make him suffer). Unfortunately, despite her impressive raw magical power, Starlight was LEGALLY powerless to help her best friend because the nobles, though quite cruel, are JUST smart enough to NOT flat-out break the law. This, while NOT the ENTIRE reason Starlight dislikes nobles in general and the "indentured servant policy" specifically, was definitely a good part of the START of it.

Of course, if nobody likes the idea or if I unintentionally stepped on any toes, I profusely apologize.

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I have some ideas for some several characters as well as a Rainsverse equivalent for Over a Barrel if anybody is interested.

Gladmane: in this verse he's one of the richest businesspony in the Heartlands. He was a friend to Adagio's parents to the point where she considers him an uncle. And while there's no doubt Gladmane is greedy, he does have a sense of honor and compassion (So think Pony version of Scrooge McDuck). He would also be a rival to Baron Fancy Pants.

Juniper Montage : She's a young mare with dreams of being an actor. However because she's too young and has no experiences, Juniper is unable to get work in acting. She also has anger issues which often gets her in trouble.
Also for those who haven't seen the recent Equestria Girl specials, Dance Magic, Movie Magic, Mirror Magic. Note Dance Magic starts at 0:00
Movie magic starts at 21:03
Mirror magic stars at 42:07

Storm King: A powerful warrior from the North who wields the legendary Gungnir spear. He often wanders the land for his next adventure, either slaying monsters or stopping a natural disaster. He's an old friend/rival to Master Tirek. I also have this idea where Lightning, Sonata and Pine Oak have to help him get his spear back from one of the six fallen alicorns.

Tempest Shaodw: Her horn was broken when she was barely more than a filly. Her parents kicked her out of the house and she was unable to find work. Eventually she left the pony controlled lands and was adopted by a Buffalo tribe. Despite her lack of magic, she has become a great warrior but her past has left her bitter and distrustful of Ponies. Now time for that Over a Barrel story idea I was talking about earlier.

A few of the Knights of Harmony have been called to deal with Buffalo attacking a royal mining operation. And even stranger a unicorn with a broken horn has been seen fighting alongside them. The reason the Buffalo are trying to drive off the ponies is because the mountain, Sky Father's Horn is sacred to them and the reason the ponies want is because the land is rich with a rare metal. Starlight and Little Strongheart try to find a peaceful way of ending the fight, Tempest Shadow is planning something that might cause a full blow war.

And if no one likes theses ideas or if someone already has plans for these characters, I understand.

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That is a very nice use/twist of the canon setup! Consider that idea stolen for cannon!

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Gladmane: I like this idea. I also like the idea of doing a kind of century appropriate riff off of the canon's faux Elvis persona. Maybe give him some personality aspects of a famous 15th century composer.

Juniper: I see some potential there, though at the moment I think she's kind of a character searching for a story to go with her. Preferably something in connection with one of our Mane Six. Hmm. I'll have to think on this one some more.

Storm King: Really like this one, making him kind of an Odin-esq figure.

Tempest Shadow: Ehh. I can't really say that this idea is going to work. I'm still big on the buffalo not showing up in the first season of fics at the very least due to the relative collapse of international travel and trade since the fall of Equestria. While the idea of Tempest being kicked out of her home due to her broken horn, is still good. Just not with the idea of using the buffalo.

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I'm glad to hear that. Though I was kind leaning toward Thor than Odin with the Storm King.

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Thanks very much for liking the idea. :-D

So I’ve been trying to get my plot threads in order for the next chapter of Super Speedy, and some things occurred to me.

Firstly, all the Bearers are technically of noble rank now, and from what I understand it’s generally considered inappropriate for nobles to own businesses or work in trade. Adagio is a Baroness and Starlight is a mayor, which are obviously suitable duties for nobles. Suri is currently Adagio’s seneschal, which is appropriate enough (though there could be some issues if she tried to resume a tailoring career). And even Lightning Dust’s position as head of the Everfree Ranger chapter house is exactly the sort of duties a noble would have. But Aria working on the weather patrol, and especially Sonata running a restaurant, would be a huge issue in a society that puts as much emphasis on noble rank as the Rainsverse seems to.

Also, I’ve been thinking about antagonists. I definitely want to use The Most Honorable Guild of Tailors and Seamstresses as a kind of background enemy of the brothers. Now, since one of the big functions of the guilds in medieval times was to provide mutual support through difficult times, the fact that Suri ended up so heavily in debt she had to indenture herself implies that she was trying to run a non-guild business (which would also help explain why she failed so dramatically). So perhaps Suri is considering joining the Guild properly, as a first step towards at some point relaunching her tailoring business. And of course the Guild is eager to have her because of her new title as one of the Knights of Harmony. This would give Suri another reason to initially be opposed to the brothers.

I also like the idea of bringing in the Marquis Hoity Toity as a noble with strong ties to The Most Honorable Guild of Tailors and Seamstresses. Perhaps his grandfather or great-grandfather offered the Guild a major tax break if they would build their guild headquarters in his March, and ever since Hoity Toity’s line has had a close relationship with the guild.

Thoughts, anyone?

Here's a possible idea (assuming somebody else doesn't already have a similar idea):

The Rains Six ends up encountering a masked pony called the Mare-Do-Well (who, in this universe, is a Zorro-style champion of the oppressed who humiliates tyrants and helps out "the little pony" [this Mare-Do-Well is NOT ANY of the Rains 6, but beyond that, I'll leave the identity to anybody who likes the idea enough to use it]). Of course, they try to find out more about this mysterious vigilante.

Of course, anybody who likes the idea enough can tackle it.

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While its true that the Rainsverse is very concerned with titles, rankings and nobilities, Adagio is really the pony it matters the most with. Everyone else was knighted, which just barely makes them nobles and the real reason why is the fact that they bear the Elements of Harmony. That, more than the knighthood, is what gives them most of their power, even if most of them haven't really realized what that means yet.

Which isn't to say that some nobles won't bitch about Aria and Sonata being :improper", if they can. I just don't see them being able to do much more than that. This is a field that Sombra and Chrysalis won't be afraid to apply more direct pressure in regards to. There is still a freed alicorn out there. Adagio and her friends have the key to lock her away again and its a key that requires their bonds to be strong. So no, we will not take away some of their jobs just to make you feel better. If the nobility wants to mess with Adagio and her friends, they'll have to be a bit more subtle than complaining about some of them being working ponies.

I do like your thoughts about the Honorable Guild of Tailors and Seamstresses. That's all gold!

So... I’ve hit a problem with Super Speedy that I’m really not sure how to resolve. In order to have proper stakes, there needs to be a Bad End, some reason why, if the brother’s machine fails, they cannot simply try again elsewhere. Now, the only remotely logical Bad End I could think of is that, should the brothers fail, they will default on their loan, lose all their stuff, and be bound into indenture to Adagio. Problem is, Starlight would almost certainly buy out and cancel the brother’s debt rather than permit Adagio to bind any more ponies into indenture, and I cannot think of any way to stop her from doing so. Given her finances as seen elsewhere, she almost certainly has the money. Adagio would certainly have no objection to Starlight buying out the debt, since she gets her money either way.

So... any suggestions on either how to stop Starlight from buying out the brother’s debt or how to create an alternate Bad End?

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Well, I see one of two ways of handling this one.

1.) Adagio remains a product of her era. In her mind, there's nothing wrong with the idea of indentured servitude. She doesn't treat her servants badly after all! Why should she suffer just because other nobles do horrible things? She could even be for a kind of reformation of the system, while Starlight's pushing for its complete abolition. This could be a point of tension for their friendship and something they'd have to work through together.

2.) Starlight is out of liquid assets to buy out the brother's contract at the moment and it will be months before she'll get her funds together again.

Now, of those two, I think that the first is the better of the two options. Adagio isn't perfect and her having kind of a blond spot in regards to the relationships between servants and nobles is a perfectly fine character flaw in my mind.

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What about combining these two ideas? Sunburst runs away, becomes an outlaw, and starts a new life as the Masked Mare-Do-Well. Perhaps Starlight could even know about it, leaving the rest of the Rain 6 to wonder why she’s so reluctant to search out or pursue this criminal.

Though that could easily stray into far too grimdark territory even for the Rainsverse. Unless the writer was very good, we’d end up with a situation where either Starlight has to turn against her fillyhood friend in support of an institution she loathes, or else the rest of the 6 have to at the very least turn a blind eye to blatant violation of the law.

Also, a couple of random questions, little things I was wondering about for verisimilitude.

1: What are the ranks of nobility in the Heartlands? Duke has been implied to be the highest rank short of royalty, and Baroness seems to be the lowest rank, but what’s in the middle?

2: Who are the nobles to whom Adagio owes fealty?

3: What are we using for a calendar system in this world? References to Adagio’s 24th birthday imply that this setting uses years as a measure of time, but are those years the same lengths as ours? How are they subdivided?

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I'll have to mull that situation over some more. I'm honestly not sure I really want to use the Mare-Do-Well in this verse....at least not with that name. Maybe going a bit more in the style of a 14th century highway man or something. Hmm. Yes, more thought is required. As far as your other questions go.

1.) The ranks loosely go like this. Knight, Baron/Baroness, Count/Countess, Duke/Duchess, King/Queen. The Marquis/Marquise is a little bit of an odd one, as it's technically still on the books and above a Count/Countess. But The Heartlands don't really have wide swathes of border territory to its name, so the few Marquis that do exist are those nobles extensively involved in diplomatic relations with the other successor states.

2.) Adagio's line of fealty follows as such. Count Copper Coin, who controls the County of West Canterhorn. Said county is one of four that made up the Grand Canterhorn Duchy, which due to a few quirks (and the fact that the capital is part of it) is directly under the control of Queen Chrysalis (who is also the Duchess of Grand Canterhorn). I figure this is one of the reasons there's continued whispering in the court that she might be planning a coup of her own.

3.) Here's where I admittedly get a bit lazy and just use the Gregorian earth calendar. 12 months, roughly thirty-ish days per month, etc, etc. Admittedly, it probably would be better to come up with new names for the months, but names are something I struggle with at times, especially when it comes to renaming months.

Hmm...then again, maybe I can borrow the Warhammer Fantasy calandar and tweek the names somewhat...I'll get back to you on this one.

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So, after doing a little bit of googling on various words associated with months and/or their original latin meanings, I've managed to cobble something together. I basically found out what those associated words were in French and combined them with -mois, for month. Here are my scribblings!

"January"- Seuil (threshold)- Seuilmois
"Febuary"- La Epuration (purification) - Epuratmois
"March"- La Querelle (quarrel)- Querellmois
"April"- Deplier (unfold)- Depliermois
"May"- Ancien (elder)- Ancienmois
"June"- Nouvel (young)- Nouvelmois
"July"- La Ardeur (keenness)- Ardeurmois
"August"- Recolte (harvest)- Recoltmois
"September"- Vendange (grape harvest)- Vendanmois
"October"- Citrouille (pumpkin)- Citrouillmois
"November"- Tomber (fall)- Tombermois
"December"- Neige (snow)- Neigemois

These probably aren't accurate for anyone who actually speaks French, but I think they sound kind of neat for a pony fantasy world.

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So I wanted to run the basic concept for Busted Boasts 2.0 past you, see what you thought of it. So Suri and Adagio are joining Marquis Hoity Toity on a trip through to the Lunar Kingdom. Things appear to be going well until the first night they spend in the Lunar Kingdom. They are enjoying the hospitality of one of Luna’s border nobles (I’m thinking Royal Pin should do nicely), Adagio gets somewhat drunk, starts boasting about her (and her friends’, but mainly her) defeat of Chroma. Then she gets a lot more drunk, and wakes up the next morning to find that she and Royal Pin are going out to hunt down an Ursa Major that has been causing trouble under Echidna’s prompting. Unable to back off from her drunken oaths without complete humiliation, Adagio can only hope to survive the experience...

So, any reason this wouldn’t work?

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That general setup seems like it would work quite well for a Boast Busted kind of fic! I still think that you should finish Super Speedy Warp and Weavy 3000 first though.

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These are beautiful! I’ll definitely make sure to use them in my fics. Speaking of which, what date does the Festival of Remembrance take place on? If I’m to use exact dates, I need some idea of when the story started.

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Do you have any plans for Discord?

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Actually, I suspect Discord is going to be uniquely problematic in this fic. Given that Harlequin still seems to retain her powers as a party pony, only now at alicorn strength and supplemented with unicorn and Pegasus magic, I suspect she’s going to fulfill the narrative role Discord usually occupies. I suppose we could recast Discord as some kind of benign trickster deity, less the Nemesis of Sanity and more the Whimsical God.

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1.) If we were to go this route, these are things I'd like them to earn down the road. They are, most importantly, still the Elements of Harmony and are primarily magical items that empower ponies and their connections with their friends. The fact that they've taken the form of weapons already makes them pretty different from the Elements we see in a lot of other AUs. For now, let's just keep them as weapons.

I had an idea about that. What if, over the course of their early adventures, we have the Rain!6 collect talismans symbolic of their experiencing epiphanies in their Elements, the same way the Celestiaverse!6 collected the Keys of Harmony through their fourth season? Once they’ve collected all six talismans, they can use them to perform a ritual to deepen their connection to their Elements, allowing them to summon and dismiss their Elemental regalia at will (and possibly some other effects). It would make a nice parallel to the Celestiaverse “Rainbow Power”, while still running with the more knightly aesthetic of the Rainsverse.

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I do have plans for Discord, but I'm not gonna reveal them until that particular bomb goes off.

That being said, I do like your idea for the Talismans, Knight. Not sure when we'll get to it, but it makes for a good thing for a later season, I think.

So, there are a number of things which I’ve run by GreyGuardPony in PMs, and it just occurred to me that I ought to post some of them here. First one is the stuff I’ve gotten approved so far for the Lunar Kingdom.

The Lunar Kingdom is the most isolated of the Successor Nations. This is largely due to the presence of the Everfree Forest along its eastern border, cutting it off from the other nations. Though the Everfree is not completely impassible, it is enough to discourage mere casual travel between the Lunar Kingdom and its other realms. The Lunar Kingdom also shares a border with the griffin tribes, and is perpetually repelling minor griffin raids (though several griffin tribes are Lunar allies of varying degrees of dependability. It is likewise in many ways the most militaristic of the Successor Nations, due to having no truly reliable allies with which it shares a border.
The currency of the Lunar Kingdom is the platinum lune. One lune equals twelve silver astrals, and one astral equals twenty-four tin liminals (also called “gleams”). One astral also equals almost exactly one and a half silver sous. Note that while silver sous can generally be spent anywhere in the Lunar Kingdom, gold livres and copper deniers will generally have to be changed into Lunar money unless you are dealing with a pony who frequently does business in the Heartlands, and lunes and liminals will likewise need to be changed for Heartlands scrip. Such moneychangers are reasonably common, however, especially in the border towns.
The ranks of Lunar nobility are (from highest to lowest): Queen, Marquis, Earl, Baron, Knight. Though Princess Luna is not averse to delegating responsibilities to her nobles, her authority is much more secure than Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra. This is due in part to the Lunar Kingdom’s embattled state (which causes any defiance of the social structure to be much more harshly looked upon in Lunar society) and in part due to differences in culture and style of rule.
The capital of the Lunar Kingdom is Selenium.

Hello everyone!

I have yet another story idea I’ve been noodling around with, and may wind up doing before I finish my other two. Working title for this one would be Sweetie Belle’s First Day At Work, and it would be a fairly short story, maybe two or three chapters.

Basically, the idea is that, in the wake of Sonata helping to defeat Chroma, bonding one of the Elements, and being named a Knight of the Realm, business is booming at the Southern Breeze. In fact, business is up so much that Sonata needs to hire a couple of new employees to keep up with the increased demand. Sweetie Belle, out of work in the aftermath of Chroma’s storm, desperately needs a job, and Sonata is happy to offer her one. Unfortunately, Sweetie Belle is possibly the worst cook in Ponyville. Can even the Bearer of Kindness afford to keep on a total incompetent, no matter how badly she needs the money?

Don’t worry, there’s a happy ending. Sonata eventually realizes that while Sweetie may be the worst cook in Ponyville, she’ll do just fine as a waiter until she can find a job more in line with her talent.

So, thoughts?

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Ugh, I really need to stop missing these messages.

It's not a bad idea for a fic, but I'm still gonna caution you against overstretching yourself. I have been there and am just now starting to claw my way out of it. You don't wanna be where I am right now!

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Just throwing out ideas here.

Vignette Valencia : A acquaintance/possible rival of Adagio. Despite her vain and haughty personality, she's considered to be one of the artist in the Kingdoms. Many ponies are willing to pay through the nose as well as put up with her overbearing demands to get her to work on a commission.

Wallflower Blush : A young mare from small farming village. Not wanting to live and die as another forgotten farmer like her parents, she's willing to do anything to be remembered. Also she's good at making potions.
Possible story idea: Wallflower comes to Ponyville and begs the elements for help. Her home town is under threat from a magical force, leaving out the tiny detail that is was her fault in the first place.

Chancellor Neighsay: Headmaster of the Heartland's school of magic and a "retired" member of The Council Of Enchantment, a organization of dedicated to the collection, preservation, and distribution of magical knowledge and to make sure its safe use for benefit and protection of all pony kind. Strict and conservative by nature, especially after the death of his wife, Abacus Cinch at the paws of Diamond Dog Raiders. But does have a soft spot for his adopted daughter, Cozy Glow.

Idea for a Halloween episode, one of the fallen Alicorns (Harlequin) has summon hordes of supernatural creatures to terrorize Ponyville.