so I did promise to do this.

let's get it started.

Premise

To be honest, I owe this to the Lunaverse.

or more specifically, what was going to happen.

I left before either Crisis of Two Equestrias or At the Gala happened, but the brainstorming threads were filled with "Night court This", "Night court that", and I was frankly sick of it.

I mean who the hell were the main characters; Trixie, Carrot Top and co, or Green Grass, Pruscenes or whatever the hell her name was and the night court?

more Importantly, why should I care?

so I left.

Not like they lost anything important with that.

But one of the threads stuck out.

"Alternate Versions of the Lunaverse".

I vaguely remember a Cadanceverse idea getting thrown around, and that stuck around.

That's right, the Discord/Republicverse started as a Cadanceverse.

Had the usual things: Celestia and Luna turn evil, Cadance leads the elements to seal them away, radaradarada.

But when I had the proto-idea out, someone brought up a question.

"Has a Discordverse been done?"

followed by:

"What if Discord represents Change, not chaos?"

and that's when everything clicked together.

World Building

I needed some reason for why Discord would be in charge again, and more importantly, why ponies would follow him.

so if Chaos is now Change, can Order become Stagnation?

thus the Industrial Rebellion began.

It's part of my reasoning about why Equestria's tech is so schizophrenic,: Celestia keeps tabs on it, keeping only what is most beneficial.

So no firearms, no weapons, nothing like that.

so the POD is Celestia and Luna clamping down harder on technology.

silly?

I would say so.

then again, sometimes something as simple as tripping infront of a crowd leads to drastic changes.

As a result Tech is abit more on par with the 1900s.

Battle Zeppelins and submarines are paired with Swords, and spears.

Firearms are just advancing to the flintlock mechanism, due to the fact that firearms are much more bulky and unwieldy, than ours.

the Republic is more-or-less the same size as canon Equestria, divided into separate districts, each with a governor-type figure.

the Republic as a whole is ruled by a senate.

Discord is sort of a non-ruler. he leaves everything to the senate, and likes to lounge around, causing little disturbances in the weather and things like that.

The Kingdom of Equestria is...going to be talked about later.

All I can really say is that during the dying days of the Civil war, many royalist fled to the Crystal Empire and things went downhill from there.

The Elements

I want to discuss them individually.

Magic

Time Turner was my first and only choice.

I feel that people have a tendency to take the "Element of Magic" way too literally.

I mean look at other AUs; Twilight, Trixie, Pony!Spike, Lyra, all unicorns.

they became the bearers not because they're unicorns, but because each of them found friendship.

That's why Time Turner can still be magic.

Initially, when it was still a Cadanceverse, he was going to be Doctor Whooves the XII.

This was nixed because I wanted to keep the Doctor Who references to a minimum.

Personality wise, he's goofy, silly, and still sort of coming out of his shell and interacting with ponies.

as for how he sounds...I can't get around it, he's David Tennant.

Generosity

Mac was my second choice.

My initial choice was Cup Cake. She would have been the struggling owner of Sugarcube Corner, barely making ends meet with her Husband, and the twins. Regardless, she always had time to spare to talk with her friends and anypony else who needed a helping hand.

that got nixed because I realized plotwise, it would be hard to work her in, and a second reason which I don't want to talk about yet.

So Big Macintosh was selected.

Initially he would have been the owner of Sweet Apple Acres, married to Ditzy Do, and Applejack would have been living in Manehatten.

But, it felt rather rude to toss Applejack out of the plot like that, so Sweet Apple Acres was reworked into the Collective; a conglomerate of farmers, working together to produce at maximum efficiency.

that brought in Carrot Top, Roseluck, Applejack and other farm ponies.

His metal leg was the result of more brainstorming, and proof that even small things would mean big changes.

Personality wise, he's basically the same. He's a bit more chatty due to his position in the collective, though.

He's still Peter New.

Kindness

Thunderlane's original role ties into two other characters, so that's not going to be talked about yet.

I selected him as a deliberate subversion of his usual element choices.

He seems more like Honesty or Loyalty.

But sometimes Kindness comes from unlikely sources.

Hence the scary looking pegasus is kindness.

at his core, Thunderlane is a very good natured, kind hearted, friendly stallion.

You just got to get past how he looks.

He probably sounds like Sam Riegal. specifically Viral.

Honesty

Rarity is part of my initial plans to show off just how things have changed.

a point of departure 1000 years ago means that a saint can become a sinner and the villain a hero.

Rarity, as a result, is still an Element of Harmony, just a radically different one.

We've also seen the hero become a villain (Twilight and Trixie), what could have been (Cheerilee and Pinkie), and that sometimes things don't change all that much (Carrot Top and Applejack).

Rainbow Dash shows that sometimes you're destined for greater things, and Fluttershy shows that not all changes are for the best.

but that's for later.

Mechanic Rarity is rather common in AUs, but that's alright.

As a pony, Rarity is rather short tempered, grumpy, and frequently argues. However, she's still a good pony, who really does care about the safety of others and their wellbeing.

She's still Tabitha St. Germain, but her Roberta the Killer Maid voice, not her usual Rarity.

Loyalty

First off, if you're wondering who the hell Dizzy Twister is, she's the pony that says "They're fighting over that Doll!" during Lesson Zero.

She's also the one dressed as a lion in "Luna Eclipsed".

Originally, I had no idea who this would be.

initially, I wanted to use a member of the Lunaverse Mane Six, for the same reasons Rarity was used: to show just how much ponies have changed.

But I had two earth ponies and two unicorns, knocking Trixie, Lyra, Cheerilee and Carrot Top out of the running, and I had plans for Ditzy.

that left Raindrops. Given though, that the Lunaverse built her personality from the ground up, That felt like a cheat on my part, so the plan was scrapped and I moved on.

Dizzy was Selected because her name and design caught my attention, as did this comic.

She's Scootaloo's biological mother, and Dinky's adopted mother. More will be explained in another story.

Financially, her family is set due to her husband's position within the Equestrian air force.

However, she's a very friendly, outgoing pony who works at Sugarcube corner with her old friend, Cup Cake, and does odd jobs around town.

she's a reliable pony, who will almost never let anyone else down.

Almost never, because she still has to take care of her daughters.

She sounds like Susan Blu.

Most of you know her as Arcee from the original Transformers and Animated, Buttons/Pluma/Paradise from G1 My Little Pony, and some other characters from Jem

In this case, I feel that she should sound like Arcee.

Laughter

Lemon Hearts is the pony that says "She's an Embarrassment to all things fashion!" in "Green isn't your color" and "I'll give you two bits for that cherry" in "Putting your hoof down". She's also the one dressed as a mouse in "Luna Eclipsed".

Outside of that she has no real personality in...well, anything.

so she was a perfect choice to replace my initial selection.

amusingly, I recently learned that she was selected as one of the false elements in the Lunaverse's "Elements of Insanity". Not only is she kindness, she's apparently one of Discord's offspring.

I mean out of who knows how many background unicorns, what's the odds of selecting the exact same one to be an Element?

It's certainly not a tip of the hat or a take that at this, that would imply that I would be important enough to earn one.

It's just an amusing coincidence.

Originally, I wanted to use Vinyl Scratch as Laughter. She would have been a meek, quiet, shy pony who did odd jobs around town, only to turn into DJ Pon3 when there was a party or otherwise needed her services.

I nixed it because I wanted a different direction.

To me, Laughter is misnamed.

It should be "Joy". Pinkie isn't all about making people laugh, she wants them to be genuinely happy, as we saw in "a friend in deed".

Lemon Hearts is likewise someone who does spread joy, albeit secretly.

Lemon Hearts' pen name of "Conscious River" is a pretty blatant joke on "Stream of Conscious", while Doc Daring: Mare of Bronze is a more Pulp/Doc Savage: Man of Bronze inspired take on it.

She has plenty of time to work on things, as the ponyville librarian.

Personality wise, she's calm, collected, and works well under pressure. she has a vast knowledge of various subjects, and is generally a nice person.

She should sound like Patrica Drake, who was Ms. Peachbottom in "Games Ponies play", Strika in Transformers: Beast Machines, Bibi Love in Dead Rising 2, and Balalaika ins Black Lagoon.

more specifically, she should be Balalaika.

Other Characters

-Mayor Cheerilee is a bit of a relic from the Cadanceverse.

Initially, Rarity was going to be the Mayor, but that got changed.

-Fluttershy, Ditzy Do, and Rainbow Dash are All alive.

Ditzy and Dash are tied together, while Fluttershy...isn't.

-Pinkie as the schoolteacher was something added at the last minute. Originally she would have been stuck on the rock farm with somepony else as the teacher, but I changed my mind.

-Clagan's original name was "Doctor Whooves VIII", and Time Turner would have had an elder brother, based on the Ninth Doctor.

-Dinky was originally going to live with Carrot Top in the Collective, but that was changed to Dizzy.

-Ponyville was going to be more clockpunk inspired, and Granny Smith would have been one of the nation's greatest engineers, with Applebloom and Rarity as her apprentices.

-Working off that, Cloudsdale would have been more diesel/steampunk inspired, while Canterlot would have been Retro-futuristic/Atompunk/Raygun Gothic inspired.

What's next?

I do have a few more stories planned.

One deals with Luna's culture shock to the strange new world, and what horrors lay within.

the other is the revelation of Dinky's true parentage, and what follows.

do I want to make a group?

Hell if I know.

If people want one, I could, but we'll see.

so in the meantime, if you want to see the continued adventures in this new world, look for my next story, "Of Parentage and Piracy"