In Which Quilla Has Another Strange, Possibly Relevant Dream · 4:22am Aug 10th, 2015
Just when I thought the weird dreams were over, I had another one. I really have no idea why I'm telling you about it in the first place other than the fact that it could give me for an idea involving the orchestra department in If You Give a Little Love. Since we've looked at the costuming and styling departments, and have a good idea of what the producer and director go through, the actors, actresses, musicians, and possibly techies need all the characterization they can get while still making this a story about Babs and Coco. For some odd reason, the only ideas I'm really getting here are that some stallion in the tech department ends up crossing paths with Mosely's vengeful ex-wife and that one of the musicians has a daughter around Babs' age.
The daughter's personality is going to have to change big time from how I first envisioned her, as right now, she's reading like a direct copy of a character from another franchise. Considering I've only had the concept for her for about a week, that's to be expected. She's basically a blank slate right now. Suggestions personality-wise would be great, but without much further ado, let's look at how I ended up getting here in the first place.
Originally, the dream didn't really have a whole lot to do with MLP and was essentially a setup with an anonymous girl that my head made up out of the blue. Said anonymous person, upon further examination in the morning, seemed to me to be a lot like Babs: someone with a rough past, a personality that could come off as abrasive, a magic saxophone... (no, don't skim through the latest parts, If You Give a Little Love still contains no Babs with saxes, but I can kind of envision it regardless). Basically, what happened in the dream was this kid ends up in a rough neighborhood/upbringing, and this goddess-queen comes in and makes a deal with her. Her princess daughter has run away from home, and the kind and benevolent queen, seeing a chance at improving both their lives, recruits the young girl so like her own to find her daughter and become her magical knight. Through coincidences only magical beings could pull off, the girl ends up in a new, nicer city and a better life, though the fact that she has to do something in return is never far from her thoughts.
If anything, other than the similarities to Babs, the dream bore much more resemblance to another guilty pleasure of mine called Suite Precure. It's not all that popular here in the States, but Precure is basically a Sailor Moon-type anime setup with character changes every season and with Suite being the music-themed one, hence the weird magic sax. The new magical knight girl (who, by the way, has blended straight in with Babs in my head to the point where they're basically each others' alter egos) goes by the name of Cure Tune and patrols the city in search for music notes to use for spells (long story) and, more importantly, the princess she's been out to search for. There's another magical girl in town, Cure Muse, however, that Tune absolutely despises because she bungled up one of her missions once. Muse isn't my character, but is regardless pretty amazing in the show's canon.
Since this is getting really off the MLP topic, and since you probably don't really want to hear the whole story of how Tune ends up finding her princess and whatever, what this does have to do with the actual task at hand is my realization that, were they to somehow meet despite their differences in shows, Muse and Babs have a lot in common. Muse is a bit sassier than Babs is, but she's also a bit precocious like she is and has had family trouble. (Babs has to put up with her father having died. Muse's father got brainwashed and she had to fight him. Guess who has it worse?) And what all this has to do with the music department is that Muse lives with her organist grandfather. So basically, I just told you a long, winded, elaborate story just to get to the point that we could have Babs do another meetup with the crew like she did with Remy. *sigh*
The new filly will probably have her cutie mark like Babs does, might have a bit of sass to her just because I want to have witty bantering between the two of them, but other details will be added in to make her my own and not just Muse's expy.
With that, basically the four things to take out of this post other than a potential new plotline are:
1.) Quilla really wants an excuse to draw humanized!Babs in a magical girl outfit.
2.) Quilla really wants an excuse to draw pony!Babs in a magical girl outfit (or an excuse to teach herself to draw ponies in the first place so she can actually, y'know, manage these impulses without the sad realization that she has no clue how to draw ponies)
3.) Quilla really needs/wants a Muse in more ways than one.
4.) 
If it convinces you any, the new season has a villain named Princess Twilight whose voice actress plays our Twilight in Japanese dubs...
Inspiration's great, isn't it? I wish I had some more to work with myself
I hope this stuff pans out for you nicely 
I've been looking forward to seeing more of your work, Quilla.
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Maybe you just need a
media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltxjv9ypEp1r1licb.jpg
Every writer needs a good plush muse once in a while. And considering that Muse in the show canon is a bit of a daddy's girl, maybe the effects of the plush would be more effective if a male writer buys one.
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I've got this one: thumbs3.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/m_9qCXLXk0PxcVrSO2cgz_w.jpg
Does that count?
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Yes. The doll I keep posting is actually named "Muse" though, so I mean it more as a writer joke than anything. Anything can be a Plush Muse, but this doll is an actual plush Muse.
Plush Muses that aren't named Muse are nice, too. I won an Apple Bloom plush at MWBF, and I find that stroking her little bow is surprisingly calming for me. The bow is plush minky just like the rest of the pony!
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Wait... You were the one who won that drawing at the Whitedove Creations panel? Holy mother of random profanity! I'm jealous!
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Yeah, I was. Apple Bloom is, for the most part, the highlight of my summer. I absolutely adore her.
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Can I steal her? XD
Man, you made out like a bandit in May! You're so lucky!
Summer's highlight, eh? When are you headed back to school.
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What's really weird is that on Saturday, I was sad that all the Button Mash knockoff plushies were gone and on Sunday, once I got Apple Bloom, I didn't really care all that much. Mainly, a lot of Button's appeal for me comes from the fact that he reminds me of a childhood friend, so maybe I'll get his plush someday, but for now, I'm more than good with my Apple Bloom. I've wanted a White Dove plush forever, but never thought I'd see the day where I'd actually get one!
If White Dove wouldn't have had the CMC available at the drawing (you could pick between the CMC+Mane Six), I would've picked Dash, because plushies with her show-accurate mane are so darn hard to find. 4DE has a good one that I'd actually consider buying, though. Never bought from them before, but they were rumored to have this really amazing Celestia out that still hasn't been released...a full-size, cheap Celestia would be a dream come true for me. (And maybe Luna too.)
But I admit to having bought the knockoff plushies: I have Woona, Tia, Applejack, and Cadance. I felt terrible the first few days after getting them for "not practicing what I preach" and "financing Suri's business" (yes, I actually did think in exactly those terms despite Suri being fictitious), but now I see them as a necessary evil. Once Hasbro finally develops better plushies, I'll go straight to them and never look back. I'd like to have the Coco knockoff partially because I like her, and partially because of the irony. Getting a Babs knockoff made sounds incredibly, incredibly terrible with If You Give a Little Love's canon in mind, but I guess I'm that desperate? I was ecstatic just to find a tiny Babs in the Apple family playset and actually bought it; it's not a brushable, but I still love tiny baby Babs.
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Heh, whatever makes you happy. I'm not really sure what qualifies as a knockoff plushie or not, but I prefer the ones that don't require brushing to get their manes perfect. It's too much work for me
Can't wait though, after school's started back up, it'll be about a month until the St. Louis Crystal Fair convention. That'll be so much fun, and I'll be able to get more good pony merch
I even actually bought my first pony shirt in preparation for it 