cleverpun's Idea Graveyard: The Shuffle-verse · 6:36am Apr 9th, 2016
A long time ago, I tried adapting one of my original fiction concepts into a pony alternate universe. As usual at the time, I posted a lot in a particular forum to get feedback on my story concepts and ideas. For those interested, I took the relevant post and adapted into a blog for your perusal.
It is Twenty Minutes into the Future (mebbe more). Many years ago, a combination of new technology and advanced magic led to the creation of a new medical procedure; the Cutie Mark Transfusion (Princess Twilight's University for New Research maintains a healthy budget to this day, thanks to its involvement in the discovery). It allows ponies to remove their cutie marks, and the skills they represent, and store them separate from their body. It also allows other cutie marks to be inserted in their place, granting the user a different set of abilities.
The discovery radically altered the culture of Equestria. While they were no stranger to the idea of free market economics, every citizen suddenly possessing a desirable commodity threw many old traditions and values out the window.
"Trading down" a mark is seen as a legitimate way to raise capital. Going without one is a legitimate, if risky, designer loan. "Blank Flank" is an objective term, though its negative connotations linger. The access to easy money made the underclass smaller, and the ability to extract cutie marks before death made wills more important.
Equine trafficking has diminished thanks to years of stricter and stricter standards and police ingenuity, but the threat remains. Victims often turn up unharmed after being harvested or "stripped", but the time when children walked home from school alone is long gone.
The DEA's main concern is a designer drug (known variously as Shuffle, Double Down/DD, Flush, and Misfire, among other wacky slang) that can temporarily replace a pony's mark with a different one, though it is completely at random. The rush of having cheap access to a huge variety of abilities has made it Equestria's premier illegal substance. Thankfully the drug is too unstable to survive a CMT procedure, but the cocktail of magic and stimulants has made paper ID more important than ever. And despite its non-lethal nature, the side effects are not pretty. Users are easily recognized by faded or frayed marks. The popular rumor is that an overdose removes one's mark entirely, with even a CMT unable to replace it. Of course, the other popular rumor is that the drug has no permanent negative side effects. Perhaps one rumor or the other is propaganda.
Racial tensions, already rare, are a thing of the past. While zebra already had a cutie mark analogue, now griffons and minotaurs and diamond dogs have integrated into all parts of Equestria. Dragons are still rare, but the way cutie marks restrict their growth has allowed them to integrate easily into pony society.
This story had a few potential plotlines that could have formed its potential basis (potentially).
* Celestia's School For Gifted Scientists (renamed in 1521 AD) has been the subject of countless speculation after a massive surge in funds from donors, both public and private. The details are unclear, but there are rumors that Dulcet Theorem—a descendant of Starswirl himself—has been experimenting with the Cutie Pox, trying to invent or cultivate or mutate a benign strain. The implications of multiple cutie marks have not been lost on anyone in the current economic climate. But the stress of living up to their ancestor's legacy, inter-school politics, and the research itself start to press upon DT...
* One of the princesses--probably Luna or Twilight, but perhaps Celestia--has become weary of princess-y life/the lingering stigma of her past/whatever else. She tries shuffle, and finds the result very emotionally freeing. But each dose of shuffle only works for so much time. The higher the dose, the longer the effect, but no one has ever tried taking enough to make it permanent. It would be such a gamble, such a risk: what if the mark you got was one you didn't enjoy, didn't want, couldn't tolerate? There's also the biological risks. Is the escape worth the risk? And how would her decision affect those around her?
* Some pony used their cutie mark to get a loan, start a business. But the business fell through, and now they are left without a cutie mark. They can feel disapproval everywhere they go, eyes drawn to their blank flank. If they could just get enough money to buy back their cutie mark, then surely things could go back to normal, surely they could make another try at it. And there are plenty of ways to make money, but the only ones available to them are not particularly legal.
Now, this idea was written a long time ago (as the timestamp on that forum post can attest). So what are some of the reasons it never materialized into a story/series/whatever?
I think the main reason was the inorganic nature of it. As mentioned, I looted/adapted it from an idea for original fiction I had. I don't think the concept was particularly suited to ponies. And at the time, Starlight Glimmer hadn't popped into the show: the mechanics of cutie marks were vague enough to allow the idea, but not necessarily vague enough to sell the concept by itself.
The other reason was that a poster (correctly) pointed out that the idea seemed better for original fiction. I was still mulling over the decision to return to original fiction at the time, and this comment struck me. Of course it seemed that way: I had developed the idea as original fiction in the first place!
So the idea never went any further. I have written a test draft of a story for the original fiction version, but it was terrible. Either I approached it from the wrong angle or it needs more development. Either way, the pony version of it remains.
Thanks for reading. Whether this was a good look into my creative process, whether it helped spark your own ideas, or whether you were just looking for concepts/plots to use/recycle, I hope it was interesting.
As always, comments and criticism welcome.
this sounds really cool, and i think it would actually work well with ponies. if you were doing original fiction, how would you represent talent trade? Here, cutie marks work perfectly.
I could see some lambasting this for being off-tone, but darned if I'm not incredibly interested in it.
3858276 Well, one way the original fiction version framed it was in terms of resumes. People already list their skills and such in real life when applying for a job after all: X years of volunteer work, two Bachelor's Degrees, extensive knowledge of car repair, etc.
The original fiction version had other issues, though, which is why it has been on the backburner a long time.
3858374 As with all my discarded ideas, anyone interested is welcome to use any of the concepts here for themselves. As long as they give me proper credit, ofc.
The tone and subject matter is certainly removed from the show, but isn't that the point of most AUs?
I think the general premise is probably more mechanically feasible than it was when I first came up with the idea. Now that Starlight Glimmer is a character, she could easily be used to justify the whole verse, or at least play a role in its history. Perhaps she developed the CMT during her time with Twilight, as a way for friends to grow closer or something. (Then other forces appropriated it or whatever.)
I'm hooked.
Is TVTropes really a good breeding ground for discussion on one's own works of fiction?
I tend to work better when I have a couple people to bounce ideas around with (Tales in particular hasn't been updated in some time because I haven't been in as deep discussion with notMurphy as I once was about it), is that a good forum for the sort of discussion I'm looking for?
Is making your own story page on it considered too much of a Faux Pas?
3930560 TVTropes' forums tend to have some inconsistent traffic. A lot of the forums and threads--particularly those discussing specific works--tend to consist of a small subset of regulars and periodic drop-ins. The Pony Fanfiction Thread in particular has a set of regulars that are responsible for most of the thread's posts.
I've certainly met some cool people on Tvtropes, but it may not have enough traffic to justify being your only source of pony discussion. People will certainly give you feedback/discuss concepts, but if you want in depth discussion of a single story then its unlikely that everyone in the thread will be familiar with it (though there are some works that a majority of the members like).
There's also a tropers group on FIMfic, if you'd rather go there: http://www.fimfiction.net/group/197995/tropers
Making a tvtropes page for your own work is a bit of a faux pas, but no one is going to give you much flak about it. It's one of those unwritten things that is a bit frowned upon, but isn't against any enforceable rules.
3930612 I just need a "Pudgy no" group, and a little more exposure. The current group I've got seems afraid to say no to me.
I meant a faux pas in the meaning of "is it going to inspire a crusade of any sort against me". My stories are already suffering from people defending the honor of Sir Hat and MythrilMoth(90's kid post? he's 40) and over me firing a previous editor and I'm not looking for another mob wielding downvotes and torchforks.