Thought Dissection 5: A New Surgery · 12:36pm Aug 9th, 2021
Been a while since the last one of these (and most of the proposals there never saw the light of day. 
) But my creative energy is especially scattered right now, so I'd like some help in deciding where to focus it.
These concepts are all at least outlined and have at least a few excerpts written for them. Let me know which ones catch your interest:
Harsh Assessment: Ms. Harshwhinny gives her post-competition analysis after the first Equestria Games in Twilight's reign, which incorporated every species the princess has befriended. It isn't pretty.
Love in the Time of Paranoia: Oversaturated World story and sequel to User Not Recognized. Wallflower Blush tries to have a date with Corner Case, a boy with an unfortunate talent for finding cracks in the system by falling into them. Her friends try to make sure he doesn't try anything. Darker forces lurk in the shadows, watching both.
Pregnant Pie Predicaments: Pregnancy is nasty, unpredictable buisness for a species as magical as ponies. Doubly so when the parents are both party ponies. Thank goodness Cheese has one of the friendliest towns in Equestria to offer support as he tries to look after Pinkie.
The Qualm Before the Storm: Makes heavy use of comic continuity. Glitter Drops, Tempest Shadow's partner at the Crystal Empire ranger station, has been foalnapped. Tempest is going to make that everypony else's problem. The royal couple assigns Flash Sentry to supervise (i.e. make sure the crystal ponies' Sombra-related PTSD doesn't get too bad.)
Shadowed by the Stars: Sunburst admits that one of the reasons why he doesn't visit Ponyville more often is because Twilight reminds him of everything he failed to achieve, as does her giant crystal castle. Starlight decides to fix that, whether he likes it or not, by proving that the most prestigious school of magic in the country isn't actually that big a deal.
Space-Time Out: After eight-year-old Flurry Heart keeps abusing royal privilege in class, her parents send her to the pony best suited to deal with that sort of entitlement: Sunset Shimmer.
Spoiling the Competition: Role swap AU between Pinkie and Celestia, with all associated supporting casts going along for the ride. Star Swirl is determined to win the National Dessert Competition this year and put Sweet Reads Bakery and Bookery on the map. His three apprentices (Stygian the researcher, Celestia the baker, and Clover, who handles both) have to deal not just with his perfectionist streak but also Spoiled Milk, three-time winner, undisputed cheesecake queen, and unrepentant tribalist driven to see them disqualified from a proper earth pony event for all time.
Tertiary Exaltation: Oversaturated World story. As their senior year marches on, Twilight asks Sunset about her plans for college. Awkwardness and demon summonings ensue.
Love in the Time of Paranoia sounds both cute and crazy, so of course I'm gonna vote that one first
Pregnant Pie Predicaments also sounds like pure chaos, so I'm down for that
Those are my votes.
Top three, in no particular order:
The last line of this makes it into an interesting topic. :O
Always here for more Tempest. :)
YESSSSS
Is this Pony Life fic? c.c what
Always up for seeing Spoiled Rich taken down a peg. Two pegs in this case, seeing as timeline alterations have erased her marriage.
Pregnant Pie Predicaments, Shadowed by the Stars, and Space-Time Out interest me the most.
All of these sound fun, but Spoiling the Competition and Qualm Before the Storm intrigue me the most!
I'm always rather partial to stories about new / expecting parents. The best of them, IMO, are pretty emotionally raw: you're dealing with questions about identity, one's role in the family and society as a whole, fears and hopes for the future, not to mention being responsible for a whole-ass human being. Your summary makes it sound like you'd be going more for comedy than deep introspection, but still: my first vote is for Pregnant Pie Predicaments.
I also adore a good AU, and the idea of Pinkie Pie as Princess of the Sun seems like a great one. I love the ideas you've laid out in Spoiling the Competition, in particular the prospect of seeing how Equestria has changed under the Princess of Laughter (which makes me think of this clip from Friends--a deliveryman who literally couldn't care less has to add a little extra flair to his job because them's the rules). I also like the idea of several Very Serious Ponies working together to beat the competition at a cake-baking contest. This seems just absurd enough to be absolutely awesome
By the way, where's Luna? Maybe Spoiled Milk recruited her as an assistant, purely to spite Celestia (and the still rather naive Luna is simply excited to participate)?
I also really like the idea of Space-Time Out. I don't have as much to say about this one, other than I love the idea of a bratty FLurry Heart having to work out what it means to be human at the same time she's working through all her other issues. Bonus points for having Auntie Sunset along for the ride
1st Choice: Space-Time Out
2nd Choice: The Qualm Before the Storm
3rd Choice: Pregnant Pie Predicaments
Space-Time Out has my vote. Rare character pairing, and sounds like an good one. Shadowed by the Stars and Tertiary Exaltation also sound like interesting character pieces. I mean, all of your stories have interesting character stuff going on, but those are the characters that interest me most on this list.
Space-Time Out is the one that has my interest.
Spoiling the Competition sounds quite interesting.
I really like a bunch of these, but I think I like Space-Time Out, Pregnant Pie Predicaments, and The Qualm Before the Storm the most.
Hmm... Shadowed by the Stars is closest to my interests, for obvious reasons. You'd have to settle on a model of magic, though, and means of training, and a reason why Sunburst can't do the spells Starlight could (without that fancy edumacation). It also sounds like an excellent spot for a Stygian and/or Star Swirl cameo.
Space-Time Out sounds like it could be a neat spin on Christmas Carol or It's a Wonderful Life. I can just see Starlight using a simulation illusion to show Flurry 'what her future will be if she keeps this behaviour up.' But the idea feels like it's missing a little something. Sprinkle some Discord in, or even Trixie, to serve as a proper devil on the shoulders opposed to Starlight the angel. Assuming that's the mental image being pursued here, of course.
On a side note, I've now gone through an entire My Fair Lady song to ponify, and scrapped it in favour of an Asterix song. Pray for me.
...to Keranos, Odin, or Ganesh, please, I'm gonna need professional help for this one. Also: Theros crossover implying alicorns have Nyxborn properties, and that's where the swirly mane comes from. Heliod's the one who stopped their Sun when he hid an Athrean obol in it. Yay or nay?
It's like to ask me wich sweet is the best.
Hint: they ALL are the best.
In the immortal words of Queen:
Huh. Not sure what I expected, but it looks like Flurry through the looking-glass has strong support. Feel free to keep making your voices heard, though; more data is always a good thing.
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Rest assured, Spoiling the Competition is an FiM story... though given that this Equestria has been under the sole guidance of Princess Pinkie for a millennium until the new Bearers cleansed Nightmare Vitriol and restored Princess Limestone, it's going to be less familiar.
(If you're wondering, Maud has switched places with Sombra, driven by grief from the loss of her husband to overwrite the crystal ponies' personalities with Mudbriar's. Marble was just hiding in her room for a millennium until the royal wedding made her stick her head out to complain... and blanket all of Canterlot in magical silence.)
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Luna, having traded places with Limestone, is managing the family business. Which is a publishing house in this case. Somepony's got to help turn dreams into something printable.
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To clarify, Space-Time Out is sending Flurry to Sunset. Less guardian angel, more "Listen here, you little horseapple."
Also, that crossover concept definitely has legs.
Forced Monty Python reference for Space-Time Out:
"You have to do what I say," Flurry yelled, stamping her foot. "I'm a Princess!"
"I didn't vote for you."
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Darn show Unicorns and their samey names. Why can't they have more distinct, proper pony names, like Brass Tack, or Upshot, or Steel Donut?
...yes, those first two are fleshed out concepts now. You see what you do to people? You feed the plot bunnies, the darn things breed like, well, like bunnies!
Anyway, ramble aside, Sunset Shimmer would be neat in that role, suppose. Especially considering she wears a leather jacket a lot of the time...
"You don't wanna know what they pluck in this world, Flurry."
My top three would be—
Harsh Assessment
Space-Time Out
Shadowed by the Stars
—in that order.
Honestly, just thinking about the possibilities for mayhem at a multi-species Equestria Games made me laugh.
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Ooh, I like that tweak on Luna's role! That begs the question, though--do they have other sisters, too?
Of all of these, Space-Time Out is the one I want to read the most, by far. The Oversaturated World pitches are neat, but I'm so behind on the AU I'd never get around to reading them, unfortunately.
In roughly descending order:
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If you'd like to go full Pie family--
Perhaps Luna takes after Marble instead? I could see her being the quiet, determined type more easily than the super-agressive tsundere.
An aged-up take on Nyx, however, would probably work wonderfully as Limestone. Maybe not full-on Nightmare Moon, but at least someone that respresents the scarier aspects of fear of the dark.
...but who would be Maud...? If you'd like to stick to celestial bodies, perhaps Maud has a Planet
EarthEquus cutie mark, and worries about the environmental impact of their printing? She'd probably be a little diastant and wierd because she spends a little too much time with the rocks and trees outside, instead of the real-life ponies inside...Def Qualm Before the Storm for me.
The Qualm Before the Storm would be my first pick, though seeing the support for it I'm not averse to Space-Time Out. Even if I usually lean more towards edgy teen Flurry than what you seem to have there (Baron Engel recently made some lovely art of that, too). In the end it's up to you where you want to focus your attention on first though.
1: Love in the Time of Paranoia
2: Space-Time Out
3: Tertiary Exaltation
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I was most intrigued by "Harsh Assessment" and "Shadowed by the Stars" from the provided premises, but now these details are drawing me towards "Spoiling the Competition".
My votes are for Space-Time Out and Harsh Assessment.
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I like it even more now. :D
Hm. Perhaps Harsh Assessment and, looking at the comments, Spoiling the Competition?
Though I'm at least curious what exactly Shadowed by the Stars would involve, too.
All of these sound tremendous, but if I had to pick one, I think I'd go with Qualm Before the Storm.
I absolutely have Pregnant Pie Predicaments as my first vote; Pinkie Pie craziness is always for me, especially when the craziness isn't even under her control -- as the story's summary seems to imply.
My second vote goes to Spoiling the Competition, because I desperately want to see an Equestria where Pinkie, of all ponies, replaces Celestia as the 'ruling' Princess.
Third goes to Space-Time Out; it sounds like a pretty incredible romp.
Pregnant Pie Predicaments is my first pick, though that's probably because my wife is about 36 weeks pregnant, seeing as how I'm not generally a fan of CheesePie.
It looks like you have plenty of data already, but I'll throw in votes for Pregnant Pie Predicaments and Harsh Assessment.
The one that definitely grabs me is Space-Time Out. Follow up is The Qualm Before the Storm.