Runic Notation won my roleswap contest thanks to RainbowDoubleDash considering it his favourite, and my mind began to buzz with ideas for side-stories as I gained more appreciation for it. My first one was about Gabby, who only had a cameo at the end, and I'm currently writing about her. I like to call this continuity the Runeverse, and while it’s hard to launch a shared universe on this site nowadays, I’m hoping to get more people to write for it.

The spoiler-free backstory of the Runeverse is that it’s set in an alternate Equestria where runic magic exists that’s hard to learn, but anyone can use it. Octavia was so good at it that she attended the School for Gifted Unicorns and became Celestia’s personal student despite being an Earth pony. Eventually, in the equivalent of season 1, she unlocks the Elements of Harmony and frees the Pillars of Old Equestria from limbo alongside Vinyl (generosity), Trixie (laughter), Flash Sentry (loyalty), and the undetermined elements of kindness and honesty (we’ve considered Mane Allgood and Rara, respectively, but that’s subject to change). Also, Gabby is Octavia’s number one assistant.

The gists of the two stories so far are:

• Runic Notation - Octavia, Vinyl, Twilight, and Rarity fight Aria Blaze with the power of music.
• The Lost Fledgling of Griffonstone - Prior to the events of RN, Gabby goes on a journey to Griffonstone to find out where she came from.

Without spoiling anything, both of these stories reveal that parts of the setting are different from canon in a way that’s not immediately obvious; and while they have events in common with multiple episodes, they’re not 1:1 parallels. That’s where you come in. I want to encourage people to write side-stories that focus on worldbuilding - particularly in foreign nations - through the lens of canon characters whose lives are drastically different from canon. (Note: not everyone was roleswapped. We know from several throwaway lines in Runic Notation that Starswirl was still a powerful wizard who ended the Dazzlings’ reign of terror, for example.) Since this is TCC56’s ‘verse, not mine, you’ll need to ask him for permission to write side-stories. I’m hoping to make a group if this catches on.

So... anyone interested?