1302681: While I like the artist defeating himself idea, I think the Elements should still have some impact on the battle, lest it become a shaggy dog story. (I.e., it'd be lame if all the Elements had to do was stay at home and wait for the artist to self destruct).

As for their sins...

Agree with Bluenote, Lyra, and Medley.
Fluttershy, maybe she starts forcing others to accept her help? Or putting others in need so she can help them? ("You just burned my fruit stand up!" "Yes, but now I have this brand new, much better stand for you!") Or she just runs herself so ragged that she can't fight the monster, but I think that's slated to be a separate story where Flutters does it on her own.
Not sure about Tavi or Vinyl...

1304562

Maybe something another character says triggers the Artists breakdown? Or weakness is competitiveness and they challenge him to produce a self portrait (he may not fully understand his own power).

The Fluttershy thing is a bit similar to Mare-do-well.

I'm not sure myself for a weakness for Vinyl she does seem the most 'perfect' of the team, maybe to self reliant? A sort of reverse Luditism, totally disregarding the 'old fashioned' way of dealing with things?

1304765:

Well...

She does like the new in favor of the old; that's from the original character profile I did of her. She's also the team strategist/smart mare. She has a healthy ego, a necessity for show biz...

Maybe it results in her pride and ego growing so much that she's useless to the team? She comes up with this crazy complicated, thirty-step plan to beat the artist, and when the others can't understand it, she blows them off and says she'll do it herself. She rejects all the old strategies they know that were already designed because of novelty. Things like that.

Pride, basically, as filtered through a techno-heavy DJ.

1304562
Well, the opera did take that aspect of Flutters to the extreme. Flutters tried to force her helping self onto the bird, but Philomena gave her the ultimate cold turkey (I'd rather die free than to submit to you)

To be committed to an over-complicated scheme is possible when it comes to Vinyl! She also has a streak of stubbornness about her at that!

1305685

Another idea I had for Vinyl's highlighted flaws could be an over reliance on magic. Using magic to do things she could just do manually. Maybe getting to an extent when she tries to levitate rather than walk despite being slower and more tiring than just using her hooves.

If theirs a physical metamorphosis as well then either her horn could get bigger or her body could atrophy making her horn look bigger, although this could end up looking really creepy.

1310364: ...I like it. :-) Yeah, she takes pride in working magic into her shows, enabling her to do things that she couldn't otherwise do. I could see that being used to warp her.

And, if we're basing this guy on Ivan Albright, 'creepy' is just what the doctor ordered. :-)

1310364>>1310371
The mental image of this is hilarious.

1311419: As for the other warped bodies...

Medley -- large hooves, of course, and maybe a more wiry frame (so she can snap out her legs quickly and grab stuff).

Lyra -- if she's more flighty, to the point of being completely detached from reality, maybe make her fade, or constantly vibrating (as if with energy).

Dunno about Octavia or Flutters, though.

Octavia's nose goes permanently into the air, but now she can't see where she's going.

A lot of Octavia's flaws were revealed in MoP... perhaps that could be the key to defeating the artist, because Tavi has been concentrating a lot lately on making herself a better pony.

Octavia's a perfectionist, but she's learning to accept the flaws in others and in herself.

1311601

Medley - My Prressccccious!!

Lyra - I quite like the fading from reality bit.

For Fluttershy if you consider her shyness a flaw then shrinking or turning invisible might fit.

1313456
Or the fluttertree.

1311601

For Medley how about those things from Labyrinth which are sort of like snails they pile lots of useless junk on their back so other's can't get it. Medley keeps hording and piles it up on her back until only her nuzzle pokes out.

Occasionally an arm pokes out to grab something to add to the pile or maybe more than the usual number of legs, or something that doesn't look like a leg at all *shudder*

1315432
wondered how long it was going to take to see that comment

Nemesis went down to Ponyville, she was looking for a soul to steal.
she was in a bind 'cos she was way behind: she was willin' to make a deal.
When she came across this young mare sawin' on a cello and playin' it hot.
And the Nemesis jumped upon a hickory stump and said: "Girl let me tell you what:
"I bet you didn't know it, but I'm a cello player too.
"And if you'd care to take a dare, I'll make a bet with you.
"Now you play a pretty good cello, girl, but give Nemesis her due:
"I bet a cello of gold against your soul, 'cos I think I'm better than you."
The filly said: "My name's Octavia and it might be a sin,
"But I will take your bet, you are going to regret, because I'm the best that has ever been."

Octavia you rosin up your bow and play your cello hard.
'Cos hells broke loose in Ponyville and Nemesis deals it hard.
And if you win you get this shiny cello made of gold.
But if you lose, Nemesis gets your soul.

Nemesis opened up her case and she said: "I'll start this show."
And fire flew from her fingertips as she resined up her bow.
And she pulled the bow across her strings and it made an evil hiss.
Then a band of spirits joined in and it sounded something like this.
When Nemesis finished, Octavia said: "Well you are good o spirit.
"But if you will sit down in that chair, right there, and let me show you how its done."

Fire on the mountain, run colts, run.
Nemesis's in the house of the risin' sun.
Scootaloo in the bread pin, pickin' out dough.
"Granny, does Winona bite?"
"No, child, no."

Nemesis bowed her head because she knew that she'd been beat.
She laid that golden cello on the ground at Octavia's feet.
Octavia said: "Nemesis just come on back if you ever want to try again.
"I told you once, you uncouth soul, I'm the best that's ever been."

And she played fire on the mount, run colts, run.
Nemesis's in the house of the risin' sun.
Scootaloo in the bread pin pickin' out dough.
"Granny, does Winona bite?"
"No, child, no."

I think we might be contractually obliged to have a story based on this.

1315470: Ooh, I really, really like that idea. That sounds epically cool.

1315432: Fluttershy is best Ent.

1312048: Heh. That's a good one. She'd go around walking off cliffs and into hedges... :-)

1378783: Devil Went Down to Georgia... a classic. That one would work well as a midseason or season finale. Suitably epic. Element band vs. Nemeis or some other villain. That'd be neat.

Other ideas:

* Detective work! Some wrong has been committed, and Detective Lyra Hearstrings vows to make it right! With her loyal assistant Tootsie Flute, they go detectiving through town and leave no stone unturned to fight evil! (I don't think we've had a Lyra breakout episode yet, so this could be a neat chance to show that, silly as she can be, she's got a lot of good qualities and is very zealous in her fights for her frineds).
* Lyra goes to pick up the gift that Zecora said she'd give her, which of course sends her on a great adventure. May include another kraken ride.
* Medley has to present herself at some gathering of rich ponies, leaving Fluttershy and/or Octavia to train her in being 'classy.' Of course, Medley's the kind of mare who, as her hobby, cuts metal and such to build instruments, so she's not exactly hoity-toity in her manners. Chaos ensues.
* Bluenote and some other C6 pony are stranded in a small town when the train breaks down after Bluey's tutoring session, and have to solve some local problem without the other Elements.
* Fluttershy spends enough time helping others that Angel and/or her other pets feel neglected. Fluttershy decides to do something big to show Angel and the others how much she loves them, and enlists the other Elements to help.
* Based on the Deleted Scene I posted on my blog: Octavia wants to compose a song for Cadance celebrating the millenium of her reign, but her historical knowledge isn't up to scratch. Tavi wants to do it all herself anyway, feeling duty-bound to complete her work for the princess. Her friends need to show her that this isn't the right way to go, that it's okay to accept help, and so forth.

1379131

I put an idea for a Cadenceverse version of your Lunaverse unfinished scheme on your blog but I think it might be interesting to see some of the mane 6 have a surprising amount of historical knowledge. Lyra if she's really going for the Bard thing should know a lot about important historical events and people, Fluttershy should know quite a bit of social history (Did you know that Mules didn't get the vote until 879?), I think it would also be fun for say Bluenote to have a surprising knowledge of a particular historical topic (Clothes? Food? Gryphon history?) and maybe for Vinyl to completely ignorant of some important historical facts.

1379454: Yep, I saw that and really liked it.
I do like the idea of the C6 having a lot of historical knowledge between them. Lyra knows all the famous stories, of course, and I like the idea that Fluttershy knows about social history -- which, of course, Cadance cares a lot about. Octavia herself could probably handle artistic history. Medley and Vinyl would probably be the most clueless of the bunch regarding history. Bluenote knowing a lot about food (so she could maybe do awesome historical recipes) could also be neat.

Yeah. This could be really cool. :-)

1379569

Going by Flight of the Parasprite Medley might know a lot about when different types of instruments were developed. It might not be part of the tune itself but the music could be played on the types of instruments available at the time period being represented, so it starts of being medieval and ends up with Vinyl's modern day equipment.

Planetarian probably has lots of idea's about how various pony usable instruments were created.

I've started to write up my first cadenceverse story with the 6 taking part in the running of the leaves and I'm hoping to flesh out the ponyville setting a bit with a few background ponies. The setting will be Octy jogging through ponyville early morning and meeting a few early rising inhabitants but I need some personality for them something to make them a bit different from other universes. Currently I have the following ponies planned and some idea of personality: -

Ditzy Doo - I'm thinking about making her have some sort of overriding ambition, wants to be a wonderbolt? Musicain?
The Cakes - I'm thinking of making them somewhat antagonistic as they have a rivalry with Bon Bon
The Mayor - She's already appeared but didn't do much not sure how to characterise her
Big Mac - I'd like him to be a little different than normal maybe generally silent but a good singer (opera?). Has some ambition beyond the farm, Travel?

I'm also looking for music for Vinyl to play / sing to while acting as race announcer. The William Tell overture could be fun but not her thing (unless there's a dance version somewhere) anyone got any suggestions?

Make Mayor Mare competent?

1411109

Don't listen to the nasty man Ms Scroll's in my head your competent.... Just not necessarily at being a mayor.

1411092: I'm not sure everyone would want to be a musician... it gets a little unrealistic if that's everyone's dream. (Although I can see Big Mac as a wannabe musician for some reason... also like him wanting to travel.)

I like the idea of Ditzy wanting to be a Wonderbolt. Could be some cool bonding with Dash, which could give her a link to Flutters if we keep the Dash/Flutter friendship.

1413349

I was sort of seeing the opposite that she would be a threat to Dash, they both want the same thing and their might be limited slots.

I'm not sure how to make her skills match her ambition, Ditzy is normally characterised by her clumsiness due to her eyes which would preclude joining the wonderbolts. I'm considering either making her dream fairly hopeless which might be depressing or to make her overcompensate and become extremely dexterous so she's Dash's opposite, Dash is about speed but can be somewhat sloppy where as Ditzy is slow but nimble (It also means I can explain why she doesn't appear in the race).

I did also wonder about making Dash Ditzy's room mate with a mild rivalry between them. The problem would be Dinky who isn't built for a cloud house unless she has a cloud walking spell on permanently (linked to a bracelet?) although that's probably an accident waiting to happen.

Big Mac as an opera singer is growing on me.

As a further idea from the OC red tape as he has a crush on Lyra he's probably jealous of Bon Bon so she probably suffers from his beaurocratic wrath as well resulting in frequent health inspections and the like.

I'm thinking about a comedy when Octavia gets kicked out of her room for bringing a giant talking cockroach from the Everfree into Bon Bon's kitchen just before an inspection. Octy spends time rooming with each of her friends and finding problems with each of them before coming crawling for forgiveness back to Bon Bon. I'd probably have to come up with a reason why she doesn't move to a guest house (its under renervation or full?)

Idea's I have so far are: -
Lyra - Her pad is too small and very messy causing the slightly OCD Octavia to have a breakdown.
Vinyl - Octavia had difficulty moving around the jungle gym and can't deal with her host playing music to 5am and then sleeping until the afternoon.
Fluttershy - Some problem with the animals? Gets freaked out when Fluttershy has to do some vetting?
Bluenote - Probably similar to Lyra with a touch of Vinyl thrown in.
Medley - Not sure, maybe just can't deal with Medley's personality 24/7?

1417480: I'd hope Bonbon would be understanding if it was a genuine accident, but I do think it could be funny to see Octavia displaced. Maybe the house needs to be vacated for a week for some reason? ("Termites? Oh, how bad could it be?" *roof collapses*)

Maybe Tavi is reluctant to ask Medley, knowing of her minimal means, but it turns out she can get along with/live with her best? So it's a lesson about not being too quick to judge others or something?

The Flutters problem could just be Tavi can't stand that Flutter's birds aren't pitch perfect, and the constant (small) errors, which she by now knows better than to whine about, bottle up and drive her mad until she screams and runs away.

Fluttershy: "...was it something we sang?"

1417696

Maybe I just like the farce idea of trying to hide a giant chatty insect from a health inspector.

With the termites I can see Octy wanting to get her instrument away from them as soon as possible , "Wood eating insects near my baby! *scream*"

Maybe with Bluenote she only spends a few seconds in her house, after having lived with Lyra and Vinyl she just walks in and turns and walks straight out again.

1417883: Bluenote: "Tavi, I'm teaching a student now, so don't be worried if you see a foal running around."
Octavia: "Very well. I will go to the market and buy some vegetables for dinner."
*later*
Octavia: "Bluenote? Why is there a foal in my cello?"
Apple Bloom: "This is no cello! This is Fort Apple Bloom!" *hides inside the cello* "You can't see me!"

So, that gift Zecora promised Lyra: I'm guessing it's something along the lines of 'sword, shield, map to another epic adventure.'

I think a Lyra and Medley story about going to combat some other monster or something could be pretty epic. The most spacey C6 member, and the most sardonic... and both really awesome when they get down to business.

I also still like the idea of Bluenote and other Element getting stuck far from home, where Bluey's got to solve a problem of some kind. She can show that she's more awesome than others might think.

1451950

Maybe a magic ring to throw into a volcano somewhere? She's the bard in a D&D group?

Organise some sort of feast or social event for a foreign noble?

The rest of the group spoil the party in some way and then Bluenote has or organise a replacement? Or is that a little to much Pinkie like?

Fiddlesticks!

Who is she? A random pony who just happens to look like Octavia? Am obsessive fan who tries to look like her idol (shades of Misery). One of Octy's sisters in disguise?

1520710: Hmm...

Huh. I dunno. I had ideas for Fiddlesticks in L-verse (as a villainous artist), but I hadn't thought of any at all for Cadanceverse.

If we want to do another Nemesis story, she could be sort of a stock 'sell your soul for talent' thing; she was a country music player who suddenly became a great star because Nemesis empowered her, and the Elements have to save her (musical) soul.

Or she could be a rival a la Sunset Shimmer, feeling cheated out of being one of Cadance's students and wanting some kind of revenge.

Or she could maybe be a The Ace trope; an excellent musician who always seems able to effortlessly beat whichever of the C6 is going up against her. And the plot could be about that C6 pony dealing with the frustration.

Anyone else have thoughts?

My latest idea for Vinyl's backstory some of it due to appear in my story

Vinyl has about a dozen siblings ranging from about 10 years older than her to a baby a few months old. She's the only girl all the rest are her brothers. In addition she has several dozen cousins (of both sexes) in the same age ranges that often visit. Most of the family are white unicorns with some variation particularly amongst the cousins but odds are if you bump into a white unicorn in the area its a member of the Scratch clan. Maybe we could have a running joke that no one can remember their names or gets them mixed up. She's fairly rough and tumble with most of her brothers with one or two favourites (Maybe an older brother who looked after her a lot and / or a younger 'baby' brother).

Most of Vinyl's family live near a sawmill which is near Ponyville but outside of the towns boundries it's a fairly big place (It combines a lumber camp, saw mill and also makes furniture) almost it's own township with about half the inhabitants being Scratch's family.

Vinyl grew up with her family but after some unspecified incident (probably involving fire) she was shipped off to live with her 'Granny Scratch' (a relative but not necessarily her grandmother) in ponyville. Granny Scratch was a somewhat eccentric inventor and the two bonded quite well Vinyl got her cutie mark during another incident (more fire, but probably musical fire). Since then Granny Scratch has passed on and Vinyl inherited her place.

This explains to me (mostly) why Vinyl lives in Ponyville, it might be travel hub but it's not going to keep a DJ going by itself, it would seem to make sense for her to move to a larger town or city so she can make a living. However, if she's got her own house it cuts down her costs. Maybe she can't sell either due to sentimentality or for some reason the house has to stay in the family.

Any suggestions / ideas / criticism?

Now that race is out of the way I'm currently planning my next Lunaverse story for October probably maybe earlier depending on my free time. It will probably be the Fluttershy / Rarity story I mentioned a few pages back in this thread currently entitled the 'Generosity Games'.

Somepony I'm interested in introducing is Prince Blueblood. My idea is that he is either the ruler or son of the ruler of a neighbouring kingdom. I thing GrassandCLouds2 mentioned that the C-verse Equestria is smaller than the M-Verve and L-Verse versions as Cadence is less militaristic than her predecessors, Blueblood's kingdom used to be part of Equestria but left after some disagreement but at the present is strongly allied with Equestria. He is a fairly laidback and nice ruler although somewhat hedonistic but would be stronger than he looks when a crisis hits (he is in charge of a country).

He would be the guest of honour at a charity ball Fluttershy, Rarity and Octavia will be at both are trying to court him for their charities (Rarity rather more literally than Fluttershy until she finds out he's gay).

Any suggestions / ideas / criticism?

1567125
I like the idea that he's gay but it's not revealed til the very end and Rarity is super pissed off/frustrated when he walks off with that cute waiter while FS is pretty stoked she got some more cash for her foundations. Sorry if this is rambly, it's late where I am.
So how far were you gonna go with his hedonism? Is he gonna be as obnoxious as he is in the Maneverse or will he be more sympathetic? It seems you're leaning that way if he turns out to be useful in a sticky situation.

1570068

He's a much nicer character than he's portrayed in most fics. I'm aiming for him to be closer to how Fancy Pant's is often portrayed. Maybe a bit of obfuscating stupidity, he pretends to be an upper class twit while under it he's more savvy that he seems.

For the hedonism bit probably not very far he's got the wealth to do more or less what he wants so it comes down to getting the best / most exotic foods, music, art. He craves new things, although he probably isn't aware of it he'd probably be a fan of Vinyl's music, at least for a few weeks until he finds something new.

1570541
That's really interesting. Would that mean that FP would be the goofy selfish BB stand-in then? I like the idea of him getting into Vinyl's music, too.

1571819

Well I suppose it comes down to how much you consider a background or secondary character to actually have a 'canon' personality in the C-verse.

I want an upper class twit character for my story so I'm using Blueblood, I could just as well call him Fancy Pants or just create an original character 'Dapper Gent'. They would all be the same character in my story, I've chosen Blueblood because the name fits (and gave me the idea for) the ruler of a small nation and that his 'canon' personality is close to what I want.

If someone else later wants to create a C-verse Fancy Pants then they can give him a personality closer to Blueblood's 'canon' or his own 'canon' or something else entirely, an outright villain, a tramp who put on airs, a changling. We have our own universe there a few limits to what we can do with it.

On the hedonism front this little scene has been bouncing around my head all day, I'm not sure if it will end up in the final story as it might be a bit more adult than the rest of the story.

"Well now that that's sorted out," said Blueblood finishing his wine and placing the glass on the table, "I think it's time for me and Dapper to go to bed. Would you lovely fillies like to join us? I'm afraid mares do nothing for me but Dapper has been known to 'dip his wick' on occasion, if nothing else I'm sure you can entertain each other." The brown earth pony nuzzled his white lover and fluttered his eyebrows at their guests.

With a squeak of embarrassment Fluttershy backed away shaking her head, cheeks glowing red and her tail tucked firmly between her legs. Rairty looked intrigued and paused for a few seconds before shaking her head to, "Maybe next time your highness." she curtsied.

"That's a shame, Dapper's 'wick' is quite spectacular and I had just purchased a new set of spider silk sheets I wanted to break in. Still I'm sure Dapper and I can round up a few more bedmates, maybe we can persuade our dear hostess to join us. Come Dapper a challenge awaits." With that the white unicorn paraded away head high while his lover followed behind.

1567125: I like the idea. What charities would Rarity and Octavia be promoting?

1570541: ALso like him being a conoisseur of sorts.

What's the conflict in the story?

1581437

I'm going with an idea of Rarity being an Orphan and her 'canon' family being her foster parents. Sweetie is actually her foster sister although Rarity doesn't see it that way (“Don’t be silly of course she is my sister, and no accident of biology is going to make any difference to that.”). So she's raising money for her old orphanage. Octavia is there so Fluttershy can be her plus one and Fluttershy is supporting her charity of the week.

To be honest the conflict is mostly in Fluttershy's head. Basically Rarity is cutting into Fluttershy's fund raising, she often runs events for this one orphanage and Fluttershy thinks she's doing it for political gain rather than generosity ("I'm know its not nice to be an orphan but the orphanage is in Canterlot and a fairly nice part of Canterlot, the money could be better spent elsewhere"). Rarity for the reason above wants to support the orphanage and sees Fluttershy's slap dash charity efforts as inefficient.

They start getting a bit competitive and it ends up with Rarity getting an invite to the ball where Blueblood will be, Octavia due to her position gets an invite as well and Fluttershy asks to come along with her. The two spend a lot of the time trying to one up each other to talk to Blueblood which leads to some sort of low key disaster (Something like Fluttershy's birds going berserk, a bit like the Gala) and they get locked in a room together for a few hours resulting in them having to talk things over.

They meet up the next day at the spar to settle their differences and agree to disagree about their charity work.

Something else I'm toying with is Octavia being auctioned as part of a 'slave for a day' thing at the ball and to her horror being won by a slobish fanboy. Who it turns out just wants her to play for him as he appreciates her musical talent.

1581593: Sorry for the delay. I've been buried with IRL stuff and an original story that was painfully hard to write for some reason.

Rarity being an orphan seems a bit dark. Not that there's anything wrong with being an orphan, but it's a fairly big shift from the show. And I kind of like the idea that some rough-and-tumble folks like Rarity's parents could produce a fashionista daughter; descendants shouldn't need to take after their parents, after all. However, there's no reason why she couldn't support an orphenage anyway.

I like the Fluttershy/Rarity conflict, Fluttershy thinking Rarity is prioritizing the wrong cause and Rarity thinking Fluttershy isn't committed enough to one cause to make a real appreciable difference.

Love the idea of the low-key disaster. I can just see those two going at it.

(To keep things sufficiently focused on the C6, perhaps Rarity should either be the +1 of another Element, or have another Element as her +1. Maybe in exchange for babysitting and/or giving Sweetie Belle music lessons, Rarity agreed to take Bluenote along. Or Rarity offered Bluenote a 'favor' in exchange for helping with Sweetie and Bluenote would like to call it in. Could also have some funny moments of Rarity freaking out over whether or not the happy-go-lucky Bluenote will care enough about formalities to avoid embarassing her, or whether she'll just stuff her face into a cake or something. Bluenote would be appropriate, of course, but I don't know if Rarity would know that straight-out.)

The Octavia thing as a B-plot sounds pretty funny. Maybe she recognizes the slob and really doesn't want to be picked by him, so she seeks out Bluenote or another friend and begs them to bid on her first. So maybe something like:

This charity thing includes, as at least one of its components, an auction. There's both regular auctioning and the 'slave for a day' thing.

Octavia brought some money to bid on stuff but learns that the slob is going to be bidding on her. Fearful of this, she scraps that plan, finds Bluenote (or maybe someone else she knows) and asks them to bid on her with the money so she doesn't wind up with the slob.

As a result, she doesn't have her own money to bid on the regular auction (which comes first). Plus, the slob turns out to be loaded and wins her anyway, making it pointless. But! He's a classicial afficianado so they have a lovely time.

In the end (of the B-plot), Tavi has a good time, but she misses out on the auction, which I suppose is an appropriate chastisement. She donates the money she was going to use on the charity auction to the causes of Flutters, Rarity, or both. And maybe buys Bluenote a Supreme Donut or something for her trouble.

....what is the status of Bat Ponies in this verse?

1615485: Hasn't come up yet. We haven't seen any. Open to any and all ideas. :-)

1411109: So, as of Talon's fic, Cheerilee is related to Mayor Mare (I'm guessing because they share pink manes?) Could be some interesting things in that regarding the 'make her competent' bit. I could see some of the C6 getting wrapped up in Cheerilee's attempts to 'help' her relative (who perhaps does not need it).

1615485: And, incidentally, welcome to the verse's forum! Really looking forward to your advice and hopefully even stories. :-)

1615485

I don't think they've even appeared yet,

Following your idea's over in the L-verse forum if they were linked to Luna / Nightmare moon then they might have been ostracised by other ponies when she fell. They could live in a sort of lost world setting in the Everfree or elsewhere either completely unknown or protected by Cadence. Luna could ask about them now that she's back and ask the 6 to look for them.

1615476

It's a shame I did like the orphan angle I'd come up with (see below) I was working the idea that her personality didn't match her birth parents (Who she never met) or her adopted parents, she was entirely self made (although at moments of extreme stress would revert to another accent she picked up from a member of staff at the orphanage, I was thinking Scottish) but if you don't think it fits I can remove that chunk.

“What is so important about that orphanage? I feel for the poor foals, really I do, but there are so many others that could use the money. It’s in Canterlot, others in different areas have it much worse.”

“It is important to me,” the white unicorn draw herself up to her full height as if to challenge her inquisitor, “Because I spent much of my life there.”

Fluttershy was taken aback, “Then you’re a..”

“Yes,” announced the theatrical unicorn head held high, “I am an orphan.”

“But Magnum and Pearl?”

“Mother and Father adopted me as a teenager. A sports injury,” Rarity reddened, “Meant that Father was unlikely to sire children so they kindly chose me. It was somewhat of a surprise when Sweetie Bell came along a year later.” Rarity started to pace back and forth for a moment, “I so wanted he hate her, I was all tied up in knots thinking that I would be discarded once they had a biological child. I remember she’d just come back from the hospital and was still learning how to use her hooves, she’s never been the most coordinated of ponies the poor dear. She tried to run over to her big sister and stumbled, she grabbed onto me leg and held it so tightly, she looked up at me with those big green eyes of her’s. I never wanted her to let her go again,” Rarity turned away from the pegasus but Fluttershy saw a tear start to make it’s way down the white unicorns muzzle, “I have been most fortunate and Mother and Father never treated me any differently. But not every foal is as fortunate as me, I have a good life, maybe Ponyville could do with being a bit more civilised there are those who believe in," she shuddered, "polka dots, but still a good life and it's my duty to ensure that my fellow orphan's have the best life they can, the life they deserve.”

“So Sweetie Bell isn’t really your sister?” said Fluttershy trying to wrap her brain around this revelation.

Rarity turned and stared hard at the yellow Pegasus, “Don’t be silly of course she’s my sister,” she said with steel in her voice, “and no accident of biology is going to make any difference to that.”

“What about your real parents.”

“As far as I am concerned Magnum and Pearl are my real parents. My birth parents gave me away long ago,” her ears lowered, and a growl formed in her throat, “I don’t see any need to talk about them.”

The idea of Bluenote coming as well is interesting (I don't think Rarity would choose her as a 'date' but maybe Bluenote obtained the tickets for Rarity via her Canterlot connections and wanted to go as well. This might be an on going talent for Bluenote she's a 'fixer' she can obtain things via her contacts from her Canterlot days.) but I was going to try and keep the cast fairly small with the charity event being mostly Fluttershy, Rarity and Blueblood with Octavia in her own subplot. More than that may make it seem that the mane-6 are taking sides in the disagreement although I do like your suggestions so I'll think on them it might work if Bluenote ends up spending most of the time with Octavia. I can see Bluenote constantly trying to get to some particular delicacy and keeping getting distracted by Octavia coming to her with her problems.

I can see the rest of the Octavia bit going like you've described.

1617212: I still think it's too heavy if Rarity is the orphan, esp. if she detests her biological parents like that.

Maybe instead someone close to Rarity (the pony who gave her the loan to start her shop? A fashion mentor? A big customer?) was an orphan, so she feels a bond with the orphanage?

1619235

Ok.

What I'm thinking now would be here parents were thinking of adopting due to her fathers injury and took her around the orphanage as a child. Then Sweetie turned up as a surprise so her parents decided not to adopt but Rarity never forgot how the orphanage looked and swore that when she was famous she would make it better for the children there.

1619917: Sure. That sounds awesome!

1619917

Love it.

Anyway, my idea: Lyra accidentially makes first contact with the Bat Ponies, hilarity ensues.