What are some themes that are uncommon or rare, do you find? Something to ponder for making that unique HiE fic.

Personally, in my time spent during the hiatus of my present endeavor, I tossed around the idea of writing a self-insert Brony in Equestria for the heck of it, to see how many cliches I could dodge. Then I pondered this; what's the most unique thing I could do? I did some quick searches, but I've yet to see a Human in MLP Tumblrverses type fic.

I'm talking such tumblrverses as Molestia, Futashy, Pinkamena & Sadist Scootaloo, Lil Miss Rarity, Paranoid Twilight, Filly Twilight, etc. All of these and probably more are to be visited by 'me' in the future, once Displaced is done with.

What about you all; what do you think are some rare HiE types?

I would love to see a Filly Twilight HiE one, however, I'd find the others doubtful in a more serious manner.

My personal opinion, I found it difficult to even see a HiE centered in Canterlot, almost all are placed in Ponyville. It'd make something unique to see how things would be if the person was in an unfamiliar location that the show itself hasn't gone near.

Thinking I might take up the filly one after Mister Crowley.

SOmething about humans fighting Equestrians in the past when their technology was equal

might do that after 6FL

287837
Huh, that's one I never caught onto. Bravo for that idea, good sir.

Here what u wana do you send the human back to when Celestia and Luna started to rule Equestira

287838

Might do something in Napoleonic times after my 6Fl fics though of course

287841 Then I wish you the best of luck.

287841 This sounds like it could be great! I'll be watching for it. Good luck with it!

I would say that portraying human as a diamond dog was an original idea. The execution is TOP NOTCH! Well worth the read! The ponies who know me should know that I am rarely THAT enthusiastic about a fic (with one exception :])...
The gem's name is The Ballad of Echo the Diamond Dog. Trust me, you won't be disappointed!!!

ps. The thing is not mentioned on the list because I am waiting for somepony else's vote :).

287851

Thanks

287859
Yea that was original

I'm working of a crossover of MLP with an universe I created myself. I've gotten good feedback so far, and I don't seem to over-explain anything.

Lost Vector

I'm hoping to write a novel about said universe somewhere in the future, and MLP fanfics turned out to be the perfect place to start learning.

I suppose it has some original concepts on it, but it certainly isn't a complete 180° regarding the HiE genre.

By the way, it involves a huge starship.

287862 Hell yes. I love that story.

I like to believe I have brought some originality to the table but I have still caught more than a few cliches so far judging by that increasingly growing list in the other thread. I should be ashamed. Still even though I don't hit the unique mark I have a few in it.

-Protagonist is human but still has magical abilities because he is a mage as well as a trickster.
-Protagonist does not come from an alternate Earth but this one despite of this.
-Protagonist is the one responsible for the mojo bringing him and Twilight to Equestria. (Because she got stuck in the empty void and had to rid piggy back in someones mind)
-It features Loke in it. (Original not Marvel's)
-The sex is really REALLY awkward since you know...pony and human.
-He never meets a manitcore but nearly get mauled and eaten by a giant Dodo bird thing.
-He gets Pinkie high, or well she gets both of them high actually.
-It has talking otters.
-Everypony except Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy seems to be in a love/hate relationship with him, even those that has never even heard of him he just has that effect.
-Celestia is actually old, wise and ruthlessly cunning instead of molesting people with a teenagers attitude.
-It has bad spin off's from established characters in other literature and media, like proffesor Moriarty.
-Only half of the story takes place in Ponyville the rest is, among other places, in Canterlot.

That and a bit of other stuff I haven't gotten to yet. As for original ideas I would love seeing a 1700 century french prostitute arrive in Ponyville, or Robin Hood. Who immediately run off into the Everfree and form a rag tag band set on robbing princess Celestia's coffers and end her perceived reign of terror. Either that or something exploring the next generation of elements of harmony. Perhaps a few of the mane six's children out on adventure discovering their legacy while the old gang is hanging back in rocking chairs looking like granny Smith.

I'm not sure if I used too many common themes in my self-insert. I've got some concepts I hadn't seen before, but I'm not sure if it's original enough and not just some Gary Stu piece of trash. Also, I've got Doctor Hooves not being Doctor Who in pony form. Anyhow, I'd like to see some stories with humans completely unrelated to any human protagonist appearing in Equestria and causing a wide array of effects, from chaos to heroic actions and anything in-between.

Its probably not a 'rare' thing, but one HIE situation I've rarely seen is Discord being loose when the Human character/s arrives.

The only story I've ever seen with Discord involved was so poorly written that it wound up hurting my head to read Its probably been done and much better, but its not something I personally have encountered.

287967 The Ballad of Echo the Diamond Dog READ IT NOW if you dont mind that is

288008

*Opens list of fanfiction book marks*

*Spends ten minutes scrolling through list*

*Bumps Echo the Diamond Dog to top*

Will do!

...Yeah I have a folder full of fics I want to read and haven't gotten to yet

I keep trying to think of something I'd love to see, then immediately thinking of a story I've read in the past that already did it to one degree or another. There's a LOT of quality, original HiE out there and not all of it is on this site.

Still, I'd love to see the idea of modern day humanity meeting ponies in an overall positive fashion get explored more (those always turn into "humans are bastards", but why!?). We've learned a lot from past mistakes screwing each other and now have protocols in place for not being dicks to new peoples we run into (still happens on occasion with hidden tribes in Africa/the Amazon). Maybe I'm the only one who enjoys political thrillers?

That and the language barrier being a real issue. But Arrow 18 Mission Logs already does that brilliantly... soooo, go read that if you haven't already.

287830

Well, I'm not usually the type to toot my own horn (at least not without prefacing it with some sort of self-disparaging comment), but chapter 4 and onwards in my story take place in Canterlot.

Of course, it's also a crossover, so it can be a bit hard to jump into. If you've never heard of the show "Psych" (which is apparently likely since I seem to be the only one writing a multi-chapter non-crack fic about it), there's a good chance you won't really "get" the main character.

288028

Would be a lovely story to read anyhow, will save for later.

Sadly, due to my region's language, and my distate for television at the moment, I don't know many shows anymore. Hell, the last show I watched was The Pacific, and I finished it just two days ago.

288008 - may I assume that you like the Ballad of Echo and consider it one of the best stories you've ever read?

288065 yes the Ballad was one of my favorites but my top three are

1 Antipodes
2 The Ballad
3 Equestria's First Human

288071 - what's #2? Did you mean the Ballad of Echo the Diamond Dog or some other Ballad? Could you link it?

288072 Well Rust (the author of Ballad of echo) calles it The Ballad so i started calling it that to

kk. So finally I can update the List :] YaaaaaaaY!

I HAD AN IDEA a HIE where the human shares the body with a pony
like Master chief and cortana but cortana can take over sometimes

288091

That'd certainly be an interesting plot, depending on who was the host. I think if it was Twilight, though, everypony would probably just think she was cracking again.

288238 Thats why i was thinking about a pony from a different city or something HIE would wake up "yay im a pony im going to meet mane 6" arrives and sleeps host body takes over "where am i" and so on and so forth

288318

I think if you wanted to make it interesting, you could make that host somebody the Mane 6 haven't particularly gotten along with... Say... Gilda.

288364 that would be interesting i personally am i fan of HIE where the H is a non pony. The HIE would have to be a nice guy though or else Gilda there would be no distinction sadly i have no time to write this story now but i might someday. =(

288369

I know what you mean. I'm partway through my own project and here I am already thinking about other projects, even though I've one already planned out to work on after this one.

288370 it would be interesting if i could get another author to help me whit the story they could do all of Gilda lines and i could do the HIE lines that would give it more internal conflict

I have never seen a Harry Potter(any character from the series) in Equestria. It would certainly be an interesting concept, which I might start soon, after I finish what I'm working on right now.

HiE stories where the human in the story is not a brony, and Equestria is not a fictional universe that the protagonist already knows everything about are surprisingly rare. All my favorite HiE fics lack that element.

Discord was part of my HiE fic... although only in the first chapter, and only off camera... so I suppose it doesn't really count.

288389 Then read The Other Side.
My canadian friend writes it and it is totally badass.

288389

Oooh, sounds like my story has these elements you mention. Not that I'm shamelessly plugging it or anything. Though Discord is a plot-important character in the later part of this story, too.

Also, griffin the griffin is very original, but slightly similar to, and inspired by, the ballad of echo the d-dog

My HiE story has Discord dragging my human into Equestria (I know, creative. *eyeroll*) and imprisoning him in the Discord Statue in the royal gardens. Afterward, the story is following the human as he watches everything around him.

I feel my story is pretty original, but I have not read an extreme amount of HiE stories. Mostly just the 'popular' ones

And I've got Discord being set free by the actions of a human unaffiliated with the protagonist, and he ends up helping the characters in a pretty twisted way.

288605I'd say so.

=> I like the idea of the human turned into a pony having abilities that come back to bite him, and hard.

=> I also like the idea of aliens in Equestria from other worlds, not just humans.

My own HiE story was based on this initial scene from this dream / daydream I had about a pony that accidentally turns inanimate objects to life and they develop personalities. He turns this umbrella alive (I guess, technically, he transmuted an alien being's soul into the umbrella), it walks and talks around him, and the guy takes on the umbrella as a friend.

I expanded that to have bad sides as well: he turns a lamp alive and it becomes evil, trying to burn his room up, so he kills the lamp-- smashing it out of the three story window onto the concrete outside. He makes a barrel of apples for sale become alive and it explodes itself like a bomb. Etc.

I realize how insane that sounds but... eh... I like that concept.

Actually, I've thought about taking that idea and making, say, a Discord based fic (or maybe just some random OC) that centered about making inanimate objects-- lamp, toaster, hoe, broom, table, etc.-- come alive= with nothing to do with HiE.

Well, one of the themes that I don't see often is shades of grey. Generally, the human is either a complete evil monster, or a goody-two-shoes. I don't find many that have them somewhere in the middle.

288781 I tried to make my two main characters morally neutral. They like to think of themselves as good people, but are actually completely worthless to anyone but themselves and each other. I'm not sure if I'm actually succeeding, but hey, at least I'm trying.

Shades of grey are really hard to do well. It requires a thorough understanding of human nature that most fanficcers (young nerds that spend most of their time on the internet) simply do not posses. Of course, if they are done well, you got yourself a very good character.

I'm also reminded of an old quote: "Every first novel is the author either as Jesus or as Faust." (possibly Oscar Wilde) Most ficcers use fanfic as a springboard into creative writing, so their fics are more often then not the proverbial 'first novel'. It's probably their (or should I say 'our') way of coping with issues in our real life.

289106 I totally agree. My fic isn't ENTIRELY self insert, but a large part of it is.

Neutrality and 'shades of grey' aren't the same thing. I mean you could have a good character, but with some less than good qualities. Or an evil character with some honorable or just qualities. There are just too many Mary Sue type characters or total monsters out there.

289132 There are Mary Sue test actually. I accidently found them while googling

289133 Really? I'll have to run Dylan through it. I'm sure he'll pass.

289186 Yeah, you can find a good one here.

I just put my two main characters through it. Passed with flying colours. That means that either I did my job well, or I'm blind to my own shortcomings. Can't get careless.

289229

I've never seen that one before. This is the one I've always gone with.

It's always fun trying to figure out whether or not the questions are applicable with these though. Especially when applying them to universes where magic exist. Or with a ponified Human in Equestria, do you run through their original name [assuming it was stated in the story], or a name they may have chosen.

I'm running Warren Ashland of my own fic through using his birth name. Scored a 14, but this test at katfeete isn't all that clear as to whether it is Sue or not.

Well, I'm doing an HiE story MLPxHL2 crossover with four rebels with attitude problems. I hope it's different than others out there. Instead of it being an average 20 year old guy who wants to stay there, it's four gun toteing teenagers who are fighting in a war against aliens.

289258 They are not clear because Sueness isn't clear in the first place. There are certain nuances to it. You can't really look at a shallow description of a character and declare Sue, all you can see are warning signs that it might be a Sue.

I like the katfeete test for recognizing this. Anyhow, they said of my characters that they were 'healthy and have potential for a good career', so I'm taking that as a good sign. It did warn me about being a little too emotionally attached to them, though. Got to keep in mind that your characters are tools to propel your plot, not your children.

289268

"In general, you care deeply about Warren Ashland, but you're smart enough to let him stand on his own, without burdening him with your personal fantasies or propping him up with idealization and over-dramatization. Warren Ashland is a healthy character with a promising career ahead of him. "

I'll take this as a good thing, then.