I want to write a story to raise awareness of ALS, but I don't know what pony to use. Right now, I refuse to use Rainbow dash or Pinkie, due to them normally being used in sad stories about their wings or their inability to make someone laugh. Help me figure out a pony.

3560963

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.

I’d use an athletic pony for increased effect. Either Rainbow Dash or Apple Jack.

3561003
In a sad story, pinkie or rainbow are usually always used. I don't want to increase the effects of the story by making the pony athletic, I want to make the story sad in itself for them having the illness, not play the pity card for Rainbow losing her flight ability or Applejack no longer able to help out at the farm.

3561031

What about a background pony? Not Derpy, since you're trying to steer away from the "almost always used," but maybe... Blossomforth? She's flexible enough (no pun intended) that you can really work with her characterization, too. She has that connection with the pegasus community: Rainbow Dash, Thunderlane, Flitter, Cloudchaser, etc. and it you won't get hung up by the "Mane Six gets sick" problem.

Depending on how close she is with Derpy or Raindrops in your story, she could get advice on getting a house on the ground and those sorts of adjustments - Derpy in many headcanons has to live on the ground due to Dinky and Sparkler, Raindrops in some headcanons is Snails' sister.

3561076
I know you don't mean anything by the flexible thing, and only mean that she doesn't have a lot of character development, but when I first read that, I thought you meant she wasn't important, so she would be easier to use and wouldn't have any effect on the world if she died.

Im just really sad right now for the people with ALS and shaken up by my dream, so im sorry for misinterpreting that. Ill think about using blossomforth.

3561081

By flexible, I meant that she doesn't have a "standard" characterization that most writers use. Her most common appearances are Winningverse and Manehattan, and in both cases she's almost a completely different pony.

Celebrities all over are taking part in the Ice Bucket Challenge, so why not Princess Celestia, the Mane Six, the Wonderbolts, Sapphire Shores, Fancy Pants, Octavia, A.K. Rowling...

This has a ton of potential as a story idea.

3561148
Are you saying that those characters do the ice bucket challenge, after Blossomforth dies? That sounds like a good sequal story I could write afterwards...

3561148
Ill use bloosomforth, but I need a name for the story. Help me out?

3561168 Bloosomforth decays

3561168

I'm not great with titles...

I looked up some flower quotes for inspiration, though:

Happiness shared is the flower. - John Harrigan

A flower falls, even though we love it. - Dogen

Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature. Gerard De Nerval

3561243
I got Those Who Went Before.

3561168 The Wiltering Blossom.