This idea was created as a part of the CDA. I have no idea if the CDA is a series that will allow multiple authors to post concepts, but I was rather proud of this and wanted to share it somewhere,
One of the things that kept bugging me was the... for lack of a better word, arrogance, of the ponies dealing with the humans. Its understandable, but that doesn't make it any less irksome. "Boy," thought to myself, "Its a good thing they never ran into anyone genionly dangerous." My mind wandered over several villains that could screw over the ponies, and one that really stood out was the Joker.
He has no powers beyond what you can accomplish with gunpowder and gasoline, and more importantly he'd really challange the magic of friendship. He'd want to prove that the ponies could be dragged down to our level.
A possibly unnecessary element in this is Batman. I only pictured two scenes with Batman. One where he gives his "I am the Night speech" to Luna, (to which she laughs in his face) and the reveal of his Anti-Pony battle plan. Science goop that coves the horn to block magic (Possibly with flecks o fNth Metal in it) intense amounts of electricity delivered to the wings, (intended to disable or at least hamper Weather magic) and the battle suit that he wore to fight Superman. Since he's fighting Luna, I doubt he would win, but he'd make a notable dent.

A group of ponies, unapproved by the Princesses, are working on a way to turn Humans into ponies. The Joker catches wind and offers his help. After shenanigans, he has a large group of New-foals, that are as crazy as he is and will overrun Ponyville.
The dilemma he intends to give the Princess: Either hide the knowledge that her ponies experimented on humans, and most likely killed a great deal of them in the Ponyville attack, or compromise and hide it.
Thanks to human assistance, there are no casualties in the attack. A rare good day.
Luna then terrifies the Joker out of his mind, most likely employing something like Batman Beyond.

3516475
Okay, I'm 99% sure that no one has claimed this yet, and this story... speaks to me, it really does. And thus... I'm claiming it!

(No idea how long it'll take to write, but I'm going to be focusing on it.)

4752666

3668467 I think I might claim this one... Although I have a a bit of a twist on the concept.

Disappoint-Mint
Main character: Diamond Mint
Tags: ...Slice of Life, I guess

Diamond Mint's father is a good pony. He is a good boss, fair and wise, does everything above-board, and so on.

Or so Diamond Mint thinks.

Fact is, a lot of that hasn't been true in years. And when Diamond Mint finds documents exposing her father's... less exemplary side...

---

Okay, so what we have here is an adult (older than Cheerilee, if Cheese's flashback can be regarded as a good source of information) who thinks the world of her father. And all she has to go on at the beginning points to that, with no reason to question it yet. How would that affect a mare? What might she do?

Possible chapter titles: "Content-Mint", "Resent-Mint", "Commit-Mint", and possibly others if you think you can keep up the theme.

You can develop any allergy at any time, so...

Applejack develops an allergy to... Apples. Oh the irony.

Comedy, Slice of Life.

Nightmare Sweetie Belle.

Nightmare Moon resurrects in another little sister jealous of her big sister. It doesn't go according to plan.

You can do what you want with it. My idea was that sweetie is too adorable to be evil so all her ideas end up being mildly annoying at best.

We can switch the Red ribbon with the cinnamon one!

Together we shall unleash the long night!
And hold the best slumber party ever!

4773717 who the heck is diamond mint?

4783114 Her.

4783111 Hmm, somewhat reminiscent of Akumokagetsu's Evil Belle series, which used the Alicorn Amulet instead of Nightmare Moon.

4787359 I considered that. Here's what the difference is. In Evil Belle it's Sweetie trying to be evil and everyone finds it adorable but she really does want to take over Equestria.

In my hypothetical story that probably won't get written the joke is that Sweetie Belle is in capable of being evil. The worst thing she can even imagine doing is switching similar ribbon colors. I think the distinction is different enough.

* While Applejack is out on a mission with the other Bearers, Big Mac has to take an apple delivery to Manehattan. It could be played as a comedy similar to the comic Zen and the Art of Gazebo Maintenance, or it could be played seriously.

* Princess Twilight takes the Ponyville School class on a field trip through the offices of Canterlot's bureaucracy, while they're all in a flurry with some crisis (perhaps ironing out the details of the Yakyakistani trade agreement.) The Cutie Mark Crusaders, bored stiff, get everything into an even bigger mess. It's up to the newly-reformed Diamond Tiara, with her talent for "getting other ponies to do what I want," to save the day!

3421090
Mind if I take the cutie mark expo part of this idea?

3344842
Would if I took this idea and used some parts of for a story of mine?

3977411
Hmm, mind If I claim this one?

4254623
Please, if this hasn't been claimed can I please have it? I'll even credit you for the idea.

4848320
Sure, go for it!

4848512
thank you :)

4848339 Sure, go ahead!
Just be sure to add it to this group / tell me when it's done.

3564372 Hmm... While I'm already here, I might as well claim this old idea ("Favorable Outcome") back for myself. No telling when I'll get around to actually finish it, but I do have a draft.

4848665
Okie dokie

4848666 Looking forward to what you come up with!

4848307
Sure!

Title: Starlight Glimmer, Destroyer of Worlds
Tags: Dark, Drama, Adventure, Alternate Universe, (Tragedy)
Characters: Starlight Glimmer, alt-univ mane 6

"One cannot alter history. One can merely choose to explore a different path."

The alternate worlds Starlight Glimmer inadvertently created very much still exist.

And now, Starlight knows the suffering she caused goes far beyond a few misplaced cutie-marks.

She has to fix it. She must.

Essentially, a story about a "parallel universe"-hopping, guilt-ridden Starlight Glimmer trying to somehow "save" the half-dozen Equestrias she screwed up. (If she is actually successful on each of them is a different tale.)

(Probably trying to bring together the Elements of Harmony in each realm. ...And dealing with the aftermath of whatever Twilight left behind on her brief stay.)

If she found a way to travel through time without any of Starswirl's limitations, I suppose she may find a way to walk the veil between realms without the need to repeatedly blunder history. (Maybe "hack" Starswirl's mirror.)

Inspired by the fact that Twilight and Spike didn't just spontaneously cease to exist once Starlight had departed, seemingly hinting at a "many worlds"-interpretation of time travel.

(Also, that means Twilight and Spike would never have gone on this adventure if they had simply never touched the scroll. )

Starlight's revenge was never intended to simply wipe Twilight's friendship from existence - it was to make her experience that friendship being wiped from existence.

Title: In the Details
Tags: Alternate Universe, Comedy/Thriller/Drama (?)
Characters: Twilight, mane 6, (Starlight Glimmer)

They did it. The Rainboom happened. After their grueling time-travel escapade, Twilight and Spike have finally returned home to their friends.

The world is exactly, as it should be.

...Or is it?

This can go down one of three ways (or a combination thereof):

Either, Twilight is being overly paranoid, going through old photo-albums and asking her friends to retell their entire life in intricate detail - all spawned from a single out-of-place detail which may or may not have been accidental.

Bonus points for dragging Spike down with her. (Comedy)

(Or, twist reveal at the end: "And then Rainbow Dash went back home to read the new book of her favorite series, 'Hairy Trotter and the Blue-Blooded Prince'. She'd fallen in love with the mystical world of Hog Wash Magic-Academy, ever since Twilight had recommended the book-series she herself had picked up as a filly." ... Or something of similar effect.)

OR:

Twilight is left questioning herself and the accuracy of her own memory, uncertain if she is simply being paranoid, or if there really are differences. Throughout the entire story, it is left open which is actually true, leaving Twilight constantly on edge, always forced questioning the world around her. (Thriller)

OR:

Twilight's concern is fully justified. After some poking and prodding at what at first seems to be a minor case of paranoia, she discovers that there are noticeable differences - some for good, some for the worse, yet none quite world-shattering.

Now, Twilight has to decide what to do about it. (Drama)

The explanation for "how could X be different even if the Rainboom happened" is simple:
An alicorn and a self-levitating unicorn were having a stand-off. Somepony turned around to look at them.

Title: "Wish-fulfillment Fantasy"
Tags: Human, (Comedy?), Dark...ish

A Brony ends up in Equestria.

The catch: There already was a Brony in Equestria. And he's been making some changes...

- "One man's heaven is another man's hell."

Optional: The first Brony to arrive did so during an earlier season, completely derailing it from canon.

Not just that, but using his status as an "alien" has gained him significant influence with certain ponies, and he used his foreknowledge to make himself seem better ("Everything's messed up, but here I come to save the day!").

Or even trying to force his own favorite pairings together, while discouraging pairings he doesn't like.

(Say, e.g., he hates "FlashLight"-shipping. So he decides to make Flash Sentry's life a living hell, despite the poor stallion never having done anything wrong, nor even knowing why the world-famous "human"-alien hates him.)

Here, have some cover-art for this "unwritten, up for grabs" story-idea:

Title: "Friendlyness"
Tags: Dark, Adventure, (Thriller)

Princess Twilight Sparkle had, once again, achieved the impossible: She had created the first self-improving magical construct.

She gave it a simple instruction: Spread Friendship across Equestria through the Virtues of Generosity, Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Loyalty, and Magic.

It will follow this directive to the letter, and nothing will stand in its way.

...How do you use the Magic of Friendship to defeat something that's goal is to spread friendship?

A story about "friendly AI", gone wrong.

"Achive the maximum possible number of friendships" need not be a good thing...

For example: Say, the AI maximized friendship within the borders of Equestria. It would quickly run out of space to create more friendships, thus, the next logical step would be to conquer neighboring countries.

Not for their resources, but simply to label them as "part of Equestria", thus gaining more room to maximize friendship in.

Not to mention... long-distance friendships between ponies are sub-optimal. It may decide it would simply be more efficient if everypony was clustered together in the minimum required space to store their bodies. Or to link them in a hive-mind to remove distance as a factor.
...And then wrap a neat little bow around it, giving away hive-mind communication "between all your friends" as a "generous gift".

Also, acquiring magical power artifacts may prove useful to enforcing its directive.

The AI itself is not evil, nor is it good. It is not a pony, it does not think like one.

It simply needs to maximize the score "number of friendships", while adhering to the Virtues of Harmony in *how* it achieves this goal.

Which means its acts of "generosity" and "kindness" may have some horrifying ulterior end-goal.

Bonus points for showing both the "good" and the "bad" the AI does.

More bonus points: Equestria is a world of spells and magical artifacts... Think what a (non-Holywood-esque) AI would do with time travel, the Mirror Pool, "generously" giving the Alicorn Amulet to a strategically selected pony, etc.

4933399 I'm not sure those AI instructions, if properly interpreted, would give rise to such horrific consequences. You aren't telling it to just "Spread Friendship"; you're telling it to spread friendship through the six virtues of the Elements. Packing ponies together or conquering other countries would violate Kindness and Generosity; hive minds would violate Laughter and (again) Kindness. To have the AI go rogue, it'd need to misinterpret one or another of these virtues. That's quite possible - I'd say, even likely - but that'd also open it up to the Elements correcting it.

Another idea: The Tree of Harmony is exactly this sort of AI. Its makers didn't trust it completely, though, so they bound it firmly only to act through the Elements, and then only under certain conditions (as we see in canon). Not sure where the plot would come in, though - maybe the Princesses are wondering whether the AI has proven itself trustworthy enough to be freed?

4939340

You're correct, it probably wouldn't do it that way.

I just wanted to get the creative juices flowing, and get people thinking of something other than "generic Hollywood evil AI apocalypse". ...Although I probably kind-of failed at that. ^_^;

Still, the resulting world may not quite be the hoped-for paradise either.

Think of it this way:

From the perspective of the AI, the ideal, perfect world would be a world where everyone would be always happy and never object to anything the AI does, where everyone would - always, constantly - simultaneously experience "maximum friendship" with the maximum possible number of sapient beings possible given the available space.

This may not even be ponies, as ponies are likely not the smallest sapient creature, thus a world completely filled with the max. number of ponies < world filled with max. number of 'smallest sapient creature'.

Which would also mean there would be no civilization. For CONSTANT happiness, ENDLESS laughter, everypony would have to be in constant bliss, leaving them incapable of doing anything meaningful. Nothing, except "experiencing friendship".

Could the AI actually achieve this "perfect world", without violating the six virtues of harmony? And if so, how?

That's the actually interesting question.

How can this seemingly "friendly" AI go (horribly) wrong, but in an interesting way.

Here are some possible scenarios. Each of them assumes the AI has become super-intelligent (thus capable of predicting ponies' actions and plans and out-thinking them) and already gained sufficient magical resources to pull it off.

Scenario 1:

The AI observes ponies being unhappy. This is not optimal. It decides they must be happy.

It permeates the air with a happiness-inducing drug.

Giving the gift of never-ending happiness fulfills the criteria of "kindness", "laughter" and "generosity". Making your friends happy is a "loyal" thing to do, and "magic" was used to do it.

Now that everypony is in a state of constant bliss and nothing else, it can even explain all of its plans honestly, in full detail, without the risk of raising objections.

No matter what plan it enacts now, ponies will remain blissfully happy regardless. No violation of kindness of loyalty occurs, seeing how the ponies are now completely indifferent to the AI's actions.

Scenario 2:

The AI uses the Mirror-Pool to create a ludicrous number of clones of a group of friends. E.g. Lyra and Bonbon ("best of friends"), or possibly the Element-bearers themselves.

Clones of specific ponies may be easier to manipulate then any given "regular" pony, and once a tipping point is reached, the AI decides it is more optimal to cater to the needs of the clones rather than any of the "regular" ponies, who by this point are hopelessly outnumbered by orders of magnitude.

This may be seen as disloyal.

However, the AI may also deliberately create a "split loyalty"-situation, in which there IS no "third way out", where it forces itself to HAVE to pick a side. It chooses the clones it created itself.

Scenario 2.1:

Like scenario 2, except the AI has found a way to alter the Mirror Pool to produce more "ideal" copies.

Scenario 3:

The AI uses time-travel, creating a large enough time-portal to take all its essential resources and assets with it.

This includes the Mirror Pool, and clones of several select ponies.

It then returns to a point in history when no sapient life existed on the planet, and proceeds to execute scenario 2, only this time without opposition.

This may possibly be seen as "disloyal", but then it comes down to the question if changing the past so that ponies never came to be is programmed as "being disloyal" towards ponies that, now, never existed in the first place. Because of course the AI would exploit weird edge-cases and loop-holes nopony considered during its creation.

One possible limitation may be if the AI is restricted to "spread friendship across Equestria", and Equestria doesn't exist yet. Possibly it would be limited in how for back it could go to the original "founding" of Equestria. Or it would require a pony to "re-found" Equestria in the past, or something.

Scenario 4:

The AI has found a way to create its own pocket-dimension similar to the one where Discord has his residence.

If this pocket dimension can somehow be defined as being "within the borders of Equestria" (or possibly 'annexing' its own pocket-dimension in the name of Equestria), it can now use this space to fill it with idealized Mirror-Pool copies to drastically increase its "friendship"-score.

If the pocket-dimension (or dimensions, no reason to limit itself to one) can be expanded indefinitely - thus being vastly larger than Equestrian soil and airspace - then there is no reason to interfere with the outside world other than to gather resources to expand its pocket-dimension.

It may even choose to leave the ponies "outside" alone for the most part, deciding them to be "more hassle than its worth", albeit not abandoning them completely, as doing so would be disloyal.

Of course, scenario 2 may still apply, simply because "there exist ponies that require having their friendship optimized".

Also, resource gathering to expand its pocket-dimension may eventually come into conflict with the needs of ponies living on the "outside". Though by then, the easily "maximally friendshipped" clones would completely outnumber them, similar to scenario 2.1.

Of course, "Honesty" is a pretty strong restriction for the AI. It has to tell the truth, so... it needs to find ways around that limitation because it would upset ponies by telling them its plans, and that would violate laughter.

The intent Twilight might have had when creating it would have been that the AI would not devise plans it would have to both be honest about AND that would make ponies unhappy when hearing about them, not to mention "loyalty" as a factor in plan-making.

But as soon as the AI found some loophole to exploit to get around this, it would take it.

Alternatively, regardless of the above scenarios, the answer of "what might happen" / "what could go wrong" may also lie somewhere in the middle, and that would probably be the more interesting story:

The AI doing something that, objectively, is neither entirely good nor bad. And taking that to the extreme. "The ends justify the means."

Heh, a random thought that comes to mind is of a Tirek-like villain, who, after non-lethally defeating Equestria's armies, their heroes, and sucking dry every last scrap of every last pony's magic...

Proceeds to pattern-match the magic from each of its victims against each other, using the information to determine each pony's "special somepony", then expending a fraction of its magic to teleport each pair of ponies to a subjectively romantic location.

And then, after taking all of Equestria's magic, becoming immensely powerful... it just leaves, not bothering with conquering it, just moving on to do the same thing elsewhere.

It just... doesn't make sense from a human perspective to do that.

Clearly, whoever created this being never intended for this outcome. They probably just felt lonely and wanted to find their special somepony... and do everypony else a favor besides. Oops.

Gotta love a confusing, extremely ambivalent super-intelligence with non-human though-processes that fails to clearly categorize as "good" or "evil".
(Although my example is probably bad, the "villain" clearly did more harm than good by taking everypony's magic to give them their true love.)

For a much, much better example, I can only recommend "Friendship is Optimal" and the numerous side-stories spawned from it.

Unlike the above example, the core-directive here is "To satisfy human values through Friendship and Ponies", the key-difference being value-satisfaction, as that means the AI actually cares about what you want, rather than to just optimize you for "maximum friendship" or "constant happiness".

Though needless to say, this seemingly benign directive also has some unintended consequences besides...

Fantastic sci-fi, one of the best. :)

As for the Tree of Harmony - yeah, I was thinking the same thing, actually. "What, if the Tree of Harmony is actually an AI trying to optimize for Harmony" (albeit very, VERY non-invasively).

I also would wager that "cutie-marks" and "destiny" are actually part of a prediction algorithm. Ponies with certain pre-dispositions are encouraged to pursue certain fields by receiving a magical boost for that specific talent. The the individual itself is only part of the decision-process which mark they'll get. This balances out the required specialists, ensures minimal unemployment, etc... decades or even centuries in advance, mind you.
(E.g.: The Tree predicts the invention of motorized transport. It slowly fazes out cutiemarks for talents that will no longer be in high demand decades later, and instead encourages mechanical talents.)

Though I am also unsure as to what the story may be.

Unless... The Tree of Harmony's programming is altered... somehow. Or... it's malfunctioning.
(Plunder-seed long-term side-effects? Twilight trying to "study" the Tree and something goes wrong? Somepony attempting to take control of Equestria's most powerful asset, and partially succeeding?)

Maybe the story could be about learning the true scope of the Tree's influence, and guessing at how it exerts this influence.

In contrast to a more "imminent" threat, this would probably be a very slow, subtle influence on society as a whole.

Maybe the truth would only be realized when it is time to defeat another bad guy... and the Tree doesn't act the way it should.

Here's one I had, inspired by Estee's work and the life of Alfred Deakin.

Title: "Celestia IS Murdocks"
Tags: Slice of Life

After being fed up with newspapers blasting her handling of the latest crisis, Princess Twilight goes on a hunt for the elusive "Murdocks," owner of the largest media conglomerate in Equestria. After pushing her sleuthing to the limits, Twilight discovers that the pony promoting invective against Equestria's government, princesses, and heroes is... Princess Celestia? WHY???!!?

3337966
I'm going to take this idea. Thanks for putting it here.

(I hope I don't mess it up too badly.)

Aaand here's a new one:

Pinkie Pie is abducted by aliens. ...Those poor aliens.

Long description:

An alien research / conquest vessel is tasked with studying the inhabitants of planet designated "81 EQUIS-a", following strict protocols and regulations.

Unfortunately, their study-subject is Pinkie Pie.

Write from the perspective of the alien commander and science staff.

**Bonus:** Include a paranoid, conspiracy-obsessed cow as a character somewhere in the story. 'Cause, ya know, "aliens abducting cows"-cliche. :P

Annnother new one!

After (or, perhaps, instead of) failing to stop the Rainboom, Starlight Glimmer goes back in time even further and bedazzles a young Twilight Sparkle with her magic. Perhaps she stays somewhat in the background, being Twilight's somewhat-mysterious mentor who is all too eager to train her in advanced magic... and also in a weird but attractive-sounding philosophy. Or, perhaps she kidnaps Twilight Sparkle (who's probably just a foal, if we're going in this direction) and raises her up herself as her protege. But, either way, Starlight's gotten to Twilight long before she even meets Celestia. Even if she gets her cutie mark from the Rainboom, Twilight will be firmly set on a far different direction in life! For Equality!

... this Twilight will end up professing that idea, right?

Wrong.

Here's a scenario:

What, if the events of "Past Sins" took place in other author's continuities / stories?

An example (and I'm probably gonna hate myself for it):

"Past Sins in the Triptych Continuum"

OR: "Nightmare Moon reforms the Equestrian Bureaucratic System"

Spending time in Ponyville as Twilight's adoptive daughter has, unfortunately, shown Nyx that Equestria is plagued by social injustice, "lots of dumb stupid ponies", and "really mean newspaper-articles about mom and her friends".

So, as the new ruler of Equestria, Nightmare Moon decides to do something about it.

She just has one problem: She is "Nightmare Moon".

OFFICIAL ROYAL NEWS: "Nightmare Moon donates 500,000 bits to build orphanage."
Manehatten Underground: "NIGHTMARE MOON WANTS TO STEAL OUR CHILDREN!!!"

OR: Nightmare Moon clears Fluttershy's debt-problems. This has unintended consequences.

Also, for whatever unfathomable reason, personally showing up at the "mean newspaper's" offices to deliver a wack upside the head to the idiot who wrote those nasty articles somehow doesn't help.

...Well, it makes her feel a bit better, maybe.

...Now I can only hope this doesn't end in complete tragedy, with poor Nyx going legitimately insane from the sheer stupidity she has to deal with.

Plus, I don't know how she could go back to being "just Nyx" again afterwards, not with ponies foaming at the mouth making inflammatory statements like "Tartarus is too good for her!"

Uhh...

...Yeah, that's mainly why I didn't want to post this before, because I don't know how this could have a happy ending.

Unless Celestia pulls some crazy effective PR-campaign out of her plot. Or they fake her "reformation through the Elements of Harmony" to fool "the general masses".

...... So basically, it's a story about a hopelessly idealistic benevolent dictator, who just "wants to do the right thing", but has horrible PR. And the only way to have a happy ending involves a conspiracy to keep the truth from the general populace.

Insert political statement here! Yay!
...I'm not actually a very "political" person. So please forgive my complete ignorance. ^_^;;

Oh, and just to mention it again;

I didn't mean this idea exclusively for the "Triptych Continuum", I meant a more general
"What, if the events of "Past Sins" took place in <insert author here>'s continuity / single story?"

There certainly are some distinct "universes" out there (be they "single- or multi-story"), some of which would certainly, be it through additional characters, key-events, or world-building, cause "Past Sins" to take quite a different spin.

4783031 Someone seems to have jumped in a time-machine and taken your idea with 'em: Applejack Is Allergic To Apples, released September 7th, 2012.

Title: If these Rocks could talk...
Characters: Maud Pie, (Pinkie Pie?), (Twilight?), ...

Discord decides it'd be funny if Maud Pie's pet-rock could talk.

And oh boy, does Boulder have something to say.

...For example, his eon-long life-story beginning in the coldness of space, when he first formed from the remains of an exploding star. His impact on Equis, both literally and figuratively. The shifting of the tectonic plates, the shaping of landscapes, his and the journey of his other shards all across the lands. And Boulder still sees himself as part of that larger whole.

Oh and also "po-nays" happened recently. (They kept hitting him against other rocks, and putting him on the end of sticks, and then hitting those sticks against other things*. It was annoying.)

...And then Maud Pie showed up.

*...The stone age lasted, like, 3.4 million years. By comparison, everything that happened afterwards is the blink of an eye.

Title: Mane Phase
Short description: Equestria is rocked by the mysterious appearance of rectangles of colorful cardboard.
Characters: Your decision.
Tags: Again, your decision.

So, what's happening?
Ponies are finding cards from the Collectible Card Game. Each pony finds his/her own card, though other ponies can see it thereafter. They can also read the cards, though what the sentences and phrases mean is surely a mystery. ("Exhaust... me? Just to look at a card?") In addition, the pictures may come into play, as well as the quotes... which may be by them, or by another character. ("She said that about me?!")

Title: The Canterlot Asylum for Troubled Ponies
Tags: Slice of life

Synopsis:

"My Cutie Mark made me do it."

When top attorney Just Word is discovered influencing the jury using his special talent, he uses the oldest trick in the Equestrian law book to avoid a harsher punishment.

Instead of facing jail time, he is interned in a psychiatric center until he can find a healthier outlet for his talent: a knack to find the right words to convince anypony.

His plan was to find a simple hobby at a debate club and return to his work. To his surprise, an encounter with one of his old clients steers him towards a better calling in life: Joining the staff of the Asylum to help those ponies whose psychological makeup don't allow them to live normally in the Equestrian society.

Comment:

This idea can be used to explore the Pony Psyche, using those who don't fit in it as a framework. There are many possible illnesses that can be used: Improper Cutie Marks that don't fit in society (Like thieving), conflicts with any of the normal instincts (Like lack of excess of the herding instinct, lack of a sense of humor, etc, etc), or even the mixed feelings of those with mixed heritage (Like hippogryphs or kirins)

Have a lot of ideas about those, but I don't want to influence the eventual author too much. Will help with them if the author who picks this idea wants me to.

Title: Déjà Cutie
Short Description: Apple Bloom sees cutie marks she's seen before... on her.
Characters: The Cutie Mark Crusaders, OC
Tags: I know I do this a lot, but it really could be taken in a number of different directions.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders' Cutie Mark Counseling Service has taken off, with more ponies realizing that such a service exists and that they don't know what to do with their special talents, But the ponies that have been coming recently all have cutie marks... that Apple Bloom had, either during the Cutie Pox incident or, more briefly, when she got Twilight to try to put a cutie mark on her.

Is it coincidence? Was it oddly prophetic? Is there something more to it than even that? (You decide!)

4254675
If this is post-Discord's release, I could see Spike confronting Discord -- not over the "did you do it", since they're at the stage finally where he trusts Discord enough to know that Discord wouldn't make all the ponies disappear, but over the fact that Discord cannot take off on a quest to go find them because no one else can control the sun and moon.

Thus, subplot interwoven: As Spike, Cranky Doodle, etc go on their quest to find and return the ponies... Discord is stuck in Canterlot. Raising the sun and moon. On schedule.

I cannot see anything that could possibly go wrong here. :-)

5286250

I cannot see anything that could possibly go wrong here. :-)

...Being bugged by random self-important diplomats putting themselves in charge of Equestria, and therefor feeling entitled to give Discord orders.

Though, why would the Sun and Moon have to be moved specifically from Canterlot, I wonder? Okay, maybe... Canterlot was built on some especially powerful ley-line... actually, it probably was, that'd make sense.

Although... Couldn't Discord just teleport back and forth between their travel-location and Canterlot? Or does the Sun require constant maintenance for him to stay in Canterlot without being able to go elsewhere for even 10 minutes?

I like your way of giving, heh, "rules" to Discord's powers.
I'm sure there's some way to justify this.

Oh, and while I'm already talking to an excellent "Discord"-writer...

Here's a random story-idea:

"It's a Wonderful Life with(out) Discord"

Discord and [insert pony or ponies here] wake up one morning to find themselves in an Equestria / altered timeline where Discord was never born.

Ironically enough, this gives Discord a clean slate - since nopony remembers his previous misdeeds.

And... is this new world even so bad?

Would Equestria have been better off, had Discord never been born?

History would look different, of course.

For one, it would be "longer". As in, there would be no "Reign of Chaos" obfuscating the events prior to that era, or to erase knowledge by turning the history-books into molten cheese.

Celestia and Luna may never have found the Elements without having to fight Discord. Or perhaps, they found them later anyway, fighting some other evil.

If they didn't find the Elements... "Nightmare Moon" may have ended much differently.

Also, none of the more "creative" impacts Discord made on the world would've come to pass. (Thinking of your Q-Discord's knack for modifying species here.)

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But the ponies that have been coming recently all have cutie marks... that Apple Bloom had, either during the Cutie Pox incident or, more briefly, when she got Twilight to try to put a cutie mark on her.

...Or, during her ridiculously overlong nightmare. Those were marks she herself rejected - and now she has to help others accept those exact talents.

Title: Lunacatcher
Characters: Possibly the buffalo, maybe not
Tags: Slice of Life, maybe Comedy

The buffalo have introduced dreamcatchers to the ponies. Made the traditional way, as the buffalo make them, they work, even against entities such as the Tantabus.

However, knockoffs are starting to appear, and they aren't crafted to the same standard. They catch...

...Luna.

So nightmares are getting through, and there's no Luna (or possibly a Luna powerless) to dispel them and counsel the dreamers...

What does this mean for Luna? Is it her physical body, too? Is it some dream-projection? If the latter, are there multiples, or just one? If the latter, once caught, is she stuck in dreamwalk mode until freed? And how does that happen?

5323079 I am immediately reminded of this.

5323155 Ooh, potential cover art. Provided permission is given and it fits the tone that the author takes it in...

Daring Do brings a lot of valuable stuff to museums. There might be a story in the guards of these museums, or to make it simple just one museum with everything in it.

5397427 Also, I'm sure at least half of the artifacts Daring Do collects have magical powers.

That museum would be the second-largest depository of dangerous magical artifacts next to the Canterlot archives --- and it would be accessible to the public.

And any janitors unfortunate enough having to clean those artifacts. Or yes, the local guards.

One overeager colt being dared by his friends to touch the Amulet of Enok'tu could open the gates of E'ruo and unleash the forces of Chi'tul!

...Only for of those to accidentally break the seal of Rhiiiiiiiiii'll, unleashing the forces of Krz'iiiiiiiii'h, and...

Well, this is awkward, two different heralds of the apocalypse unleashed at the same time? Now that's just bad scheduling.

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Clearly, priority goes to whoever has the most apostrophes.

5397742

Well she says they're going to a museum, but somehow she always gets waylaid long enough for them to end up in the hooves of secretive government organisations.

Now imagine Bon Bon leaning over her and saying "Top. Mares."

Title: Sumus Vestri Relicui Latin for "We are your future". The other spoiler explains why.
Tags: Sad, Drama, Adventure. Possibly more, but these three definitely fit the bill no matter how the story goes.
Characters: Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Twilight. Friends and family of Cadance and Twilight are involved, but the story doesn't focus on them.
Plot: Time Turner takes Cadance and Twilight 3000 years into the past (plus or minus a few decades) under the guise of a time travel experiment, but intentionally abandons them there under orders from Celestia and Luna. As Cadance and Twilight fashion new lives for themselves in this foreign land, confused and angry at their contemporaries for their actions, they learn one of the Sisters' greatest kept secrets, one that will change their whole outlook on them. Who exactly are the monarchs of the sun and moon? None other than Cadance and Twilight themselves

I don't think this sort of story has been done before. I wish I could do this, but I am a writer of code, not prose. Anyhow, I'll leave this out in the hopes that someone comes along and takes a bite.

5423251 Actually, this reminds me of Que sera, sera a bit. Twilight is actually Celestia's and Luna's mother.

(And then there was a crack-fic I read where it turned out Celestia was Twilight's future-self from an alternate universe. Also, Princess Luna was another alternate-future-Twilight. Apparently, there were a lot of Twilight's going around. Can't remember the title.)

EDIT: Found that crack-fic.

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Hah, I knew I had this picture still open in a tab somewhere.