So I guess I should contribute something here...

All fanfic is Alternative Universe. Period. The instant any writer starts to create, they are branching off from the original product. You can keep your story and characters matched to the show and make sure everything parallels to the nanometer... but it's still a different track. The coin can land heads-up in a million places, but those landing sites were separated by the act of tossing it.

To me, the 'verses scattered throughout FIMFic are the settings which acknowledge their differences, keep them consistent, and build on them. In that sense, this story group may be a 'verse of its own.

So what are those differences?

On the surface, I've kept things running along the same general lines as the show, at least in that everything you saw in the first three seasons happened. (S4 has not been reached and a lot of it would significantly change.) So in that sense, it's still Equestria as you sort of know it. I haven't turned anything completely upside-down yet, certainly not to the extent other 'verses do. But the differences are there and with every story, more of them are coming to the surface.

Here's a few to get people started. Some are things which haven't been detailed or codified anywhere outside my own notes before this.

Ponies

Ponies have six major senses. The additional one is generally called feel and refers to a pony's ability to pick up on the magics of their own race -- and no other. As with other senses, the quality varies by the individual. The more acute your feel is, the subtler the workings you can pick up on, along with being able to detect older traces. (However, all previously-used magic generally fades below detection level in a few days at most -- even if starting from alicorn strength.) More specific terms like 'airfeel' exist, but are seldom used simply because the sense is race-specific and so comparing notes generally isn't necessary -- and doesn't work.

Pegasus vision goes partway into the infrared and electromagnetic, enough to let them view heat and ion charges. They can also see humidity, gauging the amount of water dissolved into the air.

Newborn unicorns and pegasi have hard shells of translucent tissue covering horns and wings, respectively. These are called caps and protect the mother from horn wounds or the foal from broken bones caused by the pressures of the birth canal. Caps fall off on their own a few days after birth or can be soaked away with warm water. Capless births are extremely rare: with unicorns, they generally kill the mother. Pegasi capless births typically lose the foal. Earth ponies don't have caps and as far as Equestria knows, neither do crystal ones.

In addition to the other pony types seen in the show, an incredibly rare category of coat exists called metallics: these ponies will simply have fur which reflects light as polished painted metal of that shade would. Metallics appear in all three major pony races (but not in the crystal ponies) and comprise less than one in every five thousand births. The quality comes with no special abilities of any kind: it's simply an extreme recessive trait for fur.

Ponies began as a herd species and remain prone to falling into that kind of mentality: it can be too easy to fall under the swap of the loudest voice, or get lost in the rush of mass emotion from the mob. They can also get caught by groupthink. Individuality is out there: maintaining it when the herd starts to move another way can be a deliberate effort, and it's one a lot of ponies won't make. This can have any number of detrimental effects. On the positive side, if you can unite the community, you've really united the community... for now.

History

Despite what virtually every pony in Equestria believes, Celestia and Luna did not fight and defeat Discord as a duo: the history ponies study is a heavy distortion, a legend which multiple generations have talked themselves into seeing as the real -- something which Celestia, to some degree, had to encourage the spread of. The sisters were part of another sextet: what may have been the original Element-Bearers. Star Swirl was part of that group. The other three are currently unidentified.

At some point after Discord was defeated, Star Swirl attempted his own ascension to alicorn status and failed. This led to the Alicorn Amulet: his way of taking a detour, getting the power without the transformation. It was never removed from his living self. None of this is known to the general populace: at most, he's recognized as being one of history's great spellcasters and occasionally thought of as being in the sisters' generation -- but after so much time, no one questions why so many details of his life are lost.

Equestria has been through a number of wars over the centuries, enough to justify a dungeon beneath the castle for the holding of important prisoners. There was at least one major economic depression.

Information on history prior to Discord's defeat is almost impossible to come by: virtually all records were destroyed during his reign, and quite a bit of what remains has turned out to be forgeries from ponies attempting to prove their own theories. Even the Princesses have very little idea of what might have happened a few generations before their birth. There's one potential source left for that information, but how far do you trust him?

Neither Celestia nor Luna were born as alicorns. (Celestia's dream sequence in A Mark Of Appeal indicates she wasn't a pegasus.) The pony belief in that falsehood is, to some degree, a shielding one.

The continent

The vast majority of Equestria lacks pony inhabitants. Any place where at least a small town's worth of ponies gather to enforce magic on land and sky is called a settled zone, and they make up, at best, six percent of the land and about seven percent of the sky. Everything else is a wild zone, where nature runs on its own rules and the monsters stand by to break them -- along with anypony who ventures within. Roads, train tracks, and air paths connect the settled zones. Border areas are known as fringes. Typically, for areas with earth ponies, the fringe starts when the radius of the Cornucopia Effect runs out: for unicorn and pegasi-exclusive settlements, it's the border of the last residence. Earth ponies leaving a majority town can detect when they're entering a ground fringe if their feel is acute enough to register the drop in background magic.

Most of the world's climate types are present on the continent, and the pegasi can arrange the rest on request.

The wild zones host a number of sentient species. For the most part, if they let ponies be, the Diarchy leaves them in peace.

Magic

The aura of magic in and around a pony body is called a field. The term is most often used with unicorns, but occasionally shows up for the other two races. Field strength is, to the best of anypony's knowledge, fixed at birth and will never improve, although drugs exist to get around that short-term, assuming you survive the dosage. Field dexterity -- the ability to finely manipulate -- can be worked on.

Unicorn magic is often referred to as workings or spells. Tricks is another general term, but it has a specific meaning: a unicorn's personal spell, the one related to an aspect of their personality: among the first mastered, and never has to be taught. The vast majority of unicorns can only learn a few spells to go with the telekinetic manipulative abilities of their field. Learning ability is not completely associated with field strength and the two don't always scale up together. Technically, a unicorn spell could do anything and their abilities can sometimes seem to roughly mimic those of the other races -- poorly. But with learning ability at a premium and the seemingly random way spells appear in the population, finding the right magic at the proper intensity can be almost impossible -- and some tricks have simply never appeared twice. Additionally, unicorn fields have trouble going inside objects: you can lift a sealed box, but you can't get at the contents. (Going into matter on a molecular level is possible with the right spell: you can alter the nature of the container. It still won't let you directly touch what's held within.) This universal inability is called differentiation, always applies with solids, and can kick in when trying to shift something within large masses of liquid.

Pegasi call their advanced magics techniques. Technically, every pegasus who exists could learn every single one, but some lack the field strength to make them work effectively -- and field dexterity is extremely important for pegasi, as some of their changes are made on a microscopic scale. Most pegasi will know a technique or two: few attempt to master them all.

Earth ponies use the term tools. Like unicorns, they have a universal aspect to their magic in its publicly-recognized portion, known to other ponies as the Cornucopia Effect: this allows any kind of crop to be raised in any soil, accelerates (and sometimes retards) plant growth, and creates Equestria's chain of food supply. However, more specific effects can be learned by individuals, although some may be tied to family lines or simply manifest more easily there. The full range of tools is currently unknown, but at least one seems to allow direct manipulation of soil and rock. The process of casting is called "speaking" and has been described as asking a question of the earth and hoping to get an answer. Earth ponies are taught from birth to never reveal the hidden parts of their magic to the other races and will not practice it in the open -- at least, not in ways which will be recognized as magic. This cultural prohibition appears to be an absolute.

Unicorn fields manifest visually and can be projected from a distance. They are blocked by placing hard materials over the horn. Multiple unicorns cannot focus their energies into the same working unless they know a very difficult spell called Gromway's Combiner, and the maximum limit for such a joined effort is three. It's possible for more than this to try and counter the working of another with each taking on a portion of the energy involved, but too many ponies tend to get in each other's way. Horns are, for all intents and purposes, unbreakable: the exceptions are things which the average pony will never encounter. The energy layering around a horn is called a corona, with the degree indicating just how much effort the unicorn is putting into the spell. Partial is normal everyday things, single is a typical moderate spell, double means significant effort, and triple is commitment of all internal resources until success or unconsciousness.

Pegasi fields conduct: they generally stay around the body, but will travel along channels of matter or energy -- typically water, air, or ions. They are stopped via the immobilization of the pegasus or removal of the conduction material. Large groups of pegasi can work together, but the more ponies who are present, the more difficult the accumulated power is to keep under control -- and if something goes wrong, it can do so on a major scale.

Earth pony fields radiate and will generally do so unless deliberately shut down by the pony: otherwise, that magic is active at all times, although such effects are generally passive and serve only to maintain whatever changes have already been made. (The means of stopping an earth pony is currently being kept under wraps.) Their magic is automatically cumulative -- but it's also just about as automatically subtractive. If an earth pony knows a manipulation is going on, all they generally have to do is attempt the opposite and their energy will cancel out the appropriate amount of the original effort. This does seem to require the opposing earth pony having the proper tool in their kit, however -- knowing the right way to phrase the other query.

As with each pony only being able to detect the workings of their own race, they can only directly block or dispel the same way. This is for straight energy vs. energy: a pegasus can deflect a unicorn-thrown object with wind -- she just can't take the magic behind that motion apart, and the same applies the other way. Unicorns call field vs. field countering. Pegasi use unweave. Earth ponies use the terms debate or argue.

Unicorns are subject to an effect called backlash, triggered by hitting the horn while a field is being channeled. Talented casters can learn to ignore the lowest level and some ponies have a degree of resistance to the higher ones, but nopony can dismiss the full chain. For partial coronas, the field simply winks out. Single layers will have some of the field's energy flow against the caster, causing injuries. Double coronas increase the severity and generally knock the caster out. A triple corona backlash is fatal. And since horns normally can't be covered by anything more than a mane and still project the field, any unicorn actively using magic in close combat is risking themselves at all times, with the degree increasing along with the power used.

{Yes, this means Twilight was risking her life when she got the Ursa Minor out of town: one moment of sharp contact against her horn would have killed her. A unicorn doesn't exactly go to the triple corona in public as a casual thing, and those working such spells in private will typically set up every safeguard possible. Well before the first sparks appear, unicorn foals will be taught that corona layers are not to be fooled around with -- along with the exact possible penalties for doing so. A lot of campfire horror stories wind up ending the same way.)

Infants of all three races go through periods known as Surges, where their magic is finding every available channel and trying it on for size. This results in flying foals, teleporting infants and, for earth ponies out in public, a parent or sibling on standby at all times to just keep saying "No." The latter gets extremely tricky when the foal is significantly stronger than everypony else in the family: earth ponies accompanying an infant in large groups is a typical sign of a major talent.

Society

There are a number of ponies opposed to the rule and policies of the Princesses: to date, they have simply been called the loyal opposition. (As always, it's best not to think about where being opposed to them puts the moral code.) The organization known as the Murdocks Press Corps gives this group a media voice. While the LO itself is the minority of ponies -- and a small minority -- the sheer scope of publications makes them disproportionately loud, and there are times when it seems their influence is growing. Additionally, libel laws don't really exist, which leaves all the publications more or less free to distort at will unless doing so crosses the line into things they can be dragged into court for. Pro-Princess papers tend to go as far in that direction as the LO goes in the other, and neutral, non-sensationalist voices are hard to find -- largely because they don't sell well. The average level of journalism in Equestria is a supermarket tabloid with a lot of FOX News/MSNBC lensing thrown in and virtually no fact-checking.

Racism of all categories is out there. This is not just between the pony races (where it's uncommon, but insistent on getting an oar in), but from some ponies towards the world's other sentient species -- and back the other way. It's generally worst between the herbivore and carnivore species, who simply have a lot of trouble understanding each other's viewpoints -- and both can have difficulty keeping from going into their assigned predator/prey roles. Griffon-pony relationships are generally shaky at best.

Marriages between different species exist, but are almost impossibly rare. Only slightly more common are group pony marriages, which come with a built-in restrictive coda: every pony involved must consent to the inclusion of every other -- which means that if the polygamy isn't based in full and equal love all around, it never gets started. Triads are a little more known, and most settled zones could see one. Same-sex marriages are common. All forms are fully recognized and legal, although mixed species can run into trouble from the non-Equestrian partner's home government if that country is less than fond of the idea. Double taxes are only the start.

(A unicorn working known as The Most Special Spell allows mare couples to birth foals who will be a genetic mix of the parents, but the spell only works on mares and the child will always be a filly. There's a chance that the slow cumulative effect from centuries of castings has pushed Equestria to a mare majority.)

In concert with other 'verses, there is a nobility class: these are typically families who held territory before the continent was united or during early settlement phases. The titles typically mean very little, which winds up having them mean far too much to the ponies who hold them. In general, all having a title means is a few land rights which nopony pays attention to any more, some very old furnishings in your residence, and a lot of charities hitting you up for donations. And a lot of nobles -- aren't. (Twilight herself comes from a moderate House.) There are earth pony and pegasus nobles, but most of them are a lot quieter about it.

The Guards coexist with the police, and the division is simple: Guards work on Princess and throne affairs, the police cover everything else. A single court system serves both, although the judges can vary -- see below..

Politics.

As with other 'verses, the Day and Night Courts exist. Each serves as an effective legislative house for Equestria, but they aren't a bicameral body: instead, each Court handles different categories of law. (For example, gambling laws are the province of the Night Court: road and air path maintenance belong to the Day.) Settled zones vote on their representatives, who serve three-year terms. There are a few LO members in both courts (heavier in the Day, which was until recently seen as having more influence), but they have a lot of trouble getting anything done other than causing trouble, and so tend not to be reelected.

(Nobles can have an easier time getting elected to the Courts due to increased campaign funds, but there is no such thing as a hereditary seat -- in theory: the reality is that some families do serve on a generational basis.)

In terms of executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, Celestia and Luna have roles in all three. It is their option to sign anything passed by the appropriate Court into law, and there is no such thing as a veto override. They sit in their respective Courts, where they technically break all ties. And they may take a judge's bench at their discretion -- except for where the law makes that role mandatory. (One of those mandatory duties is for when the charge is assault against a Princess, which even Celestia feels is stacking the deck.) The thrones also have an assortment of executive powers: for example, the Courts cannot declare war.

Marks

Mark magic is considered to be the most difficult, exasperating, and subtle known to ponies. No spells exists which can permanently create a mark: at best, a pony can fake one for a few seconds, and the effort is exhausting. Concealment can only be done through clothing: anything else will quickly wear off or trickle away. Nothing is known which would magically destroy a mark, and attempting to physically remove it won't stop the magic -- plus that part of a pony body will always heal perfectly, without scarring. It's possible to temporarily break the link between mark and magic, but it requires effort on a level few can accomplish, lasts for seconds, and brings payback on the caster in the form of blinding headaches for their act of magical blasphemy.

The mark-switching spell is considered to be an abomination, one which the sisters only refer to as "that spell". It has the side effect of suppressing the pony's talent -- until the first situation comes along which requires that talent to be expressed, which makes the entire working start falling apart.

An existing mark cannot be changed. Period. The pony has it for life.

Unique marks with new talents still appear: Celestia generally cherishes them as potential innovators, especially in a society which tends to freeze in place unless something is actively prodding it along.

Mark-linked talents are magical and will have spell effects associated with them, regardless of the race for the pony bearing that mark. In this sense, marks break the rules: any pony can have very subtle (and sometimes overt) workings, ones which would normally be thought of as being linked to unicorns, associated with their talent. Battle marks enhance not just fighting, but intuition. Merchant marks can help to weigh the odds of a business opportunity actually working out. Those with travel marks get around quicker and have an easier time avoiding danger. And so on down the line. As a general rule, in a straight contest of skill, trained with a mark will beat general practiced knowledge every time -- which is why in battle, you make sure the contest isn't straight.

It's been hinted that marks suggest actions to their bearers and help to guide them along the way, but they don't act as separate personalities and won't take control. However, a horrifying number of ponies fall into the self-imposed trap of believing that their marks are not just potentially the core of what they are, but all that they are. This is known as falling into the mark, sometimes just falling for short. Such ponies typically act only within the realm of their talent, never seeking out other interests or opportunities. The level of falling varies: most ponies will simply display a very narrow range of activity, while others never do anything outside their marks unless it keeps them alive for the next talent display. (While not part of the 'verse, an extreme case of falling is on display in this CDA story.) Ponies can be pulled back from this state, but it's not easy and for the deepest, full recovery can take years.

Religion & Faith

This is an area which largely hasn't been explored. It's known that most ponies believe in an afterlife known as the shadowlands, but details are lacking and nopony has ever come back with a report. A number are reincarnationists. The vast majority of ponies swear on the Princesses, but there are also those who actively pray to them -- something which deeply wounds Celestia, Luna, and Cadance, who can never convince everypony that it simply doesn't work. (If you want to emotionally scar Celestia, ask her to bless you. And then, when nothing happens to your benefit, claim with your dying breath that it must have been your own fault for not having enough faith.) Some griffons appear to be pantheists. Minotaurs largely go with ancestor worship, seeing them as intermediaries with the higher powers -- or rather, combatants in place who will take those powers on to get the living what they need. Most dragons refuse to think about the concept of anything more powerful than they are, and challenging them on it is a bad idea.

A number of ponies have faith in destiny as both concept and reality, believing in birth, naming, and the manifestation of the mark as signposts in a pony's life. Some will attempt to name their children in appropriate fashion for the life they want that child to have. To change one's name is seen as an act of rebellion -- and sometimes, of extreme bravery: it's saying that you're taking control. But at the same time, the new name can point towards what you're trying to take control of, and that can repel. The success rate from such an action is... dubious.

Characters

In general, the Mane Cast can be slightly more mature and adult. (This includes Spike and often excludes Rainbow.) Most are aware of their personal problems to varying degrees -- but being aware of an issue doesn't solve it.

Celestia & Luna are fallible. Any aura of divinity is generally imposed from the outside. They have experience on their side, power and the knowledge of how to use it, they're both intelligent and can outthink some of their problems while trying to outlive a few others -- but in the end, they're ponies. They just can't convince most others on that issue, and doing so has its own hazards.

Nopony among the main group is in a relationship, nopony's sexuality has been revealed with the exception of Luna. Only Pinkie is known to be sexually active, and she sees it as therapy for the ponies she chooses to be with: relationships don't come into play. Neither Twilight or Fluttershy has had a single date in their lives. Thus far, this has been a shipping-free zone.

Twilight has become very aware of how damaged she is in many aspects and doesn't know how to fix it. Rarity can have great insight -- but when she gets it wrong, she keeps insisting that the world should run the way she wants it to and not just get stuck in a rut, but uses every action to dig herself deeper. Spike gets to wrestle with the responsibilities of not only keeping Twilight on track, but watching himself from within and making sure something capable of reason keeps answering.

Fluttershy is struggling with the emotional burdens that come from not only knowing that her last resort with so many of her sick animal friends is to show them the way on, but doing it. Pinkie came to her childhood late and still hasn't completely caught up. Both wrestle with the consequences from early years of being different.

Rainbow thinks admitting to any insecurity would break the world's view of her, and just might shatter her with it. Similarly, Applejack openly walks one path, privately believes in another, and refuses to reconcile the differences because doing so would mean having to face a mirror and finding out if she was the one looking back.

The CMC is engaged in self-delusion, hiding from themselves at all times. They refuse to admit their actual talents and let their marks come out because to do so would invalidate all which had come before -- something they can't face. They won't admit they're wrong. They can't, even though it would be the first step in freeing their marks. Instead, they keep doubling down and eventually, they're going to run out of squares on the chessboard.

Of the background ponies, personalities and histories differing from show canon have emerged for a few. Snowflake survived a capless birth: his mark talent is actually for determination and when he sets his mind to shifting a burden, it's highly recommended to get out of the way. Flitter believes ponies are too complacent and will make them see reality no matter how many tears and settled zones she leaves in her wake. Caramel is a serial dater, addicted to romance and believing love comes from the squeal of joy at the receipt of a gift. As with her CDA story, Lyra is still recovering from falling and Bon-Bon is the pony who pulled her out of the pit. Silver Spoon is concealing a talent for gourmet cooking from fear that revealing what she's actually good at will cost her the only friend she has.

Other ponies may follow.

[/hr]

Okay, I've made a post. Y'all can tell me how wrong it is now.

3339311
4675 words, huh?...
well...

To me, the 'verses scattered throughout FIMFic are the settings which acknowledge their differences, keep them consistent, and build on them. In that sense, this story group may be a 'verse of its own.

This is probably one of the better definitions I've heard.
I'd also add that it requires at least two stories that share such a setting -- Maybe even more.

As for the other stuff... does this finally earn you the all there in the manual trope?

3339311
Alright. Now that I've gotten around to actually reading this thing, I must admit there's a fair amount of good stuff in here. Too bad its exposure is being limited by the (so far) failure of this group =P
Perhaps you should make a blog post that links here, for the people who are interested.

Either way, I especially liked the part about earth pony magic, this being the most interesting line:

earth ponies accompanying an infant in large groups is a typical sign of a major talent.

And the part about Silver is interesting too, though I don't think it would actually happen. Diamond strikes me less as a person who thinks 'some trairs are cool, and people who have them are cool by association', and more like 'some people are cool, and whatever they like is cool by association', even if she did start out with the former mindset.

3341888

I'll make the blog post, but don't expect much from it. As said, the Lunaverse this ain't.

The thing about earth pony magic being automatically subtractive is that you can only subtract the part of the other effort equal to your own strength. So if you get a newborn with a Twilight-level talent, 10-3 still leaves Too Much For Everypony's Comfort. Earth pony newborns who don't live in isolated areas tend to get a lot of visitors during their first moons of life: adults standing by on watch for those initial Surges. Once the first Surge shows up, the parents will know approximately how strong their newborn is. If they can handle the emergency negations, the visits drop to a normal family level. If they can't... well, you're going to see a lot of earth ponies going in and out of that house, along with cooing elders approaching the stroller and listening for those warning signs. It takes a community to keep a child from accidentally razing it, not to mention blowing The Secret in one innocent swoop.

(You could argue this does some damage in that most newborns don't really get that foundation of barely-remembered early practice to build on later in life, and a few earth ponies recognize that possibility. But the only current cure is to live in an area where you're safe from spectators. Most rock farmers qualify. Town and city ponies don't.)

Note what Applejack says about her -- that she's shouting. AJ knows her own field strength is nowhere near enough to drown out the other voice echoing in the earth, and any contribution Pinkie might make barely counts. .

As for Silver... it's what she believes would happen.

Again, I wonder how police and guards deal with restraining earth pony criminals. Is the Secret strong enough that an earth policepony would rather let a criminal escape than reveal it? Strong enough that the criminal wouldn't attempt to escape unless she could make it look like just bad luck?

3342007

One method is suggested above: sometimes, all you need is enough earth ponies saying "No" at a constant volume to drown out any other requests. For all intents and purposes, Celestia and Luna have voices which count here in both combat and casual situations, and they can do some shouting of their own.

There are certainly criminal earth ponies who use their magic to boost their exploits, and I'm not going to pretend there's never been a breach situation since the Secret started up. But for the most part, it's kept to things which could either be passed off as coincidence or completely covered up later. If you're making a tunnel into the basement, then make sure you either close it behind you when you're done, or that it looks like a tunnel carved out by tools. Criminals tend to keep it on the down-low -- because to be too overt is not just to get the police after you, but potentially one-third of Equestria. That's what they're taught and for many, that fear never completely goes away.

But there have been earth ponies over the centuries who just decided 'the Tartarus with it'. Who tried to go out in the open. Because they were overconfident, because they were at that degree of sociopathy where what others had said could never matter, because they thought they'd get away with it -- and perhaps for one or two, because they felt The Secret should be broken, and the potential motives on that one can go all the way into the planet's core.

What happened next wasn't always pretty.

Your police/criminal situation... fun moral dilemma, isn't it? For something like a saddlebag-snatching where the criminal was keeping things at a coincidence level and the officer couldn't negate... well, then you could in fact get an 'I'll be back for you later'. But if the crime is more severe or we get an actual breach situation... there are times when All Bets Go Off.

One of the things about having The Secret is that every so often, you're going to need The Coverup.

Well, that was pretty comprehensive. I see an absolutely huge amount of character development waiting in the wings. Also, I wonder what in the world might Discord be.

Also, new profile pic is nice.

3342079 This is a really fantastic guide, helpful for your readers and hopefully a useful exercise in worldbuilding for anyone else trying to write an alternate universe fic. I like that you were willing to examine personality changes in characters as part of your universe and not just physical laws, I think it will help readers see these characters as more your interpretation and less angry whining that someone is getting them "wrong."

I've got two questions on Earth pony magic, which you have examined in more depth and detail than any other writer.
1) Since wild zones seem to grow things like apple trees just fine, but all settlements without unicorns or pegasi seem unable to grow almost any food at all, is it possible that unicorns and pegasi have some sort of unconscious anti-cornucopia effect? Or do Earth ponies do some sort of subtle sabotage to keep a monopoly on food production?
2) How was the Crystal Empire built in the Triptych verse? I always assumed it was built with earth pony magic, so it should have blown the whole secret wide open, unless ponies here assume crystal ponies are actually a 4th tribe, and not just shiny earth ponies. Did Sombra build every building himself with his own crystal magic, or a long lost race of geo-wielding unicorns that Sombra killed off? Is it possible that in the Tritych continuum the crystal ponies DID build the crystal empire, and are just lying to Cadance and Shining Armor about its origins (that would be awesome, but would almost inevitably collapse quite quickly).

3342333

I can tackle the parts of your first question.

It's possible for earth ponies to sabotage the soil, but it's culturally looked upon as a crude, cruel, and despicable act. It's also ineffective unless done by large groups: in earth pony areas, fighting the accumulated background magic of the Effect is going to be more than one pony can handle: such changes tend to cancel out quickly as the normal surrounding level flows back in. You can stay in place and try to maintain your sabotage in a small spot -- but other earth ponies who get close enough will know it.

For unicorn and pegasus areas... that's easier, and a few individuals who have major issues with their neighbors could go for the gardens. Again, though, earth ponies watch each other, and doing too much of that activity generally leads to somepony asking why.

In the distant past... that's another story.

Pegasi and unicorns can't disrupt the Effect in any way other than removing the ponies creating it. However, they have other ways to ruin things. Practically any pegasus can arrange an overwatering, and some unicorns just yank plants out of the soil -- from the top: differentiation again.

In the specific case of Trotter's Falls... where the Effect isn't present, you're stuck with what the land will provide on its own. (This is also what generally happens in wild zones.) The soil around Trotter's Falls is just of particularly low quality and doesn't take foreign seeds well.

There's also something else going on there, which I'll break out for the first time here: in Equestria, the science of agronomy barely exists -- because it doesn't have to. Things like crop rotation and soil replenishment aren't a concern because the problems from not doing them are taken care of by the Effect. Some earth ponies will use compost heaps to help things along and a very few unicorns and pegasi have some small grasp on what happens when magic isn't involved, but for the most part, even the most basic agronomy isn't necessary. The farming solution is always 'leave it to the earth ponies' and the only areas which worry about any other means can't get them and/or can't afford the import costs.

It's different outside Equestria: some of the other nations know about farming, although hiring earth ponies to help out on long-term projects or shorter-term saves happens now and again. An Equestrian could study that science and bring it back. It would work normally, given the resources to work with. But -- why bother? You've got earth ponies. Or in the case of Trotter's Falls, money.

So in summary: it's possible to manage food production without earth ponies or wild zone raids, but the vast majority of ponies don't know how. And unless they have a true and pressing reason to learn -- they won't.

I can't take on your second question just yet except to point out the running joke that nopony in-universe can work out how the crystal ponies fit in.

3342495 That makes a ton of historical and economic sense, of course modern ponies would find any land "barren" without earth pony magic, since their expectations of what fertile mean are set by the earth ponies, and crop technology is pretty much "Drop a seed in a hole and water it." I get it that you can't answer the question on crystal ponies for spoiler-y reasons, thanks for being straightforward on that.

This gives me a follow up question though: How is Trotter Falls so rich? They seem able to afford inflated food prices and everything there seems more expensive, which is usually only possible when the community is exporting something valuable to everyone else. Is it that unicorns in general are wealthier, since they can turn their talents towards more high end services and goods, rather than focusing on commodity products like food and weather? Or does Trotter Falls have some ultra-valuable mine or other local resource that generates the wealth to pay for expensive food?

3339311
Odd, I don't seem to remember what Luna's preference was. Which one was that in?
edit: I'm assuming either Lottery or Eclipse

3339311
Most enlightening, especially the details on earth pony magic. Thank you for it.

To me, the 'verses scattered throughout FIMFic are the settings which acknowledge their differences, keep them consistent, and build on them. In that sense, this story group may be a 'verse of its own.

Well said. It's the same logic I use to reconcile the existence of so many appealing headcanons; every Equestria is true, but they aren't necessarily the one you're reading about. Of course, that raises the question of where they all are, which required the concept of probability space, and that's a whole other kettle of seaponies...

Okay, I'm just going to ask the obvious question: How much unicorn magic does Pinkie have, how much earth pony magic does Fluttershy have, and how many people have realized that Doctor Gentle is stabilizing unbalanced magic percentages?

3339311

A very good primer on your 'verse that's just as applicable to new readers as it is to long-time fans. Thank you for sharing.

First, on pony biology, just as humans have other senses than the five classical ones such as balance (equilibrioception), temperature sensing (thermoception), or the ability to know where your body parts are (proprioception), ponies likely have more senses than the traditional ones that they just don't think about if they're not a doctor or biologist. The specific sense I'm interested in your thoughts on is magnetoception, as I was recently amused by discovering that some large mammals, specifically even-toed ungulates, are perfectly capable of always knowing which way magnetic north is. [1] Do your ponies have compasses in their heads? Or perhaps only pegasi do, because birds?

On a completely unrelated note, the way you treat marks is interesting and very useful for making stories from it, but it raises quite a few interesting questions. I'm sure you're very well aware of most of these, having written a 200k+ story on precisely that premise, [2] but I'd like to comment on how absolute that system is.

Every pony is born without a mark. Every pony receives a mark in their adolescence. Every pony receives some skill related to that mark. These marks cannot be changed, suppressed, duplicated, nor denied. This system has worked exactly, without fail or glitch or error, for nigh on a thousand years, and quite possibly beyond that to the very dawn of the pony race.

Natural systems do not work like that. Birth defects and lasting injuries can and do occur to ponies in the physical sense, and, seeing as magic is natural and endemic to ponies, it would be assumed that their magic would work the same way. But marks are absolute. There are ponies whose magic has come in wrong, of course, in fact it's strongly implied that several are main characters, [3] but marks are absolute.

There are several possible explanations for this seeming disparity. The most obvious and boring is that destiny is in fact real, that Leibniz [4] was right and this is the best of all possible worlds, where every pony has their course in life predetermined and the mark in a manifestation of that. There's at least some of that in your 'verse, but I get the sense that you're not writing a story about strict magical determinism here.

Mush more interesting, and what I've been trying to get at with all of this dithering, is that the mark system you describe doesn't sound like a natural system at all. and much more like a constructed system, [5] which raises the very intriguing point of who did the creating. Who? When? Most importantly, why? All are questions that have a lot of prerequisites to even be relevant at all, so I'm going to stop this theory train here, before I leave Last Hope Station and enter the wild unknown of the Epileptic Tree Forest.

Thoughts? Condemnations? Derisive laughter?

[1] Other animals known to have a magnetic sense are most birds, some bats and rodents, flies, bees and various other invertebrates, some aquatic animals like sharks and turtles, and quite a few bacteria.

[2] I do not presume to out-think the master, merely offer a few assorted musings.

[3] As 3343327 just said, I actually hadn't caught that as what was specifically happening as I was reading.

[4] Leibneighz? i am very not good at horse pun.

[5] That is, in universe. It is obviously a created system by dint of being part of a piece of fiction that you are writing.

3339311
A question: is the CDA in the same universe as the Triptych continuum stories?

3339311 Fascinating.

Only Pinkie is known to be sexually active, and she sees it as therapy for the ponies she chooses to be with: relationships don't come into play.

I come to this fandom from a science fiction background. One of my favourite "universes" is the stories that comprise the "Callahan's Crosstime Saloon" series. Short stories, novellas and novels that share a setting, all of them written by Spider Robinson. The common theme of which is "Shared pain is lessened, shared joy is increased." A rather cool way to think about the "Magic of friendship."

Of the characters in this universe, there is a married couple known as "The Cheerful Charlies." A husband and wife team who run a business dedicated to cheering people up. They use a variety of techniques, including actual therapy, but their last resort is to sleep with their clients. (A last resort as it is risky, could upset their marriage, and there are laws against prostitution.)

I recall being reminded of this when I saw your mention of this (one of the Triptych chapters, wasn't it?). I could totally believe this of Pinkie Pie.

Is it a story you would consider writing? (I'm not interested in a clop fic, there is plenty of that around. But as a story idea, it sounds fascinating.)

While it was never shown in "Callahan's" there was mention of the "Cheerful Charlies" losing a client (a suicide), and how badly that had messed them up. I know that is a lot darker than anything you would like to write, but Pinkie's failures must weigh pretty badly on her. I mean, we saw how crazy she got with Cranky Doodle Donkey. What if she couldn't cheer somepony up?

Anyway, thanks for the stories, and I look forward to the next one (or chapter update).

I sense a potential great deal of verbiage ahead.

I'm trying to stay out of Trolling Creator. Really. It's not going to be easy.

3339932

As for the other stuff... does this finally earn you the all there in the manual trope?

I'm not editing that one in just yet... I do have to do a little work on that page in the next week or two, though.

3342296

Discord is something other.

3342531

On the riches of the modern Trotter's Falls, it'll help for now to think of it as being a moderately wealthy area where costs and income scale up together, and also that to a degree, excepting the imports, it's a closed system where the same money keeps going around and around. Even menial jobs have to pay more in cases where the worker will live in town (and even with the train system, commuting is nowhere near the Equestrian normal). The ponies who couldn't afford to stay left, those who moved in knew what they were facing economically and wouldn't enter unless they could afford it. You earn more, but you're paying more... there is a balance point there, although the majority of residents are a bit better off overall.

(You'd have to go back pretty deep into history to find out why it was established in the first place... but once you've fought hard enough to get a settled zone going, ponies tend to try hanging onto it.)

However, they do need money coming in. Some of it is old wealth generating interest. They can afford to fund and maintain a pretty good bank: a loan from this area is well-backed, and so a lot of financial traffic can pass this way, even given the community's isolation. The town exports some magic-crafted goods, art, devices, and so on down the unicorn line. And of course, their government gets their share of the national budget.

If that doesn't sound like I'm accounting for all of it... maybe it shouldn't.

3342577

It's in Chapter Two for A Mark Of Appeal. Luna's bisexual, but tends to orient on stallions: her preferred mare type hardly ever comes into play and when it does, she keeps comparing the new pony to the near-insurmountable horizon of her first crush. It tends not to go well for the pony on the other end.

3343327

Unfortunately, the mandatory current answer on this one is to stick my fingers in my ears while humming loudly and mentally chanting I can't hear you...

Sorry 'bout that, and my fault entirely. There are just things I can't talk about yet.

3344085

Huh. I always thought knowledge of body position was called the kinesthetic sense...

For pegasi and compass sense... well, its clearly not a universal ability, Ms. Went Which Way To Get The Birds? I see it as a trait which is expressed in a good part of the population, but not all: pegasi can and do get lost. It's pretty much in every pegasus pony with a courier or travel mark, though, and it can be mark magic for those in the other two races.

As for the rest... there's a temptation here to wave my hands and say 'Because magic'. (And that is a part of it.) Some of the rest are things I can't go into yet, and they will take a long time to reach: I can't even promise that they'll wrap up within Triptych. But for now, I will say this: the system has evolved. And at this point, it's pretty much all I can say.

3344139

No, but pre-human backgrounds seen for ponies there are generally going to be the backstories for those ponies in the Continuum. No human has ever reached the main 'verse. Humans may not exist, or have ever existed -- or if they did in the pre-Princess distant past, it doesn't even matter because no real surviving records. There aren't even legends of that kind of specific monster.

You did just tempt me to show Crossing Guard as he exists in the the main storyline, though. He probably wound up in the immigration department.

And for the side-note record, Lyra is one of the ponies to have legally changed their name. Some wind up with names fitting their occupations because the pony decided to go the retroactive route.

3344162

Did you notice the mention in a Mark Of Appeal of an earth pony neighbor named Stonebender? Somewhere in one of the Comments sections is my noting that I'd be afraid to try any degree of crossover or even put a version of any Place in Equestria, simply because capturing all their voices properly would be a nightmare.

Also, puns.

So yes, I know the stories and I'm familiar with the Charlies, down to the last name swap. And that pretty much is how Pinkie generally views sex: as the absolute last resort to pull somepony back from the edge. (Although as noted in that chapter -- #11 for Triptych -- it's for those she already has a close relationship with, and she feels you can't make or keep friends that way.)

It's definitely a story idea for Pinkie, her having someone she just couldn't bring out of the pit. But it would have to wait for quite some time. As such, you might want to tackle it yourself or take it to the Idea Exchange -- because as that group says, it probably does have to get written.

You have a good concept there. It deserves hammering out.

3347158 Cool, so its like the San Francisco Bay Area or Manhattan or other areas, thanks for the detailed picture.

One thing I'm wondering is, what happens to "surprise" earth pony foals? Picture the opposite of the Cakes' situation: a unicorn or pegasus family with no earth ponies for a few generations back gets an earth pony foal. What's going to happen then? Earth pony neighbors hovering day and night?

The other thing that occurs to me is that since mass communications are apparently a new thing in your Equestria, the window is opening for any leak to blow up far faster than any containment can activate. Of course I'd imagine you can't possibly talk about that.

3348323

Earth pony foals born to families of the other races... Pinkie's pretty much asked that in-story, and it's something which will be explored in time. You're right about the possibility of a lot of visitors, though -- for mixed towns. Majority settled zones for the other races (particularly pegasi) can have things get complicated.

Remember: given any choice, all pegasi will give birth on the ground...

Communications... no telegraphs, no telephones. Teleporter relay systems or flight-based pony express can cover the continent pretty quickly when news needs to go out, but it's nowhere near instant. Magic-powered links are scarce and precious.

But yes, the farther technology and devices advance, the riskier it all gets. In any universe with this level of Secret, one of the most terrifying phrases to exist is 'Instant video uplink'.

Of course, for this Equestria, that particular source of fear is a long way off.

Still, mass market newspapers and novels exist, as do railroads. Since earth ponies are less likely to be members of the police or military the secret seems extremely unstable.

Unless Celestia is somehow in on this. Don't answer that.

It's generally worst between the herbivore and carnivore species, who simply have a lot of trouble understanding each other's viewpoints -- and both can have difficulty keeping from going into their assigned predator/prey roles.

So how does this work? Are ponies instinctively frightened of griffons and such? Do hungry griffons start to see the ponies around them as potential meals?

Is it more subtle actions that unsettle ponies? The flash of a fang, the curve of a beak? Do griffons notice stragglers in pony groups?

3347158 A followup to Twilight's Escort Service.

We have discussed above Pinkie's attitude to sex. It's an idea I find fascinating, and have done since reading about a version of it in the "Callahan's Crosstime Saloon" stories all those years ago...

As of right now, my headcanon for the Triptych continuum has Pinkie having taken the classes/test for the other kind of escort. Not that she would ever be so crass as to charge a friend for something that will make them happy. But for the value of the classes, both the psychological portion and health education. It's probably easier (and more effective) than going for the full therapist degree/licence.

And now I have an image of Pinkie in a classroom, surrounded by psychologists and sex workers, learning how to use sex as a tool for improving mental health... (I'm betting she topped the class.)

I'm loving your 'verse more and more.

3590049
Honestly, I can't imagine Pinkie as someone who'd take classes.
I figure she's "self-taught"

The CMC is engaged in self-delusion, hiding from themselves at all times. They refuse to admit their actual talents and let their marks come out because to do so would invalidate all which had come before -- something they can't face. They won't admit they're wrong. They can't, even though it would be the first step in freeing their marks. Instead, they keep doubling down and eventually, they're going to run out of squares on the chessboard.

They don't seem to be alone in being self-deluded. Diamond Tiara seems to turn every warning her father gives her about knowing her place in the herd into permission to be a selfish and malicious jerk.

3898364
Ironic, that. Assuming the Verse follows the show to some extent, by breaking Diamond's delusion they break their own delusions.

...actually, what would Triptych! Applejack's reaction be to three fillies sharing the same cutie mark? Or anybody's, really?

5427369 Tryptych Applejack is what keeps me to the less serious stories in the verse, so frankly anything that would screw with her head makes me happy

Newborn unicorns and pegasi have hard shells of translucent tissue covering horns and wings, respectively. These are called caps and protect the mother from horn wounds or the foal from broken bones caused by the pressures of the birth canal. Caps fall off on their own a few days after birth or can be soaked away with warm water. Capless births are extremely rare: with unicorns, they generally kill the mother. Pegasi capless births typically lose the foal. Earth ponies don't have caps and as far as Equestria knows, neither do crystal ones.

There's also stuff on a foal's hooves
http://canyouactually.com/this-is-what-newborn-foal-hooves-look-like-and-it-will-make-your-skin-crawl/

Racism of all categories is out there. This is not just between the pony races (where it's uncommon, but insistent on getting an oar in), but from some ponies towards the world's other sentient species -- and back the other way. It's generally worst between the herbivore and carnivore species, who simply have a lot of trouble understanding each other's viewpoints -- and both can have difficulty keeping from going into their assigned predator/prey roles. Griffon-pony relationships are generally shaky at best.

Dragons are probably the same only more so. IMO, the ONLY reasons that ponies are the dominant race are:
1) Dragons have trouble working together. Every dragon feels that they should be the boss and they won't obey orders unless you are literally standing over them MAKING them obey
2 Pony magic, especially Alicorn magic is something they can't match

Head canon: Ponies have a policy with Griffons:
Cut one, we all bleed. Kill one, a thousand will show up for the funeral. They kill X number of Griffons per Pony dead & they ain't picky over who they take.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=animaniacs+senses+song+lyrics&&view=detail&mid=5C7523738D1A624BFC9D5C7523738D1A624BFC9D&&FORM=VRDGAR