This is a story inspired by Hopeful Ink Hoof's "multiple alternate Sunsets" story, "the Issue of Multiple Sunsets":

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/407231/the-issue-of-multiple-sunsets

Specifically, it's inspired by the Sunset Siren character from that story.

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/407231/2/the-issue-of-multiple-sunsets/sirens-song

In this case, it has the Mane Six and the Pillars switching roles (as well as Spike and Stygian and Sunset and the Dazzlings)

The basic story is this: Twilight (in this case, Twilight the Great) was Celestia and Luna's mentor more than 1000 years ago - and, more than 1000 years later, Starswirl (way too young to have the beard yet [in fact, at the present time in the story, he's barely in young adulthood] , though he DOES have the blue cape and hat) ended up becoming Celestia AND Luna's shared personal student.

As with canon, Twilight was pretty asocial at first until she met five not-so-ordinary mares and a young dragon (the latter of whom would end up becoming like a little brother to her) who would change her life for the better - it just happened more than 1000 years earlier. And Celestia and Luna met Twilight's group of friends multiple times over the course of the time she mentored the two of them.

Of course, Twilight and her friends also saved the world literally a dozen times over - the first time was from a siren going by the name of Sunset Shimmer.

And, fortunately, when Spike was feeling overshadowed by Twilight and her friends, they DID talk things over enough to prevent him from going over to the dark side. Something Celestia and Luna took to heart as they eventually talked out their own issues without either of them going bad.

Unfortunately, they weren't as lucky with a certain chaos god going by the name Discord. All attempts to reason with him had failed and Twilight and her friends were forced to use their most powerful creation - the Elements of Harmony - for the last time to turn him to stone. They succeeded, but NOT before Discord managed to conjure up a vortex that trapped the Mane Six in dimensional limbo, meaning it became a case of Mutually Assured Imprisonment.

Almost a thousand years later (actually 988 years later, but why split hairs), at a fateful entrance exam for the Princesses' School For The Gifted, a young colt named Starswirl, despite his youth, showed a level of magic power equal to about fifty fully trained adult mages. Power he had an extremely hard time controlling and, as a result, he ended up accidentally conjuring a shadow demon that possessed Stygian (another colt in a nearby testing room). This forced Celestia and Luna to get directly involved in order to get the situation under control.

Realizing the potential Starswirl had if he learned to control his power, Celestia offered to make him her and Luna's shared personal student (silently hoping she wasn't making a mistake like she did with her LAST personal student - Adagio Dazzle - and HER two friends Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk).

By the time the two alicorns and Starswirl figured out how to successfully separate the shadow demon from Stygian and return that shadow demon to its own home realm without hurting Stygian, Starswirl and Stygian had legitimately bonded - to the point where Stygian could honestly be considered Starswirl's first (and, for a little over a decade, only) friend.

Though Stygian was nowhere near as powerful as Starswirl, he WAS an even better researcher (which is saying something considering Starswirl was far from a slouch in the research department). Unfortunately, Stygian was ALSO pretty badly bullied by everybody except Starswirl, the Princesses and the guards. Starswirl was often quick to leap to his friend's defense (to the point where he sometimes got in trouble for magically invoking karma on Stygian's bullies).

Ultimately, Stygian and Starswirl found out that Discord was soon going to escape from his stone prison and tried to tell the Princesses. Celestia and Luna thanked them for the warning and assured the duo that they would do what they could, but, at the same time, they should get additional help and make back-up plans.

To that end, Starswirl and Stygian headed to the nearest town to Canterlot - namely Ponyville - to see if they could find anybody who might stand any chance at all of helping them stop Discord should Celestia and Luna fail.

While there, they met Rockhoof (who possessed incredible strength even by Earth pony standards and was one of Ponyville's co-chiefs of security), Flash Magnus (a trained and experienced soldier with an indestructible shield and who was Ponyville's OTHER co-chief of security), Mistmane (a unicorn with an extraordinary connection to plants), Mage Meadowbrook (who was excellent with potions and medicine) and Somnambula (a Pegasus with a knack for figuring out how to get through great obstacles and keeping others positive).

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And, a couple of additional notes:

The reason Twilight didn't finish her masterpiece spell WASN'T because she didn't understand friendship, but rather because she understood it TOO well (i.e. she realized the spell had the potential to be entirely too dangerous and didn't want to needlessly endanger her friends)

Adagio Dazzle, in this universe, is a unicorn (and an extremely talented one at that), with Aria a Pegasus and Sonata an Earth Pony. It was Adagio's talent, combined with the fact that she already had two friends she refused to leave behind, that gave Celestia enough hope to give her the "personal student" gig in the first place. Despite their talent (and probably more than a bit BECAUSE OF it), the trio is too arrogant for their own good (and too ambitious for everybody else's). Plus, to keep this Teen-rated, let's just say they had a bad habit of being a bit too - distracting to most of the male students at the Princesses' school.

All of the Mane Six's canon families are their descendants rather than their parents, siblings, etc. For example, Granny Smith, Big Mac and Apple Bloom are all descended from Applejack, Twilight Velvet and Shining Armor are descended from Twilight (with Night Light related by marriage to Twilight Velvet) and so on.

Plus, Spike (who WASN'T imprisoned in dimensional limbo like the Mane Six were) went on to become the Dragon Lord (and, in fact, HAS been the Dragon Lord for just a little over 995 years at the start of the story) and lead the dragons into a firm alliance and friendship with the ponies (a few particularly jerky teenagers aside).

And the reason Discord's statue wasn't destroyed was because it would not have done any good to do so. Discord is very much the "as long as there is chaos" type and would have had an easier time escaping from the Infernal Realms than from that statue.

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Ultimately, though, I can't think of enough details to make the idea work. Anybody who CAN think of enough details, though, is more than welcome to it.

Just remember to credit Hopeful Ink Hoof for inspiring the idea.

So, anybody interested in tackling this?

7276676

Almost a thousand years later (actually 988 years later, but why split hairs)

“It was really 962, but 1000 sounds more ominous.”

What, exactly, are you having trouble figuring out? This is more detailed than any concept outline I’ve ever written.

Also, the dragons being allies with ponies is a creative idea. It would also completely change the course of Equestria’s history - a ton of episodes would play out differently if ponies were more accepting of other species in general.

7276931
Mostly the "in-betweens", to be honest.

And, yeah, thanks on the liking the stuff about dragons being allies with the ponies.

7276943

Mostly the "in-betweens", to be honest.

Such as...?

7276947

For example, HOW did Twilight meet the rest of the Mane Six and Spike in this universe? Ideally, it should be at least a couple of years BEFORE the encounter with Siren Sunset in order to provide more time for the friendships to develop naturally.

Or how the Mane Six created the Elements of Harmony in this universe.

Or the ten "fate of the world" tier menaces they have dealt with after Siren Sunset, but BEFORE Discord (they saved the world literally a dozen times, counting both Siren Sunset AND Discord, which is ten other major villains in between). Though, admittedly, three of them would probably be Chrysalis, Tirek and Sombra.

And, well, we know they all have descendants, but how? I mean, yes a couple of them probably found the right stallions, got married and had one or two foals, but not all of them. A couple of them might have adopted, but, again, not all of them.

And then there is most of the stuff that happened in the nearly thousand years after the Mane Six got trapped in dimensional limbo. The stuff that would provide experience for a soldier like Flash Magnus.

That is the kind of stuff I mean by the in-betweens.

And, well, I'm sorry I took a while to respond back. I got called to lunch earlier and then I got in some post-lunch exercise.

7277150
My suggestions:

• Twilight found Spike as an orphaned egg. Since dragons and ponies will have good relations later down the line, I don't think Spike should feel estranged from other dragons. I'm imaging a scenario where Twilight tries to save a wounded dragon, but it's too late. The dragon asks Twilight to take care of her son as her dying wish. In turn, Spike wants the Mane 6's legacy to live on when he becomes Dragon Lord.
• Spike and Twilight meet the other five one at a time, instead of all at once like in canon, while travelling the world.
• You don't have to cover 10 past villains in-depth if they're irrelevant to the plot.
• I have a few solutions to the relatives conundrum. One, the Mane 6 could have OC relatives who were the ancestors of some of their canon relatives. (So Rarity would be Sweetie Belle's really-long-amount-of-greats aunt.) Two, a few of the Mane 6's canon relatives could be alive alongside them, such as just their siblings. Three, all of the Mane 6's canon families are alive at the same time as them, and their descendants are OCs.

7277150
Did you read my response?

7278573
Yes, I did. I just couldn't think of a response beyond "those sound like good ideas. Whoever adopts this idea could definitely use them."

7279085
What’s stopping you from writing it yourself?

7279523
A project that big is too time-consuming (I get called away for meals too often in the adult foster care I live in and then I make it a point to get in at least an hour of exercise after each meal) and inspiration is too unpredictable.