One question that had been jumping around inside my head for a while now, and that I find is a bit more relevant in light of the latest episode and finale. I'll endeavour to keep this thread spoiler-free (or at least mark the spoilers), but if you've not seen it yet, read at your own discretion.

There is no doubt that the Winningverse is a pretty big and comprehensive world, with its own set of backstories, lands, lores, and laws.
But inevitably, with something this big based on an ever evolving work, we will experience divergences, which would make following events the episodes as it happens (such as in Life and Times of and Study of a Winning Pony) impractical, if not impossible.

For instance, Starlight Glimmer's motivation is apparently very different in the Winningverse than shown in the finale. So if we still plan on following the events in the show, then it will be up to but excluding the Season 5 finale.
And we're already well on our way to divergence, given that now, Fluttershy may or may not have a child incoming that may or may not affect her relationship with either of the other two.

At some point though, if we continue following canon, the events in the stories here may become forced or simply meaningless, because it will not affect the characters in any way, nor the world they live in.

So, question (more of a curiousity admittedly) is how far along should/will the show's canon be followed? Will we be seeing the character (including Sunset and Freeport's players)'s actions actually having a significant impact on the world and history (keeping in mind, great god-tier entities attacking is becoming rather routine and tedious, as far as history is concerned)?

Discord's interactions with Tree Hugger is another case that can't really be justified, along with Twilight's reaction to becoming an aunt.

I do love how attempting to reconcile Bon Bon's secret identity with the Winningverse transforms it from an absurd meta reference into an attempt by Lyra's parents to secretly manage her life by planting an out of work friend as her roommate.

I'm pretty impressed that it held up so well for so long, but it looks like Season 5 finally managed to start poking it apart.

Considering how much the back story has already diverged from cannon (plus everything in the FreePort series), I'd say that only going "broad strokes" for the events of season 5+ is about as good as could be reasonably expected.

Actually, just tagging the whole of the Winningverse as Alternate Universe may be the only way to keep its internal lore and characterizations from flying apart in the face of the evolving cannon. Not that going AU is a bad thing ...

Yeah, I'll admit that I'm not overly enamored with Starlight's background/motivation, even though the overall episode was very awesome. I'm personally inclined to shift over to broad strokes/selective use with canon at this point.

Basically you can assume that events happened more-or-less like canon, at least in broad strokes. Unless something in the stories says otherwise.

To bring up one example, I can't see Storm getting left behind on Twi's future adventures after the events of To Serve and Protect. However, I'm inclined to say that Storm wouldn't be a massive game-changer for something like the feud between the Hooffields and McColts. So while she would be present, the outcome would still be more-or-less the same.

4888185 You're just now worrying about divergence? I was thinking about this sort of thing after Slice of Life, with elements like Vinyl and Octavia being roommates in Ponyville (as opposed to just colleagues from Canterlot), the Doctor being very absent-minded (whereas he is very competent in W!verse), and Amethyst Star acting more like an adult than a teenager (I mean, why else would you conscript her into planning a wedding in one day?). Heck, we got contradictions as far back as season 3, when "Games Ponies Play" showed us what looked like Rainbow Dash's father (as opposed to the two mothers she has in W!verse). Actually, I can go even further; in the season 2 finale, we can actually see Cloud Kicker among the wedding participants just as Chrysalis makes her reveal.

At this point, I was already resigned to the idea that the Winningverse is semi-canon to the show, having enough details that tie it directly to the show, but clearly not 100% in line with it.

No no, clearly the Winningverse exists in a Timeline where Starlight accelerated RD into a rainboom 2.5 sections earlier than she was supposed to, resulting in an explosion of friendship that caused the development of the Winningverse as we know it today.

*nods*

It seems we're increasingly moving into AU-land with the Winningverse. That's probably an inevitable consequence of wanting there to be changes with the characters, building up lore, and creating stories in general. At least while the show is ongoing. There are simply things we can't account for. That's the nature of the beast and something I haven't let myself become too worried about. Though as the show goes on, there are the growing divergences. I know I have felt increasingly strangled as I've been writing Study of a Winning Pony and been desperately trying to finish it before the onward march of the seasons gets worse.

I think going forward, I will be increasingly tempted to just throw on the AU tag to a number of my stories so that I'm not so inhibited by canon. I mean I wasn't particularly wild about Starlight Glimmer's backstory, how she was able to match alicornized Twilight, and the whole instance forgiveness thing. And the AU tag has a seductive call to give one creative freedom for certain types of stories.

I might allow some things for broad strokes, but by a certain point I'll either just write something technically separate from WPverse canon, or just start slapping on AU tags for convenience.

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For what it's worth, I know the pain of conforming to canon while in the midst of a story.

As much as I love what Amending Fences did for background pone canon, it's made Symphony a bit of a mess trying to incorporate it in. And I'm not doing it because I feel I have to—I honestly want to and it'll make the whole story a lot tighter, really. That and I feel one of Winning Pony's strengths was how anyone could easily weave the events into the show canon. It's something I want Symphony to stay faithful to.

Problem is I'll have to re-write the first parts some. Minuette's the biggest offender. I'm worried about re-introducing her into Symphony again because she'll be so different than she was at the beginning of the story, and I won't be writing anything to justify that with the knowledge I'll re-write her in the earlier chapters to fit.

I could be worrying too much about it though.

Thankfully Berry Punch remains as badass as ever.

In a broader sense though, I wouldn't worry about canons and headcanons and stuff like that all too much. Enjoy a story for what it is. (As fun as it is to slot things into perfect puzzle pieces.)

4888314 Is that possible? Yes. Does that contribute to this question? No. Do I like it? Absolutely.

Honestly, I watch the show for the show and read the winningverse for the winningverse. They're distinct enough at this point that it's no big stretch to just say they're running on similar but obviously different tracks. Unless it's mentioned somewhere in a fic that it goes directly up against canon I don't even see a need for an AU tag.

It could still work out, meshing Starlight's simplistic motivations in the finale and her communist/socialist attitude in the Freeport spin-off. The episode only touched upon foalhood and nothing much beyond it, so it does leave some wiggle room for a personality shift. Her obsession over equalization through the removal of cutie marks may have influenced Starlight to adopt an equalist attitude to society in general as she grew up, an attitude that has gotten her into trouble plenty before her encounter with Sunset and Puzzle. And who knows? Such attitude may still persist in her friendship with the Mane Six, albeit to a lesser degree.

But that's just me trying to forcefully fit canon and fanon together Which is often one of the reasons I have trouble writing in the WV: I just have too much respect for canon. I want to believe Rainbow and Lightning made amends after Wonderbolts Academy, and the books lead credence to that. But with an ambiguous fate and no major comeback for old Dusty since her debut, there is concern if I write Lightning being on good terms with Rainbow, the show will butcher that like Jack the Ripper before rekindling their friendship in its own way.

Flash, on the other hand, is more than a blank slate. Not the most appealing character to most, understandably, but he offers plenty of opportunities for interesting character development. Kind of thankful the show/films haven't done too much with him in that respect. Plus, Flashlight can be given Schrodinger's cat status for the time being. More creative freedom, yay!

Sorry, rambling here. I agree the WV has held up well with canon, and in the face of adjusting itself to fit to it (e.i. inclusion of the E.U.P. prior to the Lunar Rebellion, Rainbow Blaze being Dash's uncle, etc) the practice was executed well. Unfortunately, we're on the verge of Season 6 (holy shite, drink up to that, boys!), which means entering into territory where we can't conform to every detail to the lore the show establishes. But hey, it's fanfiction for a reason: creativity and fun are priorities

At the end of the day, I'd rather diverge from canon than weaken a story purely to keep it canon compliant. That said, when I can keep the two on the same page by making minor tweaks like turning Rainbow Blaze into an uncle or saying "things more-or-less worked out like canon, except Storm was there" I see no reason not to do so.

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It's not so much I only start worrying about it now, as much as now is as good a time as any to talk about it, especially with how the finale ended and what it could mean for the next seasons.
And it's not so much as "it kinda conflicts" as much as now, "it can't possibly happen anymore". Not without breaking what was already established.

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I personally like to avoid the AU tag, if only because I find AU means truly different universes (i.e. Steampunk, or futuretech, NMM won, Sunbeam is ruler instead of Celestia, etc.). Stuff that changes worlds and makes it otherwise almost unrecognizable.
Granted, AU is vague and generic enough that almost anything can fall into it. But by that reasoning, every fanfic is AU, hence why I like to reserve it for extreme cases. For instance, the world won't change that much just because Twilight did not reconnect with her old friends in Canterlot (not unless you, as the author, or they, as the show producers, make it significant, though I have my doubts). Butterfly effect is only significant over longer periods of time, after all.

4888338
I confess, I am personally very perplexed by your decision to continue writing before rewriting the first part. It is very difficult to rebuild the foundation upon which a structure already stands, after all, and I find it easier to just reboot as soon as you need to rather than double down one what you already have first. Especially since you're future writing will be reflecting what you intend to rewrite anyway.
It also allows you to take advantage of any story potentials a rewrite like that could bring, stuff you may not have thought of in the planning phase.

Granted, given that the story I currently have uploaded on my own page has never really gone beyond chapter 3 (or the prologue rather in this particular iteration) because of the amount of reboots I had (whether for quality or story purposes), I may not be best positioned to speak on such matters.

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But yeah, as you say here, I personally would much prefer diverging than militantly sticking to the show's events. Winningverse has already enough established to allow for that, so it comes down to which one makes for better story writing.

I will say, though. Starlight's motivation is perhaps a bit cheap and easy, but it's not a breaker. It's not unheard of for such a small, seemingly (to us anyway) insignificant event in one's childhood to shape one's psyche.

4888328

how she was able to match alicornized Twilight,

A possibly cheap explanation was that she was drawing power from the crystal map itself, which is how she was capable of remaining in the past for so long. There was no reason to believe she was capable of it beforehand after all, otherwise running away that first time becomes pointless. Of course, it was not mentioned at all in the show proper, so this is all conjecture.

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In all honesty, I'm probably exaggerating how much I'll have to re-write.

At most, one scene or two will change. I don't see a reason to massively change what actually happens, it's just characterization and world building details, really. In terms of plot content, nothing will change.

And yeah, I'd rather move forward and get a story done, then clean it up so I have a completely finished product. If that means a few growing pains during the process, then so be it. At this point the story's old enough it probably won't get much more readers than those already invested in the WInningverse already.

4889597
My current vague plans involve her doing some sketchy stuff to boost up her magical powers beyond the natural, similar to what Sombra must have done to make himself capable of trading punches with Celestia and Luna.

4889581

It's a bit tricky on when the AU tag should and shouldn't be used. I figure I'll reserve it for cases where I would significantly part from canon.

As for Starlight, yes, I could easily come up with half a dozen explanations for how Starlight managed to meet Twilight in terms of raw power. Certainly Starlight showed that she didn't have much in the way of limits for what she was willing to do to get her revenge, and the road of revenge allows for many terrible acts.