It's been awhile since I made a new one of these (just as it's been awhile since I've done a lot of things...), so I figure it's probably about time.

As a reminder, it's fine to still discuss stuff from the previous threads. Nothing's shut down.

Story Ideas!
1. Princess Cadenza's 1,000th birthday! This is when Luna and Cadance plan to make their relation to one another public. Although it's worth noting that Cadance's official birthday is probably a week or so off from her actual date of birth. Possible guests include Snowy Night, Sjachthurkearverthichaoposs, and possibly (in disguise) Corona.
2. Snails and Snips find themselves both smitten by Alula, and compete for her affections.
3. Corona's Ordinary day. While getting some fresh air, Corona smells cake, and decides to go and get some while in disguise.
4. Lyra searches for an agent to properly promote and set up gigs for her.
5. Catrina wakes up from millennia of slumber, but then gets high again and goes back to sleep before she can do anything interesting.

5. Catrina wakes up from millennia of slumber, but then gets high again and goes back to sleep before she can do anything interesting.

That was would brilliantly funny! Please somebody write that.

Here's an idea, a Lunaverse version of School Daze.

one and three actually could tie in together as a different perspective story.
you could start it off as the celebration from Luna and Company and then on the other side of the spectrum have Corona attempting to make it through the party without drawing attention to herself while eating as much cake as she can.

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Lunaverse version of School Daze

So Trixie makes a school and the EEA hate her and Luna says “Don’t try to make a school, Trixe. I’m afraid you’ll rub off on the next generation”. The end?

#4 She should ask Vinyl Scratch? Because they're both in Ponyville. But, after The Contest of Champions, she's famous enough to draw attention from Photo Finish?

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As I think I mentioned in the past, there are some villains in classic MLP that I can take seriously. Catrina is not one of them.

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If I recall, in The Glass Kingdom Lyra does consider Vinyl Scratch.

Which Lunaverse story would y’all say is the most able to work as a standalone story without reading any others for context?

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I'm still a big fan of RDD's Boast Busted for that (minus the epilogue), since it's the ORIGNAL story that started EVERYTHING in the first place. It seeds the idea of an expanded continuity with other stories to read, but since none of those stories actually existed at the time, they obviously aren't needed as a reference.

6477615
Ooh, makes sense! There were some pretty great moments in that, yeah

So I've started working on an update to The Rime of the Ancient Pegasus for my next thing to finally update, and need some help with something: I need everyone to think like a 1600s-1700s earth pony farmer who's probably never met a unicorn before. What are some stereotypes/vaguely racist assumptions that could be made about unicorns? Not necessarily negative stuff, just something that isn't very PC to assume.

Snowy (who is a pegasus, but from an entirely earth pony family - she'd also never seen another pegasus before this) is talking about her first visit to Canterlot (and what got her noticed by Luna), which was her first time meeting unicorns, which her father had typified as a tribe that lives on mountains and mines for gemstones and precious metals. She'd be at or around Dinky's age for this, and probably illiterate to boot (as would her father and probably her whole family).

So far the first thing that sprang to mind is wondering how it is that unicorns aren't constantly accidentally poking out one another's eyes.

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An Early Reunion (also minus the epilogue) probably also works well, since the whole thing takes place 980 years before the rest of the series and is fairly self-contained.

So, I have an idea for a (probably non-canon) story: The Marquess and The Mailmare’s Daughter. Dinky goes to visit a friend she met at the Gala or something and every pony starts treating her oddly, Ditzy/some other guardian loses track of her for a moment and finds ‘her’ acting oddly, other zany stuff. Sound fun? ’Course, I still need to get started on that other story I volunteered to write, first

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If her father called them miners, maybe that they’re weirdly spindly and clean? Maybe weird ideas of how their magic works (thinking it looked different, thinking it’s witchcraft, thinking any unicorn had princess-level power, losing her mind first time somepony levitates something, stuff like that)

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A Prince and the Pauper-style mix-up? I'm definitely all for it!

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Neat! I have some scene ideas already, now let’s see if I actually get it done

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Unicorns being obsessively clean might fit, or being very feeble.

They might think that some normal substance blocks unicorn magic.

All unicorns know each other and are obsessed with finding out how they're related (although given what we've seen in series that might be more true for Earth Ponies).

Unicorns will do anything to get gems.

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3. Corona's Ordinary day. While getting some fresh air, Corona smells cake, and decides to go and get some while in disguise.

Um... well... there is a Lunaverse fic where she gets a cake delivered right to her Evil Lair.
(I don't recall if I left in the bit where Celestia was trying to do the "I shall not bribed" thing while her brain was screaming "caaaaake".
... I think it got cut. For reasons that must have made sense at the time...)
Later on, Smoke delivers her a slice during the night.

(I mean, it's not actually a major part of the story, just a little side bit meant for the purposes of characterization and / or funnies. But 'tis definitely Corona having a cake.)

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Unicorns are snobs? Self-focused, elitist twits without the brains the Gods gave the common dog, and a disturbing love of shiny things?

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Ok, some questions about M&MD stuff: What level is a marquis? What are some provinces relatively close to the Noth Everfree province that need a noble? How exactly does inheriting a title work, or more specifically, can a foal inherit the title while her parents are still alive? And what’d you call a foal with a noble title who’s not yet old enough to be that noble (so her parents or whoever are acting regents)? And what powers/responsibilities would she have?
Sorry for so many questions

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As usual most of this is not fully confirmed in what's been done so far so it's at least partially up to you.

My list of Noble titles goes, from lowest at court to highest: -

Baron
Viscount
Count
Marquis
Duke
Archduke
Viceroy
Princess

Although there could be more, also title and power doesn't necessary match up, a Baron on a particularly influential committee may rank above a Marquis. To me Fragrant 'swings above her weight' due to running the weather ministry and ruling over the largest sky city making her the effective ruler of the sky Pegasus and giving her a position around Archduke level verging on Viceroy where as Greengrass even before his various misadventures as he was newly promoted was probably not that much above a Count despite being a Duke.

We haven't set up many provinces so I don't think to many have been named in the Everfree area, presumable if there is a North Everfree there is 'some other direction' Everfree nearby. I would think it would be fairly rare for a province not to have a noble so it might be very unusual for two nearby provinces to be in that situation.

How I work succession is that any ruling noble can nominate any other pony to take over their role, although it must be agreed by Luna but she doesn't often intervene unless there is something clearly wrong. Going by that a foal could be nominated over his or her parents. If the new noble is underage I would assume a regent would be put in place to rule on their behalf until they come of age. I actually suspect this is now Puissance as control of two provinces, one was inherited by one of her husbands and despite there being rules to prevent her getting both so instead nominated one of her children or grandchildren to take up the role with her as regent. Possible the position started with one of her children and she then manipulated them into passing on the role to their child shortly after they came of age so Puissance could keep control. It might even be something to be passed on to Sceptre if the grandfoal is now getting old enough to potentially rule.

There may or may not be a title for a noble foal while a regent is in place, certainly Wikipedia doesn't see to have a title as far as I can see. It looks like they use the normal title while the regent uses the title 'Regent' and sometimes Prince or Queen regent if they have some title themselves.

I would assume the foal would have very little actual power although they might have ceremonial duties. It's possible they might have some sort of sliding scale of power as they get older i.e. can set taxes in their province at age 16, but not vote at court until 21. They might have the right to ask Luna to remove their regent at some point or to take up their full powers.

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Thanks for the help! Looks like I was just about in the middle when I chose Marquis. Also looks like I can have my foal Marquis without it being rediculously tragic, so that’s good

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My first thought on a stereotype for unicorns would be the assumption that they always use their horns to levitate everything, so other ponies might not do simple courtesy stuff like handing over something, or holding the door. Ponies just assume the unicorn will use their horn to levitate whatever. Oh, pass the salt? Why, can't you just lift it with your horn?

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Here's a thumbnail of the most up-to-date map of the Lunaverse version of Equestria I have (click for a larger version):

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Thanks! Can I use the long thin one between Kimberwicke and Bronchordia? I’ll give it a name once I’ve thought of a name.

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Sounds good to me.

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What's the general theme for province names? Is there one? Any rules or whatever?

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Mostly we just try and find horse puns, often related to riding equipment or equestrian sports. Broadly, central and western Equestria is meant to sound somewhat English, north and northeast should be more Slavic. Eastern Equestria is French-ish, while southern Equestria is Spanish.

This isn't a hard-and-fast rule, though. Nulpar is in the far north but is French and means "nowhere"; Califurlong and Konekticut are plays on American states; Xenophon, in the northeast, is Greek and was the name of Alexander the Great's horse.

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And that long bit is northern, right?

Also, is the Workshop the place to share an outline?

6478658
More central-northern, I'd say (when I said "northern" I meant the very top provinces). The reason why that region is English-sounding is that it's located next to Pferdreich, Paardveld, and Heststed, our pony versions of Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands, so it seems natural to me that when those languages encounter the more French-sounding eastern parts of Equestria, the language starts to sound like English.

And yes, the workshop is the place to share an outline that's progressed beyond just a synopsis or idea.

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This is what I could think of over breakfast.

Unicorns are psychic. The government is controlled by unicorns. Unicorns can transmute wood into gold. All unicorns are nobles. Unicorns still control the sun and moon. Luna is actually a unicorn pretending to be a Pegasus.

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Ok. How about Ponefract?

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Sure, it fits the theme.

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Cool. I put an outline up on the workshop for M&MD.

So we're fairly sure that Fancy Pants is head of the Shadowbolts and Fleur is fairly likely to be an agent and she's shown an interest in Octavia...

So what is they tried to recruit Octavia as an asset? As the royal musician she's in a good place to overhear quite a few things at court and probably even overseas.

How would she react to the offer? Its at least partially legit work but would it be to close to what Blueblood tried to get her to do for her to be comfortable?

🎶Secret Agent Mare, secret Agent mare, they've given you a number and taken away your name 🎶

The names Philharmonica, Octavia Philharmonica...

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I imagine Octavia doesn't want any politicking anymore, personally, which is something Fancy Pants would know. That being said, she might definitely overhear things, and Fancy Pants might inquire about or find out about them through Octavia without Octavia necessarily knowing she's working as an informant.

Coming off of Infinity War, would any of the L!Mane Six use the completed Infinity Gauntlet or an equilvalent item for anything if they got their hooves on it and knew what it was?

Particularly Trixie?

And what about Luna and Spike?

All of them have regrets and desires, and that kind of infinite power is very tempting to most people.

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Octavia wouldn't want to be a professional spy or agent or anything like that. She loves her job and wouldn't trade it for the world.

That said:

1. If she did happen to overhear something important in the course of her normal duties, she'd have no problem telling Luna or another authority figure. (I figure Luna trains all of her staff that might go abroad what to do if that happens.)

2. She would see herself as owing the upside-down mare (whom she doesn't know is Fleur) a big favor. She wouldn't rob a bank for Fleur or anything like that, but if upside-down Fleur asked her to do something and it wasn't explicitly illegal, Octavia would want to pay her back.

3. (It's also possible that Max might do Octavia a favor at some point, and then call it in by asking her to help out his Special Investigative Unit {from JULP} if he thought they needed a skilled musician or someone with great hearing. That could work too.)

4. Octavia protects those close to her. If Lyra, Paperweight, or another close friend were in danger and Luna were unavailable, Octavia would have no problem taking action in order to help.

So Octavia wouldn't do spying full time, but if you have an idea for a story with Octavia spying in it, there'd be a couple ways to rope her into doing a one-time job of that nature.

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Possibly, though one of the things that makes them heroes is the ability to resist that temptation. Spike would probably be most tempted, since he's just a kid, although after the whole Alicorn Amulet thing even he'd probably be willing to resist.

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Even if it meant being able to stop or reform Corona with a thought?

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I'd think Luna would be tempted but I think given her long experience she'd be able to resist it. Given the general magicalness of the setting there might actually be a few ways she could have done this but things like that always come with a price.

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Exactly what Talon said, although I don't think the Infinity Gauntlet has been shown to be able to canonically change or alter someone's mind. Though it could take away Celestia's powers, rendering her much less of a threat.

Actually technically no it couldn't, the Infinity Stones explicitly do not function except in the universe of their creation (this has come up in a few Marvel/DC crossovers), but obviously for the sake of this story we'd pretend otherwise.

That being said, I can actually see each of them giving in to the temptation as well. The Infinity Gauntlet is a lot of power that doesn't actually have a downside to it beyond normal mortal temptation that's entirely on the part of the user, not the Gauntlet or the Stones themselves. If Cheerilee can enslave a sapient being (Yangin) for the greater good, she can certainly use the gauntlet; though at the same time her very experience with Yangin would probably be the thing that pushes her to not use it.

It would definitely be an interesting story, to be sure.

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Exactly what Talon said, although I don't think the Infinity Gauntlet has been shown to be able to canonically change or alter someone's mind.

I can't say I'm much of an expert of the Marvel universe but given the gem in Loki's staff (mind gem?) allowed him to mind control people and not in an entirely zombie like way I'd assume that upgraded with the other gems would more or less allow universal mind control or very significant alteration to another mind if you wanted. So it probably could be used to 'fix' Celestia's mind although I could also see Luna living in constant paranoia as to whether she returned her actual sister or is forcing her to act how her subconscious thinks her sister should act.

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According to the Old Father's Wikipedia, the Mind Gem / Stone "allows the user to enhance their mental and psionic abilities and access the thoughts and feelings of others. At full potential, when backed by the Power Gem, the Mind Gem can access all minds in existence simultaneously."

(Which might explain why, in the original Infinity Gauntlet, Nebula had difficulty using the Gauntlet for herself.
Imagine reading the thoughts of every living being in the universe everywhere, all at once.
That's the sort of thing that usually makes a person's head explode. Or at the very least, makes their brains start going down their chin.)

How about a story where the wonderbolts come to ponyvile to recruit raindrops and Rainbow dash learns of it?

Or the wonderbolts try to recruit ditzy doo.

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Why would the wonderbolts want either of those two? They want fast and agile ponies. Raindrops isn't fast, and Ditzy's eye condition makes it hard for her to be agile at high speeds.

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Actually technically no it couldn't, the Infinity Stones explicitly do not function except in the universe of their creation (this has come up in a few Marvel/DC crossovers), but obviously for the sake of this story we'd pretend otherwise.

Funny thing you should mention that detail, because it just so happens Equestria already has its own set of six rainbow colored gems that seemingly grant nigh-unlimited power when combined. Coincidence?

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Maybe, maybe not; still, gathering the six together and using them with a gauntlet certainly seems like a potential plot point. Or maybe not a gauntlet. Maybe a peytral or something.

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Good point.

How about a story where the wonderbolt spitfire comes to ponyvile to visit trixie and Rainbow dash learns of it and trys to suck up to her?

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Not a bad idea. I could see Spitfire and Trixie having met before when Trixie lived in Canterlot, although I imagine Spitfire is older, at least around Shining Armor's age, if not a bit more.

I have a silly idea for a fic that might be fun. Trixie and Goddess from Fallout Equestria (Who you might remember is a mutated Trixie that lives in a jar and has a hive mind attached to hundreds of semi-alicorns) switch minds. Trixie is, of course, freaked out by this. But after seeing the plight of the Wasteland decides to use her army of Alicorns to do good and make it a better place. She thinks the Goddess's plan to turn everypony into an alicorn is stupid. Hilarity Ensues.

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Never played Fallout or read any Fallout: Equestria, but that does sound like an interesting idea.