Fanfic Writing General

@romantiCaveman
 
I like the massive worldbuilding, but dislike the “everypony is in a giant war and they’re all evil in one way or another”. But according to PoorYorick, this is because it’s meant to be a sort of pony-Warhammer.
 
You know what would be interesting? Twilight and Pinkie as twin goddesses of madness: one of the insanity of order, the other the insanity of chaos.

Is there a fic where Twilight and/or her friends defeat a bad guy by killing them and they take in the fact that they just took a life. Nevermind Found one.  
@Background Pony #5C85  
What Do You Do with a Drunken Unicorn is a good fic about ponies drinking.

Twilight Sparkle gets swept up by the SCP foundation after a botched dimensional hop.
 
I imagine her being really scared at first, then calming down, thinking she’s dealing with the authority of her new world.
 
She’s nice and cooperative, does a few magic tricks and even explains how they work and how she lives, maybe even work a reference to Equestria Girls, where she says she was in a similar world before.
 
Then they send in an equicidal D-class, who tries to do what comes naturally, whom she splatters all over the wall. While apologizing profusely, she expects to get punished, but doesn’t. When she asks why, her head researcher, who has come to trust her, let’s her in on D-class policy. Then she has another breakdown, wiping all the nearby minds in a show of ‘helpful’ magic(You need help! YOU ALL NEED MY HELP!)
 
And after that she refuses anymore testing or conversation, and just withdraws from staff, sometimes seen singing the theme song to the show and talking to herself about her friends.
 
Inspired by >>810426 thread.

PoorYorick’s Equestria Divided seems to take inspiration from Magic: The Gathering too.
 
Twilight: White/Blue/a little Black
 
Fluttershy: Green
 
Applejack: White? Maybe some Blue in there.
 
Rarity: Blue/Black
 
Rainbow Dash: Red? Maybe some White in there.
 
Pinkie Pie: Black

… Had a weirdass idea.
 
You know how in all those Canterlot Wedding fanfics, once Cadance finds out about that, she downright snaps at everyone not named Twilight? Like, that always happens.
 
So my plot bunny is to come up with some sort of reason of why that is always the case and that Cadance, while she understands the entire situation, still feels angry for some reason. Maybe I’ll take the Grant Morrison route and have someone directly tell her “dude, I made you like that because I find it would make sense for you to do it”.

Still been thinking about PoorYorick’s Equestria Divided. Thought it could expand on where some of the non-main-character ponies were in this time of war.
 
Maud Pie and Cheese Sandwich co-founded an underground organization to A) shut down the Cult of Laughter and B) find out who or what the Laughing Mare is. There is no way that this…monster…is Maud’s little sister or Cheese’s childhood inspiration.
 
Bulk Biceps has defected from House Stormwing and is currently on the run. He was only given the most menial tasks and generally looked down upon as “barely a pegasus” due to his smaller-than-average wings. One night, while on cleaning duty, he overheard that he was going to be used as a “forward scout” (read: patsy to be sent in ahead of time to set off any traps lying in wait). He’s thinking about joining up with Big Mac’s Juggernaut troop (despite not being an earth pony) or Lightning Dust’s pegasus squadron.
 
Coco Pommel is Mistress Rarity’s personal hoofmaiden. Due to Coco’s naivete, Rarity’s manipulations and the generally well-hidden yet extremely ugly undercity of Manehattan, Coco is relatively in the dark about the war. However, Rarity can’t hide everything, can’t see everything, so Coco often goes out in disguise to The Wall and tries to lift the spirits of the ponies there by being the Element of Generosity that Rarity has apparently forsaken in her crystalitis-induced insanity.

Twilight must learn to roller skate.

I’ve been reading about Elias Lönnrot’s travels across Finland and Karelia, and it gave me the idea of doing something similar with Equestria. Basically, the travel diaries of a unicorn from Canterlot traveling amongst the peasantry, observing and recording different customs and traditions in different parts of the country. Good way to do some world building and also have a look at how Equestria’s society was like a couple hundred years ago.

I recall in one Fanfic, Gilda briefly considers Spike, thinking him Twilight’s son, and just waving off his strange form as Twilight just being a freaky chick.
 
I wonder why more fics don’t use that gag.

Ponies meet
 
/diceroll
 
Ewoks!

Sombra going through Gay-Angst.
 
Normally, I wouldn’t be enthused for it, but I think, done right, with his character, it could be fun.

I still need to update the story, but the basic gist is there. If anyone is willing to take a look at my embrace story and give me some ideas, I would really appreciate it.
 
Just a few notes:
 

@YetAnotherBrony  
I love the idea of Maud and Cheese forming a buddy-cop investigator duo and Coco doing charity. I had one (rather dark) idea that Trenderhoof was a self-flagellating member of House Earthborn: captured and dehorned, but still depressingly cheery.
 
PoorYorick did make this list covering quite a few of the background ponies in the ED-verse, and a few of them seem particularly rife as fanfic magnets. (Pipsqueak leads a ragtag band of rebellious misfits, for instance.) He does list Bulk Biceps (under the fanon name “Snowflake”) as a commander of the heavy lancer units, but I personally like the idea of him defecting from Stormwing. Every FIM character doesn’t have to be a powerful authority figure.
 
Actually, could the backgrounds be combined? It might be even more powerful emotionally if Bulk ditched his lofty command post at House Stormwing because one or more of his troops were going to be used to bait traps. A higher ranking officer (maybe one of the former Wonderbolts, to show just how far they’ve morally decayed) wants Bulk to exploit the close Band-of-Brothers relationship he has with his troops to send them on a suicidal mission. And Bulk refuses. Dramatically and hot-blooded-ly.

@romantiCaveman  
Great idea with Bulk!
 
Also had an idea where Maud and Cheese’s base of operations has one wall covered in newspaper clippings and blurry photos of Cult attacks, with WHO IS THE LAUGHING MARE? painted in big red letters across the top.
 
Running out.of battery, will read that list tomorrow.

You know, this recent comic has put me in a mood I haven’t been in for a long time. A mood I haven’t been in since the very beginning of the fandom.
 
I’m in the mood… to write a fanfic.

@Trickquestion  
Alright, brainstorming complete, here’s my setup: Full alternate universe. Twilight decides it’s finally time to be a princess, and launches an initiative to expand Ponyville and remove a public health hazard: The Everfree Forest. Like most public work projects, it quickly becomes bloated, self-sabotaging, inefficient and even manages to attract some protesters. Seeing as the whole affair has started bleeding money and become a media circus, pretty much every character with a name gets attached to it somehow, and each chapter is dedicated to the individual wacky hijinks that go on while the project slugs forward.

@Trickquestion  
Above all the other Princesses, there’s something inherently amusing about imagining Twilight struggling with bureaucracy. XD Also, I can totally imagine Fluttershy raising some legitimate concerns about the whole thing.
 
@YetAnotherBrony  
Have you had a chance to look at PY’s list yet? I’m curious if any characters stood out to you as possible main characters (both protagonists and antagonists) for a WC3/AoM/SC1 campaign-style army-commanding fanfic.

@romantiCaveman
 
I’ve got lots of ideas for one-shots and other random ideas, but nothing yet for that sort of fanfic. Like how Babs is a spy, or how Octavia is a ninja, or Big Mac shouting “Don’t you know who I am? I’m the Juggernaut, bitch!” (Heck, that could be the entire Juggernaut Corps battle-cry.)
 
And now for the elephant, or should I say draconequus, in The room. Where is Discord during all this? Did he disappear along with the Princesses? Did he simply dissolve and become a more primal force of chaos instead of one cohesive being? Or is he behind everything (HE is the Forest whispering in Fluttershy’s ear, HE is the one who tore out AJ’s eye and put a TrueSight eye in its place, HE is the one puppeting Pinkie’s body)

@YetAnotherBrony  
Babs’s background in particular makes me imagine an unauthorized Earthborn mission lead by Apple Bloom to extract her when things go sour.
 
I’m starting to think that maybe Cheese and Maud (and maybe a ragtag band of other S4 characters, like Bulk and Coco) would make great protagonists for an ED “RTS campaign”-style story. Cheese is a M&S slave who suddenly finds himself in a position of command. Maud has been investigating the Cult as an undercover cultist. By fate, they end up getting tossed around to various splinter factions and meet up, finding themselves as reluctant generals.
 

 
Goddamnit. For pre-character-development Discord, this makes way too much sense.
 
I was so caught up analyzing PY’s metaphysical entities as if they were original characters that I completely forgot to take into account that they might (like the rest of the non-mooks of ED) simply be characters from the show. Or even the same character, playing a long game to create chaos between the six elements.
 
Of course, this also raises the question of what the other unaccounted-for powerful villains (Tirek and Sombra especially, but even the Sirens, since Sunset Shimmer is still in Equestria in this AU) are doing during all this. Are they all unwitting pawns of Discord as well? Are they manipulators on the same scale as Discord? Did each villain essentially choose a Mane 6 as a “champion” of sorts and manipulate them and their armies from the shadows?

There needs to be more fics of Poison joke being used as a recreational drug.

Still on a Wow kick.
 
Cannibal Worgen rogue winds up in Equestria.  
Immediately mistaken for tall diamond dog.  
Mobilizes the local dogs into minions.

Voltron in Equestria

@PonyPon
 
One of these days I’m going to write a WoW fanfic with Twilight as a Balance Druid, Applejack as a Brewmaster Monk, Rarity as a Holy/Shadow Priest, and Fluttershy as a Hunter (I don’t know what spec, maybe Beast Mastery)

@YetAnotherBrony  
Of course Beast Mastery.

@PonyPon  
What should the other ponies be? Rainbow Dash the Paladin, because she’s a “Leeroy Jenkins”, someone who rushes in without thinking too much? Sunset as a Demonology Warlock, for the demon transformation? Pinkie as a Shaman?