Future of FIM fanfiction

Nebula Dusk

Crystal Sorceress
@Applelight Limited  
Most likely, and some people can even choose to say some of the show’s canon isn’t canon in their universe, for example, the changelings becoming colorful. Our rp decides to ignore most events after season 4. I’m certain fanfiction will live on, for Gen4 and Gen5 alike, no matter the circumstances.
Background Pony #1461
@Nebula Dusk  
Good point. :)
 
I’m starting to come to terms with FIM ending btw. It’s dawned on me how long it’s been going on for.
 
Plus, almost all of the characters have had their stories told. Or mostly told.
 
It’s still hard though. :(
Nebula Dusk

Crystal Sorceress
@Applelight Limited  
It sure is. I’m one of the newer bronies, only joined about 3(?) years ago. I’m still young, but the show was great. I met many new friends and artists, and spent most of it trying to balance out my character. It was one hell of a ride, but one I won’t forget. While the show’s story may be ending, Nebula’s is just beginning.
Background Pony #1461
@Nebula Dusk  
That’s wonderful to hear! :)
 
I’ve been involved since the very beginning. I’ve fallen behind in recent years (still to see seasons 7 & 8 & the movie) but I was always in the fandom. And when they said it was over it was like a gut punch. :(
Background Pony #1461
Late start eh? Just a pity that the show’s now ending.
 
If I could share some more details about this story of mine, its full of things that I wrote down, never followed through with, and got beaten to the punch by. XD
 
For example, one of the planned crew mates of the ship was an earth pony called Ragamuffin…Equestria Girls beat me to it. The ship itself is a literal flying ship…both the mlp movie and that Pan movie beat me to the punch on getting it out. There’s also a third one that I can’t remeber at present.
 
My point is, what were original ideas in 2012-2013 when I started putting this together might now seem…what’s the word…derivative?
 
And I’ll be perfectly honest…it is holding me back from starting it again. :|
Nebula Dusk

Crystal Sorceress
@Applelight Limited  
Nowadays nothing is unique, it’s always been done before somewhere else, but what makes everything unique is how you put it together, and the little unique twist that you put on it. Everyone is different, and so are their ideas and writing styles.
Background Pony #1461
@Nebula Dusk  
Thank you! That makes me feel a lot better about it. :)
 
There’s still tonnes of fanfiction being produced, isn’t there? Even after all this time?
CMC Scootaloo
Duck - Common sense 'n stuff
Wallet After Summer Sale -
Magical Inkwell - Wrote MLP fanfiction consisting of at least around 1.5k words, and has a verified link to the platform of their choice
Not a Llama - Happy April Fools Day!
Artist -

Scootaloo Fanclub Member
@Applelight Limited
 
It depends. On one hoof, it means no new information and events from Equestria are coming in to add never-ending inspiration fuel. On the other hoof, it means that certain fandom theories weaved into fics can never be proven wrong (but sadly not get proven right either anymore), so I will always be able to pretend that the events of my story about Flurry Heart’s potential future ““Princess Flurry Heart, Destroyer of Worlds are what will actually happen to Flurry Heart when she gets older. That goes for all fanfic writers whose theories haven’t been confirmed or proven wrong by the show, so far, and won’t get anymore in Season 9.  
So, for the creative side, it has losses and opportunities at the same time.
 
Of course, all that goes only if Generation 5 does become the dreaded reboot. If not, things look of course very much different again.  
I want to see a new series that shows us Flurry Heart’s future. <3 I really hope that will happen.
 
 
For example, one of the planned crew mates of the ship was an earth pony called Ragamuffin…Equestria Girls beat me to it.
 
That doesn’t need to bother you. What’s seen in EQG and what’s seen in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is separate. These are two different universes. You can still call a pony that and be the first one.
 
The ship itself is a literal flying ship…both the mlp movie and that Pan movie beat me to the punch on getting it out.
 
And about that, I hope it will soothe you that we got the confirmation that Equestria has airships in Season 2 already. It was in “Sweet and Elite” that we saw the first airship in the show. Then we saw another, albeit smaller, one in “Apple Family Reunion” in Season 3.  
That’s something we know for a long time already, so that’s at least one thing the movie didn’t beat us to.
 
I have a much harder story to tell there, about a fic called “Omega” that I started reading in 2013, which is about an airship crew of ponies getting thrown into an adventure that leads them outside of Equestria.  
I was very excited for that prospect, seeing theories about what could be outside of Equestria, but never managed to read it further. Four years later, the movie came and, while I still want to read this fic, it feels less exciting to do so now than it did when I read the first chapter. :\  
And thinking about that, that this story would have been way more exciting for me if I wouldn’t have been too dumb to set aside time for what I love, this really hurts thinking about. One of the things that will haunt me for life.
 
There’s still tonnes of fanfiction being produced, isn’t there? Even after all this time?
 
There are 30 - 40 new fanfics and about 150 new chapters for on-going stories getting released on FIMFiction each day. Not as much as it used to be, during Season 5 we got 60 new fics and 300 new chapters each day, but it’s still a lot.  
And it can rise again, if enough pony authors pick up the pen and start writing. The activity is never set in stone, it depends on how many decide to contribute, so the best thing you can do is start writing ponyfics yourself and encourage as many people as possible to do the same.
 
 
@Nebula Dusk
 
And if you developed the idea independently. If you write something that has already been written before, you might not be able to write on your banner that you did it first and not get fame for being the first one, but to you, the idea will still feel like your own achievement because you developed it without copying it from somewhere else.  
That has a lot of importance for a writer and factors in tremendously.
Background Pony #1461
@CMC Scootaloo  
Wow, that much a day? That still seems like an incredible amount of work getting produced even after all this time. Certainly gives me hope. :)
 
The show ending is a bit of swings and roundabouts isn’t it?
 
And I take it that you’re hoping that gen 5 is more of gen 4.5? A sort of successor series rather than a full blown reboot? Personally, so am I. Especially because I think that there’s so much more left to explore i this setting.
 
However, it they simply must reboot it, I don’t want it done by half measures. Don’t take these characters we’ve grown to love over 9 years and remake them, starting back at square one. Give us all new characters then.
 
Also, I don’t want to derail the thread with details of my own story, but about the ship; it wasn’t so much a blimp or an airship…it was a literal flying ship…also, I never worked out if they built it themselves or refurbished an old hulk (that has hidden history), but regardless, it’s been infused with the magic of their friendship and camaraderie. So much so, that it is, for want of a better term, ‘alive’. It can move around by itself, refuse to do what’s told, get stroppy when insulted, and even heal itself. It’s like…Herby the love bug…or a non evil version of Christine…except that it’s a ship. XD
 
Basically it’s another mystical, magical artifact. This makes sense within the context of the show right?
 
Gutted to hear about that Omega story tbh. Not that sounds bad or anything…it’s just that once again I was beaten to the punch…and it’s just not as much of an original idea anymore. :(
CMC Scootaloo
Duck - Common sense 'n stuff
Wallet After Summer Sale -
Magical Inkwell - Wrote MLP fanfiction consisting of at least around 1.5k words, and has a verified link to the platform of their choice
Not a Llama - Happy April Fools Day!
Artist -

Scootaloo Fanclub Member
And I take it that you’re hoping that gen 5 is more of gen 4.5? A sort of successor series rather than a full blown reboot? Personally, so am I. Especially because I think that there’s so much more left to explore i this setting.
 
Exactly, same here. Doesn’t matter to me if Hasbro calls it “Generation 5” or “Generation 4.5”, I just want that Hasbro doesn’t abandon Equestria for the next generation. I’d miss it too much and it would also be such a waste of creative potential when there are so many opportunities that Equestria (and the lands beyond) offer for MLP: FiM.  
It doesn’t even have to be Flurry Heart. She is just who I’m hoping for being part of the new manecast of such a show the most. It can be about any ponies or creatures, just showing the Equestria we know, and I’ll be happy with it.
 
Don’t take these characters we’ve grown to love over 9 years and remake them, starting back at square one.
 
Sadly, going by the leaks and if they are true and not fakes, that is what Hasbro is going for. The Mane Six still as the mane characters, but in a new universe and world. And the Mane Six would also change in that scenario. Fluttershy would be a unicorn, Twilight an earth pony, ect. And, that was said in the leaked e-mails, Applejack will still be an earth pony, but live in a big city and apparently be some rather potty-mouthed, brash and rude “Hard City Mare” stereotype. They even talked about changing her cutie mark and special talent and make it not apple-related at all. Worse, they even thought about changing her name.  
And there are rumors about plans that she should get voiced by a black VA, but I haven’t seen the part of the leaks that contains that info. YAY for political correctness influencing creative works!
 
it wasn’t so much a blimp or an airship…it was a literal flying ship…
 
But an airship is a literal flying ship. Can you give more details on how that ship is flying exactly? Like, does it have wings rather than an engine and that is what you mean with “flying ship”? Or is it more like an airship-shaped house that can fly on its own by the magic contained in it?
 
Basically it’s another mystical, magical artifact. This makes sense within the context of the show right?
 
Definitely. I’m just confused about your definition of a “flying ship”.
 
Gutted to hear about that Omega story tbh. Not that sounds bad or anything…it’s just that once again I was beaten to the punch…and it’s just not as much of an original idea anymore. :(
 
Think in a more narrow context then. What do we know about the world outside of Equestria? A couple places were seen in the movie. 4 in total, three in the movie itself, one in the accompanying comic series/arc.  
But there wasn’t a whole lot revealed about these places. Almost all of them had only very little, total screentime that will leave you with many questions about these places regarding culture, lifestyle, ect. Only one of them got presented to us a bit more, as it got an episode in Season 8. But even that leaves still room for a lot of open questions.  
And, without spoilering too much, most of these places outside of Equestria are located south of it. Three out of four. Only for the fourth place, the one seen in the official movie comics, we don’t know where it is located.  
Now, let’s spin this thought further….. Even if we assume that Yakyakistan in the north is very close to the north pole of Equus (if their planet has a north pole) and that the places seen in the movie that are the farthest to the south are near the south pole (again, assuming Equus has a south pole), then there still has to be more.  
We know that Equus is a round planet, not a disk. So their world can’t spread to the north and to the south only. There has to be something in the west and in the east, as well. The map in Twilight’s castle even shows pieces of other continents in both of these directions, that are suddenly cut off by the edges of the map. And we don’t know what exists there.  
We only know that the fourth location from the movie comics is likely either in eastern or western direction, if we assume that there is not much else left that we don’t know if we travel to the north or to the south. But that’s only one place, so there is more to the west and to the east we don’t know about.  
And even that is still not covering everything. Think again on it that their planet is round. So if we imagine a globe of Equus with one side pointing at us and we see Yakyakistan very far up north, close to the pole, and the southernmost location from the movie not far away from the south pole and then large lands we don’t know to the west and to the east of the planet, with the fourth location from the movie comics somewhere in there, then this is only one side of the planet. Maybe, if we stretch our bodies a little, we can see a little what’s on the left and right of the globe, but not all of it. And we can’t see what’s on the other side that doesn’t face us.  
So, let’s go and turn the globe around. What do we see? Another three or four continents that cover the other side of the planet!  
And guess what? That’s still not the end of it! Because another thing we don’t know is how big Equus is. I guess that most fanfic writers assume it to be about the size of Earth. But what if it’s much bigger than that? What if Equus is three or four times the size of Earth? Planets come in all shapes and sizes.  
Thinking about all of this, I guess I exaggerated my worries regarding “Omega” a little. Or, a lot. So far, I never put it into a more logical context that the Movie and the movie comics showed places outside of Equestria and never thought about how much we’ve actually seen of their world now.  
But now that I did that, I realize it’s actually still very little, even with the Movie. If I had to guess, I’d say that we have been shown about 40% of their world. Which is still relative, because there are so many places both in the show and the movie we have only seen a glimpse of. How often did we see Yakyakistan or Griffonstone? Barely.  
And all of that is still only when assuming that Equus is about the size of Earth. If it’s even much, much bigger, than that percentage has to be turned down a lot. I guess I freaked out a bit too much there.  
So, maybe you aren’t able to write a story with ponies going outside of Equestria as the first one anymore, but that is only the general idea. What you do with that idea, is still up to you. And there are plenty of places on Equus we don’t know about yet and can theorize about.  
We are far from done exploring their planet.
Background Pony #1461
@CMC Scootaloo  
I can’t wait to get a working laptop again. Typing out answers on a phone is a chore. XD
 
I completely agree with you on the future of equestria. It’s such a great setting and it would be a terrible shame to consign it to the dustbin of history. I would love for the next generation to continue the story.
 
Set it maybe 20-30 years in the future; centred around a completely new cast but characters from the original can appear from time to time. Like, Twilight is now the wise ruler and mentor figure, rainbow dash is the experienced and professional captain of the Wonderbolts, Pinkie is now married to Cheese Sandwhich and so on and so forth.
 
It could be done in such a way that you don’t need to have watched G4 to know what’s going on but it’s still there. New fans to the show (let’s be honest; the kids) can enjoy these older mentor types teaching the main characters but older fans will have the heartwarming feeling of seeing their beloved ponies living on.
 
But to do what they seem to be planning to do, just take the ‘same’ characters and bung them together into a new setting with superficial changes seems so wrong. And about Applejack; if they hate her so much, why keep her? Again, if you’re doing a reboot, do a full reboot. Not a half assed one. Even though I’d prefer the other idea than this. To know that the girls are still going is comforting.
 
About the ‘flying ship’; imagine an ocean going galleon, a classic pirate ship design with sails and everything, that can literally take off into the sky and fly along. And it can fly faster and more agilely than something like this should be. Because although this sounds like a cop out, it’s magic. XD
 
And thank you for filling me in on the nature of the planet. It actually gives me hope that this story is still worth doing! :)
CMC Scootaloo
Duck - Common sense 'n stuff
Wallet After Summer Sale -
Magical Inkwell - Wrote MLP fanfiction consisting of at least around 1.5k words, and has a verified link to the platform of their choice
Not a Llama - Happy April Fools Day!
Artist -

Scootaloo Fanclub Member
(let’s be honest; the kids)
 
I’m sure there would be enough new fans of a non-rebooted Generation 5 who are adults. Maybe even more than children, because children have to be convinced yet, while all the adults in our fandom will gladly jump at it without asking many questions.  
It’s quite tiring to see the old “It’s a kids show” phrase harping on and on, when it’s so obviously not a kids show at all. Same for saying “It is a kids show, just a good one” because that still defies a proper definition what MLP: FiM actually is. And I find it quite discriminatory when someone demonstratively excludes the vast number of adult fans this show rightfully attracted for the purpose of privileging the kids who watch it.  
But that would finally make us becoming off-topic now.
 
It could be done in such a way that you don’t need to have watched G4 to know what’s going on but it’s still there.
 
Definitely. Very easy thing to do. And if something requires knowledge, the ponies of Equestria and other creatures remember events of the past and reminisce on them and the audience can reminisce with them while they think back to the past and talk about it.  
That’s what flashbacks are for. They can even re-use the same animations for that to save time; just put a white, nebulous filter on it, maybe make a few tiny adjustments to make it look closer to the new animation style (if there is one) and they’re good to do.  
Nothing easier than that.
 
Again, if you’re doing a reboot, do a full reboot. Not a half assed one.
 
Or, just don’t do a reboot and continue with what you already have as long as there is enough creative potential.  
All reboots I’ve seen were, regardless of the quality of the work, horrible. Well, other than MLP: FiM, which is the one big exception. But here it was necessary, because the early generations were so horrendous that something just needed to be done.  
Other than this one exception, reboots are horrible by default and by their nature, because they change everything about a franchise that you love as a fan and then expect you to roll along with it.  
Reboots are, usually, not a creative progression, but a pure marketing method to squeeze more money out of a successful franchise when the company behind it believes that it loses steam. Or, just when it wants to pander to a different audience or demographic because marketing surveys have shown how much money there is to get with that new audience.  
The result is always a complete distortion of what was known, which was good with MLP: FiM and a miraculous improvement, but won’t be good with a Generation 5 reboot. Generation 4 is excellent and Hasbro has everything to make it fresh again without rebooting, so a reboot would just be a horrible mistake.  
Reboots are a stab in the heart of every fan of a franchise.
 
If the reboot really becomes a reality, I hope that Generation 4 will at least be continued in another medium. There’s an english manga series for G4 coming out in Summer (pre-ordered that faster than my shadow moves) and from what it sounds like, it could be on-going.  
I also hope that, if Hasbro keeps its reboot plans, it will return to Equestria one day when Generation 6 comes.  
Or, when a Generation 5 does a complete nosedive because no one cares. Which, to be honest, I’m hoping for then.
 
Also, I am preparing a fic that is like this, about Equestria’s future, for the Long Winter. Still needs a lot of work, but I want to kick it off after Generation 4 is over:
 
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/406147/my-little-pony-guardians-of-crystal-growth
 
About the ‘flying ship’; imagine an ocean going galleon, a classic pirate ship design with sails and everything, that can literally take off into the sky and fly along.
 
Ah, that’s what you meant. It is also something that has been done before, but not very often. And it’s a very unconventional idea, so if you came to this on your own, you can be proud of it.
 
It actually gives me hope that this story is still worth doing! :)
 
Every story is worth doing. You should go and write it.
Background Pony #1461
@CMC Scootaloo
 
You’re absolutely right. A reboot is a cash grabbing gimmick and a bit of an insult to this wonderful world they’ve created. As unlikely as it, I really hope that gen 5 is a successor series. Or that the comics can continue the story.
 
Surely there’s enough interest in it to justify continuing support?
 
Either way, I think I am going to write this series. And some other ideas I’ve had too. :)
CMC Scootaloo
Duck - Common sense 'n stuff
Wallet After Summer Sale -
Magical Inkwell - Wrote MLP fanfiction consisting of at least around 1.5k words, and has a verified link to the platform of their choice
Not a Llama - Happy April Fools Day!
Artist -

Scootaloo Fanclub Member
@Applelight Limited
 
There is more than enough interest. And, comparatively, very little interest in a reboot. The signals are all there, Hasbro just needs to make the right decision. And if it doesn’t make the right decision, then I hope that Generation 5 fails so hard that Hasbro runs back to Equestria with red and puffy, tearstained eyes, hugging it and saying sorry for abandoning it.
 
Excellent, rock it! Is there already an account on FIMFiction.net I can chain myself to while waiting for releases?
Background Pony #1461
@CMC Scootaloo  
I think I have an FIMFiction account. It’s been so long I can’t remember! Either way, I’ll send you a link. :)
 
And it’s not too late for Hasbro to change course. I live in hope.
Background Pony #1461
@CMC Scootaloo  
I know that every previous generation has been a complete reboot, but that’s largely because they weren’t really worth keeping. With perhaps the exception of generation 1, which is largely why so much of it appears again now.
 
Generation 4 is different. Very different. It is completely worth retaining to some degree, and I sincerely hope that Hasbro realises this. Plus, although the show has ran for 9 years, a reboot within 2 years feels way too soon.
 
And thanks for the link! I’ll hit that up over the weekend. :)
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