Story idea up for grabs: the Starburstverse - Alternate Mane 6

Comickook #1 · Feb 9th, 2018 · 2 · 2 ·

Hello there. Yet another idea I've had in my head for a while, but don't have the time and energy to tackle myself.

In this universe, Starlight Glimmer and Sunburst DID get their cutie marks at the same time and BOTH ended up going to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.

In fact, they BOTH ended up becoming Princess Celestia's personal students.

Under the personal tutelage of Celestia herself AND with A LOT of support from Starlight, Sunburst DOES ultimately develop his magic to a level that is a fair bit above what is average for a unicorn (though still not even close to Starlight's level)

Starlight, however, though quite powerful, is NOT QUITE as smart as Sunburst (though she is FAR from stupid), but well, the two do an excellent job balancing each other out.

The duo's ability to work as a team gives Celestia hope that one or both of them could end up becoming bearers of the Elements of Harmony.

As it turns out, she is ABSOLUTELY RIGHT in that BOTH of them end up becoming Element Bearers.

Anyway, here is how the Elements are arranged:

Sunburst: Magic (while not as powerful as his friend Starlight by a long shot, he more than makes up for his [relative] lack of power with intellect and has a knack for meticulous research, creative problem solving AND making preparations for anything that can [and probably WILL] go wrong).

Starlight: Loyalty (refusing to abandon her oldest friend [or ANY of her friends for that matter], no matter how bad the situation gets. In fact, if there's a situation where both of them are in real danger at the same time, she will ALWAYS insist that Sunburst get saved FIRST)

Thunderlane: Honesty (VERY much a "brutally honest" sort; not only when it comes to seeing hard truths about himself but helping his friends see hard truths about THEMSELVES)

Muffins: Laughter (eternally optimistic, an extremely loving mother and always quick to try to cheer up anybody who really needs it)

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to think of two Earth ponies (one for Generosity and the other for Kindness [also one male and one female]), but anybody who likes the idea enough to tackle it can think of possibilities along those ends.

Also, just a couple of extra side notes:

1. While Twilight is not Celestia's personal student in this universe, she is still a top-tier student at the school. Also, without the pressure of living up to being Celestia's personal student, she actually DOES make a honest effort to make friends among her study group (ESPECIALLY Moondancer). Also, she finds out about Shining Armor's marriage to Cadance MONTHS sooner than in canon and, with the support of her friends, actually gathers enough hard evidence to expose Chrysalis's ruse WEEKS sooner than in canon (well before Chrysalis had soaked up enough of Shining's love for Cadance to gain the power to beat Celestia in that beam-of-war). Starlight, Sunburst and their friends don't actually formally meet Twilight until the return of the Crystal Empire (when she is backing up her brother and her sister-in-law), but this bit of added detail is just to give Twilight a Hero of Another Story moment. Also, Twilight DOES end up becoming the Royal Crystaller for her niece Flurry Heart in THIS universe.

2. Sunburst and Starlight actually work with Trixie and give her both emotional support AND pretty good tutoring back when she is still a student at Celestia's School. This helps Trixie not only develop the determination to stay in school long enough to actually graduate, but also develop her abilities to, well, maybe not the levels of Starlight or Twilight, but still a respectable enough level to legitimately pull off some pretty cool stuff. However, they also help her learn to tone down the ego JUST ENOUGH where she is careful to ONLY make boasts that she can actually back up when she finally starts her stage magician career following graduation. Thus, when she does her show in Ponyville, Sunburst and Starlight both vouch for her, explaining that "She's actually a pretty decent mare once you learn to look past the ego." Also, with her only making boasts she can actually back up, there is no "Ursa Major/Minor" mess to trash her career and no "Alicorn Amulet" unpleasantness later on.

3. When Sunburst and Starlight get that "unfinished Starswirl spell", Sunburst is careful to NOT read the spell verbally until he has a chance to research what the spell is SUPPOSED TO DO. Unfortunately, Starlight is NOT that cautious and she ends up swapping the Cutie Marks (as well as half of the memories and personalities) of her friends (including Sunburst) by accident. Ultimately, she DOES help get Sunburst back to normal and the two of them get the other four Element Bearers back to normal, but Sunburst is the one that gets the inspiration needed to truly complete the spell. As a result, Sunburst becomes an alicorn (it doesn't boost his unicorn magic, but he DOES get an upgrade in the sense that he now also has Pegasus AND Earth pony magic to work with), with Starlight silently musing "It's just as well that Sunburst was the one who ascended. After all, if *I* did, it would have seemed too much like I was being excessively rewarded for cleaning up my own mess."

and 4. The first Cutie Map mission in THIS universe involves Sunburst, Starlight and the others getting called to a city actually OUTSIDE of Equestria to help protect the residents from an army of marauders while also teaching the town about friendship and giving them hope. Though they definitely succeed, it also brings them to the attention of the marauders' then mysterious boss - the Storm King. Ultimately, Sunburst, Starlight and the others end up foiling the Storm King's forces a few too many times and the Storm King ends up deciding "Fine. I wasn't going to invade Equestria for another couple of years, but I suppose it WOULD be practical to pre-emptively deal with these six continued nuisances one or two at a time so that, when I finally DO invade, I won't have to worry about them." (meaning the Season Five finale in THIS universe would actually be Sunburst and Starlight having to take on the Storm King and a few of his most elite soldiers WITHOUT the help of their friends).

So, is anybody interested in tackling this? If not, I would completely understand.

HeartfireFirebrand