AU's · 9:45pm Dec 26th, 2012
After a long night of huddling in a fetal position muttering about how "It'll all be fine. Just fine.", I believe I've found an adequate solution to my dilemma. I'll vaguely incorporate the ideas I have into Ascend and wait until after Stay Calm and Flutter On to work on the sequel (where the ideas are actually going to be used). There will be two possible outcomes. 1) If Discord is sealed back in his prison at the end (which I'm predicting only has a 15% chance of happening), then the episode will be fully incorporated into Ascend and its related stories and it will remain compliant with canon. 2) If Discord is "rehabilitated" and remains free, then there is no way I can incorporate it into Ascend without completely destroying the plot to the sequel. As a result, if option two is taken, Ascend will disregard Stay Calm and Flutter On and will officially enter an AU where Discord was never released.
This raises two questions if option two is taken. The first is whether or not an [Alternate Universe] tag should be added to the stories. Fimfiction defines the use of the tag as being:
Stories wherein the ponies are in an Alternate Universe.
EXAMPLES: Like, you know, if they were on Earth, or on Krypton, or whatever. I don't know man, get off my back.
Not very helpful. I always considered the tag to be used when events were significantly different from canon (NMM wins, Daymare Sun, etc.). I don't know whether disregarding one episode is enough to warrant the tag.
This leads to the second matter. Originally, Trixie was going to be a minor antagonist in the sequel who would help the villain do stuff that I can't be specific about or it would spoil things. Magic Duel's ending killed that. Thankfully, Lightning Dust came along to fill that role. Here's the question: If Ascend gets punted into an AU, should I take it all the way and redo Magic Duel's ending to allow for Trixie to play that antagonist role or should I limit the AUness of things and keep it as close to canon as possible, allowing Lightning Dust to shine (inb4 "Why not both?"*Mexican music*)?
*Mexican music*
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Why not both?
*is shot*
Question le first: I don't think you need the tag. Stories written prior to A Canterlot Wedding which assumed only two alicorns aren't generally considered AU, merely Jossed.
Question die B: Why not b-- uh, I mean, which character would do the antagonising better?
I personally like antagonist trixie. But I'm yet to see a real potrail of lightning dust as a antagonist. So go for both I say.
I think if it takes place in the same equestria you shouldn't give it the AU tag, however if discord is reformed and roams free, perhaps you could use some sort of plot device? like maybe sombra's corruption or some dark magical artefact that was responsible for nightmare moons corruption?
all in all, don't worry about it, stories are fluid as they are written, changing the story from how you originally intended does not neccesarily make the story better or worse, for all we know the new direction could be better. I think you're a great writer, if you really feel like changing it to comply would make it worse don't let me stop you. just do what you think is best
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I sincerely don't get it.
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I'm torn on which would be better. On the one hand, Trixie would be better for the plot. On the other, Lightning Dust would mesh far better with the villain.
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Hm... What if they meet and decide that they both feel same thing?
Rivals/Pals relationships. Something "I want revenge more than you do!" "Oh yea? And I have more ideas how to execute it!".
Sorry.
Seriously. I like Rainbow Dash. I like canines. Why can't I have both? 651506
fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/198/6/4/rainbow_dash_as_canine_by_suzamuri-d3ycmuq.png
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In all honesty?
Neither do I
I wouldn't worry about the AU tag too much, personally. Your story isn't that terribly different from show canon, really...
Also, I'd prefer Lightning Dust. Trixie gets very heavy use as a villain type and in redemption stories and she's kinda overused. Lightning Dust, on the other hand, is very new and has yet to be used much if at all.
you don't need to slap an alternative universe on it, that's when the entire story line is majorly different from canon, you started working on this before these episodes, they shouldn't affect you unless you choose to let them do so. if you really really don't like straying from canon, then you can tell readers in the description where canon ends. you're gonna get nothing but grief from trying to stay true to canon, so get out of the sinking boat...
I don't see what the point would be. If you're judging "Requires AU tag" that harshly, then something like 95% of the fic on the site requires it. For example, just about every story written about Princess Luna before Season 2? Totally invalidated.
As for Trixie, go for it. Write her however you want. Just because canon has marched on doesn't mean you have to reinvent your own sandbox to keep up with it. It's fanfiction, which is to say, it's not limited by the way canon actually is.
I say limit the AU-ness.
How about letting the Alicorn Amulet be the "One Ring" of MLP:FiM? That is, it's an artifact so evil that its hooks remain sunk in one long after the Amulet's removal. That would let you have Trixie relapse into old(er) behavior as needed (think somewhere between Bilbo Baggins and Gollum).
Of course, if the Alicorn Amulet shows up again in canon, all bets are off. After "A Canterlot Wedding," "Magic Duel," "Wonderbolts Academy," and the synopsis for "Keep Calm and Flutter On," it's prudent to assume that the any status quo in the show is finite in duration.
sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/keep-calm-and-flutter-on-3.png
Really, I don't think it counts since you started writing it before that episode.
I'd say write Ascend how you want and don't bother with the AU tag. But then put the tag on the sequel if it deviates to the degree of retcon.
As for Trixie, there's no reason you can't invent a plot workaround to make her an antagonist and keep canon intact.
You can Also consider King Sombre and/or Queen Chrysalis as the main villain/s of Keep Calm and Carry on; or even make up a new villain.
I can't see how Discord could be "reformed". He's the Spirit of Chaos after all! He would be anything but that if he was reformed.
The only best outcomes I can see from this i
1) Fluttershy fails and back to stone he goes.
2) He tones it down a bit, and just visits occasionally to keep the ponys' lives from getting "too boring" (like that happens with the one disaster every week Equestria suffers from) instead of doing the world gone mad thing; much like the relationship Q had with Picard.
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3) They successfully revert him back to Starswiral the Bearded, if this is anything to go by.
672924 I sure hope thats not what they got in mind. That just seems incredibly contrived. Far better that Starswirl remains a figure from the distant past, with that book we saw at the end of the crystal empire arc bring a book of his "divinations", ala Nostradomis. I would find it a lot more believable that he made some sort of prophesy that Twilight is to fulfill. Most likely her ascension as an alicorn. It seems like they were trying to say something with the sun, moon, and stars cutie mark backgrounds from that one scene. The stars have power, and no one to tame that power.
Hopefully it won't be some bizarre Dune-like eugenics thing Celestia's been up to. Watch them pull a fast one and reveal that Twilight and Trixie are descendants of Starswirl, and by twist of fate Twilight got to be "the chosen one" (like Harry Potter / Neville Longbottom).
Well, this blog post is a bit irrelevant since I'm sure you've decided what to do by now, so I'll leave you with this: