An AU where the Elements of Harmony as physical objects never existed. It was just a title and gift/curse given by the Deity that is the tree of harmony. An Element bearer is one chosen by the Tree to be one of the many possible heroes of their time, and the possibility of becoming a demigod to keep the universe in balance is on the table.
Celestia and Luna were chosen to bear the burden of the day and night for the rest of time, Elements and Demigods of Day and Night.
Discord is the Tree of Harmony's opposite and equal. Although he is much more mobile than the Tree. He is the God of Chaos/Disharmony and the Tree God of Harmony/Order.
Starswirl was the Element of Wisdom. Fkash Magnus the Element of Courage. Mist Mane the Element of sacrifice. Somnambula the Element of Patience. Rockhoof the Element of Persistence. Mage Meadowbrook the Element of Healing. And Stygian the Element of Guidance. No one really remembers Stygian and how he guided the others together, to threats that needed stopped, or how he discovered and guided the others to the Tree of Harmony.
Both the tree of harmony and Discord can seem rather uncaring to mortals. They are gods and hold no allegiances to anyone but themselves and to keeping the universe intact. They may seem cold and heartless and are morally grey and a neutral party. But someone has to do the not so fun job of keeping the universe in balance, and the tree and Discord were literally born into that job. They know nothing else but their duties as gods of harmony and disharmony.
Optional addition- Discord has an equivalent to the Trees Element roles it gifts/curses. Although he's not so fancy with naming, in fact he just calls them the Discorded. Let them give themselves their own fancy titles and get dramatic with it, Discord loves dramatics! Sombra and Tirek would be possible examples of a Discorded.
(What if Twilight Sparkle never be able to be crowned Ruler of Equestria? What if the alicorn magic had been taken away from the four powerful ponies who ruled day, night, love and friendship? And what if the friendship had been broken between all six who were once the Elements of Harmony?)
Info: As Twilight Sparkle about to be crowned ruler of Equestria, the Dark Knight called Blazing Rage arrives invited and attacked the ponies. Celestia, Luna, Cadance and Twilight tried to stop him, but he able to drain all their alicorn powers and tear Twilight’s wings in front of everypony.
A week later after her recovery, Twilight had been drifting away from Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Rainbow Dash. Leaving Capper Dapperpaws, who witnessed what happened at the coronation, to look after her.
Celestia asked Discord to unleash the three villains out of their stones, so Starswirl the Bearded could asked Lord Tirek to make contact with his younger brother to help and find Blazing Rage. They were all surprised that the Dark Knight was living outside of Equestria called Old Ponyvile and decided who will go to the unknown place.
They decided that they have to go separate ways to get to the place:
1) Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, Trixie, Starlight Glimmer, Starswirl the Bearded, Capper Dapperpaws, Lord Tirek, and Shining Armor
2) Applejack, Apple Bloom, the Flim Flam Brothers, Radiant Hope, Princess Cadance and Trenderhoof
3) Fluttershy, Discord, Spike, Scorpan, Big Macintosh, Derpy and Cozy Glow
6) Rainbow Dash, Soarin, Spitfire, Scootaloo, Lightning Dust and Flash Magnus
Together, they’re off to the journey to restore the alicorn powers and maybe finds love along the way!
(I know this isn’t Puss in Boots, but I can’t help myself watching back those favourite movie and episode clips from my little pony which I thought that I still had some ideas for my little pony when I used to have some time about it. So, I decided to put all that here. Even though, it needs some working progress but that’s what happens when you’re an author of those things, right?)
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The ships I’ll have for this story:
Twilight Sparkle x Capper Dapperpaws
Pinkie Pie x Cheese Sandwich
Fluttershy x Discord
Rainbow Dash x Soarin
Applejack x Trenderhoof
Rarity x Fancypants
Sunset Shimmer x Chummer
Starlight Glimmer x Sunburst
Starswirl the Bearded x (oc Princess Deamland Bliss) aka Sky Catcher
"Beware the Well of Shade, for the shadows run deep through its endless walls and twisting caverns"
I've been messing around with this rig on and off for awhile, but I finally finished this little side project making a short scene in the style of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
I've never been quite happy with how Starswirl the Bearded looked in the show when he finally appeared but, last year I happened upon a really cool fan design of Starswirl by the user Orin311 that I fell in love with. I decided to make a one view puppet rig this year directly based off their vector art as a surprise, complete with show style lip sync and a full walk cycle. One thing led to another in adding a background, a few illustrator texture brushes, multiple sound effects, re-purposing some old fire animation of mine and suddenly it became a whole completed scene. With such a cool wizard design, the choice for using Gandalf's voice to test the rig with was a no brainier. The background is based on the Well of Shade location in the Season 7 finale of MLP.
I had a lot of fun making this and it was great practice for some future personal animation projects I wanna start next year!
Credits for the character design and sound effects listed below
Starswirl fan design by Orin331
Lord of the Rings audio
fire audio
rocks and pebble audio
magic effect audio
horse walking audio
I’m hoping on board the MLP Infection AU trend. Here is mine!
Starswirl the Bearded accidentally created the virus. Parabite.
He heard and learned of more modern and ancient creatures, finding out about the parasprites. He read of their swarms of damage, seeing as they cause distruction no matter where they go. He wanted to create a symbiotic relationship between ponies and parasprits.
An AU where the show takes place a thousand years ago during the early years of Equestria.
Twilight Sparkle is a unicorn wizard, a bit of a recluse at first. She was a student of Starswirl the Bearded before his disappearance, so she is one of the few ponies to get to know the celestial sisters more closely. She considers Luna her best friend, and Celestia like her older sister. She is asked to study a recent discovery within the ever free forest, the Tree of Harmony and the Elements that lay within it. She has a Dragon named Spike she hatched herself, accidentally during a magic surge, and has raised him as her son ever since that fated day. It's how she got her cutie mark, and became the student of Starswirl the Bearded himself.
How does Twilight meet the other main six? Do they all have the same talents and names? How different is their childhoods and upbringings compared to canon? Are they the same elements of harmony as canon? How does the time-line of events work?
How would Nightmare Moon work in this au? I think Nightmare Moon would happen much later due to having Twilight Sparkle as her friend for a long time, and it become closer and closer the longer Twilight and the others have to be away doing hero things. Kinda like Moondancer in canon but make it Luna, make it a thousand years ago, and the consequences are Nightmare Moon. She's still upset at her sister obviously, but I think feeling abandoned by her friends as well as her sister would add alot to Nightmare Moon. Nightmare Moon plus, Nightmare Moon Electric Boogaloo More Angst 2. She would be an end of the season episodes.
The pillars are a legendary hypothetical group of heroes. A few old files dating from before the sisters reign have been found on the group but were heavily redacted from before the separation of Equus and Equestria. Only hypothesis can be done on its role and members.
From what scholars have deciphered, Starswirl the Bearded seems to have been involved in a way or another as most redacting have been registered as being of his doing.
Princess Celestia has indicated her lack of knowledge about any group her old mentor could have been a part off aside from the solar mages.
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Originally I tried another style soooo, little bonus !
It dawns on me that it's been a hot minute since I've drawn the sisters, OR one of their mother figures and one of the main characters of our little setting, Sunsparkle.
This is also the first time I've drawn all three in Clip Studio, so if their looks change or get tweaked over time...just deal with it.
Without getting too into it, it was Starswirl who originally found the sisters during one of his times traveling. Though having ZERO interest in kids, he knew that a prophecy about supposedly important sisters who would one day finally unite the nation had been floating around, and these two checked all the boxes. And though his manners and tact had atrophied from disuse over the years, he knew he couldn't leave two babies all on their own and brought them to Sunsparkle, mostly to drop them off and then go back to doing his own thing.
Not that Sunsparkle cared. While indeed she wanted to make sure the two would grow to be excellent rulers one day, she and Silver Swirl were more concerned with just making sure these little girls were happy and safe. Little did she know that these fluffballs would worm their ways into her heart, making it so Sunny would eagerly sic Majesty onto anyone who looked at them funny.
I also doubt she would have expected the girls to grow into their power to the degree they did, but then again, no one really thinks their kid would one day be able to use the heavens themselves like Legos.
(For anyone unable to read the text in the image:
Starswirl (Grumpy wizard holding two oblivious babies in his magical field:
"Sunsparkle...I'm not in the business of caring for whelps. However, I feel these two should be brought to your attention."
// This is a dream I had last night. I don't know why I had it. (go to keep reading to read it)
So in it, the villains were attacking Equestria because they were in search of the Young and Mane 12.
It was because they heard an unknown prophecy that involved the elements (My dream never told it but there was a prophecy).
The pillars managed to drive out the villains, but the land took a beating.
After the scum were chased out, the leaders of their respective kingdoms were debating what to do with the future elements of harmony (They were babies in my dream).
They knew as long as the villains knew where future bearers were, they wouldn't stop until they captured the harmony.
Stygian came up with the idea that the bearers be taken to another land with a member of the pillar moving with them.
The dream ended with the children being taken to the new lands with a pillar going with them:
Twilight and Gallus are sent to Abyssina with Starswirl.
Rainbow Dash and Smolder are sent to Griffonstone with Flash Magnus.
Rarity and Ocellus are sent to the Dragon lands with Mistmane.
Applejack and Yona are sent to Mount Aris with Rockhoof.
Fluttershy and Sandbar are sent to Farasi with Mage Meadowbrook.
Pinkie Pie and Silverstream are sent to Yakyakistan with Somnamblua.
Starlight and a Kirin are sent to the Changeling kingdom with Sytgian.
Derpy and a bird are sent to the Thicket.
Sunset Shimmer and an Abyssinan are sent to Peril Peaks.
Trixie and a Diamond Dog are sent to Ornithia.
An Earth Pony and a Deer are sent to where the minotaurs live.
Sunburst and a Minotaur were sent to the crystal empire.
(Derpy, Shimmer, Trixie, The Earth Pony, and Sunburst are accompanied by unknown pillar members.)