Ideas that You Just Can't Get Out of Your Head

HOW DO YOU THINK I FEEL?!
 
my chosen medium is animation.
 
I have to stick with one idea for months on end.
 
ONE IDEA FOR MONTHS OR IT DOESN’T GET COMPLETED
 
after the 4th month working on a project. everyday I have a better more interesting idea than the one im currently working on. ANYTHING is more interesting at that point.

@Background Pony #5D8C  
Thank you! I’ve decided to hold off on the idea for now (maybe save it for Cartoon Network’s 25th anniversary?), but I still end up thinking about it again here and there. Like, I’ve thought about a major story arc involving the formerly-disbanded Kids Next Door returning, but now run by a villain and serving as a powerful antagonist force on earth. And former KND operatives (most now in their 20’s) have either tried to live normal lives or fought a losing battle against their former organization.
 
One thing I’d like reader input on is: should Star Wars: Clone Wars (2D) and Transformers: Animated be included in the crossover? I want this crossover to be of Cartoon Network originals/Cartoon Cartoons, and while CW 2D and TFA are technically in that category (and are damn good shows), I worry (as adaptations of existing franchises) that it would be too confusing to include their massive ‘verses in the CN multiverse. Maybe it would be better just to include the themes of both shows (civilians forced into war against powerful militaristic resistance fighters, intergalactic war, etc.) or only use a handful of characters from each show that could believably exist in the crossover with different backgrounds or origins (like the Sumdacs or General Grievous or whoever).
 
That said, Sari Sumdac and Generator Rex meeting? Autobots fighting alongside Jedis? More aliens and worlds for the Sym-Bionic Titan, Megas XLR, and Steven Universe universes? It’s almost too absurdly awesome to pass up.

Okay, this has been in my head for months.
 
The princesses realize that when the rest of the six die then there will be no more Elements, not their spirits, even. If that happens then Twilight’s power will also be lesser as she’s the princess of Friendship, without her friends.
 
So they find a way to combine their souls into Twilight’s, now stronger and taller, alicorn body. Live on forever, Twi being able to wield the full power of the Elements of Harmony at her whim. The other five create a sort of… Hive mind, I’d call it, in her head, because they are still alive, and will be until Twilight herself dies. They can even speak through her, sometimes. Friends forever.
 
They don’t tell Twilight the full extent of what this whole process does, she thinks they’ll keep their bodies, or something to that effect. When she finds out it’s too late, and she’s so mad at them for doing this to her, to all of them, that she runs away, and they don’t bother to follow. She’s got every right to be mad, to go away for a bit.
 
A bit ends up being… Oh, 50 years, maybe. Consider that normal ponies live around 120, at least… Aaaand that’s all I got for now.

For a long while now, I’ve wanted to eventually write a story that utilizes Sunset Shimmer’s original potential as a villain to its fullest.
 
The backstory would be this:
 
After having her falling-out with Celestia and leaving her tutelage (as seen in the comic The Fall of Sunset Shimmer), Sunset would not have traveled to the human world (the crystal mirror would not exist in this story). Instead, she’d journey across Equestria for years, studying all manner of magic in the hopes of finding a way to reverse-engineer the alicorn spell. Her goal is to eventually return to Canterlot as an alicorn, which (in her mind) would force Celestia to admit that Sunset was ready to be a princess.
 
However, during Sunset’s exile, Twilight Sparkle becomes Celestia’s student, rediscovers the elements of harmony, saves Equestria several times, and becomes an alicorn princess. Sunset is not pleased when she hears about this. In fact, there probably aren’t words to describe the hatred and fury that she feels when she hears this news. Some no-name unicorn came out of absolutely nowhere and stole the destiny that Sunset had been working so hard to achieve.
 
At this point, Sunset’s goals change. Becoming an alicorn isn’t enough for her anymore. Now, she’ll settle for nothing less than completely destroying Twilight Sparkle and everything that she stands for. And with all of the forbidden knowledge she’s gained during her exile, she just might be able to do it…

@LanceOmikron  
I’d love to see that.

@PonyPon  
I’d love to write it eventually. Trouble is, it’s quite an intimidating project. For one thing, if I do write it, it’ll be the longest thing I’ve ever written.
 
For another thing, a LOT of very important stuff happens in the backstory, and I need to find a good way to integrate all of that into the main story as naturally as possible.
 
There’s a lot that could be done wrong, but I really want to get it right. It just comes down to me buckling down, writing it, making the mistakes that I need to make in the first draft, then fixing them in further drafts.

I had an idea for a Christmas story building on various types of my headcanons, including the popular Derpy fic “Bubbles”, & Ditzy & Daring Do being sisters separated at a young age, and also a bit of Scrooge McDuck story with Daring Do filling as Scrooge.
 
We are in Manehatten, where Daring Do in the guise of A.K.Yearling is seen registering at an expensive hotel, arriving for a Heartwarming’s Eve book signing at the insistence of her editor. She isn’t thrilled over the prospect of a lone Heartwarming’s inside a hotel room, and would much rather celebrate back at her home in the jungle. The furniture and the sight of the big city brings back memories of the family she once had and which she had left when she was a filly. We learn that they had a bad marriage and were constantly quarreling. Daring, who wanted more from life,ran away to seek her own destiny, and the only one she confided in about it was her unrevealed sister who she left behind as well.
 
In Ponyville, Dinky broods over the fact that they don’t have their family visiting for Christmas dinner like all the other ponies in her neightborhood, something that she has never realised before. (AB can be used/mentioned here for a really big family). Seeing how her bad mood threatens to ruin their Christmas she is taken aside by Carrot Top who reveals that her mother was an abandoned child. One day, Raindrops & her father found her happily blowing bubbles in the forest, and they took her to Carrot’s father Doc (Muffin)Top. Ponyville sort of collectively took her in, but being a normal young clever pony, she had no problem finishing the pegasus flight school and become self sufficient. But they never did find her biological family.
 
Fired up, Dinky starts feverishly searching for clues about her grandparents, and emplys the help of the other kids in town, aided by the CMC, to ask their parents about what they remember about Derpy, Through these, we learn the small ways Derpy helped the townsfolk, and why her kindness wins everyone over despite her clumsiness. Eventually, piecing together something the puzzle using something a young Derpy said to one of the parents once shortly after she has arrived in Ponyville, and Granny Smith’s extensive knowledge about how Equestria looked like 20 years ago, they realize that they managed to figure out where the home of Derpy’s parents has to be.
 
On Heartwarming’s Eve, ponies start appearing at Derpy’s house, starting with her fillyhood friends Raindrops, Bulk, Rainbow Dash - and naturally if RD comes then the rest of the mane 6 came too, and it looks like it is going to turn into a huge party at Derpy’s soon. However, only Carrot appears to inform the crowd that Derpy & Dinky headed to Manehatten to look for Derpy’s family. Worried about a snowstorm that is coming, and because Derpy apparently never arrived to Hotel Manehatten (maybe Spike can act as the ‘phone’ to find this out…) they decide to search for her, an effort that eventually the whole town joins.
 
Derpy and Dinky are meanwhile lost on the road, constantly distracted from their goal because of the ponies they meet on the road - a filly who lost her train tickets and can’t get back to her family for Heartwarming’s, a lost filly who got separated from her parents, a homeless pony, an injured animal and so on. Unfortunately all the time they wasted leaves them stranded in the middle of a snowstorm halfway between Pv and Manehatten.
 
They also find the house of Derpy’s parents, but they learn that they have already moved away. We learn about a father, who died; grandfather, who was a member of the Wonderbolts, a sister, and Depy’s mother, currently living in a tralier park.
 
Derpy & daughter are rescued from dying in the snow by the Ponyvilleans and are taken to the Manehatten Hotel. Accidentally seeing one of the Daring Do signing posters scattered about and with the help of a memento she has, Derpy realizes the truth. Daring Do initially does not want to receive them, caught up in the rich celebrity mindset and assuming them to be persistent fans, but they eventually have a heartwarming reunion.
 
We jump to the next day, where Derpy, alone, confronts her mother, an alcoholic with depression (which she already had through Derpy’s childhood) leaving alone in an old trailer. She hated her life and being a mother, and her more talented daughter leaving and Derpy being “damaged” only added fuel to the fire.  
Dash and the others outside are annoyed that they aren’t allowed to rush in and convince the old hag how she is wrong about Derpy, but this is something DH wanted to alone. Derpy apparently bears no ill will against her mother even though she clearly still despises Derpy just as much as before, and only wishes for her to return with them so that Dinky can enjoy a Christmas dinner with her grandmother. They manage to convince her to join the feast in Ponyville, where the love and adoration the townspeople show for Derpy finally convinces her that her daughter was doing fine. Before she could become self-conscious because if it’s true then she was the one who was wrong who denied her daughter and her own happniess, she is surprised by Dinky bringing her a gift, a drawing of her and the other Doo family members. Dinky & DH convince her to move back with them in Ponyville.
 
[Derpy’s mom is aon OC, sure, (though I took inspiration from her appearance in “Bubbles” too) but I could see her working as a permanent character. I have a liking for strict and difficult to please older family/grandparents, I even came up with such an image of Pinkie’s Granny Pie elsewhere. Look at the latest issue of Yotsubato if you don’t know what I’m talking about.]

@LanceOmikron  
And you should make sure that she doesn’t kill Twilight. Destroys everything she stands for right before her eyes and take control of Equestria. Let Twilight watch as she rules with an iron hoof.

@luna the great!  
Indeed, killing Twilight is not anywhere in the cards. Part of Sunset’s plan is to sully Twilight’s name and make her look like the villain, so that all of Equestria will be cheering for her downfall.
 
This short description makes it sound highly unlikely, but I assure you that Sunset’s plan is quite complex. I’d be glad to explain it, but I’ll have to warn you that it’s quite involved, and often results in a wall of text.

@LanceOmikron  
I like walls of text. Go on?

@luna the great!  
That’s what I like to hear! (don’t say I didn’t warn you!)
 
First, it’s important to note that Sunset’s falling-out with Celestia was never made public, as Celestia considered it to be a personal matter.
 
While on her quest for the knowledge that Celestia “denied” her, Sunset still makes sure to keep up with current events. She hears about Celestia taking on a new student (Twilight) very soon after it happens. At first, Sunset doesn’t think anything of Twilight. After all, she’s just some random pony that Celestia decided to tutor, right? She’s nothing.
 
However, after Twilight rediscovers the elements of harmony and redeems Princess Luna, THAT gets Sunset’s attention. She starts paying much closer attention to Twilight and the events that she’s involved in, and her focus only increases as more stuff happens: Discord, the Changeling Invasion of Canterlot, the Changeling attack on Ponyville and Twilight’s subsequent duel with Chrysalis, The Crystal Empire, Nightmarity, and of course Twilight’s ascension and coronation.
 
As I said before, Twilight becoming a princess is what sends Sunset over the edge. She starts making her plans in earnest, and realizes that as powerful as she is, she’ll need plenty of loyal followers to carry them out. Luckily, she knows exactly where to find them.
 
She travels to the castle where Twilight and Chrysalis had their duel on the night of the Secretariat comet. Chrysalis and the changelings are still trapped inside, and have grown weak from a lack of food. Sunset destroys the traps that had imprisoned the changelings and challenges Chrysalis for leadership of the swarm. Chrysalis accepts the challenge, but since she’s severely weakened by starvation and is still nursing wounds from her fight with Twilight, Sunset beats her handily.  
Sunset then addresses the swarm, telling them that if they swear their undying loyalty to her, she’ll help them reach their full potential and will never let them go hungry. The entire swarm (sans Chryssy) immediately accepts. Sunset imprisons Chrysalis and keeps her close at hoof, figuring that if anything goes wrong with her using changelings, Chrysalis can be the scapegoat.
 
After that, Sunset uses her linked journal to send a message to Celestia in the hopes of gaining an audience with her and Luna. Celestia, who of course has no idea of the depths that Sunset has sunk to, is overjoyed to finally get a chance at reconciling with her misbegotten pupil. So one night, Celestia meets Sunset for the first time in many years, and Luna meets her for the first time. It’s a trap, though. Sunset uses dark magic to catch both princesses entirely off guard and turn them to stone.
 
Twilight receives a letter that same night, and not through the usual dragonbreath mail. The letter is from “Celestia”, and warns her that she’s likely to be the target of an impending attack (or something. I admit, this is probably the weakest part of the story currently) and that she’ll have to leave Equestria at once for a few months. Transport is already arranged at the train station, and she’s not allowed to tell anyone of this. Guards will be dispatched to the library to collect Spike and the Elements of Harmony for safekeeping after she leaves. Seeing no reason to believe that this is a forgery (the letter looks absolutely authentic, royal seal and all), Twilight complies with its instructions.
 
The next morning, chaos erupts in Canterlot as two ponies wage a pitched battle all across the city with loads of witnesses. One of them is “Princess Twilight Sparkle”, who’s maniacally laughing and gloating that she’s killed Celestia and Luna and that all of her plans are coming to fruition. The other is Sunset Shimmer, who’s going out of her way to protect the citizens of Canterlot as she battles the mad princess. Eventually they fight to a standstill and “Twilight” runs off, swearing revenge.
 
This, of course, sends Canterlot into complete uproar, with Sunset at the center. Naturally the populace realizes that “Evil Twilight” might have been a changeling, but Sunset (who by this point has undergone and passed changeling tests) dismisses their suspicions, stating that “if she was fighting a changeling impersonating Twilight, she would know”. Meanwhile, Sunset has proven her identity as Celestia’s student by having Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns pull records on her enrollment and apprenticeship, which check out (and even if Celestia made a record of Sunset’s dismissal without making it public, Sunset probably thought about that beforehand and quietly destroyed any embarrassing records shortly before the coup). She explains her absence as Celestia sending her off to explore the world as advanced training, but that Celestia also had a way to alert Sunset in the event of her own death.
 
Since Equestria has lost all three of their princesses in one fell swoop (and Cadance is busy with the Crystal Empire), the issue of selecting a new leader is put front and center. Sunset becomes an obvious candidate, helped by Sunset revealing that Celestia had also taught her to raise the sun and moon (except not. she uses a spell to set Celestia and Luna’s sun and moon controlling spells to “autopilot” while they’re trapped in stone). And her public opinion only continues to rise the longer Twilight is gone, and more and more ponies start to accept the show that happened on the day of the coup as truth. And ponies that are heavily opposed to Sunset being princess soon have a complete change of heart on the matter (i.e. they’re replaced by changelings).
 
After being crowned the sole Princess of Equestria, Sunset pledges to protect the country and to bring Twilight Sparkle, The Deceiver Princess, to justice. There are some ponies who think that there’s foul play at work, and that Twilight might be innocent, but don’t listen to them! They’re “Deceivers of Harmony” who want nothing more than to bring ruin to Equestria!
 
Several months later, Twilight receives instructions to return to Equestria. And return she does… to a world gone crazy.

Even though “many Twists an Surprises” would be an obvious pun I never saw a pic with both of those characters.

I know it’d take too much time to do… but I’d love to work on a “villains” folio someday. One of those ideas I’d always wanted to get on tablet.

Its gotten to the point where Im not good enough to draw ANYTHING i want to do. It’s making me feel like shit.

Twilight researches the elements and sets off some sort of safety precaution which opens the powers of them to her. She them proceeds to suck the harmonic magic out of it subconsciously, as if it’s drawn her in. She’s fascinated, not knowing that she’s sapped the element, and so tries it again, just a bit! And again. And again. Until it’s to the point where she is addicted to the magic, and the elements are sucked dry of all their harmony.
 
And then she ‘concludes’ her research, locking them away so nopony can see the dull stones. She tries to stop looking for the magic, but the withdrawal is so terrible that she begins to display jittery and irritable behaviours, until she finally concedes and starts pulling whatever bits of harmony she can pick up in the air. Changling traits, No, like Tirek, she realizes, and is horrified. But she can’t stop.
 
And she needs more and more to sustain her growing alicorn body, the hunger manifests more and more. It’s no longer enough.
 
She sucks a pony dry, and the downhill crashes there.

Something sweet to give away…
 

 
_{(that’s a shield preventing an explosion from killing Ponies.)}
 
Something good to die for, to make it beautiful to live…

@luna the great!  
I have admittedly always wanted to see Twilight lose complete control of herself and her magic, although I’m not sure how dark and how far I’d like to see it go. It’s always cool to see stuff that keeps to the tone of the show while still being progressively darker.
 
I’ve been obsessing over a project involving plotting out factions and units and techs of the Equestria Divided AU like it’s an actual RTS videogame. Like, what each faction would use as a siege weapon, lumber gatherer, etc. I’m mostly basing off of games I’ve played with faction variety (Starcraft 1, Warcraft 3, Age of Mythology), since that’s easier than completely starting from scratch.

Okay, then how about this:
 
Imagine a group of friends who are chosen by a mystical force to fight evil. Maybe they travel to a magical kingdom with childish rules to do things.  
But for reasons it never quite happens, the Evil Overlord goes into hiding or enters a slumber or whatever, they can not finish the job. You’ve got five heroes ready to go and no evil to defeat, no kingdom to save.
 
The friends grow up, go to college, have interesting careers, form adult-like relationships with spouses&kids/colleagues/the public etcetra.  
Just then, some 10-20 years later they get contacted again, evil is back and it’s to finish the job they started.
 
But they can’t do it anymore. Mentally, that is. They are too rational, too serious, too responsble. Too aware of the very real dangers they were only marginally aware not seen before. They are not the kind who’d let the kids play in traffic without a helmet.
 
If you don’t want to overdo the whole “adults=stupid” theme, maybe they can be (nonpowered) superheroes. They used to do something because they believed in it, and they no longer believe.
 
But they don’t want the whole thing to just die off, they still think the world needs that sort of optimism and courage they had in their youth, but they know they can no longer do it with all their hearts.
 
So they take on the role of mentors. They select some wide-eyed youths and help them succeed where they couldn’t. However, and this is the real meat of the story, their approach to the whole thing differs greatly.
 

@Vree  
That’s actually quite good, I’ve thought of at least a third of that concept before.

I’ve always been interested in the idea Of one of the big bads returning to a post apocalyptic Equestria. Particularly Nightmare moon. I like the idea of her somehow returning to a place Like Fallout Equestria.
 
Depending on how evil she was written she would either be a reluctant hero or a heinous tyrant. If the latter she would be horrified by this new world at first but quickly warming up to it. She would especially enjoy the invention of guns, gleefully shooting anyone and anything and no pony able to stop her.
 
A pony like Little Pip would quickly discover that bullets are ineffective on supernatural entities when Moon is headshot and just keeps laughing and firing back.
 
in either she would eventually gather a following praising the returned alicorn and would go about a) trying to fix the wasteland if a reluctant hero or b) forcing the sun down to let them know she’s back and conquer the wastes.
 

 
my other idea is Celestiq wandering around a ruined world with a young Sunset Shimmer and a filly Twilight, still teaching them about magic and friendship, alongside how to, you know, not get killed in the wastes. Her being the only thing that’s keeping the world from freezing or burning as she raises and lowers the sun still.

@Vree  
Well, colored me intrigued! Reminds me a bit of how I’ve always wanted to see a “decon-recon-switch” done with superhero team show. Framing it with a previous-gen team and next-gen team with their varied relationships sounds fascinating.

I’m actually drawing the 1st few panels of an idea that’s been rattling around in my head. The prologue I’m doing starts years before the show’s current timeline, where history book illustrations tell of a gelatinous evil that quickly spread through Equestria.
 
This isn’t the story of that conflict but one of the soldiers defending the kingdom who falls in love with a military nurse. Their romance is cut short when our poor nurse perishes in an enemy attack that also robs our young soldier of his right eye. No longer in a condition to fight directly on the front lines, the soldier begins submitting battle plans and finds he has a knack at being a strategist. Before long, the invading force is finally driven out of the kingdom and the battered army returns home.
 
Our soldier finds himself back at his sea side town, but he feels like he already lost everything before the conflict was even over. Cloistering himself at home, he begins to work night and day while rumors of strange experiments begin circulating amongst the townsfolk. They say he’s become a professor Frankenstallion, trying to bring life to his creations.
 
One day the royal guard arrive and escort the troubled colt to a secret military court in Canterlot. Officially he’s tried for treason but the details of his crimes are never released to the public. And there he stays imprisoned deep beneath the palace until the current day, which ends the prologue. Now my actual story takes place starting with his jail break shown in this Pic.
 
With the help of his artificial pony, the professor escapes to the Crystal Empire. His assistant has spent the years during his imprisonment setting up shop in the wilds just outside the city’s border. Keeping a low profile, the pair start a delivery service which transports anything the post office refuses whether the parcel is too dangerous or the journey too difficult. Trixie and then Lightning Dust are eventually employed and deliveries are made for some familiar faces from season four.
 
In the end, our professor finds himself framed for crimes in the nearby city and targeted by Princess Cadence and her royal guard. They clash outside his new home before the one who staged all this is revealed and in possession of a powerful artifact that they stole from the crystal palace while the princess and her guard were occupied in their manhunt. Giant season finale battle ensues and things turn back to normal afterwards.

I was going to jokingly mention the idea of drawing pony boobs sticking with me and not going away no matter how much I tried, but then I saw some of the ideas on here already, and holy cow. Some of these are really detailed and impressive.

Okay, just gonna toss this out.
 
What if everything is nothing but a game to Celestia and Luna( and possibly Discord.) What if they created Equestria when they were young and they control every detail of what happens? That’s why they never leave the castle when there is trouble, they just send out their soldiers. The princesses don’t do the dirty work, right? That’s what their subjects do.
 
That’s why they’re princesses. They couldn’t imagine being queens. The whole world is their plaything. It’s a sort of traditions for young alicorns to do this worldbuilding thing. A thousand years? That’s nothing to them. That’s a really short amount of time, they are just barely young adults now.
 
The banishment of Luna was just another part of the game. Luna went through a rebellious stage. she didn’t want to co-rule the world, she wanted one of her own. So Celestia gave her one. The moon. Luna made a colony there, that’s what the mare in the moon was. A thousand years later? She got tired of it. She wanted to rule with Celestia again. So she wiped out her world, no more life, and went back. The whole elements thing was a ruse. Celestia wanted to test her student, Luna went along with it and pretended to be a villain. They knew they would have to leave Equestria on it’s own soon, and Twilight was being groomed for princesshood her whole life, though she never knew. She had been planned since the conception of the elements…
 
About five years after Twilight’s ascension they had come of age and were to go to their home. They explained it all to the bearers, Cadence… It was all just a game.

@luna the great!  
I can’t help but be reminded of this: