AU thread

Cosmas-the-Explorer
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).
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Explorer in Training
You can use this thread for AU ideas. Maybe Scootaloo really is an orphan. Maybe you envision Pinkie Pie being Discord’s mother. Maybe Applejack is Strawberryjack and she makes Strawberry Cider and whose main ambition is to annihialte all Apple ponies in vengance.
 
Use your imagination!
Cosmas-the-Explorer
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Notoriously Divine Tagger - Consistently uploads images above and beyond the minimum tag requirements. And/or additionally, bringing over the original description from the source if the image has one. Does NOT apply to the uploader adding several to a dozen tags after originally uploading with minimum to bare tagging.

Explorer in Training
@DarkyBoode32  
AU is short for Alternate Universe. It refers to situations, events or different universes that might go against canon. It’s basically a what if scenario.
 
So if in your fanfiction, Pinkie Pie is an orphan who was raised by Discord, then that is an AU since it contradicts Pinkie Pie’s canon parents and backstory.
deactivatedfaafba
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition

Imagine if Princess Luna wasn’t banished to the moon, but Celestia reformed and freed her from Nightmare Moon using the elements of harmony 1000 years ago rather than banishment.
 
Then we wouldn’t have the first premiere of MLP FiM but a very different episode, and the opening book to MLP FiM would be very different as it also mentioned Luna’s banishment.  
Nightmare Night wouldn’t exist because it’s a holiday which stands by the tale of Nightmare Moon, as ponies dress up to stop her from eating them.  
That would also mean the Mane 6 would never be introduced to the Elements of Harmony until later in the show, and it’s likely that Twilight would never be friends with Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity as they became friends when helping each other through the Everfree Forest to reach the castle ruins, and they all were the elements of harmony to rid of Nightmare Moon. But they probably would meet and know each other but would probably be acquaintances rather than best friends. Rather than Twilight using the elements it would probably be Celestia instead.  
That also means no fanart of Nightmare Moon in the fandom, we also would never get the iconic Nightmare Night remix created by WoodenToaster and Mic The Microphone.
 
Those are my predictions based on what I’ve seen in the show and the fandom, of what would happen if Luna was never banished to the moon and Celestia freed her from Nightmare Moon once she became it.
Cosmas-the-Explorer
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Notoriously Divine Tagger - Consistently uploads images above and beyond the minimum tag requirements. And/or additionally, bringing over the original description from the source if the image has one. Does NOT apply to the uploader adding several to a dozen tags after originally uploading with minimum to bare tagging.

Explorer in Training
Applejack was the top student at her home economics class as a filly. Cooking, cleaning, budgets, child rearing, and nursing were her specialties. And she was even somewhat good at knitting. Mostly for practical purposes like fixing clothes. Although her fashion designs were almost Spartan and dull. When she made a sweater if she felt excited she might put a green line on it. But overall they looked ugly and most ponies did not want to be seen in public with them.
 
When Rarity first came to the home ec class, she was only there to learn about sewing and interior design. She couldn’t care less about the other activities. Especially child rearing, cleaning and nursing.
 
Rarity never liked the idea of being cooped up in a home. She had too much wanderlust and ambition for that and thus was not able to get along well with the other classmates who often hazed her at first.
 
She was an art student before she went to home ec. And thus at first her ideas of fashion were downright unusable based on her imagination soley.
 
Rarity needs to teach AJ creativity and thinking outside the box. AJ needs to teach Rarity practicality and thinking inside the box sometimes.
Cosmas-the-Explorer
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Notoriously Divine Tagger - Consistently uploads images above and beyond the minimum tag requirements. And/or additionally, bringing over the original description from the source if the image has one. Does NOT apply to the uploader adding several to a dozen tags after originally uploading with minimum to bare tagging.

Explorer in Training
Applejack is the oldest sister of the Apple family a once fairly well off and respected family that lost its reputation and wealth. She had to sell her land to other farmers since they were in desperate times. AJ is determined to restore her family’s honor.
 
AJ as the oldest sister and de facto mother of her family needs to make sure Big Mac and Apple Bloom are ready to take care of themselves.
Latecomer

Hmm…I’ve envisioned a few of these over the years. (Besides the ones created by my headcanon not matching the show, which often seem to relate to pegasi.)
TheFinite
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Wallet After Summer Sale -

Shiny Bug
I’ve had a few ideas for AU settings. Most tend to be fairly different from the main timeline; One of the more severe examples being one I call the Echoes ‘verse where both Celestia and Luna end up going a bit mad and turning into Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon before battling to the death for the throne, and their battle is so intense that it splits the timeline into two, one where Daybreaker wins, and one where Nightmare wins. In the ‘Day’ timeline, we end up with eternal day, and over the course of a thousand years not only does the world get hotter and hotter until nothing can survive naturally, but magic itself has been drained away. To compensate, the ponies have developed very advance technology to create giant metal blocks that they live in like compact cities. In the ‘Night’ timeline, we have the opposite, eternal night with a world frozen over but ponies thriving with super-powered magic but tensions between the races so severe that they have to be separated into their own nations. Both timelines are ‘echoes’ of the main timeline, with the same ponies existing and holding the same names and equivalent jobs. Ponies of both timelines are affected by what they call ‘Fate’, which is a force that gives ponies their names and directs their eventual paths in life.
 
For a more traditional timeline, it is one that I call ‘One-Winged Angel’, where Cloudsdale is about twelve feet to the left. As a result, around the time when the first Sonic Rainboom happens, Fluttershy falls to earth due to Rainbow’s race, but is not caught by butterflies; The injuries are severe enough to seriously damage her spine, preventing her from being able to use her hind hooves, as well as taking out a wing and leaving her blind in one eye. Her family ends up having to move to Ponyville simply because Fluttershy is to terrified of living in Cloudsdale anymore in fear of falling again. During a game of kickball at school, where she just quietly stayed on the sidelines, a colt kicks the ball into the air where it hits a bird. Concerned, Fluttershy takes the injured bird home and nurses it back to health, and upon seeing it fly again, she decides she wants to help others so they don’t end up like herself, and thus decides to become a nurse. Due to having to deal with ponies as part of the job, she’s noticeably less shy than that point in canon by the time of the Summer Sun Celebration, though she still tends to keep to herself, though she does regularly keep in touch with Derpy Hooves, pretty much her only friend as Derpy was the one to find her when she fell and who visited her hospital bedside often with a fresh muffin each time.  
When Nightmare Moon returns, Derpy takes her place to go with Twilight Sparkle, thus resulting in Derpy becoming the Element of Kindness. Another Element Swap is that Bon Bon ends up as the Element of Loyalty instead of Rainbow Dash, who never left Cloudsdale. Rainbow pretty much blamed herself for Fluttershy’s condition, and despite Fluttershy’s urging, never forgave herself. Instead of dreaming to become a wonderbolt, taking a job as a weatherpony in Ponyville to stick with her friend while she practices her tricks, Dash becomes rather aimless and ends up working in the weather factory, over time growing a fondness for the mechanics of the job as the many technical aspects take up all of her focus and allow her to forget about her own guilt.
 
The third AU that I’ve put serious thought into is one called Millennium, though that one is much larger in scope and only sort of an AU because instead of changing events or details in the canon timeline, it instead jumps one thousand years into the future, where Equestria is the neutral party between a long-running cold war between the Changeling Union to the sound and the militant Crystal Empire to the north, led by Supreme General Flurry Heart (long story). At this time, Queen Twilight has a new student, a stallion named Eclipse who was cursed with dark magic when he was a foal, who is sent to the town of Everfree to learn friendship (of course). Other characters of note would be Jade Edge, a Crystal Pony veteran of the very recent Griffon Civil War, Wrench Works and Spanner Works, two intelligent hippogriffs that run a toy shop, Ventriculus, an easy-going changeling who works at the local bakery and (unbeknownst to the others) is also a veteran on the opposite side of that civil war, Kular’t, a blind griffon history enthusiast that works at the museum inside the Castle of the Two Sisters, and Rose Quill, a unicorn that writes romance novels.
 
I’ve had plenty of ideas like these for a while, I just need to do something with them at some point.
Cosmas-the-Explorer
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Notoriously Divine Tagger - Consistently uploads images above and beyond the minimum tag requirements. And/or additionally, bringing over the original description from the source if the image has one. Does NOT apply to the uploader adding several to a dozen tags after originally uploading with minimum to bare tagging.

Explorer in Training
@TheFinite  
Seriously all three of these stories sound awesome. I especially love the 2nd one with how it changed all these different traits. You need a story for Bon Bon eventually, maybe will she have some tragic backstory about having to abandon a fellow agent or something like that.
 
These are cool ideas and I wish I would have read these sooner.
Cosmas-the-Explorer
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Notoriously Divine Tagger - Consistently uploads images above and beyond the minimum tag requirements. And/or additionally, bringing over the original description from the source if the image has one. Does NOT apply to the uploader adding several to a dozen tags after originally uploading with minimum to bare tagging.

Explorer in Training
One of Rarity’s struggles is to make clothes that are both affordable and fashionable. For her fashion, she wants to create a world where high quality fashion can be affordable to everypony even the poorest if possible. She wants everypony no matter their social status, to be ladies and gentlecolts. To her a plumber and a garbage man deserves to have access to highly fashionable outfits just as much as a buisnessman can.
 
I think Rarity could be an interesting main character. She would be a much more flawed hero. She would be a bit snobbish and arrogant. But she would also be a mare of great ideas to change the world for the better.
 
With ponies like Fluttershy, who believes herself to be worthless, Rarity would constantly try to get her out of her comfort zone to fulfill Fluttershy’s dreams. Rarity would sometimes go too far and even Fluttershy cry from the pressure Rarity puts on her to improve herself. Of course Rarity is only harsh on others for what she believes is their own good. She believes generosity is not just giving money to a beggar, it’s giving them a fishing rod so they can always fish.
 
That’s a version of Rarity I envision.
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