#uneb au

Celestia and Luna's Backstory 

(I'm going to refer to Earth Ponies as Terrans, because I've always thought their race's name being “Earth Pony" was kinda dumb.)

My concept of Celestia and Luna's parents. Gaia represents the Earth (Mother Earth) and Cronus represents time (Father Time). 

The majority of the time, the Alicorns kept their distance from the creatures of Earth.

When the three pony types decided to put aside their differences and come together, some Alicorns became excited at the idea that eventually they'll discover how to unlock their innate Alicorn magic and transform and join them. Gaia and Cronus were some of them.

Alicorns have an innate sense of what a ponies cutie mark will be, so they choose Celestia and Luna to be the ones to rule over the three pony tribes and guide them since their destinies to raise the sun and moon, and the Unicorns were struggling with it. They were hoping with C&L as guides, the normal ponies would be turned into Alicorns and replenish their numbers. 

Gaia and Cronus had found a pupil in Starswirl years ago, so they sent C&L down to be raised by him so he could teach them magic, since Unicorns have more experimental ways of doing magic than Alicorns. 

~~~~

I, like some others, had always preferred the idea that an Alicorn created the Tree of Harmony, instead of it just being Starswirl and his lovers, um… friends 😏 like it is in canon. However, I do like the thematic idea that if ordinary creatures with a strong enough bond combine their magic, they can create powerful artifacts. So in my AU I decided to combine both ideas. 

Gaia, whose magic manifests through nature like plants, weather, animals, etc, helped the Pillars create the Tree of Harmony by combining their magic and creating the seed herself. They also made it so that C&L could use it when they get older, explaining their cutie marks on the Tree.

(The whole bit about Starswirl entrusting Scorpan to plant/watch over the seed and some of Scorpan's magic ending up in it and all that still happened.)

After Luna turned into Nightmare Moon and was banished, Mom and Dad were devastated. However, they didn’t free her because they viewed it as a learning opportunity. Go in the corner Luna. Cronus was actually the one who created the prophecy about Nightmare Moon's return because he saw Celestia finding the new Element barriers (Mane Six) 1000 years later. 

Celestia created her school after Luna's banishment. Celestia knew that without her sister, her grip on the Elements of Harmony would grow weaker and weaker, until eventually she couldn't use them. So she created her school to find a Unicorn who could wield the Element of Magic, and eventually the other five would come along.

Celestia, despite being a combination of all three pony types, has a subconscious bias towards Unicorns because she and her sister were raised by a Unicorn wizard, who emphasized magic and spellcasting. Pegasi and Terrans have magic too, but because they're more passive than Unicorn magic Celestia never considered the Element of Magic could be anything other than a Unicorn. 

Celestia took many personal pupils. Radiant Hope, Cadance (who's a Pegasus, but Celestia knew she was related to Princess Amore, a Unicorn and creator of the Crystal Empire), Sunset Shimmer, Sunburst, Twilight Sparkle, probably some others in the hopes they'd be the Element of Magic and/or they could become Alicorns to help her rule. When Celestia saw that Twilight's cutie mark was the Element of Magic, she knew that she was The One.

Celestia used Spike's egg (which was given to Starswirl by Scorpan) as a prop for the entrance exam for Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Failing to hatch the egg had no bearing on whether or not they got in, it's just to see their power level. If hatching a dragon egg did matter/if there were more dragon eggs other than Spike, we would've seen a lot more dragons running around Canterlot (which actually would explain the dragonsneeze trees, but whatever). Starswirl created one of his most powerful spells, the amniomorphic spell, for the specific purpose of hatching this egg, but he never got around to it.

Short version: 

It takes place in my a hypothetical version of season 10, based on the comics.

Twilight is still the ruler of Equestria. Many different creatures are starting to live alongside ponies and each other. The other creatures grew their own Trees of Harmony, and each Tree is connected. Unbeknownst to them, the connected Trees of Harmony have created their own hidden Tree. 

There are still some minor conflicts involving the different creatures living together, but that's to be expected.  

After the discovery that all creatures can use magic with enough practice in season 9, different creatures now attend Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns... um, Creatures.

One day, a rhino comes to Equestria. He's one of the few creatures not happy about these changes, so he had gone on a quest to figure out how to destroy each Tree. 

Long story short, after discovering the new connected Tree of Harmony, the Young Six use its Elements to defeat the rhino. Twilight and her friends see something in these children, and decide to become their mentors.

A pony named Luster Dawn, who was already Twilight's pupil 

A yak named Yona, Applejack's pupil 

A dragon named Smolder, Rarity's pupil

A griffon named Gallus, Rainbow Dash's pupil 

A kirin named Sandbar, Fluttershy's pupil

A hippogriff named Silverstream, Pinkie Pie's pupil

Bray the Donkey (who was reformed in the last season) is still Spike's assistant, and occasionally joins them on adventurers. Later on the rhino gets reformed and becomes Starlight's pupil, and joins the Young Six.

The rhino is this mysterious villain from one of the a future murals:

The Appleloosa ponies give the land they stole back to the buffalo. 

Princess Cadance is a unicorn, like Princess Amore. She still rules the Crystal Empire.

Starlight Glimmer's entire character is reworked. 

Flurry Heart is a very powerful unicorn, not Alicorn. 

I thought it would be cool if the Changeling's physical transformation happened gradually. When Starlight and Thorax convince them to transform in To Where And Back Again, their holes are erased, they gain different colors, and their wings and tails are pretty. The next time we see them in Twilight's simulation in Celestial Advice, she explains that gradually they've been transforming as they share more love. In To Change A Changeling, they've gained their beetle wings and fancy horns.

Hey, you're right. We don't know much about her parents.

I guess the dad likes to fish.

I don't think Ahuizotl is an antagonist that needed to be reformed, because in the grand scheme of things he's really not that important. Rainbow Dash is involved in each episode he appears in, but she doesn't have a personal connection to him, Daring Do does.

I don't mind Garble getting reformed because I think if Spike reformed him, it would serve as a good character progression for him. Keep in mind that Garble was the first dragon friend Spike ever made (before they broke up, lol), so themematically it makes sense for them to become friends again in the final season. 

The problem with both of their reformations is that their characters were retconned/the writers ignored their villainous actions to make them work. Which is honestly crazy, because neither Ahuizotl or Garble have that much character to begin with, they're pretty one-note antagonists.

I decided to do some research to see if there was any hint of something deeper to their characters prior to them getting retconned in season 9.

No, lol.

I guess these are implying that Garble is jealous of Spike's relationship with his pony friends, also there's a line of dialogue in Shadow Play Part 1 that might imply that too:

Garble: Ugh. Why is he always hiding behind ponies?

He could either view this as Spike being weak, or he's jealous of his friends. This could be seen as foreshadowing that either Garble's relationship with his own friends was exactly as it was portrayed in Sweet and Smoky, or their friendship was fine, but Garble secretly wanted more out of it but he couldn't get it because dragon culture prevents them from being really sensitive and open with each other and getting mental health help (or any help) which led Garble to acting out and... stuff.

Ember in Triple Threat:

Ember: Well, you know what us dragons say. "Push past the pain!" Now, let's go.

Wow. That's actually kinda deep. That's not a bad idea, but the way they wrote it in Sweet and Smoky was soooooo stupid… also the episode was attempting to justify the bad things Garble's done (and threatened to do) by being like “he acted like a bully so he himself wouldn't get bullied, so he's actually a victim”. Kinda similar to what happened with Babs Seed, except worse, because Garble's actions are way worse than Babs… (this show isn't great when it comes to bully characters).

Ahuizotl 

For Daring Doubt, I made a mild rewrite that doesn't retcon Ahuizotl's character:

Original dialogue:

Ahuizotl: Well... the thing is, I'm in charge of protecting this jungle. If another artifact goes missing on my watch, I'm going to be in so much trouble with the other guardian creatures.

Fluttershy: Awww. That sounds like a lot of responsibility.

Ahuizotl: [stammers] It is! And those two have taken so many relics from my land, my job is on the line! So... maybe I am a little violent and ferocious. Can you blame me? [blows nose]

Daring Do: The only reason I've been taking the artifacts is because I thought I was protecting them.

Dr. Caballeron: I was stealing them to get rich. But I never realized you had a noble cause. I thought you were just being a monster.

Ahuizotl: [sighs] I get that a lot.

Rainbow Dash: Maybe there is something to this whole listening-to-everypony thing.

Fluttershy: It doesn't always mean they're telling the truth, but everycreature deserves kindness.

Ahuizotl: True. And because you returned the Talisman and took the time to understand me, I will let you all go.

AU dialogue:

Ahuizotl: Well... the thing is, I'm in charge of protecting this jungle. If another artifact goes missing on my watch, I'm going to be in so much trouble with the other guardian creatures.

Fluttershy: Awww. That sounds like a lot of responsibility.

Ahuizotl: [stammers] It is! And those two have taken so many relics from my land, my job is on the line! So... maybe I am a little violent and ferocious. Can you blame me? [blows nose]

Daring Do: The only reason I've been taking the artifacts is because I thought I was protecting them.

Dr. Caballeron: I was stealing them to get rich. But I never realized you had a noble cause.

Daring Do: But you once tried to doom the valley to eight centuries of unrelenting, sweltering heat! Among other terrible things.

Ahuizotl: It's true. But, it's my job to make sure every artifact in the jungle is used to their *exact* purpose. Whether the purpose is for good, or evil.

Daring Do: It's still wrong, even if it is your job.

Ahuizotl: *shrugs* Hey, I need this job.

Rainbow Dash: Maybe there is something to this whole listening-to-everypony thing.

Fluttershy: It doesn't always mean their actions are good, but everycreature deserves to be listened to.

Ahuizotl: True. And because you returned the Talisman and took the time to understand me, I will let you all go. This time. You won't be so lucky next time.

Garble

Cadance has always felt out of place among the adult Alicorns. She's the only Alicorn who's theme isn't celestial related, and she's the only Alicorn who doesn't have a connection to the Tree of Harmony (her cutie mark isn't on it).

Originally she was supposed to be a regular unicorn princess who mastered Love Magic, but Hasbro made her an Alicorn at the last minute for toy sale reasons. 

Of course there's a similar thing about Twilight becoming an Alicorn, but at least it fits more with her character development, plus she fits more with Celestia and Luna than Cadance does. Lauren Faust's original vision for Twilight to become a princess, she just didn't envision Twilight becoming an Alicorn princess...

In episodes where Cadance needs to fly, she uses a levitation spell, or the spell Twilight used on Rarity to give her butterfly wings.

I know that means Flurry Heart can't be an Alicorn too, which is a bigger problem seeing as how her entire character revolves around her powerful Alicorn magic. I thought of a solution to that: Flurry Heart's powerful magic is the result of both her parents being exceptionally powerful unicorns.

In the episode Baby Cakes they establish that when some unicorns are babies, they have bursts of powerful magic. It's unknown if Pumpkin Cake being as powerful as she was is the exception or the standard, but Flurry Heart's baby magic is 10x that of what we saw Pumpkin Cake do.

So Celestia, Luna, and Twilight are the only Alicorns seen in the show, until other Alicorns appear in the final season. 

Plus Sunset Shimmer's story in general too.

The core concept of Equestria Girls is lame.

Like, in a vacuum, it really isn't that bad. But when comparing it to the main show... I think it's lame.

Well, I know the only reason Equestria Girls exists is because Hasbro wanted to compete with the Monster High franchise. This entire franchise is all about selling toys, afterall.

I personality think EG is lame for a few reasons:

The concept of taking these cute magical creatures who are (vaguely) adults that live in a cool fantasy world and turning them into ugly human teenagers (I don't like their designs) in a normal human setting is lame. Also dragons turn into dogs for no reason, which is lame and stupid and makes no sense. 

The versions of the characters in EG are less interesting than in the main show. 

The lore and world building makes no sense. Like, there are plenty of things from the main show that don't get proper explanation, but in EG it's so much worse. 

I guess it'll be hard to make EG more interesting, since Hasbro wanted it to rival Monster High. So the base concept has to have the characters as humans in a high school setting. So it still has to have that.

Ok, how about this:

Star Swirl created the first portal in order to banish the Sirens to a world that didn't have magic. His spell made it so ponies and other fully sapient creatures turned into the dominant species of the planet, because his intention was to use Human Earth as the dumping grounds for magical villains like the Sirens. He created many more mirrors to other worlds in order to teach Celestia and Luna some lessons. 

Sunset Shimmer was a little bit older than Twilight Sparkle when she was enrolled in Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. Sunset Shimmer had been Celestia's pupil for 2 years before Twilight came along. Celestia sensed that Twilight Sparkle was the Element of Magic, not to mention Twilight was the only one of her students who could hatch Spike's egg, which further cemented this. So Celestia began spending more time with Twilight, and Sunset became jealous. 

Twilight and Sunset met occasionally, but never spent much time together. Neither Twilight or Sunset cared about friendship.

After Twilight and Spike moved to Ponyville, Celestia put her focus on her again, because even though Sunset wasn't the Element of Magic, she still had potential. But at this point, Sunset had grown jealous and bitter.

Celestia showed Sunset Star Swirl's crystal mirror in order to inspire her, and the rest was history. 

Time works differently in the human world, so while Sunset spent years there, it's only been a few months in the pony world. 

Sunset decided to steal Twilight's Element of Magic and bring it to the human world, hoping it would bring magic to the human world so that she can take it over, then eventually take over Equestria. Because of this, the Elements of Harmony now exist in the human world. 

Twilight and Spike go to the human world to get the crown back from Sunset, and along the way they meet the other Mabe Sux.

Because of Sunset Shimmer using the crown, she gains powers and has brought magic to the human world. So there are a bunch of magic shenanigans happening.

The second movie can be the same, ig.

The third movie can be the same, except they reveal this: 

I like this theory.

The fourth movie can reveal that the reason why the Everfree Forest in the pony world can function without magic, is because there's, like, a warp in the spacetime continuum that connects it to the human world or something. 

Also, I'm going to make it clear that Sunset is only a few years older than Twilight, and neither Sunset or Twilight fall for Flash Sentry. Because of this:

Grogar was born in a small village populated by sheep and goats. They had a simple relationship with the ponies, where in exchange for their wool, the ponies gave them food and shelter. However, the ponies refused to let them live among them, so the sheep and goats were regulated to live in pens on earth pony farms.

Grogar noticed that most ponies in general looked down on nonmagical ungulates and treated them like animals. Grogar began to wonder why some ungulates possessed magic, and others didn't. Grogar studied the ponies and noticed that the three ponies channeled magic through specific body parts: unicorns through their horns, pegasi through their wings, and earth ponies through their hooves. Grogar had horns, so he tried channeling magic through them, but it wouldn't work.

One day, Grogar wandered into a donkey village and met Bray, an orphan. Bray instantly became attached to Grogar, and Grogar decided to take her in. One day, magic spilled out of Grogar's horns when feeling happiness with Bray, and he finally realized that friendship… is magic. Boom.

This is the moment when Grogar realized that forming positive relationships, trust, and cooperation with others can awaken the dormant magic in everycreature, and is the only way to succeed at anything. 

Grogar and Bray leave the land and travel the world, studying magic and other creatures. They learn the legends of Draconequus, who used to dominate the world alongside Alicorns, and were their polar opposites. Where Alicorns specialized in Harmony magic, Draconequus specialized in Chaos magic. The legend goes that all life on earth came from these two godlike creatures.

Grogar realizes that the only way to cure the chaos of the world is to revert the creatures on it back to Alicorns and Draconequus. Grogar creates the Bewitching Bell from the horn of a centaur, creatures who can absorb magic.

The two return to the land that would later become Equestria and conduct experiments on animals in order to try to create a draconequus using the power of the Bell. The various monsters seen throughout the show are Grogar's prototypes for draconequus. Grogar uses these monsters to take over ponykind, and put sheep and goats on top. Eventually Grogar succeeded in creating a baby draconequus.

Gusty, a unicorn from the farm that would later become Imperial Unicornia (where Mistmane is from), decides to stand against Grogar. She disguises herself as a sheep and sneaks into Grogar's temple, steals the Bell and hides it away on Mount Everhoof.

Gusty and the Pegasi tricked Grogar into believing the Pegasi were hiding the Bell in their cloud homes, and he ordered his flying monsters to attack them. The Pegasi attacked and ran the flying monsters out.

With his Bell gone and his army diminished, Gusty and the other ponies chased Grogar, Bray, and the monsters out. The baby draconequus (who would grow up to become Discord) went MIA.

Years later, Grogar's old castle was turned into Princess Platinum and King Bullion's castle. A younger Star Swirl studied Grogar's old notes regarding other creatures, and Alicorn's Harmony magic and Draconequus Chaos magic. This was his (partial) inspiration for the Tree of Harmony. Alicorns were the only known creatures who could use Harmony magic, but Star Swirl figured out how regular ponies could do it. But that's a story for another time.

Grogar and Bray stayed in hiding for about 1000 years. Their exposure to so much magic prolonged their lifespan.

The two spied on Equestria the whole time, witnessing all of the events of the show. Grogar was especially interested in Twilight.

Twilight and Grogar have similar philosophies that friendship is the most powerful thing in the world. But while Twilight uses friendship for good, Grogar uses it for selfish reasons. 

Well, in my AU Discord is not Grogar in disguise. Goes without saying!