drama Solidarity

[Nagneto 8]

Hi. I don't normally put myself out there, as I have great difficultly reaching out to people in general (stupid anxiety!) Which incidentally gave me this fanfic idea that's been floating around in my head for the past week. I'm still fairly new to the whole Brony community thing, so I don't know all the in's and out's of what's acceptable material. I'm rolling the dice by tossing this idea out here first, to see if it would be something folks would be interested in. It's been a really long time since I've written anything (or reached out to people) and I'm trying to put those feelings into this unconventional work.

 

Premise (from two points of view!): When a grim race of grey goblin like creatures suddenly appear in the Everfree Forest, all of Equastria is put on edge. The creatures are ugly and carnivorous. They slink about in the dark and are armed to the teeth with all manner spears, swords and spiked armor. Their language sounds like the Black Speech, and their manners are boorish. They worship darkness in their bizarre cult, and there's a lot of them. Tens of thousands of them. Everything about them screams evil, but are they as bad as they appear to be? Twilight Sparkle aims to find out, before a full blown conflict erupts between the Ponies and the strange newcomers.

 

After centuries of oppression in a distant world ravaged by war, a young king leads his people to a strange new world in search for a place they can call home. A portal brings them to the Everfree Forest, a paradise for nocturnal beings such as the king and his kind. Taking up residence in the castle that once held the elements of harmony, the creatures set to work on building a new home, when they come conflict with the natives of the world. The Four Legs are unlike anything they've ever encountered before. They seem complacent in their supposed happiness. They do not appear to have any standing army (or maybe they're just well hidden). Their bright colors hurt their sensitive eyes. They do not eat meat (at least as far as anyone can tell), and is that gibbering noise they make supposed to be a language?! Worse still, they appear to honor the daylight more than sacred night, a sacrilege! Nevertheless, the king tries to show confidence. His people are united by Solidarity, a sacred virtue that is the pinnacle of their temple honoring Father Dark and Mother Moon. They are assiduous and inventive, capable of building great cities and weapons to house and protect themselves. Though weary of the horrors of the battlefield, his people have not forgotten the ways of war. They will bravely defend their home from any threat, and have come to expect treachery from outsiders. The king only wants what is best for his people, but leadership of an entire nation is an awesome responsibility. Add to that the responsibility of becoming a father, as his wife is with child! Everyone is counting on him to make the right decisions and he's not so sure he can deliver. Can the ponies be trusted, or are they just another enemy waiting to pounce on them? Perhaps his people should strike first...

 

Can harmony be achieved between two peoples so different?

 

The fun of this project is it will require inventing a whole culture different that what we're used to seeing in the setting. I don't intend these creatures to be too macabre, darker than the ponies, but not full blown evil like say the Changlings. Part of the conflict comes from the ponies jumping to the conclusion that these creatures must be evil because they look evil (and have an unfriendly demeanor to boot). On the flip side, being that the Ponies are all sunshine and rainbows, the creatures are weirded out by this. They appear to come from a grimdark setting, and have never encountered beings that aren't automatically trying to destroy or enslave them. The ponies think the creatures are nasty, and the creatures think the ponies are scary. The old saying "they're probably more scared of you than you are of them" comes into play in this.

 

In keeping with the spirit of the show of course, the main lesson is that tolerance has to go both ways in order to work. The old "don't judge a book by it's cover"/ comes to play with the dark is not evil trope. There's also the language barrier.