Fanfic / The Differentverse

The Differentverse is an Alternate Universe fanfic series by Anon eMouse Jr., based on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and inspired by such works as The Cadanceverse and Life in Manehattan.

The day of the Rainboom affected more ponies than just the canon Mane Six, and in different ways. Almost ten years later, Princess Celestia sends her personal student Twilight Sparkle and one such affected pony to Ponyville. Meeting four others, they must work together to achieve what Princess Celestia could not: defeat Nightmare Moon and save the long-lost Princess Luna from the monster she was trapped within.

The author also admits that it's a shameless excuse for him to partner Twilight with five of his favorite ponies: Moondancer, Derpy Hooves, Scootaloo, Marble Pie and Coco Pommel.

The series currently consists of the following:

• Different Bearers: A Quest for Harmony - the debut story, adapting Friendship is Magic, part 1 and Friendship is Magic, part 2 with elements of The Cutie Mark Chronicles thrown in for good measure.^Complete Published March 29, 2017; completed April 5, 2017.
• Announced: Different Bearers: A Case of Family - featuring Scootaloo and her family, including her mother.

It can be found on FIMFiction, fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own.

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This fanfic provides examples of:

• Absurdly Youthful Mother: Twilight hatched her adoptive son Spike when she was eleven. She's 21 in the present day.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Cadance gets namedropped in the first chapter, and makes a full appearance in chapter 5. This is in stark contrast to canon, where she wasn't even hinted at until the end of season 2.
  • Shining Armor gets namedropped in chapter 2 (again, in stark contrast to canon, where he wasn't even mentioned until the end of season 2).
  • Pinkie Promises make their first appearance in chapter 2, as opposed to the last third of season 1.
  • Cranky Doodle Donkey, who debuted in season 2, gets namedropped (as "Cranky") during the trip through the Everfree.
• Affectionate Nickname: Derpy refers to Dinky as "my little muffin", while Dinky and Scootaloo refer to their usual foalsitter Amethyst Star as Amy. In the last chapter, Cadance calls Twilight "Ladybug", and Limestone calls Marble "my shy little hermit crab".
• Big Brother Instinct: Limestone may be a grouch, but she's very protective of Marble, specifically warning Twilight and Moondancer not to cause any trouble for her when she has to share their train compartment.
• Brutal Honesty: Moondancer is straightforward, to the point, and at times, downright blunt. It's part of why Twilight likes having her around, because Moondancer won't hold back when Twilight's unwittingly offending someone. Such a moment is later revealed to have been key to their becoming friends in the first place.
• Cheerful Child: Scootaloo and her little cousin Dinky.
• Childhood Friends: Twilight and Moondancer met and became roommates when they were eleven, though it took Twilight a year to admit they were actually friends.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Scoots’ mother entrusted her only child to her younger sister Derpy because she couldn’t give up her work and felt that Scootaloo deserved to have an actual mother figure rather than an absentee one. Scootaloo is aware of this pre-series, though it doesn’t come up until later.
• Demoted to Extra: Five of the original show's Mane Six get this due to not being the Bearers this time around, and Rainbow Dash and Rarity don't even get any on-screen lines in the first story. Pinkie still gets a little focus due to being one of the author's favorite characters, and because Marble moved in with her after deciding to stay in Ponyville.
• Disappeared Dad: Both Scootaloo and Dinky have absent fathers, Dinky because he died before she was born. Coco's also died (along with her mom) not long before the Apples adopted her.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: Scootaloo Madeleine Doo is on the receiving end of one in chapter 2, which makes her nervous since it was done in public. There's a reason for her nervousness.
• Happily Adopted: Coco, by the Apples. Spike, by Twilight after she hatched him. And Scootaloo, who's been raised by her aunt since she was a year old.
• I Choose to Stay: After Nightmare Moon's defeat, Twilight and Moondancer decide to stay in Ponyville with their new friends, and Marble also decides to stay with Pinkie rather than return to the family rock farm.
• I Want Grandkids: Twilight Velvet immediately became attached to Spike after Twilight hatched him, telling him to "Come to Grandmare" after Princess Celestia asked if Twilight could take care of him.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Young Scootaloo becomes close enough to the other Bearers, all of whom are adults (and one of whom is her aunt), to have a bond of friendship that lets them activate the Elements of Harmony together.
• It's What I Do: Marble's explanation for some of Pinkie's behavior is "She's Pinkie Pie. She does that."
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Limestone comes off as very grouchy, but in the final scene, it turns out she's been subtly supportive of Marble, and is very happy when her youngest sister stands up to her and reveals she has friends now.
• Not in My Contract: Inverted - During their trip through the forest, Derpy teasingly tells Scootaloo that it is in her contract that when Scootaloo acts silly, Derpy can act silly right back at her, up to and including sticking a cold nose in her ear.
• Odd Name Out: Scootaloo's middle name, Madeleine, which is a tribute to her voice actress, and to another of the author's favorite characters (Pinkie Pie) also having a human-sounding middle name.
• On the Next: A Quest for Harmony ends with an author's note stating that "The Bearers will return in... Different Bearers: A Case of Family", and confirms it will be centered around Scootaloo's family.
• Parental Substitute: Derpy Hooves is this for Scootaloo, having raised her since she was a year old, though Scoots’ mother does drop in from time to time. Twilight is also this to Spike.
• Platonic Co-Parenting: Scootaloo lives with her aunt Derpy, who raises her and loves her like a second daughter, but she also knows and loves her birth mother (Derpy's sister), who gave her up to Derpy so she'd have a real mom to raise her while said birth mother, a workaholic, went back to the fieldwork she enjoyed; she does visit from time to time though.
• Precision F-Strike: Chapter 4 reveals that in the past, Moondancer managed to knock some sense into Twilight by calling her a "snooty, stuck-up little plothead" in the middle of class. This is actually when Twilight began to see the value of friendship.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: This series' Mane Six consists of:
  • Twilight Sparkle, the personal student of a Physical Goddess.
  • Moondancer, her roommate who's just as good at research but has a tendency to be rather blunt.
  • Derpy Hooves, the faithful mailmare of Ponyville with lazy eye syndrome, who is raising a daughter and niece effectively on her own.
  • Scootaloo, Derpy's goofy little niece with a talent for speed on her scooter and who loves keeping her friends and family happy.
  • Marble Pie, a shy little Earth Pony who does nice things for others even when they don't realize it was her.
  • Coco Pommel Apple, who was adopted into the Apple family as a child and is willing to risk her life to save their livelihood.
• Related in the Adaptation: Scootaloo is Derpy's niece and, by extension, Dinky's cousin. Coco Pommel is Applejack's little sister via adoption.
• Shout-Out:
  • Marble's introduction (being in Canterlot with her sister while Limestone was there on business) was inspired by the beginning of the story Reticence.
  • Moondancer's lashing out and calling Twilight "snooty and stuck-up" in class one day was inspired by a similar scene in Juliet Dove, Queen of Love.^Explanation The title character is painfully shy, and at times gets desperate to turn negative attention onto someone else (usually someone who's harassing her), causing her to verbally lash out. Late in the story, she finds out that most of her classmates don't realize she's shy - they believe her behavior is because she's just stuck-up and thinks she's better than them. Juliet is honestly surprised by this, and one of her class bullies (whom she'd just admitted the truth to) is equally surprised by Juliet's own confession of being shy.
  • Velvet's line of "Come to Grandmare" is a direct quote of one of her only lines in canon as of the fic's publication (specifically from The Crystalling, part 2).
  • Nightmare Moon's declaration of "Now, oh fools, you shall deal with me and all the powers of Erebus, the everlasting Darkness!" was inspired by Maleficent's Badass Boast in the 1959 film.
  • Word Of God is that Scootaloo's real parentage is one to another fic, and will be identified in the first sequel.
  • The final author's note, announcing the next story in the series, is purposely styled after the announcements at the end of most of the James Bond films of the 1960s-1980s.
  • The sequel's title (but only the title) was inspired by that of the Michael Crichton novel A Case of Need.
• Shrinking Violet: Per canon, Marble's pretty shy. She eventually starts to come out of her shell, which is represented in-story when she starts to speak at a normal volume instead of whispering all the time.
• Significant Birth Date: Per canon, Spike hatched the day of the Rainboom. Dinky was born at the same time.
• Someone to Remember Him By: During their trip through the Everfree, Derpy reveals that her husband died of a heart attack during her pregnancy, making Dinky into this trope.
• Spider-Sense: A trait shared by all four Pie sisters, though each of them specializes in different things: the two elder sisters’ relate to other people; the younger pair's relate to actions. Limestone can always find somepony who will be good or bad for a task; Maud (per canon) can always tell where a specific individual will be; Pinkie (also per canon) knows when various things are about to happen; and Marble knows when she needs to perform a seemingly random act of kindness (and what that act is) that will prove very helpful for another being.
• Supreme Chef: Pinkie Pie, per canon. Twilight compliments her on this when she remarks that they're bound to widen their waistlines by living in the same town as her.
• Trickster Mentor: Celestia still shows signs of this, but she's more honest about matters than in canon. It helps that Moondancer was straight to the point with her about what they'd figured out.
• Undying Loyalty: Coco has this to Applejack and her family after Applejack, on the way out of Manehatten, found her crying from being bullied (due to having recently lost her parents) and, knowing how she felt from personal experience, offered her a home.
• Wall Crawl: Alicorns and pegasi can walk (and dance) on ceilings, as demonstrated by Cadance and Derpy in the last chapter.
• "Will Return" Caption: A Quest for Harmony ends with an author's note stating that "The Bearers will return in... Different Bearers: A Case of Family", and confirms it will be centered around Scootaloo's family.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: The last portion of chapter 5 reveals that Limestone's apparently been subtly trying to encourage Marble to come out of her shell for quite some time. When Marble finally stands up to her, Limestone is thrilled.