Fanfiction Idea: The Pony revolution, can someone check my logic?

[ExtravagantEvil]

Okay: I have a weird tendency when trying to create fanfiction and come up with ideas.

I want them to be believeable.

In terms of canon, not just in the fics. own internal logic. That looking at the world, and with a couple of mild and believable predictions, inferences, and logical extensions, that the show could be treated like this under the right circumstances.

So. Here is my idea, based on a couple of phrases and considerations about the shows representations of ponies in relations to human beings.

Now, the first thing that is key to the premise, are Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell.

These 3 fillys have no cutie marks, obviously, and that is the key to their entire personal plot.

This is about, what the cutie mark means. It means that you have found what you are good at, your passion, what makes you special, or as could be interpreted, a role in society. Every pony has either something that they are good at, or that is needed to be done that they enjoy.

Next: We need to consider that people of all kinds are represented in Equestria, not just nice people, or the regular folk that we see everyday.

But assholes, plenty of them, the neutral, the good and the bad are all mixed through ponyville and equestria. Trixie, Diamond Tiara, etc.

This can also be used to introduce other personality issues, other than just being an asshole that are relatively negative.

For instance, we need to consider the people that

A. Have no passions in particular, the apathetic, the tired, the lost and confused. These are, for sake of simplification and argument, Generation X ponies. This also considers those who just do not think they are special, or important, or do not want to do anything specific, but are vagabonds who cannot decidmone what to do with their lives (essentially, the plight of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, not being able to really decide on what they want to do), or the people who cannot find what to do with their lives and are just unfortunate (once again the Cutie Mark crusaders)

So these people, logically, would be life time blank flanks.

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Next: Back to the "Role in Society" Aspect of the cutie mark that I'm talking about earlier. Because I've established that due to the nature of the Human (and thus, Pony) condition, that there are people who do not get cutie marks due to not having or finding, or ever really establishing a talent.

What of the people who have Cutie Marks, and have jobs solely based around them, the Apple family are farmers, because that is what their cutie marks say, that is their passion and their Job. Or Rarity, who has her job based on her cutie mark.

This is normally okay, but that also shows there seems to be a caste system inherently set in here, based on what cutie mark you have, you are stuck with that job. That is what you do. No changing it around, the reason this is an issue because you see Ponies like, once again, Diamond Tiara, who is born to be rich. that is her place in the cutie hierarchy, and that cannot be changed. Same with Silver Spoon, they are born that way.

The Apples are seemingly stuck farmers, as every apple before has been, a farmer.

One cannot suddenly go on to become a well published author and profit on her books, say, enter a careear in the Pony Stock market?

Why? They are farmers, born and raised. Simple enough.

There are people born into being Waiters, servants, the subserviant, and then there are those born into being entertainers and leadership, with no option to change. At all.

Well, then one would bring up in counter argument "What about Pinkie Pie?" She is the groups party animal, and organizes celebrations, and works at a Bakery, that's negating that point, right?"

The response I give to that then, is that, if their true and only absolute passion, their defining characteristic and skill set, is something they cannot do for a living, then they are not truely as happy as they possibly could be, but her skills are set in stone, and she has a job that isn't what she absolutely enjoys most.

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Also, on a minor point: The interpretation behind Cutie Marks can be seen as, well, odd. Cheerilee, for instance, has flowers, and says that justified her being a teacher. She said something, along the lines of, that the Flowers were symbolic for children, adn the smiles were their bright shining faces.

That could also be seen as literally being taken as, a Gardener cutie mark.

What if it was a ruler instead? Or Chalk? that would be more obvious, so what if she interpreted it, wrong? For some people it is spur of the moment, realizations, other times it seems to be something akin to puberty.

Finally, there was a line made when the Cutie Mark crusaders were really introduced, talking about, this is not an exact quote, but a paraphrase, saying that before one finds a cutie mark, they have the absolute freedom to be anything. That is what keyed off this whole thought process, the absolute limitless opprotunities that can be found in uncertainty about yourself in a positive way, by not knowing what you are truly, absolutely meant to do, and as such, being able to do many things in life. Though the instant you find your cutie mark, you have your purpose branded onto you, with no chance for change.

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The reason I bring up this entire line of thought is that this is the mentality that the antagonists in my fanfiction idea use, and I want to see whether an intelligent brony community can poke holes in some of the logic.

The ponies that are the antagonists are rebels against the government of Equestria, seeing that the idea of Cutie Marks, is A. Not allowing for the most versatility in the community, Happiness, and perpetuates a caste system where no one can truly, absolutely migrate up or down, or just find they don't have a passion in life and find cutie marks outdated and so get behind this, Pro-Blank Flank militant philosophy.

These are, essentially, Anarchists, causing a Civil War in Equestria over the highly important issue of Cutie marks and their place in society and pony psychology. They also plan on releasing Discord if they can, due to Chaos not just being disharmony and confusion, but absolute freedom without any rules and restrictions placed in the landscape.

Thank you very much, and I hope you like my idea as a Believable "What if..." kind of fiction, because I believe in well motivated antagonists, and want such a complex social theory and analysis of the ramifications of the Cutie mark, to be something taken into consideration by the villains, with a reasonable, logical argument.

[ExtravagantEvil]

I take it no one finds this interesting, or has any opinions ?

I do admit it is kind of an intimidating wall of text.

[FireDash]

I don't see really any holes in that logic and your idea seems solid. Actually, I would really like to read this. I like the idea of rebels against the government, as it is a monarchy, they could see it as unjust, a bit like communism, actually (Though here it seems to work well, but your fic could contradict that), everyone has their role in society and are basically 'assigned' to do what they can do best under the guise of the cutie mark.

Sounds interesting.

[ExtravagantEvil]

I wouldn't see it as full out communism but, comparable to the old Indian Caste system, and Ghandi and so on.

The thing is, that it does work. Under the show's pretense, and thus canonical application, it works fantastically.

It's more some ponies (who would get logically shafted by a system like this) seeing it as immoral, or at least unnecessary and restricting, and so calling BS, and making a valid complaint. While most people disagreeing would state they are a minority of little concern "if it ain't broken, don't fix it". To where it could mirror a lot of debates going on, with many political topics connected.

I'm not trying to answer anything with this premise but just show an interesting hypothesis with well justified villains, and what would happen if the intelligent and disenfranchised were set in a utopian caste system society, perpetuated by the idea of Self Discovery. When really it just breeds people who are forced into certain positions, in a very subtle 1984 type of manner, or are forced to do something rather than their true passions.

The Rebels would be largely composed of the Disgruntled, Disenfranchised, 90's Ponies, and along with actual speakers of social reform, and then the obligatory lazy and depressed ponies who bond with the movement as a way to either justify their wandering not-really-that-useful to anypony attitude, and to try to rekindle their purpose by giving them a way out (The CMC falling here).

I'm trying to think of how the Mane 6 would slide here.

Seeing as, I imagine dissent starting to spread over this social organization of life time blank flanks, both as a heavy divide in society over support or disgust over the coalition, and the actual violence they start perpetrating in an, admittedly, cliched Hollywood Anarchist behavior (a la V for Vendetta), where Princess Celestia after a good chapter or 2 donated largely to setting the tone, and getting the CMC into the group obviously, would call in the Mane 6, and try to get them to use the Elements of Harmony, general Diplomacy, etc. to solve both the Divide in good society, and the acts of violence being taken by this new social movement and similar to the Appaloosa episode, we'd see even the Mane 6 taking opposite sides, and I'm trying to think of who would side where.

So who would take which side, from a Character perspective in this kind of debate.

A lot of them have gained a lot (including by canon, their friendship) from their Cutie Marks so I see very little reason why some would want to change.

Pinkie maybe, but when we see ideas of a giant amount of unrest caused in pony society, she sided with it for 10 seconds due to Chocolate Rain.

Rainbow maybe would join the anarchists due to her very "I do what I want" attitude, despite her symbol of loyalty (she is dedicated to her friends heavily), but when it doesn't fall into matters of grave concern, she very much does as she pleases.

Twilight and AJ I definitely see agreeing with the Celestial take on things.

So that leaves Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie on whom I have no major ideas on how they'd side on this issue.