Crossposted from an “Alternate Mane 6” thread on Fimfic, an old idea of mine…
Original Image (not mine):
https://www.deviantart.com/40-kun/art/Bizarro-Equestria-mane-6-259489884
Setting (pretty much all mine): In a small Equestria that’s only lasted as long as it has due to being useful as a buffer zone between it’s powerful neighbours, a unicorn prodigy regretfully travels from her small hometown to the capital Fillydelphia to undergo magical education. But due to a series of events, she ends up meeting some unexpected friends instead… and some time later, they end up stealing liberating a certain set of artefacts from the National Museum on the orders of their mysterious benefactor…
Magic: Dazzling Dawn, a unicorn born with far more magical power than she ever wanted. She did her best to ignore it, perhaps to avoid some kind of conscription or just to not stand out among her friends (for she loved friendship more than anything). But after a certain incident in her foalhood where she drove off a marauding dragon to protect her friends (and earned her cutie mark in the process)… well, ponies never looked at her the same way again. And as her repressed magic (and general vaguely ditzy/klutzy nature) caused more and more “incidents” as she got older, the pressure mounted for her to be sent away to receive a proper magical education (for her hometown had few unicorns).
Eventually, she was indeed shipped off to the Fillydelphia Magic Academy, the best school of magic in the land…but due to a precise chain of what might have been bad luck or just destiny, she ended up not only expelled before she started but on the run from the law. Isn’t it sad? Forced into hiding on the seedier side of town, it wouldn’t seem like the best of time to be trying to make friends… but Dazzling Dawn is no ordinary pony. And she has five bad first impressions to make up for (plus her name to clear before her parents hear she’s wanted).
Appearance: Amber, with a blonde mane (and possibly an orange streak). Cutie mark is a dawning sun with five (or is it six?) rays.
Honesty: Grapevine, the earthpony most commonly found behind the counter of the most popular grape soda shop in Downtown Fillydelphia - founded and run by her family, of course. (Her grandmother wishes she’d show more ambition towards running the massive company which grew out of it, but promised Grapevine’s parents to let their kids live up to the family name in their own way.) She’s basically a G-rated bartender, a great listener and every customer’s friend… but also a great chatterbox who never seemed to grasp the idea of a secret. (Not the best first friend for a pony in hiding, but fate works in mysterious ways…)
Appearance: Blue with frizzy purplish hair that resembles her family’s famous grape soda. Cutie mark is grapes growing on a vine.
Loyalty: Aurora Flash, a weather artist on par with the greatest in Equestria, the Celestial Manes. But said skill is cultivated in secret shame, for Aurora sees it as a personal indulgence - her path of duty leads her elsewhere. (Not sure where - could be law enforcement, which would tie in with the whole “wanted” plot, or some academic role, or… honestly, I never really “got” Aurora and this is just my latest attempt to make her work.) A mare who holds herself to the highest standards and claims to shun competition, but can be rather patronising to those who don’t meet her standards.
Appearance: sea green, with a mane resembling a delicate aurora. Cutie mark is a cross between an aurora and something else, but not sure what yet.
Generosity: She goes by “Commonplace” now - she likely had a different name once, but she’s as shy about it as the horn she hides under her bowler hat. Not much else she’s shy about, though - whether it’s helping a friend out with her strength or magic, or talking their ears off about the injustices riddling Equestrian society. A champion of the oppressed and downtrodden (whether they like it or not) Commonplace is always ready to take a stand against injustice great or small. This passion has won her both friends and enemies, and also makes it hard for her to hold down a job for long - good thing she’s multitalented.
Appearance: Dark gray, with a roughly cropped navy mane and a general “roguish but friendly” look. As for her cutie mark… would a hammer and sickle be too on the nose? Perhaps something similar with different tools…
Kindness : Uproar - now a keeper at the Fillydelphia Zoo, this pegasus was found living wild with the animals a team went to capture for a conservation programme and brought back to help keep an eye on them. She’d very much like to make new pony friends, too, but it turns out being raised by manticores and the like produces a pony just a bit too loud and aggressive for most city folk to put up with. Under the surface she’s strikingly nice, though - and as an outsider of sorts, can often look at pony society in a way the more typically raised can’t.
Appearance: Pale brown with a storm-grey mane. Cutie mark has various creatures, bearing perhaps some resemblance to a certain draconequus…
Laughter: Pudding was the last and hardest-to-befriend of Dazzling’s new friends, because this quiet earthpony sees no need for them when she has books. Though she works in a confectioners to make a living, even there she can often be found reading under the table - tales of far-off lands and handsome princes and princesses, romances and sci-fi pulps… pretty much anything as long as it has a few laughs and a happy ending. How can real friends hope to compare? Once she realises that, her dry wit will become a mainstay of the group…
Appearance: A rich velvet colour with a dark, almost black stripe in her mane. Cutie mark is a cross between a book and a cake.
Bonus: Dazzling’s patron, the mysterious “Mr Bits” who offered her sanctuary in an abandoned post office in the Fillydelphian slums. Well, mysterious until Dazzling knocked his hat and trenchcoat off while trying to give him a thankyou hug, didn’t even care that he was a dragon or half her size, and never can seem to remember the “Mr.” when she introduces him to her friends. She doesn’t seem to notice that he’s pretty much a local crime boss, either, but perhaps fugitives can’t complain… And while she’ll gladly do various jobs for him in exchange for helping her, things never seem to go quite as planned. Really, perhaps the only reason he keeps her around is the mysterious letters he receives via his flame breath, which give cryptic instructions that drive many of Dazzling’s “missions”… when he’s not trying to use her for his own purposes, or she isn’t just haring off to deliver a long-lost letter or help out one of her new friends.