Alpha Equulei - Looking for Co-Authors

Hello everypony!
I'm working on an epic (literally) fanfiction, but I am in need of assistance. First of all, English isn't my native language, so I could use some help with things like grammar, use of words, etc. Secondly, I have never written a story like this before, so I'm extremely inexperienced. I'll write a more detailed list of what I need help with below, but first let me show you my concept:


"And so to escape the freezing blizzard the three tribes set out to find a new land." - The Tale of Hearth's Warming Eve, Datalinks.

It's Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, but with ponies and with factions sort-of based on the Elements of Harmony!

Following a great war between Equestria and its many enemies, the planet had been ravaged by war, famine, and pollution. In a final effort to give ponykind a fresh start, Equestria constructed the Starship Harmony and selected a captain, the most trusted royal advisor, and six ponies to represent the six Elements of Harmony. Under their leadership, ten thousand crew and colonists were placed in cryogenic sleep. They departed on a decades long journey to colonize a planet in the Alpha Equulei system.


Forty years passed without incident to ship or crew. With the Harmony only days away from planetfall, space debris impact and damaged the Harmony, causing a core malfunction which awakened the crew prematurely. As they attempted repairs, a changeling infiltrator killed the ship's captain to prevent the discovery of the changeling princess on board. Panic and confusion followed.
Although they attempted to restore order, the leaders were unable to restore all of the ship's systems. In the end, the leaders reorganized the colonists into seven groups, one for each colony pod, and decided to lead them separately until they could get back in contact on the planet's surface. The Harmony, its operations neglected, broke apart in high orbit around the planet. Colony pods, resources and supplies were scattered on the surface of the new world and the leaders began constructing civilization anew according to their own visions.

Stuff I Currently Need Help With
* Creating three-dimensional characters.
* Coming up with a good name for Planet.
* Coming up with pony and place names.
* Plotting.

If anypony is willing to help me, I'd prefer it if we worked on the board or through PMs.

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Major Characters
Leaders
Commander Lightning Strike
"During Equestria's final war I was out on the front and fought alongside my soldiers, and although we faced an overwhelming force and many of us died, we held the line. It even came to the point where the changelings offered to spare me and my troops in return for surrendering and allowing them passage. I refused, do you know why? Because of my loyalty to country, loyalty to the mares and stallions under my command, and loyalty to myself. Loyalty means that you're willing to sacrifice your own well-being, and indeed your very lives, for the ponies that matter and your own personal integrity." - Commander Lightning Strike, Loyalist Manifesto.
Type of Pony: Pegasus
Gender: Female
Age: Mare
Special Purpose: To create the greatest military in history.
Cutie Mark: A sword and shield.
Job: Leader of the Loyalist Federation
Skills: Military training, military leadership, trainer.
Element: Loyalty
Appearance: Orange coat, blonde mane and tail. Green eyes.
Strengths: Is a great military commander and combatant.
Flaws: Ambitious, pushes her ponies too hard at times, hubris.
Fears: Ponies getting hurt because of inaction, betrayal.
Quirks:
Background: Veteran from Equestria's final war.
Character Development
Starts off as a protective and popular leader, but gradually turns into a paranoid, overzealous tyrant.
Lighting's hatred for changelings makes her come into conflict with the Elysium, and she becomes obsessed with eradicating the changeling race in her misguided pursuit to keep everypony safe.
It's not until near the end when Lightning realizes that in her quest to destroy what she perceived to be monsters, she herself has turned into a monster.
In the end, Lighting dedicates herself to undo the harm she has caused.


Dainty Spark
"I believe that greed is a means to an end, and the end to my greed is generosity. I lived in poverty as a filly, but I rose above my humble origins and founded Spark Industries. I beat my competition and then hired them, and I shared my wealth with the poor and needy. You see, mares and gentlecolts, I play to win, but I share my spoils. After all, my special purpose is to bring prosperity to everypony." - CEO Dainty Spark, Generosity and Greed.
Type of Pony: Unicorn
Gender: Female
Age: Mare
Special Purpose: To bring prosperity to everypony.
Cutie Mark: Three golden coins.
Job: CEO of Cornucopia, Business magnate.
Skills: Engineering, Industry, Business Planning, Charity Hosting.
Element: Generosity.
Appearance: Rust orange coat, pink mane and tail with a purple streak. Turquoise eyes.
Strengths: Brilliant industrialist, good at promoting growth and allocating resources, charitable.
Flaws: Greedy, feels obligated to share wealth with the less well-of.
Fears: Poverty for either herself or other ponies.
Quirks:
Background: Went from being the impoverished daughter of a mechanic, to becoming an engineer and a business magnate.
Character Development
Starts off as a well-meaning industrialist, but although she constantly remain generous, Dainty gradually turns into a plutocrat who corrupts her faction with greed, hedonism, and decadence.
While Dainty Spark wants to avoid conflict, Fair Hoof's outright hostility towards her faction and Sylvan Pond's rejection of her ways leads Dainty to ally with Spell Binder and become part of a war she never wanted.
In the end, Dainty is a proponent for permanent peace and unity of the factions.


Princess Fair Hoof
"Princess Luna tasked us to bring ponies to the new world and I believe that it is our solemn duty to uphold everything that's right and good about our Equestrian heritage. These so-called progressives and industrialists desire quantity over quality and sacrifice our traditional values in the name of progress and wealth. But what exactly are they sacrificing? What does it mean to be a pony when we abandon the very heart of our roots? Is quantity worth sacrificing the quality and care of an honest day's labor? No my friends, it is not. Our traditions are important and we must keep them pure." - Princess Fair Hoof, Let's Be Honest.
Type of Pony: Earth Pony
Gender: Female
Age: Mare
Special Purpose: To uphold tradition.
Cutie Mark:
Job: Princess of Candoria
Skills:
Element: Honesty
Appearance: White coat, blue mane and tail. Blue eyes.
Strengths: Honest, responsible, moral, dutiful.
Flaws: Proud, stubborn, moral superiority, extremely conservative, demands everypony to do their duty and be responsible, slow to adopt innovations which clash with traditional values.
Fears: Loss of Equestrian tradition, immorality, technology changing the values of society.
Quirks:
Background: Outspoken and honorable princess who kept Equestrian traditions alive despite the hardships of the war.
Character Development
Starts off as an understanding and kind leader, but as technology and magic start to fundamentally change ponies (such as the creation of artificial alicorns and engineered cutie marks), Fair Hoof turns into a bigot and a fanatic.
Her fanatical devotion to traditional Equestrian values causes Fair Hoof to drive a wedge between Candoria and all the other factions.
In her desperation to keep the other factions at bay, she turns to dark magic which end up corrupting everything she stands for and turning every faction against her.
It's not until the very end when the other factions defeat her that Fair Hoof realizes what she has become and is filled with regret.


Sylvan Pond
"Back on Earth we were symbiotically interlinked with the environment. We controlled the sun and moon, the weather, and the seasons to maintain the environmental balance. But there were a few areas in Equestria where the weather and animals took care of themselves, such as my old home, the Everfree Forest. Planet is similar to the Everfree Forest in that it takes care of its own environment, thus it is imperative that we learn to live with Planet rather than unbalance it to suit our own needs." - Caretaker Sylvan Pond, Everfree Kindness.
Type of Pony: Earth Pony
Gender: Female
Age: Mare
Special Purpose: To care for those in need.
Cutie Mark:
Job: Leader of the Everfree Disciples.
Skills: Animal Handling, Botany
Element: Kindness
Appearance: Green coat, olive drab mane and tail with an olive green streak.
Strengths: Good at befriending and studying animals and plants.
Flaws: Conservative, values the environment over ponies, expands and progress slowly to protect the environment, pacifist.
Fears: The destruction of the environment on Planet as on Earth, others getting hurt.
Quirks: Talks to plants, fungus, and even mindworms.
Background: Ecologist who lived in the Everfree Forest and guided Equestrian forces through the wilderness.
Character Development
Starts off as a kind and very liberal pony, but her reluctance to expand to accomodate her subjects' growth and regulation of industry to protect Planet's ecology causes her citizens to oppose her, which in turn causes Sylvan to gradually turn into a reclusive, oppressive (though, nonviolent) tyrant.
Sylvan's opposition to Fair Hoof's and Dainty Spark's exploitation of Planet causes much conflict between them.
Sylvan is the one who is contacted by the awakening Planetmind, and once she discovers what is coming, she tries to warn the other factions, but her warnings fall mostly on deaf ears.
It is not until near the end when Planet's native life is at its most destructive that the other leaders finally listen to her and decide to work together to prevent their mutual annihilation.


Queen Ardor
"Historically, changelings have been seen as predators and parasites preying on the other races, and leaving only emotionless husks behind. But does it have to be that way? Why can't we be like the hummingbirds or the bees, feeding on the flowers without harming the flowers themselves, while also helping them flourish? Is it possible for changelings and ponies to live in mutual symbiosis? I believe that it is imperative for the future of both our species to answer these questions." - Queen Ardor, Secret Address.
Type of Pony: Changeling Queen, Poses as Alicorn.
Gender: Female
Age: Foal - Mare
Job: Queen of the Changelings, Rebel Leader, Queen of Elysium.
Skills:
Element: Kindness
Appearance: In her true form, Ardor looks like a Changeling Queen. In her alicorn form, she has a rose pink coat, and a deep pink mane and tail, as well as a heart as her cutie mark. Ardor has cyan eyes in her alicorn form.
Strengths: A good, empathetic, compassionate leader. Is good at deception and manipulation.
Flaws: Feels sympathy for the ponies the changelings prey upon. Obsessed with finding a way for ponies and changelings to live together in harmony.
Fears: The starvation or even extinction of the changelings. Hurting others.
Quirks:
Background: The daughter of Queen Chrysalis; was only a small foal when her guardian, Plastron, brought her to the new world in secret.
Character Development
Starts off as an inexperienced and uncomfortable leader and is urged by Plastron to take advantage of her pony subjects, but she gradually rejects Plastron's ways and slowly but surely creates a society where ponies and changelings can live in harmony and be happy.
Ardor reveals her true identity to her subjects very early on, which causes much conflict within her own faction. It gets much worse when the other factions come into contact with her as most of them react with outright hostility.
However, Ardor is able to win over half the factions, and in the end the other leaders realize that she did a far better job than any of them and they elect her to become part of Planet's dominant personality.


Spell Binder
"Wherever we look, magic and technology have improved the life standard of everypony, while free flow of information and public education have ensured freedom of thought and the exponential development of science. Maintaining excellent education and information technologies available to everypony are thus key to the continuous prosperity of both the individual and society as a whole." - Academician Spell Binder, Magic Unchained.
Type of Pony: Unicorn
Gender: Male
Age: Stallion
Special Purpose: To fuel the fire of progress.
Cutie Mark:
Job:
Skills:
Element: Magic
Appearance: Cyan coat, red mane and tail. Purple eyes.
Strengths: Highly intelligent, progressive.
Flaws: Opposes conservatism, radically progressive, drives technological progress too fast for other ponies to adapt, skeptical.
Fears: Ignorance, control of information, technological stagnation.
Quirks:
Background: Former headmaster of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, and one of the greatest minds in Equestria.
Character Development
Starts off as a innovative and brilliant leader, but his transponyist and radical progressivist ideals leads him to reject everything that makes ponies what they are, and to look down on those who oppose him as "technophobes".
Spell Binder gradually oppresses his subjects indirectly by developing a society where non-augmented ponies are deemed obsolete.
Although Spell Binder still provides for his non-augmented subjects every need, he fails to give them relevance.
Spell Binder proves instrumental in the creation of the Voice of Planet, which saves the factions from destruction.
In the end, seeing his non-augmented subjects interact with those of the other factions makes Spell Binder realize his negligence.


Grey Mane
"For millennia the two Princesses maintained harmony and safety in Equestria. It wasn't easy, they made mistakes, but overall the Princesses did an excellent job. I believe this was partly because they knew when they had to make sacrifices for the common good. They knew that the only way to ensure harmony was to deal with anything threatening it... even if it meant banishing a loved one. The wise Princesses knew that harmony, order, and safety have to be maintained... no matter what the cost." - Viceroy Grey Mane, Harmony and Security.
Type of Pony: Unicorn
Gender: Male
Age: Stallion
Special Purpose: To maintain order.
Cutie Mark:
Job:
Skills: Bureaucracy.
Element: Loyalty
Appearance: Black coat, grey mane and tail.
Strengths: Driven, cares much about the safety of others.
Flaws: Obsessed with upholding his promise to Luna. Overly cautious. Uses oppressive measures to ensure harmony and safety. Obsessed with order and security.
Fears: Ponies getting hurt. Letting down the Princesses or his citizens.
Quirks:
Background: Princess Luna's steward.
Character Development
Starts off as a competent and strict leader, but during a riot caused by famine he unwittingly orders the death of several ponies.
Grey Mane becomes obsessed with safety and order, creating an oppressive totalitarian regime and fighting a rebellion led by Ardor. He eventually surrenders to prevent anypony else dying because of him.


Sunny Sky
"Ever since the beginning of time, ponies have looked to the stars, wondering what they were. What I find really exciting is that we are the first ponies to cross the darkness of space to arrive to the light of another world's suns, that we are the first ponies to get to explore an alien world. And I know that I wouldn't have been able to get this far without my friends, you all mean the world to me. We have all been through a lot of hard times and we will have to go through even more in the future. But I think that's what so great about life, the bad times make the good times even better once we reach them, especially when we have friends who can help us get through those bad times." - Chancellor Sunny Sky, Laugh With Me.
Type of Pony: Pegasus
Gender: Female
Age: Mare
Special Purpose: To bring out the best in ponies.
Cutie Mark:
Job: Leader of the Union
Skills: Diplomacy
Element: Laughter
Appearance: Lapis lazuli coat, light sea green mane and tail.
Strengths: Good at cheering up others and keeping ponies together.
Flaws: Lighthearted, ponies have a hard time taking her seriously. Hates to be ignored or alone.
Fears: Everypony turning against each other, loosing friends.
Quirks:
Background: Last mayor of Oatford.
Character Development
Starts off promoting unity and cooperation, and attempts to stay impartial to avoid loosing her friends. But as the conflicts between the factions escalate Sunny Sky feels forced to betray her own ideals and take sides in order to keep her subjects safe.
At the apex of the war, Sunny Sky proves instrumental in negotiating a truce between the factions in order to construct the Voice of Planet and prevent their mutual destruction by the awakening Planetmind.
Sunny Sky also plays an essential role in securing a permanent peace by pointing out that the factions can accomplish more together than they can alone.

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Plot Elements
Tone
Dark (but not too dark).
Tragic.

Themes
Power corrupts.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Striving for a utopia tends to create a dystopia.
Transponyism (transhumanism but with ponies).
United we stand, divided we fall.

Special
This story draws many parallels with the Tale of Hearth's Warming Eve.

 

Thanks, I appreciate any help I can get.