Dragonfire general lore

Should Dragonfire general threads take off, I'm saving in a paste format the brainstorming notes I had written and posted anonymously in thread #1

 

Ideas I've gotten

 

The Celestia and it's inhabitants have been in exile from their home for years. The ship is named after the last leader of their home, now deceased, and captained by Luna.

 

The main antagonist, Discord, is running amok across space and various planets, Thought not as the chimera we know him. Discord is the call-sign the inhabitants of the Celestia, or 'Celestians', have given to an intergalactic pandemic, the nature of which is -slowly- understood more and more as time progresses. Any life form that becomes infected with discord (which can spread through various means) slowly begins behaving in a highly irrational, chaotic and destructive manor to life and property alike. Though the infected do not attack one another and can cooperate quite effectively to carry out their apparent mission of destroying/everyone and everything, Leading some science officers to speculate that discord may either be a collective conscious or commanded by a puppet master. The pandemic is a significant threat to the galaxy, may very well be the single largest intergalactic "faction" and has a considerable amount of influence but it is not present everywhere

 

Everyone on board the Celestia was able to survive the invasion of their planet because, unknown to discord at the time, they were the .001% of the population born with a genetic immunity to Discord. For this reason, the collective plague expresses a sharp desire to kill every last Celestian for fear of their invulnerability spreading and has the resources of dozens of infected worlds at their disposal to locate it's adversary. To counter, The Celestia has a crew of about 1,100 individuals who are determined for their race not to suffer extinction and are universally coordinated to finding a safe home and fighting the plague. Seeing as it's a space setting, they have a wide open map they can chart, explore, make alliances, and hide in.

 

Spike: Leader of Dragonfire's Divison M6. Dragonfire is the Celestia's away team. Spike's divison M6 prides themselves on being the first to land, spearheading the way for the rest of Dragonfire, be it for causes of exploration, combat, striking resources, escort, etc.

With space being a demanding environment, the Celestia's Marines are not the typical trigger happy berserkers usually associated with the trade. They are highly educated, competent, coordinated, perceptive, and multi-talented. They have the right balances of contemplation and decisiveness, intellect and valor, brains and brawn, to help them brave the many challenges of the harsh alien environments they face. Physically and mentally conditioned since birth, fitted with heavily armored space suits and carrying wherever they go tools for killing, manual labor, archaeology, surveying, chemistry and medicine. This group sets the standard for overachievers

 

Spike was the first of many children born on the Celestia. When in the line of duty, he serves as the link between Chief commanding officer of dragonfire (Rarity) and the rest his division. Enforcing that her orders be carried out.

 

Luna

 

Captain of the Celestia and the oldest living resident on the ship. Holds all the qualities one would want in a leader. Fair, Kind, compassionate, logical, Decisive and able to raise crew morale with as little as a ship-wide broadcast. Not qualities she was born with but something she had thrust upon her when handed to her to the responsibility of leading the Celestians to survival. Only does her inner circle of close advisers know that she suffers from severe PTSD, owing up to watching her race nearly go extinct in what felt to her like overnight. She has both the clearest and most acurate memory of the Celestian's homeworld, society, culture and way of life before, during and after the invasion of the plague. Because she is now a captain and not a princess, she could be face mutiny and be thrown out of her chair at any given time but she is largely well liked by what she now addresses as her crew, formerly her subjects

 

Candence

 

Luna's first officer. Helps to reassure her captain and offer a second opinion when she is faced with the possibility the slightest error in judgement (or even no mistakes at all) could have a profound effect on her crew.

 

 

Pinkie Pie

 

'Morale officer' Runs the Celestia's mess hall. Has a bit of a quick-with-a-joke-or-to-light-up-your-smoke-Bartender attitude. She very much enjoys visiting with her guests and her guests enjoy visiting her cafe for three meals on a daily basis. Serves the necessity of keeping crew morale and nutrition levels wholly intact, should they be entertained by her or one another

 

Rarity

 

Supreme commander of Dragonfire and the Hell-bats(see rainbow dash) . I thought Having Rarity as Spike's by-far-superior commanding officer might make for an interesting/humorous device should their relationship be used in this verse. A decorated veteran many times over, she prides herself on being cultured, well mannered, and sophisticated, having refined taste in cuisine, clothing and what little art had been saved from the homeworld, be it painted, sculpted, musical, acted, written etc. When there's Discord about, all bets are off. Having only been a child when she boarded The Celestia, she enjoys proving time and time again how quickly, efficiently and brutally she can strategically outwit and slaughter them using Dragonfire and the Hell-bats as her tools. Sometimes relishing in her revenge so greatly, her nearby associates must occasionally remind her not to lose their own in the process

 

It's a crew of 1,100 so the chain of command is tiered in a pyramid. Spikes in charge of Division m6, but he answers directly to rarity as do the other squad leaders of Dragonfire. Also, because they do more than just fight, Rarity must have officers specialized in other field's by her side or theirs approving commands or warning of scientific related dangers that she doesn't have a total understanding of. If if the away team is on the surface of an alien planet harvesting resources from the soil or some other mundane necessity, they may want the ship's geologist present with them who might advise them from making a fatal mistake that could get somebody such as digging into an vein filled with chemicals that might explode if exposed to the air. Or should they be raiding a hostile ship, their engineer might want to relay some intelligence about the design through Rarity

 

Rainbow Dash

 

The most accomplished (and by extension, brash, impulsive and cocky) dogfighter among the Celestia's 77th spaceborne fighter pilot regiment, jokingly referred to as the junior speedsters but later renamed the weather team after a stunning succesful bomb run. Dash's own headstrong desire to do things her way often conflicts with the rather swift and demanding calls of her de facto commander, Rarity. To minimize internally destructive arguments in the heat of battle, Dash and Rarity have "agreed to disagree". In other words, Rainbow Dash is allowed to act autonomously provided that the mission at hand is completed without any blips on the causality recount that may be later attributed to her calls. She frequently reminds the other pilots that she's so good she doesn't need to take orders and that they should all try to become that good. A covert collaboration between her and Applejack modified her standard Cloudsdale model CS-77 interstellar light craft into what she now affectionately calls "Tank". Many times over has she decided the outcome in their encounters against hostile light to medium craft

 

 

Applejack

 

Master Engineer. If its technological, If its electrical, if its has a power source in it, she knows it inside-out. Everything from the lights on the bridge, to the ship's internal power source, to the dish washer in the cafeteria, to thrusters of every single craft in the Celestia or the Celestia itself. As should be true to anybody who enjoys tinkering with mechanics, she's very good when at the controls of a ship. Some of the hell-bats even share a bit of an joke/rumor that she'd could out pilot the egocentric Rainbow Dash. This may never be verifiable as she leans toward piloting the larger intermediate-range shuttles used to transport Dragonfire on the soil of Alien worlds, board Celestians onto other capitol ships, or in very occasional instances carpet bomb an area. Still having a great deal of her immediate and extended family on board, she makes a concerted effort to pass her knowledge on, knowing that without it they will not survive

 

Twilight

 

Chief science officer. Space is a strange, dangerous and unfamiliar place. Twilight's job is to make light of that at which they first do not understand. Because there is quite a bit of that, she leads a busy life helping the many space-age disciplines further their knowledge of the subjects they encounter. Naturally, this has her answering to the beck and call of nearly ever department on the Celestia when they encounter a problem they are not familiar with. Engineering may find their power core acting erratically, the away team may have to come to terms with a strange man-eating forest on a hostile world, medical may have encountered some space aged bacteria that could compromise the crew's health, Research and development may be seeking a way to strengthen the celestia's shields. She may be given the information or collect it herself but she is always first to analyze it and find a way to control it. She's always the extra brains that nobody else can seem to muster to get their job done. Having twilight function as a student/researcher once again will allow her to be present and involved in many different situations on and off the ship. This is in stark contrast to their leader, captain Luna who spends most of her time on the bridge

 

Fluttershy

 

Medical Intern: determined to dedicate her life to helping others, the ever meek Fluttershy entered the field of medicine. Not yet having the knowledge, experience, or grace under fire to be a full fledged doctor, she does frequently find herself confronting such a reality as the actual doctor is often locked up in a lab trying to figure out how to combat space-borne disease and illness. Thus, she handles most normal patient complaints such as aches, cuts, scrapes, bruises, burns, nausea, loss of appetite, headaches, etc. While Dragonfire operatives are taught how to dress and treat their own combat wounds suffered on the field until better help is available, injuries caused by the alien environments are not quite as predictable, easy to treat and more often than not require an extensive set of medical tools and knowledge. This makes Fluttershy Dragonfire's first choice for a mobile medic when exploring dangerous turf, much to her chagrin. Not helping in the matter is that she is frequently the subject of troop affection. This coerces her to stay close to Spike who is liable to lay down the law on his comrades for acting out. With Fluttershy and Rarity being best friends, and Spike having romantic interest in Rarity, it appeals to the interest of all three that he do so

 

Chancellor Sombra

 

While currently the 1,100 residents who call the Celestia their home live together quite harmoniously, this wasn't always the case. Following the invasion of Discord, Sombra boarded the Celestia with his people (previously a global population, now reduced to 277). Him and his nation are a shadow of what they were, something that haunts him day in and day out. He sought to redeem himself in his own eyes via the only way he knows how; leading. In the early voyages of the Celestia, him and his populous attracted further followers by his constant blaming of Luna for all of their races problems and just how much better of a job he could do. Luna and her ilk tried to peacefully negotiate the rising demagogue into harmony but after he staged and failed a coup, she knew that the only way to prevent him from further dividing their endangered race was by exile.

Sombra and his followers (both original and newly acquired) were thrown off the Celestia, left to fend for themselves on a small fleet of long range shuttles.

 

Years later, He returns with a mothership of his own (Ship's name is pending. Leaning toward Charon but open to suggestions), a much larger group of followers and a basic set of goals; Claim the Celestia for himself, terminate any opposition with extreme prejudice. In past and present, the political nature of the struggle for power between him and Luna is everybody an ideological battle as much a physical one. In addition to usurping power by using fear, lies, prejudiace, ignorance and emotions, Sombra has the advantage of being a far more ruthless military strategist. While Luna's troops have no issue over using lethal force against hostile aliens, they are far more hesitant to open fire on members of their own dying race. Sombra and his party have no second thoughts over killing, ransoming, interrogating, brainwashing, and holding hostage -ANYBODY- even their own.

 

Changelings

 

Changelings were present on the Celestian homeworld, though it is later discovered that they are not native to it. Before the invasion of Discord and still to present little was/is known about them. Even less is understood. The Celestia's encounters with changeling colonies in the deep reaches of space, the likes of whom have never had any contact with or knowledge of the Celestian's homeworld, only further the enigma. Most, if not all, changelings themselves are not certain about their race's origin. If there is a planet that the changelings can call their home, it has long since been lost the chronicles of history. Throughout the galaxy, Changelings are largely shunned and seen as being mysterious, mischievous, untrustworthy, deceptive and strange. It may be because of this that they either generally only associate with other changelings and hold a mutual dislike and hostility for none-shapeshifters OR are lone wanderers only concerned with their own preservation. There are exceptions

 

Not all changelings are evil. As a matter of fact, the Celestia's intelligence agency (Again, name pending. Leaning toward something generic like Office of Intelligence services or 'OIS' but am open to suggestions) has a handful of changelings in it's ranks. They were as surprised as everyone else when they had found large groups of space-faring changelings though they had been immediately rejected by said groups on grounds of being Traitors, despite having them having absolutely no prior knowledge of the group and it's affairs. They had been fortunate enough to be born genetically immune to discord and knew that swearing allegiance to Luna was their best chance of survival. They proved both their skill and loyalty as intelligence agents when they had infiltrated Sombra's secretive plannings to overthrow Luna. Had they not given her premonition, Sombra may have very well succeeded. Proudly calling themselves Celestians, Their office works closely with Luna and Rarity when it comes to investigating potential and confirmed enemy forces. Spike's M6 may be the first to fight, but the changelings are always the first to know.

 

Because it is in space, the options for one shot villains should be literally infinite. Could have anything from pirates, to androids, resource harvesters competing for the same substance, giant space insects, non-humanoid aliens, a violent non-sentient wild beast like the Xenomorph from the alien movies. Really the only limit would be how many designs that can be imagined though not every single individual they should encounter in space is hostile, or even alien.

 

 

Seeing as alot of it it would be simply living in space and the Celestia has such a large population, many of the side/background characters could have their onboard duties explored (and depending on the character, may be closely tied to their original counterparts)

 

Shining Armor would be the leader of Luna's personal Bodyguards

 

The apple family are all dedicated engineers

 

Cheerilee still teaches and the CMC and their peers are still students

 

Sunset Shimmer may function as an immediate and highly competitive, albeit non hostile, rival to Twilight. Further down the road They may become friends down the road but still stay in an competitive rivalry to help the both of them stay productive

 

Lyra, Octavia and Vinyl are live performers/the DJ at Pinkie's Cantina

 

The Wonderbolts are elite dogfighters

 

Other Cloudsdale characters are either pilots (Flying anything from lower rank Dogfighters, interceptors, intermediate troop transports, shuttles ect), part of the fighter ship bay's runway team, radio relay crew, air traffic control, etc.

 

Rainbow Dash going off how she's the best might be countered by her fellow pilots with "Daring Do facts"

Describing Daring Do in a sarcastic manor similar to Chuck Norris

 

Nurse Redheart works closely with Fluttershy

 

Mayor Mare is part of Luna's advisory board, serving as a voice of the people and the link between the very busy captain and the Celestia's 1,100 residents.

 

Maud would be the crew's geologist

 

Iron Will as a recurring character with at first nuanced appearance. Initially he could be a sort of lovable rogue who comes and goes with his own smaller, one man long range vessel as he pleases. later he re-emerge as a mercenary who helps the Celestians battle Sombra, the changelings, the villain of the week, whatever. later he could take up permanent residence on board eventuall