>>8674
>"Time was, when a pony wanted to fly, he’d need wings that flapped. You’ve converted magic into flight, with nothing holding you there but concentration and the whimsy of an old-world artist."
>Grey looked his "wings" over nodded. "Magic can be a fair approximation of lots of stuff."

>>8676
>It's a stark departure but still recognizable territory. Not only is everyone a pony, there are no horns or wings.
But ponies do manifest wings in flight or is that pure mental magical will? (Perhaps I ought to give that a read).

>Basically I was trying to recreate the good-magic parts of MLP in a way that would, if I were to pursue actual publication, clearly mark it as "totally an unrelated universe"
You certainly could get away with having the three races. In a purer high fantasy setting without characters that are direct rip offs of FiM characters such concepts are too abstract for tight copyright controls. You might even be able to get away with more than that; consider the case of Filly Funtasia, the obscurer copycat FiM show that spawned a tiny half fandom that tried to birth from our own for awhile (including, weirdly, its own chan, I'll have to see if there is still any evidence that it even existed).

>...which, regardless of what they get called, probably means cutie marks either need to go away, or be drastically reconsidered.
I'd be more inclined to agree here. Though you shouldn't disregard these ideas, they are creative, just pointing out what you could get away with!

>>8677
>Hey, that is certainly more interesting than 99% of the attempts of that. It seems like most attempts to copy MLP post FiM era just copy a lot of G1 through 3 tropes and not get how FiM was different. I have even seen fan spin off works fail into this trap or just be stripped to the point of being generic settings.
Have a friend who has been working something from a similar bent. I agree and am surprised I haven't seen more stuff like that or CB's.