>>/8676/
> 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"

I'd think you've done it enough, consider, Starswirl Academy.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=SrZjQaY5CJc


> ...which, regardless of what they get called, probably means cutie marks either need to go away, or be drastically reconsidered.

I think they would only need to be moderately reconsidered in the context of the rules of your world. 

 >>/8680/ 
>  (including, weirdly, its own chan, I'll have to see if there is still any evidence that it even existed).

Really? That is news to me. I remember people trying to make Funtasia into a thing but I didn't think it went beyond a forced meme.