Elementals of Harmony

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Ditzy Doo. Or, if you prefer, Derpy Hooves. A happy-go-lucky, muffin-loving mare with hardly a care in the world. Right?

Well, that was until a massive aura of black mana formed around the Sugarcube Corner. Now Ditzy's the one pony who even knows that there is a problem, much less how to go about solving it. The bad news is that it's going to be next to impossible to get anypony else to listen to her.

The good news? She has considerably more leverage in the situation than you might think. After all, she's a Planeswalker.

Elementals of Harmony is a Crossover of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and Magic: The Gathering by FanOfMostEverything. Currently complete, with a Sequel Series of drabbles, Sideboard of Harmony, in progress.

The story can be found here and Sideboard can be found here.

Tropes used in Elementals of Harmony include:
  • Action Mom: Ditzy is already a planeswalker with years of experience in magical combat. When she hears her daughter in pain, the only reason she doesn't go supersonic is that her destination got in the way.
  • Adaptational Badass: Ditzy, of course.
  • Alternative Calendar: The story mostly takes place during the summer of Anno Celesti 5872.
  • Anachronic Order: Not only are there flashbacks, the flashbacks aren't even in order. The first ones bookend Ditzy's adventures in the wider Multiverse without giving any details regarding that time.
  • The Assimilator: The generosity elemental. It's not exactly villainous per se, but it definitely wants to give itself to every living thing. And vice versa.
  • The Atoner: Both Trixie and her mentor, Luna.
  • Aura Vision: Ditzy's unique ability to literally see magic is what gets the plot going in the first place. It also makes going near Twilight's house, where the magic elemental is forming, a really bad idea.
  • Badass and Child Duo: Ditzy tries to keep this from happening, but submits to inevitability by the magic elemental.
  • Badass Boast: See I Have Many Names below.
  • Beam-O-War: The fight with the magic elemental becomes one in its later stages.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: Okay, Pinkie's not just an ineffectual Comic Relief character, but the worst she can do is a harmless prank, right? Right?
  • Beyond the Impossible: Spike's fire breath apparently burns faster than entropy. The story acknowledges that this shouldn't even make sense, but dragonfire, like dragons, is magical enough to make it work regardless.
  • Black Mage: In both Lady of Black Magic and Black Magician Girl variations. (Luna and Pinkie Pie, respectively.)
  • Break Them by Talking: Magic elemental Twilight to Trixie, without even meaning to. She then tries to apologize for it, making things worse. The guilt for so demoralizing Trixie starts Twilight's own Villainous Breakdown, which means that she also managed to break herself by talking.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Pinkie Pie, of course, to the extent that she does it in her first line of dialogue. (See Medium Awareness)
    • She also sings a Gilbert and Sullivan Song Parody that pretty much obliterates the poor thing.
    • She also supplies the narration to one of her own fight scenes. Then she fails to dodge a blow that sends her across Ponyville because she's having a conversation with the author. In the narration.
    • Pinkie's fourth-wall awareness is justified: She was taught by Commodore Guff, a Magic: the Gathering character who canonically broke it rather frequently.
    • In the last chapter, the two of them pause in reading the story to critique the ending. Then they start reading the epilogue.
      • The card that follows this exchange? "Fourth Wall Breach"
  • Casting a Shadow: Done literally, when Luna uses a spell to turn her shadow into a localized version of the heat death of the universe to destroy the honesty elemental. Comes complete with a creepy Magical Incantation:

The world is a mote of dust circling a tiny spark, floating in an unfathomably vast ocean of nothingness. Light, life, chaos, all of these are lies. Lies of such miniscule consequence that the universe allows them to seem true. But one day, its patience will run out. The spark will gutter. The mote will freeze. All will be as it truly is: Dark, silent, unchanging. For eternity.

    • Also presented in card form as "Litany of the Void".
  • Catapult Nightmare: Rainbow Dash reduces her sheets to a thin mist as she comes out of one.
  • The Chains of Commanding: Celestia can't join in on the smiting because somepony's actually got to keep running the country while the others make sure there still is one at the end of the day.
  • Chekhov's Armory: Double subverted. With a few exceptions, all that stuff in Ditzy's attic doesn't enter into the story. What does is its sheer quantity, which combined with the Carousel Boutique-turned-Tolarian Academy, allows her to use ungodly amounts of mana.
  • Chekhov's Gun: That pretty little bauble that Sweetie Belle's machine made? That'll be important later on. Specifically, it's a Mox Lotus.
  • Color-Coded Elements: Literally. Each Element of Harmony is aligned to a specific color of Magic: the Gathering magic, except for Magic, which is attracting all colors of Magic magic. Magically.
  • Continuity Nod: The designs for the elementals were decided upon before the show's second season began. However, by the time Pinkie met the laughter elemental in-story, she'd already had an unpleasant experience with constantly laughing balloons in canon. Cue the Aside Comment:

It's a good thing this story takes place before Season Two, or I'd find this a lot more disturbing.

  • The Courier Capsule Knew You Would Say That: Tezzeret does this to Jace before explaining why it would be a very bad idea not to teach the nice pony blue magic.
  • Crisis of Faith: Inverted. Much to Ditzy's distress, it's Celestia who doubts if the pegasus is really a pony.
  • Cryptic Background Reference: Numerous. Carrot Top is a potential heiress to a multimillion bit empire. In the last chapter (not counting the epilogue,) Celestia meets with a pair of spymaster ponies who are never seen before or after. And, of course, there's the ETSAB.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Luna, of course. Surprisingly, also applies to Nightmare Moon, now that she's been Harmonized with a capital H.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Several, but Flawless Composure, Celestia's personal coltservant, stands out.

Ditzy: Where did you come from?
Flawless: Since Madam is a parent, I should scarcely think that such matters would need to be explained to her.

  • Death by Irony: Each elemental is destroyed by its own element:
    • Laughter is annihilated by Pinkie Pie, its own Bearer and a far better comedian.
    • Honesty is defeated by a concentrated blast of thermodynamic inevitability.
    • Generosity undoes itself with its own better nature: Once it realizes that it is destroying the universe through its very existence, it gives the gift of a future.
    • Kindness goes away once it's asked nicely.
    • Loyalty dives in front of its own attack to save Rainbow Dash.
    • Magic is disempowered through copious use of countermagic, then finished off through her own use of the Elements of Harmony. She doesn't die, though.
  • Deceased Parents Are the Best: The flashbacks show that Ditzy grew up in a loving, supportive household. Then her father exploded.
    • Downplayed. Ditzy's mother is still alive, but her daughter never made the effort to contact her until after the events of the story.
  • Die or Fly: Dinky figures out her special talent less than a second before she gets wiped from existence.
  • Don't Think, Feel: Ditzy has trouble with this and, by extension, red magic. At least, she does until her daughter gets hurt.
  • Double Meaning: Screwball, the avatar of discord, a reference to both a Magic card and the FiM villain in whose episode she appears.
  • Edible Bludgeon: Angel's carrot is converted into a holy lance in his Archangel form, as Screwball discovers.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Technically, the titular elementals, since their very presence is destabilizing the universe. Some, however, are more eldritch than others.
    • Also Screwball, avatar of discord.
  • Embarrassing Middle Name: Rainbow Dash's is number four on her all-time list of things she hates. For the record, it's Jennifer.
  • En Route Sum-Up: Subverted.

Pinkie: Okay, so here's what's going on—

Applejack: Is it magic?

Pinkie: Well, duh. Anyway—

Applejack: Don't care.

  • Equinoid Abomination: Screwball. Oh, and Twilight the magic elemental.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: Ditzy's name may not be Derpy Hooves, but that doesn't keep ponies from calling her that.
  • Expy: Scootaloo's father is a fairly obvious pony version of Dirk Strider. He's even named Ollie Outie.
  • Fictional Document: In addition to the various works cited in Flavor Text, there's a chapter that is an excerpt from the Planeswalker's Guide to Ungula, an epilogue is made entirely of letters, including a friendship report. and the fanfiction itself. Apparently, there's a printed copy of it in Guff's library.
  • Flintstone Theming: It is Equestria, after all. Even the universe as a whole is called Ungula.
  • Flowery Elizabethan English: Luna can apparently toggle between normal speech and the TRADITIONAL ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE at will.
  • Fluffy the Terrible: Applejack's name for the giant cyclopean apple-creature that can crush houses with every step? Paul. Fluttershy's for the inchworm longer than her house? Eric.
  • Footnote Fever: Every chapter ends with a made-up Magic card pertinent to the chapter's events. The chapters of the final battle get a double-feature version, and when the elementals show up, each of them is presented in card form in turn.
  • Friend to All Living Things: The kindness elemental, even more than Fluttershy. Not even Angel Bunny can bring himself to harm it.
  • Full Name Ultimatum: Delivered to Dinkabeth Sharuum Doo.
  • Fun with Acronyms: Luna explains the story's events as an "act of fate," citing the Full Arcane Temporaspacial Enforcement Act.
  • Funetik Aksent: The Apple family, with a heapin' helpin' o' 'postrophes.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: Averted, several times. Especially by Pinkie, who at times literally fights like a card player.
  • Give Me a Reason: When Ditzy asks where her child is, you don't tell her that she's repeating herself.
  • Glowing Eyes: As and after Ditzy uses magic, her eyes glow in the corresponding color. Which can be kind of menacing when she starts casting red.
  • Gotta Kill Them All: The plot becomes this once the elementals show up.
  • Heel Face Turn: Nightmare Moon still exists in Luna's psyche, but she's as sane and pleasant as her counterpart. And she just loves those adorable little cults of hers.
  • Hikikomori: Apparently, Twilight reverts to this when left unattended. She's not happy about it.
  • How We Got Here: Most of the flashbacks are in this vein, covering Ditzy's past and detailing exactly how she went from Ascended Meme to Adaptational Badass.
  • Humans Through Alien Eyes: In Equestrian fairy tales, humans are the equivalent of The Big Bad Wolf. When Ditzy first meets Tezzeret, she's convinced that he wants to enslave her, stab her, and drink her blood. Trixie faints when Ditzy adopts an illusion that disguises her as a human.
  • I Got Bigger: The honesty elemental starts off the size of an average apple. By the time it's destroyed, it's crushing houses with each step.
  • I Have Many Names: "On Ravnica, I am the nameless patron totem of Rauck-Chauv, the Gruul festival of spontaneous vandalism. On Segovia, I am Apocalypse-Given-Flesh, accidental flattener of civilizations. On Kamigawa, I am Piki-Piki, kami of akki poetry and octopus hats. Oona, queen-mother of the faeries of Lorwyn, remembers me as the pony who tried to eat her. Nicol Bolas, elder dragon planeswalker, acknowledges me as the one being who has withstood his touch with sanity unchanged. Emrakul, The Aeons Torn, She of the Six Thousand Tentacles of Annihilation, considers me her therapist...I am Pinkie Pie. I am a planeswalker. And I am on your side."
  • Imagine Spot: Chapter 4 opens with a pair of cultists summoning a demon and an Expy of Conan the Barbarian. Turns out it's the Cutie Mark Crusaders playing in the park.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Tezzeret (perhaps literally.) He saves an unconscious Ditzy from slow dissolution in the Blind Eternities. Then he shuts off her motor control for a while, restarts her brain as she begins to descend into madness, and uses her as a bargaining chip to further his own personal quest. He then arranges a more comprehensive education in magic than what he could provide... by pointing meaningfully at the Sword of Damocles he has dangling over her future tutor's head.
  • Journey to the Center of the Mind: Happens several times, usually with Ditzy as the journeyer or mind. She even manages to go on one accidentally.
  • Large Ham: Ditzy's father is once described as "glowing with the power of pure ham." His daughter and granddaughter later use melodramatic Rule of Funny to defuse an awkward situation with Luna.
    • While she's been humbled, Trixie still has a soul of pork, as evidenced with her play with Dinky.
  • Laughing Mad: Unsurprisingly, the laughter elemental, which embodies all laughter, from the annoying to the dissonant to the outright evil.
  • Lemony Narrator: Now and again, usually parenthetically.

She turned to Pinkie Pie for a more sensible explanation (and what a sorry state of affairs that implied.)

  • Magi Babble: Rather frequent during the early chapters, which assume the reader knows much more about ponies than card games.
  • Magic A Is Magic A: Played with a lot, given that there are three breeds of magic from the ponies, five colors of it from the card games, and, of course, Magic P, which is a whole other kettle of fourth wall rubble.
  • The Magnificent: During the Great and Powerful Trixie's first scene, she uses a different pair of descriptors each time she refers to herself in her Inner Monologue. Lampshaded when, during a caffeine nadir she once resorts to "The Adjective and Other-Adjective Trixie."
    • Later on, after a few life-shaking events have gotten Trixie to drop the habit, she catches herself doing this and recognizes it as a sign of mental contamination.
  • Manchurian Agent: Lyra. As she puts it, "My job is so secret, even I don't know about it."
  • Master of Illusion: Ditzy is a rare heroic one, her magic being largely focused around perception.
  • Medium Awareness: After a horrified gasp: "Omigosh! What is it? Did Pinkie Pie find somepony she's never seen before? Wait... I'm Pinkie Pie. Silly unattributed dialogue!" She goes on to look up at previously written description and at one point, explains what just happened entirely through the context of the Magic: the Gathering card game.
  • Mundane Utility: The ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE was originally devised as a form of crowd control.
  • Mythology Gag: Quoth Applejack, "Ah'm bein' a silly pony, ain't I?"
    • In a nod to Faust's preliminary designs, Fluttershy's full name is Fluttershy Poseysfilly.
    • In a similar vein, Pinkie's father comments on how much she takes after her grandmother, calling her "a little surprise."
    • Chrysalis and her tribe used to be the Flutter Ponies.
  • Negative Space Wedgie: Once magic becomes dense enough, the sky above the library literally cracks apart.
  • Nice Hat: The Myojin of Seeing Winds, to the point that he's still wearing it while inside Ditzy's mind.
  • Obfuscating Insanity/The Wonka: It's not entirely clear which Pinkie falls under. It's entirely possible that's she's both.
  • The Obi-Wan: For Ditzy, Tezzeret. For Pinkie Pie, Commodore Guff. Both avoid the Mentor Occupational Hazard by virtue of still having things to do in canon afterwards.
  • OC Stand-In: The protagonist is an Ensemble Darkpony, after all.
  • One-Winged Angel: Twilight as the magic elemental. She tries to do it a second time by fusing herself with the magic of the world. Dinky has something to say about that.
  • Original Character: Several, ranging from Ditzy's husband to Celestia's butler.
  • Our Angels Are Different: Angel Bunny combines white magic, meditation, and a carrot to great effect. One chapter's end card is him after doing so, appropriately named "Archangel Bunny."
  • Our Goblins Are Wickeder: Averted, with a side of Humans Are the Real Monsters:

Goblins were annoying, present in nearly every plane, came in only one quantity (too many), and had an impressive talent for killing themselves. Humans were largely similar, but generally had better hygiene and on occasion had better manners.

"You are already pie."

Applejack: That is the second impossible thing Ah've seen in as many days.

  • What's Up, King Dude?: Downplayed and justified. Celestia makes it a point that anypony can ask for a royal audience. The hapless accountant we see is suitably cowed by meeting the ruler of the nation and controller of the sun.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Most unicorns go unresponsively euphoric in the aura of magic around Twilight's library. Trixie... doesn't.
    • After she's been possessed by the loyalty elemental, Scootaloo's thought processes "could best be described – and even then, not very well – as an operatic remix of the Nyan Cat song performed on an electric guitar, a theramin, and a didgeridoo made from a hollowed-out butternut squash."
    • As time goes on, Twilight the magic elemental becomes increasingly unstable, both mentally and physically.
  • The Worf Barrage: Trixie's final gambit against the magic elemental. Of course, using magic on it probably wasn't a good idea to begin with...
  • 0% Approval Rating: Most of the unicorns in Dinky's vicinity aren't exactly comfortable with her ability to break magic.

Card of the Article:
All The Tropes
Legendary Trope Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast a trope spell or to activate an ability of a trope source.
T: Add three mana of any color to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast a trope spell or to activate an ability of a trope source. Skip your next turn.
 

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