My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Fan Works/Tear Jerker

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If a fanwork has its own page, refer to that main article for its Tear Jerker or YMMV tab.

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  • A real Tear Jerker is from the fanfic adaptation of the "After the Gala" comics. Not only are the reactions of some of the Mane Cast this, the one that really takes the case is Fluttershy's My God, What Have I Done? reaction to her bout of insanity at the Gala. She breaks down and sobs her eyes out at the fact she did something so cruel and horrible. Her friends are just left distraught at the fact they have no idea what they can say to comfort her. The writer even admitted to crying while writing that part! Though of course this just makes the rest of the fic that much more of a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming in the end.
  • Mommy Nearest will make you cringe and cry at how much agony Rainbow Dash is suffering. It has a happy ending, but Mare, that's just sadistic.
  • Yet another Tear Jerker of a Fanfic, My Little Dashie is based on a comic from Equestria Daily in which someone finds a baby Rainbow Dash in our world. He raises his 'daughter' and they have happy lives together for fifteen years. And then he gets a knock at the door, opens it to find Celestia and the other Mane Six members, all there to take Rainbow Dash home. And he knew they'd be coming the entire time.
    • And there's one sequel in which Dashie returns to her human father after spending three weeks in Equestria, only to discover that 20+ years have passed on Earth, he married and had a daughter (giving Dashie a sister she never knew she had), and is dying from cancer. The last thing he says to her before being wheeled in for an operation that will most likely kill him is, Goodbye, Dashie. You're my daughter and I love you.
    • Azekahh readthis fanfic out, and even he was moved to tears by the story of a Rainbow Dash who was adopted into a loving home. Somehow, having the story read out makes it even more heartwarming and heartrending at once. In particular, the way he goes from being skeptical of the heartwarming/rending content to barely holding in his tears will move you. Near the end, he spends at least a minute sobbing uncontrollably in sympathy towards the main character for his loss. He doesn't just read the story at this point, he almost becomes it.
  • The Bad Future segment of the Pony POV series. Discord reigns supreme, Twilight and her friends now willingly serve as his top enforcers, and we're given a detailed look into just how horrific Discord's rule is. The segment ends with Evil!Twilight getting ready to murder a group of fillies simply for practicing magic.
    • And now here's a sequel to it that ends with all the girls, now Discord's immortal slaves, remembering themselves just long enough to die. There will be tears.
      • Though of course that all happened because Twilight Tragedy Set Right What Once Went Wrong and will be reborn in their new timeline selves and Discord is finally overthrown. Still, it doesn't change how some parts are legitimently sad.
    • Even the Lighter and Softer second half of the series has one in Screwball's fate. She was a patient at a Bedlam House who escaped during Discord's rampage. Even after things go back to normal, she's still insane and has to be taken back, mumbling about how everything had "finally made sense" just a few hours earlier. This becomes even worse when you learn that, in this continuity, she's Diamond Tiara's mother.
      • From said Lighter and Softer second half, Applejack's story. Applejack is invited to Canterlot in order to fully understand just how painful the honest and absolute truth is. She starts by seeing many of the ponies around Ponyville, and the full weight of their pain almost forces her to close the shutter if she hadn't stopped it with her own hoof. The images get more drastic and dramatic, and several painful truths come rushing to Applejack. Truths such as we all die eventually, your sister had a nightmare adventure, and Twilight will outlive you all and face the pony of death with new Elements of Harmony. Yet the thing that breaks her down the most is the fact that she could have had a child if she chose to stay in the city and earn a cutie mark from there. Perhaps the most tearjerker part is just how broken AJ is once they force her to stop, or how upset Celestia is at Applejack just not giving in.
      • Trixie's story, especially when Trixie explains why she is so concerned of what the audience thinks of her.
  • Speaking of Trixie, her two breakdowns in Kindness's Reward where she starts thinking she deserved what happened to her.
  • Someone took Singing Telegram and put the BGM from Shenkai Summit. In the original song, Pinkie Pie is getting tired as she sings to each of her friends, but in this it makes it seem like she's slowly breaking down and crying.
  • Both of the stories here. For an extra kick, read the second story while listening to this. You're going to need some alone time. It's quite possibly one of the most beautiful combinations of text and audio you'll ever be honored to witness. Your soul will be cleansed.
  • Today, Tomorrow, and Forever. Derpy Hooves mysteriously takes a day off for the first time anyone can remember, to celebrate Dinky's birthday, despite it being four months away. What at first seems to be just part of her usual weirdness turns out to be that she's been declared an unfit mother, and this is her last chance to spend time with Dinky before she's taken to a foster home. What somehow makes it worse is that the people taking Dinky away are completely sympathetic to Derpy, knowing how much she loves her daughter, but is just too mentally unstable to be trusted with her.
    • She is mentally stable -- hard-working, accomplished, and attentive to her daughter. And that's the worst part of it all.
  • To Forgive Is Equine has a few, but one that takes the cake is Pinkie Pie breaking down in tears while talking to the unconscious Twilight at the thought she's going to lose one of her best friends. Also, The Reveal that Trixie's father died of the same illness now threatening Twilight.
  • Of Mares and Magic Is BRIMMING with these.
    • Can somepony explain the story in layman's terms? Not everypony has time to read all 12 chapters.
  • What's Eating Rainbow Dash? does a very good job of giving Rainbow Dash a What the Hell, Hero? moment about the "Mysterious Mare Do Well" as well as a depressing backstory. Her popularity with the ponies went to shit (with the exception of the construction worker she saved) and Junior Fliers academy was really a remedial flight school for bad fliers or fliers needing attitude adjustments and RD had only Glida as a friend after flunking out of Summer Flight Camp. The Mane 5 atually feel horrible for their treatment towards her they want to apologize... only to hear that she's moving to Apple-Loosa for their weather branch. Then RD chews them out by saying that she never asked for a fan club or wanted accidents to happen. Then she points out she doesn't have a little sister, a dragon assistant, a apprenticeship with the Princess, a farm, a dress shop, critters that come to her or ponies that treat her like a daughter. And weather service? That's a lowly position for her and something that will never get her noticed by the Thunderbolts despite winning flying contests. Then she points out her friends left her out of pet day until she got a pet. The ending is happy though.
  • This short fic about Luna. Luna had only planned to keep it night for seven days. She never told Celestia that.
  • The last-minute derail of Cupcakes: Consequences. Long story short, after being saved by Twilight Sparkle and Applejack, it's revealed that there's a Parasprite in her head, crushing and poisoning her brain and cure her, but fail to rehabilitate the traumatized Pinkie back into the community. But, it gets even more heart-rending: In the end, she begs Celestia (After several attempts to take her own life, no less.) to be punished as Discord was punished, and is, and remains in statue form in the garden forever, endlessly alone with her torment.
  • The story behind this picture. *sniff*
  • The stark, existential horror of Bad End. Could... Could someone else describe it? It's making my heart hurt, giving me heart palpitations, chest pains.
    • It's based on what happens if you fail in the fan-game Story of the Blanks. Apple Bloom returns home as a zombiefied filly, leaving a frantic and disgusted Applejack and Big Macintosh to handle having a flesh-craving zombie as a sister. Meanwhile, the rest of the town become increasingly desperate to find out what happened to Apple Bloom when Twilight returned to without her the night before. It's incomplete at three chapters so far.
  • Students of Celestia opens with a scene where Celestia visits a funeral for her student Manalight. It ends with both Luna and Celestia attending Twilight Sparkle's funeral.
  • Bubbles, the fanfic origin behind Derpy's cutie mark. Her mother, who hated her with a passion and called her retarded, leaves her in the woods all by herself to get rid of her like Hansel and Gretal. She leaves Derpy with a bubble blowing wand to play with. Mother of god, this made me tear up and I was like a rock during Up and Toy Story 3. There's an alternate ending that can be considered Earn Your Happy Ending material.
  • Circus Days focuses on Spike, and how he feels about being left behind by the mane 6 all the time, to do work while they go on exciting adventures. It's especially sad, when Spike finally calls them all out for always leaving him behind and never appreciating him. And if that wasn't bad enough, he then leaves them all, to live at the circus with some ponies he befriends. This story is just full of Break the Cutie and tear jerking moments, that if you don't shed at least one tear, you're not human.
  • Scootaloo's Mistake Is a very sorrowful story... how sorrowful you ask? Rainbow Dash dies saving Scootaloo in the first chapter
  • Depending on which story you're reading, The Fluffy Ponies phenomenon can count as this.
  • This troper in particular cried his eyes out at the Family & Friends fanfic by Raefire. Made especially more effective if you've ever lost a pet.