Pony POV Series

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
We'll make it through all the worst together/And come out better than ever!


The Pony POV Series is an in-progress My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic fanfiction series written by alexwarlorn (with some work put in by lz0291 and Kendell2 also wrote a few scenes and two songs, as well as several stories written by others in the same universe). They can be read here (first volume, Discorded Ponies) and here (in-progress second volume, Reharmonized Ponies). You can download an e-book compliation of the Reharmonized Ponies stories to date in epub or fb2 format.

The series is divided into two parts:

  • Reharmonized Ponies Series: A sequel series of all original works that follow the canon version of events. Unlike the original, these have a running storyline detailing the ponies' recovery, The Reveal that Trixie is a second Element Of Magic, and Discord's eventual return for round two, once more in a series of POV stories, though some break that formula. While much happier, Nightmare Fuel still abounds.

The Reharmonized Ponies Series itself has some sub-arcs:

  • Princess Gaia Arc: A continuation of the Reharmonized series, this one completely breaks Fluttershy where Discord couldn't, and in more ways than one.
  • The "Butterfly" Side Stories: The aftermath of the previous Arc and Applejack breaking the series away from canon, as told from the POV of several Ponies and non-Ponies around Ponyville.
  • "Origins": A series of stories explaining the origins of Celestia, Discord, Luna, and the end of the G3 World leading to the birth of the G4 one. Gets really dark.
  • "Mind Games": Things are coming to a head as Diamond Tiara gets closer and closer to freeing Discord. Darkness rises, and chaos might just have the last laugh...
  • "Shining Armor Arc": Shining Armor's backstory and explaining where he's been during the rest of the series.
  • "Not The Wedding You Remember": Included due to a poll result. The premise starts the same as the show canon, but things quickly spiral out of control, from the efforts of a much more dangerous Queen Chrysalis.
  • "Finale": The eighth and apparently final arc of the main series. This in turn is divided into several sub arcs:

There's also the Gaiden: 7 Dreams/Nightmares collection of stories, wherein Princess Luna, Twilight Sparkle, and Pinkie Pie read the journal entries of the seven main G2 ponies, covering the G2 world's change into G3, the Cosmic Retcon of G3, and the collapse of G2 society in the altered timeline through their eyes. Gets pretty dark, but each story tends to lean towards Earn Your Happy Ending territory.

All of these stories have a Darker and Edgier take on the canon events. Discord is far more sinister and evil, his actions have left deep psychological scars on everypony, and there aren't any quick fixes to the damage inflicted. However, the series doesn't take a turn into pure Dark Fic turf and turn Equestria into a Crap Saccharine World; it's clear that all the bad things happening are Discord's doing, even though he's been defeated.

What separates this fic from many of the legions of fanfictions out there is just how HUMONGOUS the fic has become. The author regularly tries to create new chapters at a normal rate so that readers aren't Left Hanging, and the fanfiction as written by him is already over 100 chapters long. And not just short chapters. Average word length can be well over 4000 words in places. In addition, the fic has a core of loyal fans who are dedicated not just to creating new original material (as seen below), but for helping contribute to the core material such as the Dreams/Nightmares section mentioned above. While it does seem to prioritize high writing standards from its many editors and creators, its fandom can also be a little too loyal to the work in the eyes of some.

A group of fans has started a project to make an audio version of the entire series. Unfortunately, the last upload from this project is given as more than 4 years ago.

There are also stories by other authors that have been declared in the universe by Word of God:

These stories are Loose Canon and it's up to the reader rather or not to consider them canon.


Tropes used in Pony POV Series include:
  • Accidental Pun: Luna's filly alternate self who plays with Pip is called Moonlight. That is, she's moonlighting as a normal filly. Word of God is that this was completely unintentional.
  • Action Mom:
    • Trixie's mother, Morgan actively defends Hoofington from Princess Gaia's army. and, from what we see, is a pretty powerful Unicorn when she fights.
    • Derpy Hooves defending her daughter from Princess Gaia's forces, anyone?
    • Despite being insane, Screw Ball/Golden Tiara certainly counts. Breaking out of the heavily guarded insane asylum she's kept in is childs play for her the first time. The second time when her Mama Bear side finally kicks in? She not only kicks everypony's flanks who tries getting in her way, she kills a Cockatrice and a Timber Wolf bare hoofed!.
  • Adaptational Badass:
    • The G1 My Little Pony series pony, Mimic. What is she like in this timeline? The only mortal pony to ever injure Discord and the reason he's missing that tooth by kicking him thousands of times in the face at the speed of sound! Sure, she died horrifically afterwards, but give the girl some credit!
    • G3 Pinkie Pie, Thistle Whistle, Sky Wishes, Star Catcher, Wysteria, Rarity, Spike, and Minty, though all of them had to Take a Level In Badass. Everyone but Pinkie and Minty managed to give Strife, a Physical Goddess and Reality Warper on par with Discord, a run for her money and actually scare her at one point. Pinkie and Minty beat Luna, though she was weakened at the time, she was still a powerful Physical Goddess at the time. Oh, and Star Catcher was mortal incarnation of Celestia.
    • While Canon!Cadence turned out to be pretty badass herself, this universe's version managed to fight Havoc's avatar! with an implication she actually won. It's not yet been explained how the present Cadence came to be, however.
  • Adorkable: Luna is this a good bit during her second sidestory.
  • Adult Child:
    • Fluttercruel has a habit of throwing childish temper tantrums when she doesn't get her way. Then again, she is pretty much a newborn, something Fluttershy picked up on, causing her to treat her like a child whenever she does something wrong.

Fluttercruel: Shut up shut up! You don't know anything so stop spewing dragon fewmets like you know me or someone you met twice!

Fluttershy: Oh my my my, such language. We're going to have to clean that mouth out.

Fluttercruel: YOU WOULDN'T!

    • Ironically, Luna's second side story reveals that Fluttershy pretty much became the Alicorn equalivant when she turned into Princess Gaia.
  • Adult Fear:
    • While just another bullet in a long list of horrors, Trixie fighting her awakening as an Element of Magic laser targets that special nerve of paranoia and fear for those who those who ever had to deal with that sort of emotional crisis for whatever reason.
    • There's also the fact that Rainbow Dash now fears Scootaloo's real parents will come and take her away from her.
  • A Friend in Need:
    • The characters' motivation for fighting Nightmare Whisper is not necessarily that what she was doing was terrible (as the characters had different opinions on that) but rather to save Fluttershy from herself. This is especially true for Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Fluttercruel, as the former two decide that they must try to kill their dearest friend (as they figure that Fluttershy would rather be dead than see what she has become and that they are good enough friends to do what must be done to help Fluttershy) and Fluttercruel will stop at nothing, sacrificing herself if necessary, to see Fluttershy restored to her former self.
    • After the battle with Nightmare Whisper, the heroes convince Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie to release pain and suffering back into Equestria so they wouldn't have to see their friends endure the torment any longer. Once again, there is disagreement among the characters whether or not this was the "right" choice, but not a single one of them is sorry that Fluttershy decided to let go (though it is hinted that Pinkie felt that holding on to everything should have been her responsibility, rather than Fluttershy's).
  • Affably Evil: Princess Gaia is a polite, gentle, and friendly host to the Mane Cast. Of course she is still Fluttershy after all
  • The Ageless: Celestia and Luna, though they actually have Nigh Invulnerable immortality. Everypony in the G3 world had this, however, thanks to an ancient spell. Unfortunately, giving birth to Star Catcher broke the spell on her mother, Star Maker, and resulted in her aging and dying while all around her remained the same. Pinkie was included in this, but its safe to assume she's lost it.
  • A Glitch in the Matrix:
    • Twilight Sparkle manages to break free of Loneliness' illusion by realizing the "doctor" talking to her mentioned three friends, not five, and didn't realize Twilight was Princess Celestia's apprentice, something any true doctor taking care of an insane pony would know.
    • Twilight had recent experience with actual insane asylums while helping mental/psychological casualties of the Day of Discord. And soon recognizes this "asylum" and "doctor" as being Theatrical versions; the sort of things a showpony with no actual experience would portray.
    • In Luna's second sidestory, some things are intentionally off in her nightmare or don't make sense as a version of this for the reader, foreshadowing the reveal that it's All Just a Dream.
  • All Just a Dream: Luna wakes up, gets told by Celestia her night out with Pip has gotten her painted as a molester by the tabloids, has an arguement with Celestia at a guardian party, kills and revives Pip as an immortal zombie, turns evil again, tries to murder her sister, only for Celestia to break out her ultimate weapon and fight back. Luna gets bisected by a spear and... wakes up in her chariot next to Pip. It's left unrevealed as to rather or not this was a vision of a possible future or simply a nightmare, either way, it teaches her a lesson she really needed to learn.
  • All the Myriad Ways:
    • When Applejack looks into the Truth, we see a large number of alternate universes, including the Bad Future presented in epilogue. In a subversion, Applejack is actually heartbroken by the fact the children she had in the "Orangejack" universe won't exist because she didn't take that path. Celestia reassures her that they do exist in that timeline.
    • In "AJ's Dreams" many other alternate universes are seen (including several ones where other members of the Mane Cast have become Nightmares or are otherwise evil/crazy). At the end of the battle against Nighmare Mirror (herself an alternate version of Applejack), Applejack and Orangejack meet many alternate versions of themselves, including ones that bear different Elements of Harmony (Orangejack herself can bear the Element of Generosity).
  • Alternate Ending: Kendell2's Ditzy Butterflies: Best Mother and Knight Mysterio's Reharmonizing: Old Wounds give alternate versions of Ditzy's reharmonizing, but both have been declared Loose Canon by Word of God, leaving it up to the readers which one they consider canon, if either.
  • Alternate Timeline: Several have been revealed. It's also revealed that the Pony POV universe is an Alternate Timeline to the main series.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Parodied In-Universe with Luna and Celestia, the tabloids do this all the time. Celestia, being who she is, has fooled around with them a good bit with this under an assumed name for various reasons.
  • Exclusively Evil: Subverted. Despite Discord being purely evil, being born of Disharmony does not automatically make one evil. This is a major plot point in Fluttercruel's story arc. It's also revealed that Discord was simply one of a group of Draconequi, but seems to be the only truly evil one of the bunch. We see some of the others in "Generational Transitions" and some of them are downright nice. Even Destruction, a Mad Bomber who loves blowing things up, has some degree of empathy for the ponies. Discord was having the time of his life doing whatever he pleased in a universe that was going to be destroyed anyway.
    • Not to mention that in "AJ's Dream," Liarjack (or one version of her) was shown to wield the Element of Kindness.
  • And I Must Scream: A voluntary case in Nightmare Whisper, who reveals that the pain and suffering that she bears has already killed her twice, but she keeps using her power to bring herself back to life so she may continue to bear it.
    • Celestia's description of what she would have done to Fluttershy if she had inadvertently killed all of the unborn foals of Equestria. "I would have torn out your soul... and sealed you away for a lifetime per every life you had ended. In the sun, your soul five thousand miles below the surface. Able to feel everything."
  • Animesque: The audio-adaptations have recently been taking a step in this direction, complete with an official opening theme that's actually shortened for each installment and title cards!
  • And There Was Much Rejoicing: Discord's defeat in "Origins" sparks this, obviously.
  • Anti-Hero: Trixie after her Heel Face Turn. She's undoubtly on the good side, but she's still got a lot of issues to work around and is willing to use methods that aren't exactly heroic to get the job done.
  • Apocalyptic Log: Razzaroo from the G3 universe wrote one as her final act, being allowed to finish by Pandemonium due to it being her final work. In The Stinger, Twilight gets her hooves on it thanks to the Interviewer.
  • Apologetic Attacker: We don't see it, since it's happening in Trixie's head, but Princess Starflower apologizes before smacking Trixie on the head with a mallet to snap her out of Princess Gaia's Lotus Eater Machine.
    • Princess Gaia/Nightmare Whisper herself is also one.
  • Arc Words:
    • Almost all the stories end with the pony in question accepting her new position, declaring "I'm free." In the Discorded Series, this is normally a bad thing, but in the Reharmonized Series, it's a good one.
    • Pearls for Fluttershy and Fluttercruel's arc.
    • There's an arc SONG in the form of the three "So Many Wonders" reprises. The first is about Fluttercruel's happiness over being free from Fluttershy and able to see the world, second is a Villain Song by Princess Gaia used to hypnotise ponies into her vision of the world, and the final is a Triumphant Reprise at the finale of the arc, Fluttershy and Fluttercruel singing together about how their worldview has changed for the better.
  • As Herself: In-Universe, Princess Luna plays herself in a play where she makes a Deal with the Devil with three Earth Ponies. She also wrote it 1000 years ago.
  • The Atoner:
  • Audio Adaptation: A very large fanproject presently in the works is making one of these. Yes, the entire fanfic from start to finish.
  • Awful Truth: Applejack willingly steps up to see this by looking into the Truth in order to fully understand the thing that Discord used to break her. She learns a lot of harsh truths, but ultimately uses them to help everypony. It also causes her to become a Living Lie Detector as a result.
  • Back from the Dead: Apparently happened to Tirek offscreen over 1000 years ago. The Rainbow Of Darkness regenerated and brought him back to life with it, after which he challenged Luna for the title of ruler of the night. While we don't learn the details, Luna won and claimed his chariot as her prize.
    • One of the Recursive Fanfictions contains a more back from the nonexistence example. After being RetGoned from the Pony POV universe by Entropy for refusing to become a Nightmare, Neo Stream is "reborn" in...the Garry's Mod verse!
  • Badass Boast: Mimic to Discord in "Origins" right before her Dying Moment of Awesome:

Mimic: You float one inch towards my daughters I will kill you and seal your spirit in one of my horseshoes!

  • Bad Future:
    • "Epilogue" shows one where Discord won and rules the world. It's not pretty.
    • We see another one in Luna's second sidestory. Luna turns evil again, kills and revives Pip as an immortal undead, and attempts to kill Celestia, killing a number of innocent ponies in the process, only for Celestia to ultimately kill her to protect Equestria. Turns out it was All Just a Dream, or at least a vision of a possible future.
  • Badly-Battered Babysitter: The two Night Guards Luna leaves in charge of the four Day Guard Pegasi turned foals end up this way.
  • Bait and Switch Boss: Discord made extensive plans to get back into the fray through a blood ritual with Diamond Tiara for a favor to be named later, but he kinda takes back seat once Princess Gaia shows up. YMMV on how well that works, but it has yet to be seen if there is a relation between the two. And what Discord's next move is. It should be noted that Discord is still established to be the True Final Boss, Gaia just got there first.
  • Baleful Polymorph: Discord did this to a great many ponies. During her adventure in Canterlot, Applebloom somehow ended up being unwillingly transformed into a Sea Pony. Even Applejack isn't sure how that even happened.
  • Bargain with Heaven: Joining the Equestrian military (or at least the royal guard) seems to work this way. It involves being infused with a bit of the Princesses power (each do half) with a bit of transformation involved, more for Luna's than Celestia. However, the contract is very thorough about this (at least in Luna's case, it's in big bold letters across two pages in size 40 font, complete with before and after pictures) and applicants know exactly what they're getting into.
  • Batman Gambit: How Celestia convinces Trixie to stop fighting her awakening Element Of Magic.
  • Battle in the Center of the Mind: Pinkie Pie has one against an evil fractured piece of her personality called Angry Pie caused by Discord's corruption. The final battle with Loneliness takes place in the center of Trixie's mind, which has been rendered a Crapsack World by Loneliness' taint.
  • Be All My Sins Remembered: Despite the fact there are a great many ponies who love her for what she did, Fluttershy outright says in her speech she'll accept rather whether ponies choose to love her for the good she did or hate her for the bad.

Fluttershy: I didn't do everything right, I did bad things I don't know if I'll ever stop regretting. Some ponies won't ever forgive me for those things and maybe they're right to. I'm sorry for those things, but I wanted to help ponies, and it looks like I did. And I'm happy I was able to. And for everyone hearing this, if you'll take me back for what I accomplished, I'll accept that. If you won't take me back for what I did, I'll accept that too. I make no excuses, what I did I did and I was being a foal.

  • Beneath the Mask: Underneath what appeared to be the perfect Princess Gaia was a suffering monster: Nightmare Whisper.
    • Beneath that? Fluttershy in torture devices, holding all the suffering and pain of Equestria in herself.
  • Berserk Button: Don't call Trixie a "half-dirt unicorn".
  • Better Than New: Happens to Pinkie Pie during her week long slumber after she finally crashes from going a week without sleep. She wakes up able to think clearly and say things so profound (though still in character) that even Twilight is incapable of arguing her points. This happened because during that time she performed a Split Personality Merge.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Fluttershy, or should we say Princess Gaia.
  • Big Bad: Loneliness for the overarching plot with fixing Trixie. She's an entity that was keeping Trixie from being saved after Discord broke her. When Twilight enters Trixie's mind to free her, she ends up trying to kill her repeatedly to keep Trixie under her clutches until she's finally destroyed by Trixie rejecting her. Unfortunately, Discord's Mind Rape on Diamond Tiara causes her to free him and let him take over as the main villain.
    • However, before his arc happens, Fluttershy's Super-Powered Evil Side Princess Gaia/Nightmare Whisper serves as the Big Bad for the penultimate story arc.
    • "Origins", being a prequel, naturally has Discord as the Big Bad.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Fluttercruel in "The Foal of Omelas", who tears herself out of her tormented oblivion and comes to the Mane Cast's aid just in time, letting them use the Elements Of Harmony to defeat Nightmare Whisper.
  • Bigger Bad: Discord. He's already been put back in his can before the Reharmonizing series begins, but the aftermath of his actions have had deep and lasting effects on everypony. He eventually breaks free and becomes the Big Bad proper for the finale.
  • Big Entrance: Fighting your way through a portal while demonic beasts try to drag you back inside to make a Big Damn Heroes moment? Fluttercruel certainly knows how to make an entrance!
  • Big Good: Princess Gaia considers herself as this. In reality, however...
  • Big No: The undead foal inside Nightmare Whisper's crystal heart lets one out when Fluttercruel's Element Of Kindness manifests, allowing the Mane Cast to utilize the Elements against her.
  • Big Sister Instinct: Rarity will end you if you try to do anything to harm Sweetie Belle.
  • Bittersweet Ending:
    • Word of God has stated they wish to turn the Epilogue timeline into one of these, and several fans have already tried.
    • The Nightmare Granfalloon timeline. Yes, half the mane cast are dead, and Granfalloon's rampage caused a lot of pain, but Golden Tiara is sane again and reunited with her family, meaning that Diamond Tiara won't let Discord out of his prison again. On top of that, Word of God confirmed that Fluttershy in this timeline never becomes Nightmare Whisper.
    • Depending on how you look at it, "Generational Transitions" ends like this. Yeah, the G3 world ended, but the universe was saved from dying for good, meaning a new one will take its place. Plus, even though Minty died Pinkie saved her from being deleted, allowing her to live on as part of Twilight Sparkle, and was saved from deletion herself.
  • Blue and Orange Morality: The Draconequi have a form of this. Their role in creation makes it impossible for them to have the same moral framework as Alicorns and ponies, but they still have a form of love that allows them compassion and they do each have some degree of empathy and compassion, without which they'd be...well, Discord. They also enjoy chaos because they're born from it. But even by their morality, Discord's is black and doesn't so much enjoy causing chaos as the suffering he inflicts while doing so.
  • Body Horror: Nightmare Whisper.
  • Boss Rush: See above for details.
  • Brainwashing for the Greater Good: Princess Gaia's favorite trick.
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: When Applejack recounts Applebloom's adventure in Canterlot to the reader:

Applejack: It involved Applebloom spookin' every Pegasus in armor around, a royal fountain, Applebloom needin' to redefine her meanin' of 'public bath' . . . and Ah think the ghost of a Hippocampus and a lost family locket but Ah kinda ain't sure 'bout them details.

{{quote|Discord: "Oh, but you all LOVED it when Princess Gaia did it! Don't worry, Shadows-Who-Watch, I'm sure you'll be delighted to see me one again doing to all Equestria what I've done to [[spoiler:Diamond Tiara! Isn't that right, my little pony?"}}

  • Break the Cutie: Obviously, but Trixie and Diamond Tiara take the cake, especially the latter.
  • Breather Episode: The first half of the Penultimate episode comes right after the climatic, and terrifying, battle with Loneliness and Fluttershy going all Nightmare Moon, but is just, for all intent and purposes, the cast just getting to know the "One and Only Trixie".
    • Also, New Game Plus. In between the first part of Mind Games, which is a tense 3 part series about Onyx Tiara healing while Diamond Tiara seeks to restore Discord, and the rest of the mind games which will arc into the finale arc, we have a brief interlude letting the author link the episodes not yet covered into the main story. There are certainly serious moments, but the overall tone is MUCH Lighter in comparison.
    • "Different From Everypony Else" is set immediately after "New Game Plus", but was published between the last two installments of Mind Games. It has its dark moments, but is ultimately very heartwarming, and even the dark moments don't compare to the content of Mind Games.
  • Bring Me My Brown Pants: We're not told who, but one of the Mane Cast wets themselves in reaction to the undead foal inside Nightmare Whisper's heart.
  • Broken Pedestal:
    • Rainbow Dash is terrified of this happening with her if it becomes known that she abandoned the game in the maze to save Cloudsdale of her own free will.
    • Turns out, Spitfire had the same fear, after the repeated failures of the Wonderbolts to help in an actual emergency. She also shows concern what she tells Rainbow Dash about herself might do the same. She's wrong, and Rainbow tells her that she and the Wonderbolts are heroes, because their actions inspire others and, at the very least, they're still her heroes.
  • Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Type two. Thistle Whistle rams Strife head on with all her power to save Sky Wishes...and shatters every bone in her entire body, killing her. Though she did save Sky Wishes' life and Strife even acknowledges her bravery for the act.
  • But for Me It Was Tuesday: "Canterlot Chaos" has Discord say something to this effect about his multiple genocides.
  • Canon Welding: G1, G2, and formally G3 are all part of the same timeline with G4, referred to as the First Age, Second Age, and Third Age respectively. Discord's reign, among other things, is responsible for the loss of most of Ponyland's history and a different Third Age happened as a result of a Cosmic Retcon after that part of the timeline began dying.
  • Can't Hold Her Liquor: Fluttercruel realizes this rather quickly about Fluttershy when drinking saltwater at a bar. Since they're Sharing a Body this extends to her as well.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • Applebloom's adventure in Sunny Town was first mentioned in Applejack's Reharmonizing as one of the things Applejack saw in the Truth. During the Princess Gaia Arc, the citizens of Sunny Town appear in Princess Gaia's castle as her servants.
    • We find out in "Black Pearl" that Celestia has an alias called Sunny Day. She shows up in this alas in "Playtime" to distract the foals heading to Princess Gaia's castle.
  • Chekhov's Gunpony:
    • Pinkamenia and Trixie's Imaginary Friends return to snap them out of Princess Gaia's spell.
    • Ruby, who is mentioned repeatedly when it comes to Sunny Town. During "Playtime", a mysterous song snaps Applejack out of it so she can see through Princess Gaia's illusion. It's later hinted by Applejack to have been Ruby.
    • The Interviewers, who seemed to just be a narrative device in the beginning, have gradually grown more and more important to the story, to the point of dropping hints to the characters to lead them in the right direction and giving Twilight Sparkle Razzaroo's Apocalyptic Log, something that isn't supposed to even exist in this timeline.
  • Child by Rape: Given how disturbingly close to actual rape that Discord's Mind Rape is described, Fluttercruel counts, as she was born from Discord's Mind Rape of Fluttershy. As if Discord doing this to Fluttershy wasn't horrible enough without this mentle image.
  • Cloning Blues:
    • Alright, so she's not a "clone" per se, but Fluttercruel sees herself as just a knockoff of the real Fluttershy, not truly alive and completely unable to be a unique individual simply because of how she was created. This causes her a great deal of heartache because she really wants to be.
    • Subverted after she realizes she's real, regardless of whether or not she's a copy. When as part of their 'punishment', Luna brings up the possibility that Fluttercruel is a severely Mind Raped Fluttershy and "Fluttershy" is the copy, they don't care, they're both real, why should it matter which one of them is the "original"?
  • Clones Are People, Too: Despite being a twisted copy of Fluttershy, Fluttershy believes Fluttercruel has a right to be her own pony and how she was "born" doesn't matter. Fluttershy has a talk along these lines with Fluttercruel after Fluttercruel nearly performs a Heroic Sacrifice to defeat Nightmare Whisper, pointing out that, even though she's a copy, Fluttercruel managed to earn a unique Cutie Mark. Celestia then proceeds to give Fluttercruel the ability to switch places with Fluttershy at will so she can live her own life. "Trixie's Last Hurdle" reveals that they even threw her a Cute-ceañera to celebrate earning her Cutie Mark.
  • Cloudcuckoolander:
    • Pinkie Pie, as to be expected. Even after her Split Personality Merge, but she's able to think a lot more clearly.
    • Screwball is an even bigger one than Pinkie, though she actually is crazy.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: Nightmare Whisper's entire existence. Not only is she strapped with all manner of torture devices and in agonizing pain, she's enduring the suffering of all of Equestria the whole time. All of this is pretty much self inflicted.
    • After the battle with Nightmare Whisper, Fluttershy still holds onto the suffering, not wanting to release it back into the world (and she also feels she deserves it as punishment for her actions). Later Pinkie Pie helps Fluttershy bear it to ease her suffering.
  • Composite Character: According to Loose Canon, Rainbow Dash is literally a fusion of Firefly and the G3 Rainbow Dash.
    • Likewise, Twilight Sparkle is a literal fusion of G1 Twilight and G3 Minty.
  • Conspiracy Theorist: Onyx Tiara believes that door handles and tooth brushes are tools of the unicorns and their gryphon co-conspirators to keep hard working Earth Ponies at a disadvantage. He's also convinced that Celestia's good nature is a "mask that hides the Tyrant beneath" that every negative event in Equestria's history can be traced back to her. That, or its a unicorn/pegasus plot.
  • Continuity Snarl: As a result of her Medium Awareness, Pinkie attempts to avert this in-universe, but ultimately fails and nearly drives herself insane.
  • Cooldown Hug: Used by Pinkie Pie to calm down Rainbow Dash when she slips so far back into her self loathing she loses it.
  • Cool Pet: In addition to the canon ones, we finally see what Luna has for pets. What are they? Windigos! They provided the "special effects" for the Hearth's Warming Eve play.
  • Cosmic Retcon: The Alicorns and Draconequi were originally in charge of this according to very Loose Canon, but only if a universe was on the verge of entropy and needed a drastic overhaul if there was any hope of saving it. They retconed the G3 universe into the G4 universe because it was on the verge of dying if they didn't.
    • More like destroying the G3 universe and rebuilding it completely as G4 Equestria. The Draconequi function similar to Shiva the Destroyer, demolishing the aging universe to clear space for its recreation. Discord apparently liked his job too much and started destroying for the sake of destruction. Anarchy implies the Alicorn's job is the "recreation" side of the coin.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Ditzy Doo might not be the smartest pony (and went the wrong way to retrieve birds twice in a row at the Winter Wrap-Up), but mess with her daughter and you're in for a serious flank kicking!
  • Crossover: The original My Little Pony TV Specials, My Little Pony and Friends, My Little Pony Tales, and My Little Pony G 3 all play some role in the story. Due to the Rainbow making Paradise Estate Ponies immortal until they left willingly, the Paradise Estate group who fought Discord during his first reign was composed of characters from the first three. Pinkie Pie is LITERALLY G3 Pinkie, and G1 Applejack was the Bearer of the Element of Laughter when Applejack called for aid from her alternate selves. However, so far there hasn't been a total team up between all the groups, so it isn't a Crisis Crossover just yet.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: After kicking one of his teeth out, Discord becomes so enraged at Mimic that he lacerates her with the tooth before finally slamming her into paste.
    • Literally every single death in the Transitions arc.
  • Cry for the Devil: "Everkind Forest" makes the zombie ponies from Story of the Blanks seem downright tragic. The Princess Gaia brainwashed them to forget their actions, but whenever they look into Applejack's eyes, they remember. Their reaction is just heartbreaking.
    • Origins manages to invoke this for freakin' Discord! In the the later chapters, it's revealed that, in order to reach Equestria, he incarnated himself as a mortal draconequus born to G1 pony Shady; she raised him like a mother and it was heavily implied that, growing up, he wasn't anything worse than mischievous and actually got along well with Celestia and Luna when they did the same. More to the point, when his spirit starts to awaken, he is utterly terrified of it and actively resists it happening for a time. It's made all the worse because we, as readers, know he's going to fail.
  • Curb Stomp Battle:
  • Cursed with Awesome: Fluttershy Sharing a Body with Fluttercruel isn't nearly as bad as it sounds. Fluttershy quickly catches on to how useful having a second, more assertive person to help her out in difficult spots can be.
  • Cuteness Proximity: Pinkie Pie can't resist Filly Zecora's cuteness. While the others don't gush like she does, they do find her extremely cute.
  • Cut Song: Rarity had a song written for her by one of the Beta Readers to be used in "Pearl Necklace", but the author ultimately couldn't fit it in and included it as a What If scene. It's a reprise of "Art Of The Dress" covering her relationship with Diamond Tiara that would be used to get through to Pinkie.
  • Dark Is Not Evil:
    • Fluttershy quickly realizes that just because Fluttercruel was made by Discord doesn't mean she's evil like him. She's right.
    • "Applejack's Dream" implies that Liarjack becomes an Element Of Kindness in the Bad Future.
  • Darker and Edgier
  • Dark Reprise:
    • Fluttercruel gets one of Fluttershy's "So Many Wonders" song... Sort of. While it's not as sweet as Fluttershy's version, it's far from dark.
    • Fluttercruel tries to sing Fluttershy's lullaby in a desprate attempt to snap Fluttershy out of her Nightmare mode, but doesn't get the chance.
    • Princess Gaia's Villain Song is a true Dark Reprise of "So Many Wonders", this time being used as a siren's song to hypnotise Applejack. Instead of focusing on how wonderful the world outside is, it's focusing on happy they'll be by forgetting everything and coming to join her in her Lotus Eater Machine forever.
      • Made even better when we discover she's lying to herself about what she is as much as everyone else.
  • Day in The Limelight: Recent chapters have focused on Zecora, Princess Celestia, Nurse Redheart, and Owlowiscious.
  • Deader Than Dead: Loneliness's death. She's described as exploding twice; the first explosion atomizing her and the second destroying whatever was left.
    • Which is Fridge Brilliance- Why yes, Spike, you CAN explode twice! Pinkie would know.
  • Deal with the Devil: Diamond Tiara made one with Discord to carry out a ritual in order to free him. What was his side of the deal hasn't been revealed just yet, but given who he is, it's unlikely she'll get what she wanted out of the deal.
    • It probably has something to do with her insane mother Golden Tiara aka Screwball, who was the only happy pony during Discord's brief reign since to her the world finally made sense.
    • Luna plays herself in a theater performance where she makes these with three Earth Ponies. Though the way she does it is more of a Secret Test of Character, as the ones who were selfish were the ones who paid the price -- they died and she took their souls -- while the third went free and lived to old age. No, she didn't actually do that, she just wrote the play as one of her artistic pursuits.
    • Celestia made one with Entropy, Discord's mother, to get the means to end hatred on Earth. The only thing she COULD give Entropy was the memory of an alicorn had to come crawling to her for help. Unfortunately, while Entropy didn't exactly trick her, the reflections provided to carry out her desire ended up becoming the Windigos to acomplish Celestia's wish.
  • Decon Recon Switch: While the fic deconstructs the simplicity and easy answers inherent in a children's show, the central themes of the series such as The Power of Friendship and the value of honesty, generosity, laughter, loyalty and kindness are constantly reaffirmed even after having seemingly been torn down.
  • Deconstruction Fic: Confirmed to be such by Word of God. It deconstructs things like Scootaloo's lack of any present family, Diamond Tiara being the Alpha Bitch, Pinkie Pie's mental state, the theory Fluttercruel is a Discord created Split Personality, and that not everything can be fixed up with one World-Healing Wave and psychological damage takes a long time to fix. However, the deconstruction doesn't lead to a Downer Ending, instead all these elements ultimately lead to everypony changing for the better.
  • Death Glare: Fluttershy's Stare, as expected. She can also use it as Nightmare Whisper. Unfortunately for her, so can Fluttercruel.
  • Defeat Equals Friendship: After being browbeat into submission, Fluttercruel becomes a valuable ally for Fluttershy. Even when she takes control, she's not outright mean and cruel to Fluttershy, she just wants to actually enjoy life for a change.
    • This pays off during the battle with Nightmare Whisper, as Fluttercruel cares enough about Fluttershy to return from beyond to save her.
  • Defiant to the End: Despite the rather small amount of detail given, both times Mimic's Dying Moment of Awesome has been shown in Recursive Fanfiction, her final moments have been depicted in this fashion.
  • Defrosting the Ice Queen:
    • To some degree, this applies to Trixie learning to accept the Mane Cast's friendship.
    • The Cutie Mark Crusaders attempt to do this with Silver Spoon. Thanks in part to the Princess Gaia incident, they succeed.
  • Defusing the Tykebomb: This is what Fluttershy does, teaching Fluttercruel that she is so much more than a cruel parody of Fluttershy.
  • Determinator: The entire mane cast during the Final Battle with Nightmare Whisper. Absolutely nothing will stop them from saving Fluttershy. Trixie gets electrocuted and has a rib broken, Applejack gets glass daggers lodged in her back, Pinkie Pie gets cut up being thrown through a stained glass window, and Rainbow and Twilight both end up getting Mind Raped, but refuse to quit. But Rarity takes the cake by using telekinesis to keep moving after having her legs broken!.
    • Also,Diamond Tiara resists Princess Gaia's song through willpower and Self-Deprecation, though it's encouraged by Discord shouting into her mind.

Discord: "IGNORE IT! ONLY BAD LITTLE FILLIES WHO DON'T CARE THAT THEIR MOTHER STAYS SICK FOREVER LISTEN TO THAT SONG! IGNORE IT! YOU ARE NOT TO THINK ABOUT IT OR PAY ANY ATTENTION TO IT AT ALL!!!"

  • Despair Event Horizon: Twilight after her memory spell backfires on Nightmare Whisper, forcing her to experience all the suffering and pain Nightmare Whisper had absorbed. Trixie pulls her back with the memory spell. It then turns out that Nightmare Whisper can fire a beam of pure suffering from her mouth to make anyone it hits experience this, which she uses on Rainbow Dash. Thankfully, the memory spell works again that time.
  • Diegetic Theme Cameo:
    • The mane cast and Trixie sing the show's theme song in the penultimate episode during a party celebrating Trixie's recovery and Heel Face Turn. Considering it was chosen by Pinkie Pie, this makes perfect sense.
    • Princess Celestia sings the G1 My Little Pony theme song to break Gaia's brainwashing on the foals that were once Ponyville.
  • Disc One Final Boss: Loneliness serves as the main antagonist for the story arc about saving Trixie but meets her end when Trixie breaks free and accepts her Element Of Magic. Before the chapter is over, Discord has been freed from his prison once again to take over as the main villain. However, before they have to deal with him, Princess Gaia serves as the Big Bad for the penultimate story arc.
  • Doomed by Canon: Inverted. After Applejack stares into the pool of Truth and gains the ability to discern lies at a glance, Luna makes it pretty explicit that her sense of Truth will drive her nuts if the canon timeline diverges too much from the POV-verse. Fortunately, that's taken care off by the Crisis Crossover of all the other staple AJ's of the multiverse teaming up and taking out the most evilest AJ with alternate AJ's based off of the other Elements of Harmony. So that happened.
  • Downer Ending: The Bad Future Alternate Ending, though Word of God says they'd like to write or see someone write a good follow up where this is turned to at least a Bittersweet Ending if nothing else.
  • Dragged Off to Hell: The ponies from Sunnytown are dragged back to the town's boundries in this fashion.
  • The Dragon:
    • Cheerilee as Princess Gaia's Knight.
    • In the Bad Future, it appears Twilight Tragedy plays this role for Discord.
    • G1 Shady to Discord in Origins, because she's his mother (he got to Earth by being born through her) and she genuinely loved him, something Discord gladly exploited.
  • Drinking Game: One of the games the group considered for Fluttercruel's Cute-Ceañera. It's rejected due to what happened last time Twilight got drunk and that Fluttercruel was afraid of what Pinkie Pie might do if she gets drunk.
  • Drunk on Milk: Saltwater apparently has the same effect on ponies as an alcohol. In the "Black Pearl" chapter, Fluttercruel/Fluttershy end up getting drunk on it, in part because Fluttershy doesn't drink normally. It's revealed the next chapter that they drunk so much that it would've gotten Princess Celestia drunk!
  • Drunk on the Dark Side: Havoc in Origins. The chaos generated by the war was so intoxicating it caused him to undergo Sanity Slippage into a Mad God.
  • Dying Moment of Awesome: This universe's version of Mimic was killed fighting Discord when he appeared in Equestria for the first time, knocking out his tooth in their fight. According to Princess Luna, she's the only one to ever successfully injure Discord in battle, and she didn't even have the Elements Of Harmony.
  • Dynamic Entry: Pinkie Pie does this in the Final Battle with Nightmare Whisper via Offscreen Teleportation.
  • Easily Forgiven:
    • Subverted: While Fluttershy and Fluttercruel are forgiven, Princess Luna gives them a severe royal punishment for their misdeeds as a result. And not only do some ponies not forgive Fluttershy, she outright says she may never forgive herself.
    • Also brutally surverted with the Sunnytown Ponies, who, because they've not accepted responsibility for their murder of Ruby, are still cursed when Princess Gaia's spell is broken.
  • Enemy Within: Fluttercruel is a subversion, as not only does Fluttershy defeat her Badass Pacifist style, she becomes a valuable ally. Even when Fluttercruel gets out, all she wants to do is actually live for a change and not be stuck inside Fluttershy all the time. Played straight with Angry Pie from Pinkie Pie's story and Loneliness from Trixie's. Unlike the other two, Loneliness' creation is implied by Word of God to be something else besides a foreign entity introduced by Discord or a fractured piece of Trixie's personality.
    • Played straight again with a villain, Nightmare Whisper-her true form has a ruby containing a filly version of her that eggs on her Knight Templar qualities, and even turns on Fluttercruel when the latter gets a body of her own. It's later revealed that it's the repository of all the negative feelings Princess Gaia devoured, and a warped version of Flutterrage.
  • Enemy Without: An inversion for Fluttercruel and Nightmare Whisper, as Fluttercruel literally severs her connections to Nightmare Whisper and enters the battle to aid the heroes. What follows is an epic battle of wills between two Fluttershies: one that was good and corrupted into evil and one that was created evil and taught to be good.
  • Eldritch Abomination:
    • Discord is depicted as such in this story. Equestria was a peaceful place (implied to possibly be the G1 world) until he descended on it and began his reign of chaos and destruction. Princess Luna doesn't even seem to know WHERE he came from and he's so chaotic that even the Truth can't comprehend him.
    • His parents, Havoc and Entrophy are even more this trope. Entropy's pupil absolutely dwarfs Celestia and she's a being that Celestia absolutely refuses to describe in detail to Twilight. Havoc, embodiment of mass hysteria, is described as every nightmare everypony ever had or ever will have whose voice would leave a mortal pony a horrified wreck. Entropy erasing Havoc from existence then him willing himself back into existence is their version of one member of a bickering couple shoving the other. Also, the Windigos are tiny fragments of Entropy.
    • Nightmare Whisper, Princess Gaia's true form.
  • Equinepomorphic Personification:
    • Discord, obviously, but also Angry Pie, the personification of Pinkie Pie's supressed emotions at what discord put her through, and Loneliness.
    • In Pinkie Pie's Side Story, we discover he has a brother named Anarchy and their parents are Havoc (mass hysteria) and Entropy (heat death). Apparently theres seven siblings, but only him and Anarchy have appeared. Strangely, while he's far from a nice guy, Anarchy was actually trying to save the universe with the Alicorns. It's implied that Discord was off turning the Flutterponies into parasprites For the Evulz at the time.
    • Pinkie's "Butterflies" chapter reveals that he has a sister named Strife, who embodied conflict, natural selection, and competition. While not exactly a nice guy, she's far from evil and plays the Final Boss of the G3 timeline simply to give the survivors a chance to fight for their survival instead of fading away with no chance at all. We also see his brother Destruction, embodiment of disaster and well...destruction and Pandemonium, whom we don't really find out what she's the spirit of, though she says she's also known as Desire and prefers to be called Pandora, and inspires artist but can't understand why she tends to drive artists insane.
  • Even Jerks Have Loved Ones: Trixie actually has a family that truly loves her, even if she had tried to forget that.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
    • Said almost word for word by Twilight in regards to Discord, siting how their victory was only possible because of this trope.
    • Luna's sidestory reveals it was Nightmare Moon who cursed Sunny Town for killing Ruby. She thought Ruby would be thankful for her doing this and tells her she can either pass on or join her. Ruby chooses to stay in Sunny Town and try and help break the curse. Nightmare Moon is completely shocked that Ruby could forgive those who murdered her and try to help them find their redemption.
  • Evil Diva: Princess Gaia and her birds, who hypnotize ponies into her Lotus Eater Machine by singing.
  • Evil Is Hammy: Judging from the trailer, Discord, Lonliness and the Serial Killer obsessed with dolls are all set to be this in the audio version of "Reharmonized".
  • Evil Mentor: The Fallen Alicorn Morningstar was the one who taught Discord how to be an effective Manipulative Bastard.
  • Evil vs. Evil: Narrowly subverted. Under the stress of Discord's mind games, Luna comes dangerously close to turning back into Nightmare Moon to fight him. She manages to avoid giving in just in the nick of time before she could completely lose herself to the darkness.
  • Exact Words:
    • Discord said that Cloudsdale wouldn't collapse if Rainbow Dash went to rescue it. It didn't, Discord drove them all insane and made Rainbow Dash watch.
      • Just after having told everyone in Cloudsdale, very loudly, broadcasting a huge picture of Rainbow Dash in the process, that Rainbow Dash was the one who saved Cloudsdale by dooming the rest of Equestria.
    • Cheerilee tells the foals in her care "the Princess" has ordered them brought to her castle for safety. She never said Celestia or Luna's name and she turns out to be Princess Gaia's Dragon, possibly of her own free will.
  • Face Heel Turn: Fluttershy. And what's worse? She's become a Big Bad!
    • Princess Luna in her second sidestory. Driven by her protectiveness of Pipsqueak, Luna confronts Celestia over what should and should not be "natural," and leads her to accidentally kill Pip. She then raised Pip as undead and tries to murder Celestia, killing several ponies in the attempt. Fortunately, it was All Just a Dream.
  • Fallen Heroine: Princess Gaia, AKA, Fluttershy!
  • Fantastic Racism:
    • Some of the upper class Earth Ponies in Ponyville have some degree of racism towards Unicorns and Pegasi, including Diamond Tiara's family.
    • There's also some degree of racism towards mixed race unicorns among pure blooded ones. Trixie really hates this one and is implied to have been a victim of it. Her dream world has all things promoting this are ordered to be destroyed and she nearly loses it when called a half-dirt unicorn.
    • Surprise, surprise...there's also racism towards Earth Ponies as well according to Word of God stated here.
    • It's implied that this is far less rampant than is previously suggested in the story (at least not in the middle- and lower-classes). Trixie exaggerates its prevalence to justify her lying about her true nature.
  • Fantastic Slurs:
    • Onyx Tiara, Diamond Tiara's father refers to Unicorns as "Narwhals", and Pegasi as "Feather Dusters".
    • "Half-dirt unicorn" is also used as one refering to unicorns of mixed race. Being called this is a Berserk Button for Trixie.
    • Word of God said that the slur towards Earth Ponies are called "Mud Hooves" and "Dirt Ponies"
  • Fantasy Pantheon: The world has a rather sizable Pantheon, which includes Celestia, Luna, and Discord. There were actually 20 Alicorns and 5 Draconequi all of whom are Physical Gods while there are four Elders who are real gods. Alicorns are referred to as Nature's Law and Draconequi Nature's Fury. Due to just how many of the Alicorns there are, only one other than Celestia, Galaxia, gets a main role at any point, but Word of God has given them all names. The others are Abbatissa, Imperatrix, Cadence, Rota Fortuna, Justitia, Venus, Leo Fortis, Turris, Mortis, Pensilis, Currus, Morning Star, Eremo, Puerillis, Princeps, and Judicium. The Draconequi are, other than Discord are Destruction, Strife, Pandemonium, and Anarchy. The Elders are Havoc and Entropy, the parents of the Draconequi, and Fauna Luster and her mate (not named in story), the parents of the Alicorns. At present, all but four of the lesser gods are apparently to be dead, with Discord killing Galaxia personally.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: Twilight and Trixie during the battle with Loneliness.
  • Fighting a Shadow:
    • Princess Gaia's songbirds are explicitly stated to be a part of her, and she doesn't seem to be all that upset by their loss.
    • It turns out that the Princess Gaia the Mane Cast were talking with was just an illusion of the real creature that she'd become, Nightmare Whisper.
  • First-Name Basis: Rarity's full name is Rarity Belle, but she doesn't go by her full name much at all, even professionally.
  • Fission Mailed: When the sheer despair of Nightmare Whisper threatens to Discord Twilight, the story seems to abruptly end...

A/N: Meh. I think I'll just end the story there, in fact, I think I'll end the entire series right here. Who actually cares about this series anyway? It's all just garbage. Nothing but fan service and rip-offs. And I'm just tired of the whole thing anyway. It's not like anyone would NOTICE if this series suddenly stopped.

    • Only for Trixie to restart it by using the memory spell to pull Twilight back.
  • Fix Fic: Sort of. The fic doesn't change canon events, instead it writes around them, providing background information that explains the events of the canon a bit better using details from the fic's canon. For example, Fluttershy was terrified on Nightmare Night thanks to Fluttercruel joking around with her and Rainbow Dash's behavior in the "Mysterious Mare-Do-Well" was trying to cover up her Heroic BSOD over how she dealt with Discord's Sadistic Choice. The author typically updates after a new episode has come out to fit it into the fic's canon. Thus far, it's actually a pretty good example of doing this right.
  • Fling A Light Into The Past: During a fan sequel to Epilogue, Twilight Tragedy uses a spell to send her thoughts back in time, warning her past self about Discord's trap and reminding her about the lessons she learned about friendship, thus enabling Twilight Sparkle to overcome her trials and set in motion the events of the main series.
  • Foil: Ironically, Fluttercruel manages to be her own foil. Epilogue!Fluttercruel is heavily implied to be a Complete Monster whose deeds ware so terrible that Twilight Tragedy refuses to tell us them (despite being perfectly willing to describe every other horrific detail about Discord's reign). This only serves to show how much of a jerk present Fluttercruel isn't in compairson to what she could have become.
  • Forced to Watch: Discord forced Rainbow Dash to watch her entire hometown be Driven to Madness right in front of her. To twist the knife further, he'd said she'd have been saving her hometown by abandoning her friends.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • In the "Black Pearl" chapter, Luna describes how ponies who join the royal guard are gifted with a minute fragment of their commanding princess' essence, undergoing some physical changes as a result. This is exactly what happens to Cheerilee when she becomes Princess Gaia's Knight, and Ditzy Doo is offered the same position a little later.
    • When Rainbow Dash becomes unable to handle the fact that loyalty toward one thing means betrayal of another, she begins to transform into a Nightmare, but her friends are fortunately able to talk her down and return her to normal. However, when Fluttershy cannot deal with the cruelty inherent in nature, her friends are not there, and she transforms into Nightmare Whisper.
    • During her transformation, Fluttershy is shown growing blutterfly-like wings. When we first see Princess Gaia, she's described as having feathered wings, forshadowing the Princess Gaia we see isn't the real one.
    • Another example, combined with Breaking the Fourth Wall and Fridge Horror; in "Everkind Forest," one of the reviewers comments that Princess Gaia "needs to learn the concept of Yin Yang" after seeing the changes she's made. Her response?

Princess Gaia: "Oh sweetie my sweet little foal... mommy already feels the price for everyone else's happiness. So don't go worrying your little head over some arbitrary cosmic balance my little foal, let mommy worry about it."

  • Foregone Conclusion: The fact that the G3 Universe dies and Celestia/Star Catcher was unable to stop Strife had already been established before "Generational Transitions" started. Doesn't make it any less of a Tear Jerker though.
    • In "Origins", we already knew Discord becomes Evil Overlord of Equestria, Mimic dies fighting him and busts out his tooth, and Celestia and Luna discover the Elements to defeat him. How it all got to that point, however, is pretty interesting...
  • Fountain of Youth: Princess Gaia has the ability to change ponies into foals.
  • For the Evulz: In the most recent chapter, Discord sings a Villain Song about why he does what he does. After going through some rather silly reasons, he basically sums it all up with, "Why do I really do it? Because I can."
  • For Want of a Nail: Apparently, the nail was Twilight. From what can be gathered, the only thing different between the "Epilogue" timeline and the Reharmonizing timeline is in the Epilogue timeline is that Twilight broke in the maze while she didn't in the real one. One piece of Recursive Fanfiction explores how this might be possible. Discord was playing a "game" with Celestia that if he broke all the mane cast in one goal, he'd turn Celestia and Luna into gold and silver statues. In Epilogue's timeline, he succeeded, meaning that Celestia and Luna were turned into statues before Luna could send Twilight her letters back so she could save the world.
  • Future Badass: We see some of one of Twilight's possible future selves when Applejack looks into the Truth and she most certainly qualifies.
    • Especially when Applejack hints, while talking to Nightmare Whisper, that Twilight is possibly the pony destined to defeat death.
  • From a Certain Point of View: During Onyx Tiara's discording, already surrounded by lookalikes of Golden Tiara, he rejects : Screwball/The real Golden Tiara with the words: "Begone, parody!", which is correct, if one were to interpret the 'thing' as acting completely different from lookalikes posing as his wife.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: Alright, so she wasn't exactly a "nobody", but who would've thought Fluttershy would transform from a sweet, innocent little pony who's literally terrified of her own shadow into a Reality Warping, Well-Intentioned Extremist Mad Goddess?!
  • Full-Name Basis: Luna refers to Applejack by her full name and position in the family line. Ironically, this wasn't too far off from canon in how she addresses ponies.
  • Future Me Scares Me: This Alternate Universe story written by another writer (but declared part of the series by Word of God) has this happen when Discord sees his Epilogue counterpart. He's so horrified by his alternate self and what he could've become, he ends up making a Heel Face Turn.
  • Gagging on Your Words: Throughout her Reharmonizing, Rarity has trouble saying the word "diamond" due to getting a phobia of them due to Discord's Mind Rape.
  • Gate of Truth: Well...the Truth. However, it seems there's little to no way to actually control what knowledge you get, and staring into it for too long can have nasty side effects. Applejack's staring into it ended up turning her into a Living Lie Detector.
  • Genre Busting: This is a Fantasy/Action/Psychological Drama/Meta-world Building/Philosophical/Coming of Age fanfiction
  • Glamour Failure: Princess Gaia's illusion is nearly perfect, convincing all of her friends of who she is. Even the Element of Honesty cannot find any lies when looking into her eyes. That is, until Applejack realizes that she doesn't see any truth in Gaia's eyes, either.
  • God Is Flawed: Celestia and Luna are both flawed beings who have made their fair share of mistakes. Luna, however, tends to need to be pushed a lot harder to actually admit to hers, another of her flaws. Subverted, at least by Celestia and Luna's word, with their Parents.
  • Godzilla Threshold:
    • The sidestory depicting Pinkie Pie's backstory and how she knows of the G3 timeline has Anarchy, Discord's brother, and an alicorn rewriting the G3.5 universe into the G4 universe, erasing several ponies from existence in the process and warping others into new versions of themselves. This is a last resort to stop the universe from ending all together and the alicorn explains to Pinkie Pie this was the last resort option.
    • During the battle with Nightmare Whisper when she and Rainbow Dash are essentially the only two heroes still standing, Twilight Sparkle, at a complete loss as to what she can do, begins reciting the lessons about friendship that Fluttershy has learned with no expectation that anything could come of it. Fortunately, Fluttercruel hears Twilight and realizes that Fluttershy needs help.
    • Celestia during Luna's nightmare, when Luna turns evil again and tries to kill her. After nearly being killed herself, begging her sister to stop, Celestia is left with no choice but to fight back and try to kill her rather than let Equestria be ruled by a tyrant.
  • Good All Along: Well, more like Chaotic Neutral all along but still. Discord's brother Anarchy seems to be an antagonist throughout a Loose Canon Side Story... Then it's revealed he's only doing it because he has no choice and the universe is on the verge of entropy if he doesn't. Subverted with Discord, who is revealed to be a Jerkass even by Draconequi standards and is busy turning Flutterponies into parasprites For the Evulz at the time.
  • Good Feels Good: Trixie quickly discovers at the party Pinkie Pie throws for her that she actaully likes having the mane cast as her friends who honestly like spending time with her for who she is (except Rainbow Dash at first, but even she warms up to Trixie). There's good reason she sings the My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic theme with the mane cast.
  • Guile Heroine:
    • Trixie, being a showpony, is more than willing to resort to underhanded tricks to get the better of the group's enemies. A good example is "playing the villain" to distract Cheerliee by holding a filly hostage to give the others an opening. Naturally she had no intention of going through with it, but Cheerilee didn't know that.
    • Celestia, perhaps even moreso than in canon. See Zero-Approval Gambit for just an example of this.
    • Orangejack. First she taunts Nightmare Mirror into getting furious, then pretending to throw Applejack under the bridge to save herself, only to spring a trap on her.

Orangejack: You and big brother dearest are Elements Of Honesty, I'm still a liar.

  • Harmless Villain: Fluttercruel never had a snowball's chance in hell against Fluttershy. Even after she takes control (if she's even still a villain by that point), the worst thing she does is joke around with Fluttershy a bit and go out to have a little fun.
  • Heel Face Turn:
  • Hero Antagonist:
    • Anarchy, Discord's brother, is actually trying to save the universe along with his kind and the Alicorns and is just doing what absolutely has to be done to stop entropy from happening. In fact, he actually kind of liked how the G3 universe was before things started going dying. It's only because we're seeing him from Pinkie Pie's perspective that he seems to be a villain like his brother.
    • Princess Celestia in Luna's second sidestory, after Luna turns evil again. Since we're seeing it from Luna's POV, Celestia is portrayed as the enemy, despite the fact she's trying to protect Equestria from the now evil Luna's tyranny. Of course, it turned out to be All Just a Dream.
    • Seemingly Invoked Trope by Strife, though she and the other Draconequi and Alicorns all count. Her final words to Celestia imply the reason she played the role of the bad guy for the survivors of the G3 world is to give them the chance to fight for their survival because she believes the right to fight for your survival is something no one should have taken from them, even if they couldn't win.
  • Heroic BSOD:
    • Rainbow Dash practically spends the entire fic up until her True Healing chapter in one of these over how she handled Discord's Sadistic Choice.
    • Twilight spends half the fight with Nightmare Whisper in one, unable to come up with any plan because they're fighting an already suffering Fluttershy, causing her to freeze up. It takes her inability to act causing Rarity to be seriously hurt to make her break out of it somewhat. It isn't until Fluttercruel's words make her realize the Fluttershy's true motivations that she breaks out of it completely.
    • Spitfire is in one after both Discord's breaking of the Wonderbolts, including her, and the Wonderbolts' inability to actually do anything heroic when they try to. Rainbow snaps her out of it by reminding her she and the other bolts are heroes in a different way.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: StarSong sacrificed herself by forcing Anarchy to erase her instead of Pinkie Pie.
    • Fluttershy is willing to bear all the pain and suffering in Equestria so other ponies do not have to feel it (and also because she accepts it as punishment for her actions). This will probably destroy her, as she acknowledged (when she was Nightmare Whisper) that the pain had killed her twice already. Pinkie later joins Fluttershy in this, both to help Fluttershy bear the burden and because she feels it would be a crime against the Element of Laughter to allow suffering back into the world. Ultimately subverted, as the others are able to convince Fluttershy and Pinkie to let go.
    • Subverted with Fluttercruel. While it seems like she's going to die after firing the Elements of Harmony at Nightmare Whisper, but Fluttershy saves her.
    • G3 Thistle Whistle rammed Strife full speed, killing herself but saving Sky Wishes' life in the process. Strife even shows her respect for the act, calling her the "bravest pegasus to ever live" and promising to have Pandemonium compose a sonnet in her honor.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard:
    • Applejack's Healing chapter, Discord's love of restoring Twilight's memories to let her suffer before reverting her to her brainwashed state allowed her to write down and hide something during one of these moments. We don't see what this is, but the next scene Applejack sees has Twilight Tragedy talking to Applebloom and Octavia's descendents, now remembering her old self despite still being Discorded. This implies that, even in the universe where he won, Discord may ultimately lay the foundations of his own downfall.
    • Discord's love of chaos makes him overlook Princess Luna sending Twilight her letters back when she says it's to "give a dragon indigestion", thinking it makes no sense and is therefore perfectly alright for her to do... BIG mistake.
    • What's better? He was the one that told her she had enough magic left to send a letter in the first place!
    • Twilight nearly has this happen to her when she tried to use the Memory Spell on Nightmare Whisper. The feedback from all the sorrow Whisper had absorbed nearly drives Twilight over the Despair Event Horizon.
  • Hope Spot: Star Catcher manages to summon the Rainbow Of Light to use against Strife and Pinkie manages to save Minty from Luna...Then Minty dies and Strife reveals her true strength.
  • Hypocrite: Rainbow Dash freely acknowledges the irony in how she ignores the good advice she keeps giving Scootaloo about dealing with her percieved betrayal of her friends.
  • Hypocritical Heartwarming: When Luna brings up Fluttershy's outburst at the Gala, Fluttercruel responds by saying "Hey! I'm the only one who gets to stab Shy' where it hurts!"
  • I Am Not My Father: Fluttercruel and Fluttershy consider Discord Fluttercruel's father, but she has no desire to follow in his footsteps, but doesn't go out of her way to go against it. Fluttershy is adment that having an evil father doesn't make her evil. Then Fluttercruel actually DOES follow in his footsteps and corrupts Fluttershy worse than Discord did. After fighting her way back to the world of the living, she is more than ready to do exact opposite of what Discord would do, leading to this little exchange:

Undead Foal: Move you stupid half-Draconequus!
Fluttercruel: That's stupid little pony!

    • Also with Fluttershy, who, due to being her basis, considers herself Fluttercruel's mother and treats her as such. Fluttercruel pretty much wants to be anything but Fluttershy.
  • I Just Want to Be Special: Trixie, due to her Middle Filly Syndrome and being unable to stand out among her four near identical sisters. It got worse when she went to magic school and was unable to excel at anything in particular. This caused her to overlook the fact, as her teachers told her, that she could do almost any type of magic well, including weather magic, which is very rare for a unicorn to be able to do at all. She gets her wish, however, when it's revealed she's an Element Of Magic and has just as much unrealized potential as Twilight Sparkle did, but Trixie still has some issues with being Twilight's "alternate."
  • Imaginary Friend: Pinkamenia had several, the same ones from "Party Of One", only in her imagination, they were real ponies. They were killed and absorbed by Angry Pie, though. Trixie had Princess Starflower, but left her behind after becoming a star, but Twilight found her while in Trixie's head and she helped her save Trixie. Both come back when the gang are under Princess Gaia's spell and break Pinkie Pie and Trixie out of it.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
    • Loneliness comes dangerously close to outright killing Twilight via this.
    • G3 Wysteria dies this way. Celestia's mortal form is also killed this way by Strife in their fight, but being immortal, that body doesn't matter, something Strife knew from the get-go.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: Trixie is told, on short notice, that she'll be doing a magic show at the celebration for Princess Gaia, with no practice, no props, and pretty much nothing to work with. Her reaction is to find a bottle of sake with salt and get very drunk.
  • Ironic Echo: A keen reader would be able to spot when two different characters, without ever having previously heard it, say the same phrase in entirely unrelated contexts.

"If they really believed it they wouldn't be saying it every time they said something" -- G3 Pinky & Onyx Tiara
"Put 'em up! Put 'em up!" -- Spike & Discord

  • Irony: The irony does not escape Fluttercruel that she was made by Discord with the first words she heard being "Time to be cruel" and she becomes not only an Element of Harmony, but an Element Of Kindness.
  • Jaw Drop: The mane cast and the Cakes all do this in tandem when Pinkie Pie says she doesn't want to throw a party for once.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Fluttercruel starts out as just a Jerkass, but Fluttershy's careful work with her ultimately turns her into this. She's still a jerk, but she at least willing to help Fluttershy out.
    • We find out when we see things from her point of view that Fluttershy didn't make her come out to help calm Rainbow Dash, she forced herself to the surface in order to do it. And even when she takes over, the worst she does is pull Fluttershy's leg a few times, showing she's nowhere near as much of a Jerkass as she originally was.
    • By the end of the battle against Nightmare Whisper, Fluttercruel is not only fiercely protective of Fluttershy (to the point of being willing to sacrifice herself to save Fluttershy and her friends), but is also able to manifest an Element of Kindness. She still acts like a jerk a lot of the time, though.
    • Silver Spoon. She was only a bully because her only friend Diamond Tiara was, she's truthfully a much more loyal and kind friend than would be expected at first glance. This is also hinted to be the reason for the heart in the spoon on her Cutie Mark.
  • Jerkass Facade: Trixie only acted like a jerk because she wanted to stand out so badly due to her Middle Filly Syndrome. What was she like in her own mental plane? A scared little filly in the clutches of Loneliness.
  • Killer Rabbit: Princess Gaia's entire army is pretty much made out of these.
  • Knight of Cerebus: Loneliness. Not only is she a genuinely terrifying character who tries to outright kill Twilight Sparkle, the Princess Gaia arc follows directly afterwards.
  • Large Ham: Trixie even after her Heel Face Turn. It seems to run in the family, considering her sisters introduce themselves with an elborate rolecall and Super Sentai Stance.
  • Last Stand: The survivors of the G3 World on Butterfly Island are faced with their world dying, a Reality Warper Physical Goddess as their executioner. They decide to fight to the end anyway. Invoked by Strife, as it seems her intention was to enable them the chance to make one of these.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall:Subject Trixie begins the same way as the other stories, with Twilight relating a tale to the reader... Until she panics upon realizing that she's not talking to the reader, but someone else...
  • Let Me Tell You a Story: Pinkie Pie begins doing this after her Split Personality Merge. They're still perfectly in character, but a lot more profound than you'd expect coming from her.
  • Light Is Not Good: Princess Gaia is an extremely beautiful Alicorn... Who is effectively brainwashing all of Equestria and turning everypony into little foals.
  • Like a Badass Out of Hell: Fluttercruel fights her way out of a Jury of the Damned to return to the real world to help save Fluttershy from herself.
  • Living Lie Detector: After looking into the Truth, Applejack looking into ponies' eyes has this effect. She's the Element of Honesty so it really fits.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: The story involves so many background characters from the show, original characters, and even characters from previous generations of the franchise, that they get a greater net total of attention than the Mane Cast. Which makes sense, as a recurring phrase is "there are no minor characters".
  • Locked Out of the Loop: Played for Laughs when Trixie can't follow the rapid-fire conversation of the rest of the group due to being a relative latecomer.
  • Loose Canon:
    • A few chapters are explicitly stated by Word of God to be "optional canon" and the readers are allowed to decide for themselves rather or not they're part of the canon or just interesting What If situations.
    • Pinkie Pie's side story is even more so, to the point it can be even a completely different story if the readers so choose.
      • This may not be the case anymore, thanks to "The Foal of Omelas".
  • Lotus Eater Machine: Princess Gaia puts ponies, mainly foals, into a trance where they experience their greatest desires... And the next chapter, she comes for the readers too...
  • Ludicrous Precision: Twilight is able to time events to the point second in her head. She explains that some of the more complicated spells require that kind of mental precision in order to cast.
  • Mad Goddess: Princess Gaia/Nightmare Whisper.
  • Magic Feather: Twilight realizes after she activated the Element Of Magic without the physical Element that all the physical Elements Of Harmony do is provide a medium for their power to flow through. Turns out friendship is just as good of a medium.
  • Mama Bear:
    • Princess Gaia's birds come to take away Dinky Doo as they've done with most of the other foals in Ponyville. Ditzy Doo (AKA Derpy Hooves) proceeds to grab a mop and use it as a quarterstaff to beat the living tar out of them for trying to get to her daughter.
    • It turns darker when Cheerilee, as Princess Gaia's Knight, is willing to use lethal force to keep the foals in her care safe and happy inside their Lotus Eater Machines. Princess Gaia herself later realizes the power of this trope and invites Ditzy Doo to become another Knight so she can extend that fierce protective instinct toward all of Princess Gaia's "little foals."
      • This seems to be Princess Gaia's policy now, at least in the Loose Canon. She extends her offer of knighthood to both Trixie and Twilight's mothers, trying to turn their maternal instincts to her benefit. Though we discover in "Playtime" that Ditzy didn't accept.
    • Do not harm or try to do anything to Pip if Luna will find out. Fluttershy and Fluttercruel find this out the hardway, even if she shows restraint.
    • Even though she's insane, Screw Ball/Golden Tiara breaks out of the insane asylum and kills a Timber Wolf and a Cockatrice with her bare hooves to try and get to Diamond Tiara when she realizes her daughter needs her.
    • Remember Mimic's Dying Moment of Awesome? She did it because she's Celestia and Luna's mortal mother and she was protecting them from Discord.
    • Exploited by Discord to make his earthly mother, Shady, into his loyal Dragon. Unfortunately for him, she cared about him enough to see how far he had gone and finally help stop him.
  • Master of Illusion: Princess Gaia, aka Nightmare Whisper. She is called the Kindest of Lies after all.
  • Mayfly-December Romance: Referenced by Rarity in her Reharmonizing chapter; she knows about Spike's crush, but is afraid to address it because she knows that by the time he's an adult, she'll already be 'in a rocking chair'.
  • Meaningful Echo: When ponies are praising Princess Gaia originally, it's because they're brainwashed. In the final chapter, Fluttershy is still priased as Princess Gaia by a lot of ponies her actions actually helped out of genuine love and respect.
  • Meaningful Rename: After her Heel Face Turn, Trixie renames herself "the One and Only Trixie", which is what Twilight called her when she guided her to breaking free of Loneliness' clutches.
  • Mercy Kill: Rainbow Dash and Rarity nearly do this to Nightmare Whisper to stop Fluttershy's suffering.
  • Messianic Archetype: Nightmare Whisper thinks of herself as this. And in a way, she is-in the same way the God-Emperor of Mankind is.
  • Middle Filly Syndrome: It is strongly implied in the fic that this is the main reason why Trixie became the Jerkass she was before getting better.
  • Mid-Season Upgrade: At the end of the Princess Gaia Arc, not only does Fluttercruel formally join the group with her own Element Of Kindness, the mane cast figures out how to channel the Elements of Harmony without the physical Elements themselves, which is not only much more convenient, it means someone stealing the Elements of Harmony won't work anymore.
  • Mind Rape:
    • Discord's corruption are portrayed thusly, having severe effects on all those he corrupted and leaving long lasting mental scars.
      • He's still using the supernatural type in order to manipulate Diamond Tiara into freeing him, all the while doing the mundane type by asking contridictory questions to keep her torn between rather she's right or wrong, being good or bad, and so on.
    • Fluttercruel accidentally does this to Fluttershy!
    • Luna does this to Fluttershy and Fluttercruel at the end of the Gaia arc as punishment for their wrongdoing.
    • Both Twilight and Rainbow Dash suffer from rather severe cases during the fight with Nightmare Whisper. Fortunately, a memory spell is strong enough to break the effect.
  • Mind Screw: The CMC, Spike, and Silver Spoon Time Travelers. They manage to jury-rig a time machine and travel to Generation 1, Generation 3, the real world, and sideways through time. As if that weren't enough, the G3 universe was Retgoned from time, meaning it no longer exists to travel to! Its stated they probably broke half the known laws of physics and (according to Doctor Whooves) several unknown ones!
  • Mood Whiplash: "Happy Cake Adventure" starts with a Stylistic Suck storybook style story told by Pinkie Pie. It ends with another dwelve into the end of the G3 universe.
  • Moral Dissonance: The entire premise of the series is that the Mane Six, and indeed all of Equestria, are struggling to come to terms with what Discord's Mind Rape said about each of them. But when Luna mind rapes Fluttershy and Fluttercruel far, far more worse than anything than Discord ever did to them, she considers it fitting punishment, as do the Flutters. However, the Mane Cast gives her a mass Death Glare and Princess Celestia apologizes for her (not knowing what she did, but knowing she did something to make Fluttercruel terrified of her), implying Luna is merely acting on outdated morals from 1000 years ago.
    • To be entirely fair, Fluttershy did try to take over Equestria and kidnapped a large number of foals. In all truth, Luna probably had every right to do a lot worse to her.
    • YMMV, but Luna is totally justified in being a hardass on Fluttershy for threatening the safety of Equestria. Not so much in telling her how she could have done it better, since neither princess has a good track record with utopias, and all sympathy is dropped when Luna drills guilt into Fluttershy, when the whole thing could have been avoided by Luna keeping tabs on the MacGuffin in the first place (turns out, Luna did seal the Elder Horn but simply did not guard it, as she did not anticipate that anyone other than herself or her sister was powerful enough to open the seals).
    • Whether justified for Fluttershy's crime or not, it turns out Luna's punishment was very much an act of vengeance against Princess Gaia for trying to steal Pipsqueak from her.
  • Morality Kitchen Sink: You've got flawed heroes who, while good, are not perfect (not even Celestia), the Draconequi who have a form of Blue and Orange Morality, and range from Chaotic Good to Chaotic Neutral, the Alicorns, who are Lawful Good but some members are willing to sacrifice the needs of the few for the needs of the many (for the most part), and Discord's pitch black morality.
  • More Than Mind Control: It's implied in "Teacher, Teacher" that Cheerilee was so broken by seeing how badly all the young ponies she teaches were broken by Discord that she willingly supports Princess Gaia's sending everyone to their Happy Place. While she was brainwashed to some degree, she does admit a part of her wanted to do it and Princess Gaia talked her into it largely.
  • Mugging the Monster: Fluttershy turned out to be far stronger than Fluttercruel ever expected and she ends up the one being browbeat into submission instead. Lucky for her Fluttershy is nice enough to share her body with her.
  • Multiple Choice Past: Word of God left where Loneliness came from and what her true motives are intentionally unrevealed so readers could decide those things for themselves.
  • My God, What Have I Done?:
    • Rarity's reaction to yelling at Sweetie Belle and nearly hitting Sweetie Belle with a sharp circlet, coming close enough to cut a few hairs in her mane, in a fit of rage.

Rarity: Reality came down on top of me like Luna's moon fallen from orbit. What had I done? WHAT HAD I DONE-?!

    • Fluttercruel's reaction when her attempt to teach Fluttershy about the crueler side of nature makes her be corrupted instead of helping her.
    • The denizens of Sunny Town have this reaction whenever Applejack's Living Lie Detector gaze forces them to remember their misdeed through Princess Gaia's spell.
    • Rainbow Dash's reaction to how her dealing with Discord's Sadistic Choice turned out.
  • Mysterious Watcher: While the mane cast have met them repeatedly, the Interviewer(s) seem to be everywhere something is happening, just observing and documenting. The latest chapter reveals they somehow got their hooves on Razzaroo's Apocalyptic Log (which by all accounts shouldn't even exist anymore), which they give to Twilight Sparkle in The Stinger of that chapter.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Seems to be a natural part of being a Draconequi, who represent Nature's Fury. So far we've heard of Discord, Destruction/Disaster, Dispute/Strife, Pandora/Pandemonium, Havoc, and Entropy. Entropy is also commonly revered to as "Mother The-End-Of-All-Things" by her children. Pandemonium's birth name, Desire, is an Odd Name Out in a way.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
    • Fluttercruel honestly wanted to teach Fluttershy something important for her own good, to let her learn the cruel part of nature, it ends up corrupting her for real as opposed to being just brainwashed by Discord. Fluttercruel gets absolutely horrified realizing this.
      • She also gets Fluttershy, and herself, drunk, which Word of God admits may have had something to do with their behavior following and made Fluttershy more vulnerable to the darkness than she otherwise would be.
    • While it's Loose Canon, it's implied that the Mane Cast are, unknowingly, being manpulated into commanding Princess Gaia's army via a boardgame they're playing with Gaia herself. If this is believed, Rainbow Dash unwittingly guides Gaia's army into "Gaiafying" Gilda.
    • In the aftermath of a battle, your friend-suddenly-turned-enemy lays indefinitely helpless before your group. To help console each other on this tragedy and related circumstances, one mentions that it is not too late to restore or redeem this friend. If you think that taking matters into your own hooves and executing your petrified former friend, Discord, by pulverization is not a logical next step, you are smarter than Galaxia, whose deed costs her life, sets the stage for a 1000 years of tyranny, and worst of all, could have been easily avoided.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
    • Discord's corruption actually helps the Mane Cast overcome pre-existing problems with their psyches and improve for the better. It also helps Trixie discover she's the second Element Of Magic and join the group as a Sixth Ranger.
    • Not to mention the fact he made the other Sixth Ranger, Fluttercruel, in the first place!
    • Luna revealed that Discord crushed the Rainbow Of Light, creating the Elements. He created the only magic capable of defeating him!
  • Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Princess Luna is a lighthearted version. For some reason, she wrote a play where she makes a Deal with the Devil with three Earth Ponies, only one of which made the wise choice and was spared while she claimed the souls of the other two. Interestingly enough, this was actually correct about the canon version as well.
  • No Kill Like Overkill: How Discord killed Mimic for knocking out his tooth.
  • No Name Given: Loneliness' never actually names herself, that's just what Twilight calls her and she doesn't seems too fond of it. What her real name, if she actually has one, is left open.
  • Noodle Incident:
    • Applejack mentions a rather crazy adventure Applebloom had when they visit Canterlot that somehow got the little filly temporarily turned into a Sea Pony.
    • The Cutie Mark Crusaders somehow managing to summon a fire elemental. Topped by them apparently having a spectacular time travel adventure that we only get tibits of.
    • The last time Twilight got drunk. Apparently, Ponyville had to be reassured Discord hadn't come back afterwards.
    • Luna's conflict with a revived Tirek for dominion over the night over 1000 years ago. All that's been revealed is the Rainbow Of Darkness brought him Back from the Dead, he fought Luna, and was defeated, afterwhich Luna claimed his chariot as her own.
    • Celestia has mentioned in two different stories of cases were an assassin trying to kill her actually knocked on her bedroom door out of politeness.
  • Not Brainwashed: Twilight initially assumes that the New Fluttershy is just a discorded Fluttershy, this backfires when she uses the memory spell to no effect, instead receiving a headbutt to the face from an irate Fluttershy. Notably, it has failed both times that it has been used on her.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: Loneliness is pretty much the queen of this trope. We don't know what she really is, what her true motivations are, or even how she came to be in the first place. Her true form, if she even has one is never revealed. And she's much scarier because of it.
    • One of her forms is suspiciously similar to a Draconequus like Discord. Then again that could be her taking inspiration from Twilight's imagination.
  • Not So Different: Trixie and Twilight turn out to have a lot more in common than either was aware of. Not only are they both Elements Of Magic, they were both pretty antisocial growing up, though for different reasons, and had to figure out what friendship really means. On a humorous note, Trixie reveals that she once cast the same "Want it Need It" spell that Twilight used in "Lesson Zero" on herself, with simular results, though she managed to hide out till she could figure out the counterspell and fix it herself.
    • Similarly, Rainbow Dash and Trixie have similiar defenses set-up, and Trixie accepting this and offering understanding when Dash confesses what really happened with Discord to her is used as a measure of how much she's grown.
    • In a rather bizare version, Applejack ends up having this with herself. To prevent herself from going Nightmare in the event this universe breaks off from the main one, she ends up meeting her Orangejack self and at first, they don't get along at all, but gradually discover how much they have in common, such as being hardworkers and how much they care about their family and loved ones. Then again, this was actually the point.
  • Number One Dime: A particularly chilling subversion in the Bad Future; Twilight Tragedy notes having a strange obsession with a pair of potted plants, always feeling that it's of utmost importance to keep them watered and in the sun at all times. Why is this? Because they used to be her parents.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: A repeatedly mentioned even was Luna fighting a ressurected Tirek for dominion over the night. She won and took his chariot as a prize, which was the one she used on Nightmare Night.
  • Oh Crap:
    • Both Nightmare Whisper and the undead foal in her crystal heart have this reaction when Fluttercruel's Element of Kindness awakens.
    • Fluttercruel has this reaction when she accidentally reveals herself to Celestia, on account of being the "daughter" of Celestia's archenemy. Celestia nearly face hoofs in response, as she's really sick and tired of everypony being afraid of her when they first meet. Though her inner thoughts reveal she would have reacted on instinct had she not sensed Fluttercruel's Element Of Kindness.
    • Discord, in the past before he became an Evil Overlord, gets this when Luna drags him off to face his parents. Consider his father is the embodiment of mass destruction and one of his teeth is twice Discord's size, this is a pretty reasonable response.
  • Oh My Gods: Celestia and Luna's names are used like this. Except by them, who being the Physical Godesses everypony else does this two, say "our mother and father" or "our parents" instead.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Applejack is revealed to be this, as her real name is Abigail Jacqueline, but only Luna actually calls her that.
  • One-Scene Wonder: Mimic, who only had one scene in which it's merely told what she did and she doesn't actually appear, but that one scene is so completely Badass that fans have certainly remembered her.
  • One-Winged Angel:
    • Pinkie Pie does a heroic version during the Battle in the Center of the Mind with Angry Pie by merging with Pinkamena to become her G1 counterpart, Surprise. It's a lot more Badass than it sounds.
    • Loneliness does this after Trixie's memories are restored, turning into a monstrous Mix and Match Critter (heavily similar to a draconequus). She takes on one final form after this, the Great and Powerful Trixie.
    • Another heroic example-when Discord's mind games finally break her, Luna turns back into Nightmare Moon...and the process causes her to remember how kindly her sister treated her Quirky Miniboss Squad, which allows Luna's personality to remain intact and in full control of her abilities as the Mare In The Moon.
    • Fluttershy of all ponies does the evil version in the second half of Fluttercruel's staring chapter, turning into an alicorn named Princess Gaia.
    • Cheerilee gets her own transformation as Princess Gaia's Knight.
    • It's implied that this happens to any pony that accepts a Princess' power (ie. Gaia's knights, Luna's guards, etc.).
    • And now, Gaia's been forced into it, after Applejack forced her to confront that she's lying to herself. Everyone, meet Nightmare Whisper.
    • Princess Celestia is revealed to be able to do this (maybe), creating a giant fire monster modeled off Orion.
  • Only Sane Man:
    • Zecora was able to shake off Discord's influence by herself, and Scootaloo managed to avoid being Discorded entirely.
    • Applejack's Living Lie Detector powers protect her from Princess Gaia's Lotus Eater Machine, but she then awakes to find everypony else trapped in her illusion. The simularity to Twilight's situation when they were all Discorded doesn't escape her either.
  • Offscreen Teleportation: Pinkie Pie, of course. After her Split Personality Merge, she learns to weaponize this.
  • Out-Gambitted: Applejack's view of the Bad Future implies that version of Twilight manages to do this to Discord, simply by writing a letter to herself when she's briefly unbrainwashed, allowing her to regain her memories behind Discord's back and begin plotting his defeat.
  • Outside Context Villain: Princess Gaia. The group just went looking for Fluttershy and had no idea there was a new Big Bad on the loose. When they do find out, they have no idea what she's capable of, as her powers seem to exceed even the Princesses, or what her real plan is.
  • Parental Abandonment:
    • Poor Scootaloo...
    • While they haven't outright abandoned her, the post "Sisterhooves Social" rewrite reveals their parents have a habit of dumping Sweetie Belle on Rarity all the time. According to Rarity, they do this so often that Rarity has Sweetie Belle in her care more often than their parents do. No wonder Sweetie Belle loves Rarity so much...
  • Physical Goddess: The Princesses, as to be expected. All three of them. In fact, Princess Gaia may be even more powerful than the other two combined. We find out later there used to be 13 of them. The Draconequi also qualify
  • Plot Twist: Who actually realized Onyx Tiara was partially discorded at the start of Mind Games part 2?
  • Pony Mom, Non-Pony Dad: Fluttercruel. Fluttershy is considered her mother and Discord her father.
    • Far Sigh, one of Nightmare Moon's lieutenants/friends and implied ancestor to Fluttershy revealed in the "Canterlot Chaos" side story, was born of a pegasus mother and a dragon father. Other ponies reacted negatively to the union.
  • Ponies Are Flawed: A reccuring theme in the story is everypony, even Celestia and Luna who are literally considered goddesses (even by themselves), aren't perfect. The only ponies who ever were are Celestia and Luna's parents.
    • Princess Celestia tells Pinkie and Applejack that this is one of the things that they, and everypony else, have a hard time accepting. She explains that, instead of accepting this, ponies try to rationalize or justify their bad decisions -- which is one of the most dangerous thing that they can do. This is a lesson Pinkie must learn to help prevent her Sanity Slippage when the POV timeline breaks off from the canon timeline.
  • Ponyville Is The Center Of The Universe: The Loose Canon Coffee Swirl series arguably deconstructs this; thanks to the constant crossfire his town is caught in with the Elements of Harmony living there, the titular pony has developed a lot of mental issues and is convinced that his life is completely outside of his control.
  • Posthumous Character: With the exception of Pinkie Pie, Star Catcher, and Sky Wishes, the hero cast of the G3 stories are dead long before the story starts and its told via flashbacks by Pinkie Pie. Though some of them do have Reincarnations in the main timeline.
  • Post Script Season: The Discorded Pony POV series starts out as an anthology of the Ponies POV after being Discorded, then the Reharmonized develops another anthology from the canon of the Discorded material. Once Trixie is fixed up, a narrative starts to form setting up that Discord is coming back for round two, and it breaks completely into serial form when Princess Gaia shows up. This is interesting because the writer originally wanted to stop with Epilogue, but decided to do the Reharmonizing Series... Which in turn was decided to end with Rainbow Dash's reharmonizing, but ideas just kept coming until the writer has had to literally force themselves to settle for an exact ending.
  • Powered by a Forsaken Child: Fluttershy's ideal paradise where everyone is happy and carefree is powered by Fluttershy herself turning into Nightmare Whisper and absorbing every bit of pain, every bit of anger, or sadness, of any negative emotion into her own self. That's right, all the suffering of the entirety of Equestria, stacked on one single pony. She explicitely refers to herself as "Forsaken Foal of Omelas", in reference to Ursula Le Guin's iconic short story.
  • Psychotic Fillymare: "Psycho" is a stretch, but it's quite clear that Princess Gaia is rather childlike, even throwing a tantrum when she doesn't get her way.
  • Punch Clock Villain: Well, Punch Clock Hero Antagonist, but Anarchy still qualifies. He's just doing his job and really wants to get it overwith. He even says that he'd be the first one to suggest a better solution, simply because a full Cosmic Retcon is way too much work.
  • Put on a Bus: Trixie, at the transition between the Princess Gaia and Butterflies arcs, bids farewell to the heroes and heads back to her hometown, removing herself from the plot for the forseeable future.
  • Rant-Inducing Slight: Rarity during her Reharmonizing after her phobia of gems drives her over the edge, causing her to yell at Sweetie Belle and nearly seriously hurt her with a bit of diamond. Rarity is suitably horrified when she comes to her senses.
  • Recursive Fanfiction:
  • Read the Fine Print: Subverted in probably the funniest way possible. Luna made it extremely clear in the the contract what happens if you join her side of the army:

Luna: And every pony that swears themselves to my half of the army KNOWS the conditions for joining. You infuse your troops with a micro-fraction of your essence, I infuse mine the same way. It's written in BIG BOLD LETTERS in 40 size font across two pages with before and after pictures that they'll turn black, become nocturnal, grow dislike to sunlight and exchange feather wings for batwings when they become Night Troopers.

  • Reality Ensues: After managing to save Minty from being deleted during the end of the G3 timeline, Pinkie celebrates...only for Minty to collapse and die from blood loss.
  • Reality Warper: Princess Gaia. She was able to transform the Everfree Forest into a Sugar Bowl with ease.
  • Redemption Earns Life: Fluttercruel.
  • Redemption Promotion: Trixie is a far more effective as a Guile Heroine, not to mention she's much more powerful. Justified, as it's stated friendship IS magic and by seperating herself from others, she was actually weakening herself.
  • Ret-Gone: Happens to several G3 ponies in the very Loose Canon when a Cosmic Retcon is the only way to save the universe from entrophy. However, it's hinted by an alicorn (and the G1 Firefly's spirit merging with the G3 Rainbow Dash to form the G4 version of Rainbow Dash) that the ponies aren't entirely erased and a part of them will live on in the G4 timeline.
  • Reincarnation: Its revealed that several ponies are actually reincarnations of G3 ponies, in some cases more than one due to spirits fusing together. Twilight Sparkle was G1 Twilight and Minty, Rainbow is G3 Rainbow Dash and Firefly, and, obviously, Rarity is one of her G3 self. Spike may be his G3 self's reincarnation, but its revealed they share a common ancestor in G1 Spike. Double Subverted with Pinkie Pie, as she's literally the G3 Pinkie, but also the reincarnation of G1 Surprise and has a some of G3 Rarity in her. Its implied this isn't limited to them as well, and that some of them may have other ponies composing them. Though this is an interesting example as the G3 ponies were erased from time and thus technically don't have a first incarnation at all as far as history is concerned.
  • Rewrite:
    • The author constantly reworks scenes in the archives to keep the series compatible with the show's canon, so some details here and there will change, trickling down through the rest of the stories. Though there have been very few that drastically change the story, normally they're simply small things or new scenes that don't change the overall plot. One noteable Retcon, however, is that Diamond Tiara has not released Discord as of "Luna's Nightmare." This was because the author wasn't happy with how it came out and how much it restricted things.
    • This is actually given an In-Universe justification in "AJ's Dream". The Pony POV universe is connected to the "heart world", any even that happen there branch out to the worlds connected to it. The plot of the sidestory revolved around preparing for the event the changes are too severe and the link is broken.
  • Right for the Wrong Reasons: Screw Ball correctedly deduces her daughter Diamond Tiara is in Canterlot, but believes its because she's been kidnapped by and the kidnappers would take her to Canterlot because Diamond Tiara is her little princess, and princesses live in Canterlot, therefore the kidnappers would hide her there so she wouldn't stand out.
  • Running Gag:
    • Whenever a pony, for whatever reason, throws up or feels like they will, they tend to question how it's physically possible for a pony to do that in the first place, since real horses aren't capable of it.
    • Celestia recounting a Noodle Incident from her reign, such as two different assassins actually knocking on her bedroom door before trying to kill her.
  • Saying Too Much: Diamond Tiara inadvertently tells Fancy Pants more and more about her background and motivations, requiring Discord to induce a temporary seizure to save the conspiracy.
  • Secret Identity: There is more to the unnamed Interviewer than meets the eye.
    • Or as it turns out, interviewers.
  • Secret Test of Character: Rainbow Dash pulls one on Fluttercruel during her Cute-Ceanera, thus establishing Fluttercruel as a unique and trustworthy individual to the rest of the group.
  • Self-Deprecation: Celestia sells unflattering, made up stories of herself to the tabloids under an assumed name. Among other reasons, it's to give herself an excuse to give some of the noble's powers to common ponies (she wanted to do that anyway), to improve Luna's image, and since they're going to paint her a tyrant anyway, she might as well have some fun.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong:
    • While it is All Just a Dream, Luna makes sure the Bad Future she witnessed in her second sidestory doesn't come to pass by changing her actions and realizing the error of her ways.
    • Twilight Tragedy does this in the Recursive Fanfiction ending to Epilogue, Fading Futures. She sends her past self telepathic messages to guide her through the point when the future Twilight failed, allowing her to manage to lead the Elements of Harmony to defeat Discord and save the world.
  • Shapeshifter Default Form: Loneliness prefers to stay in the form of Trixie's mother, Morgan. Rather this or any form she assumes is her true form or if she even has one is never revealed.
  • Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: Loneliness uses this to try to make Twilight think she killed Trixie while Discorded. Thankfully, Twilight had none of it once she finds A Glitch in the Matrix.
  • Sharing a Body: Discord's Mind Rape of Fluttershy resulted in her "Discorded self" ending up as a seperate being in the same body. After beating Fluttercruel in her normal Badass Pacifist style, Fluttershy realizes Fluttercruel isn't evil, just was "raised" wrong by Discord and allows her to share her body while trying to reform her. Now the two pretty much share control and work together at times. So far it's worked out quite well. Even when Fluttercruel takes over, Fluttershy is still there, they just kind of switched places.
    • After the Princess Gaia incident, Princess Celestia gives them a gift; enabling Fluttershy's body to transform into Fluttercruel's (who differs by darker fur and a different Cutie Mark) when she's in control. They still share the same body, however.
  • Sherlock Scan: Fancy Pants is a master of this.
    • One upped by Dr. Hoof Wave, deducing Discord's entire family history just by observing a couple choice actions.
  • Shock and Awe: Trixie's partial to using lightning magic when it comes to fighting, either by summoning a minture storm cloud or simply electrifying her horn.
  • Show Within a Show: Pony Rangers, which is mentioned several times throughout the fic... And is eventually discovered to be an Alternate Universe.
  • Shut UP, Hannibal:
    • Twilight does this to Loneliness on multiple occasions throughout the final battle with her. Finally, Trixie finally manages one when she defies Loneliness in the end before grabbing her Element Of Harmony and destroying her.
    • Fluttercruel to Princess Luna, when Luna brings up the possibility that they really can't know who the "original" and who the "copy" is. Cruel' replies by saying that they're both real and it doesn't matter whose the "original". Luna is impressed by this.
    • Sweetie Belle gets one on Silver Spoon's mother in "Butterflies".
  • Significant Anagram: Celestia's mother (essentually the Anthropomorphic Personification of existence) is named Fauna Luster, an anagram of Lauren Faust.
  • Sir Swearsalot: Fluttercruel, though In-Universe cuss words. Fluttershy washes their (as they're Sharing a Body) mouth out for it.
  • Sixth Ranger:
    • Fluttercruel is an interesting case. She joins and is big help most of the time, until her Nice Job Breaking It, Hero moment, but Fluttershy is the only member of the mane cast who even knows she exists until she reveals herself during the Final Battle with Nightmare Whisper. She also gets her own Element Of Kindness, making her fit this role even more than before.
    • Trixie after her Heel Face Turn is revealed to be another Element Of Magic like Twilight. The next chapter she's introduced to the rest of the mane cast and offically joins them. She really proves her worth in "Links" by being one of the only ones able to break free of Princess Gaia's spell on her own and then using the memory spell to help free the others.
    • Silver Spoon becomes the Fourth Ranger for the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: Happens to the G3 universe. Worse, we see it from their POV.
  • The Smart Guy: Gummy is apparently trying to mentally calculate the vector of the time-space convergence.
  • Sorting Algorithm of Evil: The Reharmonizing series' Big Bads play this straight. The first, Loneliness is pretty dangerous, but is really only a threat inside Trixie's mind, and even then only when Twilight goes in to save her. The second Big Bad, Princess Gaia/Nightmare Whisper, Fluttershy's Super-Powered Evil Side, is a real threat and an extremely powerful Mad Goddess. She's a Reality Warper who manages to brainwash the Mane Cast the moment they step into her prescence and is invading all of Equestria. And while we haven't gotten to his Story Arc yet, Discord is set to be the True Final Boss.
  • Split Personality Merge: Angry Pie tries to force this by eating the other parts of Pinkie Pie's personality. Except it's implied that this wasn't really a merge at all, more like a destruction of all the other parts, strengthening Angry Pie in the process. Pinkie Pie finally does it the proper way and merges all her personality bits back together. The result has the same personality as before, but is able to think a lot more clearly and be much more profound... While still almost completely in character.
    • This happens again when Fluttershy merges with Flutterage.
  • Split Personality Takeover: Fluttercruel tries this, only to be effortlessly put in her place by Fluttershy, who is nice enough to allow her to share her body instead of supplementing her. Angry Pie, on the other hoof, comes much closer to succeeding in her attempt with Pinkie Pie until Pinkie does a Split Personality Merge with Pinkamena to fight back and merge back together with her instead.
    • "The Alicorn and the Steed" has Fluttercruel succeeding... Kind of. It's more like she and Fluttershy switched places than her outright taking over. Why did she? She just wanted a hamburger. Yeah, needless to say, this is a far more benign version than most. Subverted in that cows are intelligent creatures in Equestria.
  • Squee: Predictably, Rainbow reacts this way to Spitfire knocking on her door.
  • Staring Down Cthulhu: Fluttercruel manages to make Nightmare Whisper backdown with her version of the Stare. More impressive is Nightmare Whisper, AKA Fluttershy, is normally the one to do this and was using the Stare herself at the time!
  • Stating the Simple Solution: Before the group go off to find out what's happening with Princess Gaia, Trixie wisely suggests they go get the Elements of Harmony so they can actually do something about it. Unfortunately, Fluttershy is missing (and actually Princess Gaia/Nightmare Whisper) so they can't actually do it.
  • Story Arc: Not only does each of the mane six and Trixie, after her Heel Face Turn have their own plot, there's also (thus far) three specific story arcs, each with their own Big Bad. The Loneliness Arc, followed by the Princess Gaia (or Penultimate) Arc, and finally the Discord Arc. Discord's arc started early in Rarity's interaction with Diamond Tiara and the conclusion has yet to be seen.
  • Super-Powered Evil Side:
    • Luna's Nightmare Moon persona is mentioned and she nearly turns back into her. Rainbow Dash comes close to having the same happen to her, but is talked down. Unfortunately, no one is there to talk Fluttershy down (except Fluttercruel, but she's sinking into darkness herself at the time) and she transforms into the second Big Bad, Princess Gaia/Nightmare Whisper. Then on top of that, she used her new found power as a Nightmare to break the seal on the Elder Horn and use it's power as well.
    • Turns out that all the mane cast and Celestia can turn into Nightmares if they're consumed by one part of themselves. In Luna's case, it was the night she controlled and in the case of Fluttershy, it was her Kindness. We see other alternate realities were Rainbow Dash went Nightmare, turning into Nightmare Manacle (who chained ponies together to force them to be loyal to one another), and where Pinkie Pie did, becoming Nightmare Granfalloon (an insane Monster Clown Alicorn that pulled Ponyville into a Circus of Fear). Another reality seems to be a universe where Rarity was the one who went Nightmare, but we don't see anything about her. The "AJ's Dream" sidestory is pretty much focused on stopping her from going Nightmare, but we do see an alternate version of her who went nightmare, becoming Nightmare Mirror (an Knight Templar who seeks to force everypony in the multiverse into being perpetually honest).
    • "Generational Transitions" reveals that the Good Counterpart of the Nightmare form is transformation into an Alicorn. None of the Mane Cast are capable of this yet, but Star Catcher managed to return to her Celestia form in this fashion.
  • Super Sentai Stance: Parodied with Trixie's sisters who do what Twilight refers to as a pose resembling "Mighty Morphing Pony Rangers". Complete with a rolecall!
  • Sure Why Not: Apparently, Word of God states that the story is actively influenced by reader interpretations, especially these very tropes.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: Pinkie most certainly didn't mail Spitfire mane dye with a fake letter from her manager to cover up plotholes!
  • Stepford Smiler: Pretty much every character becomes a Type A in Reharmonized, with Pinkie being even more pronounced (her normal tendancies become outright manic, to the point of not sleeping for about a week to throw parties). They get better.
  • Take a Third Option: Luna is left with the option of leaving Pip alone until he's an adult or spend time with him and be labled a molester by the tabloids. She decides to take on the form of a filly to spend time with him in a way the tabloids won't be able to muck up.
  • Take Me Instead!: In Pinkie Pie's Loose Canon Side Story, Pinkie begs Anarchy to erase her instead after he accidentally erases StarSong. Anarchy wants to, as she was his original target but he can't reverse it.
  • Take That:
  • Taking You with Me:

Undead Foal: Don't! The Elements are Harmony, you're Dissonance! They'll destroy you!
Fluttercruel: At least I can say I went out with a bang.

    • Subverted, thanks to Fluttershy saving her before she could fade away completely.
  • Tarot Motifs: The Alicorns are based off this. Celestia is the 19th, the Concept of the Sun, and Luna is the 18th, Concept of the Moon. The others are the High Priestess Mare - Abbatissa, the Empress Mare - Imperatrix, the Star Mare - Galaxia, the Temperance Mare - Cadence, Wheel of Fortune Mare - Rota Fortuna, Justice Mare - Justitia, the Lovers Mare - Venus, Strength / Fortitude Stallion - Leo Fortis, The Tower Stallion - Turris, Death Stallion - Mortis, the Hanged, the Man Stallion - Pensilis, the Chariot Stallion - Currus, the Devil Stallion - Morning Star, the Hermit Stallion - Eremo, the Fool Stallion - Puerilis, the Emperor - Princeps, and the Judgement Stallion - Judicium. Their Parents represent the Hierophant - the unnamed father, and the World - Fauna Luster.
    • Twilight Sparkle also tells Trixie that she best represents the thirteenth Tarot; Death. Or rather, Change. It certainly plays into both ideas, that The Great and Powerful Trixie is no more, and The One and Only Trixie is starting her recovery.
  • Tastes Like Diabetes: In-Universe, this is Rainbow Dash's reaction to the Everkind Forest.

Rainbow Dash: Ick! I don't mind cute, but this is going to make my teeth fall out!

  • That Mare Is Dead: Trixie about the Great and Powerful Trixie. She's still trying to figure out who the One and Only Trixie is.
  • Tele Frag: Twilight Sparkle mentions this can happen if you teleport somewhere far away that you've never been too before. Apparently, there are failsafes built into teleportation spells to prevent this, but teleporting somewhere far away the user has never been carries a risk of this. This is shown when she can't teleport to Hoofington to get to Trixie but can teleport back to Ponyville from there (with Trixie in toe) just fine.
    • Twilight is also unwilling to teleport up to Nightmare Whisper during their battle, for fear of this happening between her and the Nightmare's mane. Pinkie Pie has another idea, however.
  • Tell Me About My Father: Dinky asks Ditzy this in Ditzy's Butterflies chapter. We don't hear the resulting conversation, however.
  • The Earth Prime Theory: "Applejack's Dream" establishes the existence of a "Heart World" from which the Pony POV Series world and all other Alternate Timelines diverged from and which anyone still connected to are effected by, implied to be the main series timeline. However, in an interesting twist, it is possible for a world to "break off" and continue on its own without any connection to the Heart World. The plot of that chapter involved preparing for the possibility that would happen so as to prevent Applejack from going insane and turning into Nightmare Mirror in the even that it did.
  • The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: "Teacher Teacher" begins with Princess Gaia addressing the reader as previous chapters have done... Before trapping them in her Lotus Eater Machine too. Also some of the replies to comments are written as if from Princess Gaia trying to do the same thing, and not even the author is safe from her. The Fourth Wall is certainly no protection...
    • During the battle with Nightmare Whisper, Twilight attempts to use the memory spell to help Fluttershy. This backfires and results in a mental attack so devastating that the author considers giving up writing the story. Thankfully, Trixie breaks both Twilight and the author out of it.
    • Happens again in "Butterflies" when Fluttercruel knocks out one of the interviewers for getting a little too personal with the questions.
  • The Guards Must Be Crazy: The guards watching Discord in the Canterlot Gardens Maze have surprisingly little discipline.
  • The Power of Friendship:
    • A given, considering what fandom this is for. Its even stated that Trixie had just as much potential as Twilight does and is even a second Element Of Magic, but because Friendship Is Magic, she was holding herself back by refusing to make friends. She gets better in the end though.
    • During the Final Battle with Nightmare Whisper, the group's friendship and desire to save their friends acts as a medium for the Elements Of Harmony, allowing them to use them without the physical Elements.
  • There Are No Therapists: Subverted, Princess Celestia ordered a large number of therapist ponies to go to areas effected by Discord's power and help heal those afflicted.
  • The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: Fluttershy and Fluttercruel talk back and forth with each other, even using the mirror as a way to show that they're two separate entities.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Fluttercruel gives one to Nightmare Whisper.
    • And then Luna to both of them (after Fluttershy has been purified), proceeding to point out exactly how they fucked up what could have been good in very specific detail. To give an idea of how severely she chews them out, it was considered fitting punishment for what they did.
  • The Watcher: The Interviewers. We know nothing about them, but they've made a habit of dropping hints for the characters to follow that ultimately lead them to the correct assumption. The most they've interfered is by giving Twilight Razzaroo's Apocalyptic Log, then vanishing mysteriously. The "interviewers notes" simply respond to her demands to know more about them with "You will know soon enough."
  • Third Person Person: Trixie does this even after her Heel Face Turn, only then she refers to herself as "The One and Only Trixie", the thing Twilight called her when breaking through to her when Loneliness was trying to pull her back into her grasp.
  • Token Good Teammate: While Discord is the only truly evil Draconequus, they're still not really nice guys with the exception of Pandemonium. She's generally a much nicer person than her siblings and the worse thing she does is accidentally drive ponies insane trying to inspire their art, which she is rather frustrated about.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Getting used to working in tandem with Fluttercruel and performing a Split Personality Merge pretty much did this to Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie respectively.
    • It's hard to imagine, but Princess Celestia does this in Luna's vision/nightmare. After Luna takes a Face Heel Turn in the nightmare, Celestia reveals that she had a thousand years to plan for an usurpation attempt by a rogue alicorn. Cue Celestia's transformation into Orion.
    • G3 Pinkie, Thistle Whistle, Sky Wishes, Star Catcher, Wysteria, Rarity, Spike, and Minty, something commented upon by Strife. Star Catcher especially considering she turns out to be an Amnesiac Goddess whose true powers slowly awaken as it progresses before she fully awakens her true form, Celestia herself.
  • Took a Level In Kindness: Fluttercruel takes several. She starts out as the same heartless being we see in "Return of Harmony". Through Fluttershy's lessons, Fluttercruel does not only begin to care for Fluttershy and her friends, but she is eventually able to manifest an Element of Kindness (making this a literal example) and is willing to sacrifice herself to save Fluttershy from the damage she caused.
  • Trauma Conga Line: Not only was Rainbow Dash forced to abandon her friends thanks to a Sadistic Choice, Discord tells all of Cloudsdale she pretty much doomed Equestria to save them, causing the poor girl to see her entire hometown completely furious with her. Discord then proceeds to twist the knife further by forcing her to watch her hometown be Driven to Madness right in front of her while being helpless to do anything about it. Then she heads home to Ponyville to try and reunite with the others to do something about it, only to find them just as crazy as Cloudsdale. Is it any wonder the poor girl spent most of the series in a Heroic BSOD?
  • Trickster Mentor: Strife seems to take this role to Luna, manipulating her into learning a lesson about humility and more about the mortal ponies its her duty to protect.
  • Triumphant Reprise: The Princess Gaia Arc ends with Fluttershy and Fluttercruel singing a reprise of "So Many Wonders", summing up what they've learned throughout their storyline.
  • True Final Boss: Discord.
  • Uncanny Family Resemblance: Trixie's sisters, despite not being twins, all look a lot alike. This really annoys Trixie and is why she wants to stand out so much.
  • Unusual Euphemism: Fluttercruel uses "dragon fewmets" in Pinkie Pie's healing chapter, afterwhich Fluttershy threatens to wash her mouth out with soap for using foul language.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means: Princess Gaia is an interesting example of this. She wants everyone to be happy (what with being Fluttershy), and while she's not as extreme as many other examples of the trope, she does think that anyone who isn't happy must be FORCED to be happy, and that in order to achieve this goal, magically turning ponies into foals in both body and mind is a-ok! In an even straighter example of this trope, her Knight Cherilee actually attempts to KILL the Mane Six because they were distrupting Gaia's Lotus Eater Machine.
  • Victory-Guided Amnesia: Celestia and Luna had their memories wiped after Discord's first defeat in "Origins".
  • Villain Protagonist: Luna in her second sidestory after her Face Heel Turn. She's the one whose POV we're seeing from, despite the fact she's trying to murder her sister, in the process vaporizing innocent ponies without a care, forcing Celestia to fight back to protect Equestria from her. Of course, it turned out to be All Just a Dream.
  • Villain Song:
    • Princess Gaia gets three. The first is a ponified version of "Come Little Children" from Hocus Pocus (though, ironically, she really does mean exactly what it says, making it less of a Villain Song than it originally was). The second is a completely fanmade Dark Reprise of "So Many Wonders" used to try and re-hypnotize Applejack. The third extended version of her Dark Reprise and appears later when she hypnotises Raven.
    • Cheerilee, while acting as Princess Gaia's Dragon, gets one during her fight with the group.
    • While not canon, a fan wrote a Villain Song for Loneliness.
  • Villainous Breakdown:
    • Loneliness has a habit of losing her cool whenever Twilight managed to break through her mind games. But she really loses it when Twilight begins to break through to Trixie, breaking Trixie's leg and trying to murder Twilight in a brutal and sadistic manner.
    • It's revealed that Discord went completely berserk when Mimic managed to knock out his tooth in ancient times, the first time he'd ever been hurt by anyone. Unfortunately for Mimic, she didn't survive the encounter.
    • The foal inside Nightmare Whisper's heart (who had been angry, but relatively self assured before that) throws a major temper tantrum once the mane cast give their group World of Cardboard Speech, screaming her head off at them to shut up over and over again.
  • Villainous Rescue: In Not One of a Kind, Fluttercruel is saved by what appears to be, of all things, canon!Discord.
  • Wanting Is Better Than Having: Fluttercruel wanted to take control from the get go, but once she does, she finds out even that isn't enough to make her happy. If anything, it makes her more depressed.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Nightmare!Fluttershy, AKA Princess Gaia. She just wants to help everypony achieve their heart's desire...by trapping them forever in a dreamworld where their greatest fantasies come true...
    • Though, as Celestia pointed out in "Pearl Necklace Part 5", she was far more Well Intentioned than Extremist than most. Celestia's celebration for her is mainly because of how far down the slippery slope she didn't slip that any other pony likely would have.
  • Wham! Episode:
    • "Black Pearl", with Fluttershy becoming Princess Gaia/Nightmare Whisper.
    • "Prologue" and its Sequel Episode "Generational Transitions". The first reveals that Pinkie Pie is the G3 Pinkie and that world was Retgoned because it was collapsing, the latter not only reveals that, but that Celestia was G3 Star Catcher and ends with Twilight being given Razzaroo's Apocalyptic Log, not only causing her to confront Celestia about Equestria's past, but revealing the Interviewers are far more than they seem.
    • "Mind Games Part 7", which reveals not only that Diamond Tiara's actions were the straw that broke the camels back when it came to her mother's sanity, but that Screwball tried to kill her and is now so lost in her insanity she doesn't remember. Discord also finally drops his facade and lets Diamond see his real intentions for her.
    • "Mind Games Part 8". Discord completely corrupts Diamond Tiara, and she releases him. Also, Golden Tiara fully regains her sanity, and upon remembering what she almost did when she went insane, her reaction is predictable.

Golden Tiara: "WHAT DID I ALMOST DO TO MY BABY?!"

Applejack: AH AIN'T SAY YA LYIN'! YA ARE A LIE!

  • What the Hell, Hero?: Pinkie Pie gets chewed out by Pinkamenia over always using her as a buffer against sad things she comes up against.
    • To say nothing of the team's reactions, Rarity's in particular, to learning Rainbow faked being Discorded.
    • Fluttershy and Fluttercruel call out Rainbow Dash for not trying to save Fluttershy when she fell off the clouds during the race when they were fillies. Subverted by the fact Fluttershy not only thanks her for how it happened (since it resulted in the Mane Cast getting their Cutie Marks), but she and Fluttercruel were just doing it to make Rainbow Dash realize and admit why she decided to stop being a loner and make friends with everypony else.
    • Rainbow gets another in the revised version of her True Healing chapter, this time from Applejack for her Smug Super act during the Mare-Do-Well incident, especially letting a balloon with a filly in it fall while she took time to sign autographs before saving her.
    • Twilight delivers one to Trixie after the battle with Cheerilee to try to shock her into deflating her ego and learning about friendship. Trixie notes that unlike other times people had said the same things to her, this time it actually hurt to hear.
    • Fluttercruel gets one from Applejack and Pinkie Pie for being responsable for Fluttershy being Nightmare Whisper in the first place.
    • Luna gives a very nasty one to Fluttershy and Fluttercruel that borders on a Hannibal Lecture as punishment for their wrongdoing.
    • Luna and Celestia's father calls Luna out on assisting Celestia in unleashing what would become known as the Windigos on earth, knowing that, as pieces of Entropy, they could only end badly. He also calls her out on her lack of concern for mortal ponies and prideful nature, punishing her by reverting her to an infant.
  • While Rome Burns: Princess Gaia's army overrunning and conquering Equestria is interlaced with scenes of the brainwashed Mane Cast having a civil, peaceful, even friendly time with Princess Gaia.
    • Even worse... it can at least be interpreted that they're not actually playing a game, but are in fact in command of Princess Gaia's forces and are now assisting her in making Equestria keel over.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
    • Rarity briefly gains a phobia of gems after her corruption. Quite a few other ponies have the same problem with various things as a result of what Discord did to them. For example, Big Mcintosh at the beginning of the story has only just been able to be in the same room as the Winowna, the family dog. Lyra and BonBon have had trouble with their relationship due to some... things that happened, Sweetie Belle wants to throw out all her dolls, and Doctor Whooves goes into a Lords Victorious sanity slip. He's openly afraid to even go outside.
    • Trixie is absolutely terrified of Ursas as a result of the Ursa Minor incident. Even Princess Gaia's cute, teddybear-sized versions scare her so badly, it takes Pinkie Pie singing a soothing version of "Giggle At The Ghosties" to her to calm her down.
  • Why Won't You Die?: Twilight has this reaction when hitting Trixie with the Memory Spell doesn't destroy Loneliness like she thought it would.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds:
    • Rainbow Dash nearly becomes one when she spirals so deep into self-loathing that she convinces herself that betrayal and loyalty are the same thing. Fortunately, her friends are there to talk her down. Fluttershy undergoes the same transformation when she realizes the cruelty inherent in nature, but her friends aren't there to reverse it and Fluttercruel tries but is unable to help. Thus, Fluttershy becomes Nightmare Whisper.
    • Destruction, a literal example. He has an uncontrollable need to destroy things. If he doesn't, he goes into an animalistic, insane fury that he can't control and doesn't revert until he's destroyed something. He doesn't like it, but his mother, Entropy traps him in a black hole to let it build up so they can send him to destroy whatever they need him too.
  • The Worf Effect: Deconstructed with Spitfire, as the Wonderbolts' repeated failures when actually trying to do something heroic begin to wear her down and drive her into a Heroic BSOD.
  • World Building: The story has gradually built up its on world, complete with a pantheon of gods and a long history.
  • World of Cardboard Speech: Twilight has one after Fluttercruel makes her realize Fluttershy's motivation for becoming Princess Gaia/Nightmare Whisper, breaking her out of her mental block that'd plagued her the entire battle. This also activates the Element of Magic without the crown she normally needs. The others follow suit, activiating their own Elements with their own World Of Cardboard Speechs and finishing with Fluttercruel earning her Cutie Mark and realizing what it, and Fluttershy's, really mean, giving a speech of her own and summoning the Element Of Kindness.
  • World of Badass: Given the right motivation, anypony can effectively become a Badass. This is referenced by Princess Celestia, who points out ponies have a surprising ability to rise to the occasion when its required of them. Apparently, this was one of the things her Mother, Fauna Luster, enjoyed rubbing in the face of Discord's Mother Entropy, who believed sentient life would inevitably destroy itself. Considering the story is in canon with G1 and G2 in addition to the events of the series proper, this is little surprise.
  • Yandere: Loneliness. It's more maternal "love", but she reacts exactly the same.
  • You Are Not Alone: Twilight has to drive this into Trixie's head to bring her out of her Discording and give her the strength to defeat Loneliness.
    • After Nightmare Whisper is defeated, Fluttershy remains, still holding onto (and feeling) all the pain and suffering in Equestria. While her friends are trying to convince Fluttershy to let go, Pinkie Pie allows herself to be bound as well, sharing the burden so that Fluttershy does not have to suffer all of it alone.
    • One of the recurring themes of the series is that nopony can overcome what Discord did to them by themselves -- every victim must have another pony's support. Each of the mane cast eventually devotes themselves to helping one or more other ponies through their troubles.
  • You Do NOT Want to Know:
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle:
    • Loneliness is defeated and Trixie is healed of both Discord's taint and her pre-existing mental problems... Then Discord is set free once again. Not to mention Princess Gaia. In an interesting twist, we've known ever since Loneliness' defeat that Discord will be released, but time has been turned back for the Princess Gaia arc.
    • While defending Cloudsdale from Princess Gaia's army, the Wonderbolts manage to take down a full grown dragon that seemed to be the biggest threat present... Then four more emerge from the clouds.
  • Zerg Rush: Princess Gaia's army makes use of this tactic. They're endless to the point that no matter how many are beaten, they'll just keep coming until their targets are overwhelmed.
  • Zero-Approval Gambit: Well far from zero approval, but Celestia apparently uses her alas Sunny Day to write unflattering tabloid articles about herself if it helps make everypony, or her sister's, life better. She wrote the "Celestia is a tyrant who banished poor Luna to the moon to secure power for herself" article to both make sure Luna wasn't written as a co-dictator by them and to give her an excuse to decentralize power that the conspiracy theorists would accept.
    • In the end, she writes an article painting herself as the Big Bad of the Princess Gaia/Nightmare Whisper incident so Fluttershy and Fluttercruel can move on without being hated for something they can never repeat. Since the tabloids have lied so much about her already, one more that helps Fluttershy won't hurt her as much as it'd hurt the mane cast if she DIDN'T do it.