Inner Demons is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic by SapphireLibra3
On her twenty-first birthday, Twilight Sparkle comes across an ancient prophecy, detailing the rise of an evil known as the "Queen of Darkness" who will end Celestia's rule and take over all of Equestria... and the description of the Queen matches Twilight to a tee. Thus begins Twilight's downward spiral, as the darkness in her heart threatens to consume her and turn her into the greatest threat Equestria's ever known. Now it's up to her friends to stop her — but can they save her and Equestria? And even if they do, will their friendship survive?
Can be read here
or here. It has also been adapted into an audio drama, which can be listened to here
The story is followed up by the oneshot The Last Letter, which is about the forgiven and newly appointed Princess Twilight sending a final friendship letter to Princess Celestia.
It has a 'sequel', 10 Years, in which all the characters (primarily Apple Bloom and her friends) deal with the emotional aftereffects of everything that happened in Inner Demons, all while Apple Bloom counts down the time until she can reunite with Lezard.
There is another sequel, Fragments of Truth, which begins to explain some events that occur in the last chapter of "10 Years".
Now has its true sequel, Inner Demons II set after both "10 Years" and "Fragments of Truth".
This story includes examples of the following:
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Inner Demons
- Abusive Parents:
- Apparently, Scootaloo's mother was a drunk, and her father tended to hit them.
- Trixie's father was emotionally abusive, belittling her and her sense of self worth at every chance he got, to the point she eventually ran away from home.
- Airborne Mooks: The giant bat monsters among the hordes of Tartarus. They shoot Frickin' Laser Beams from their tails.
- All Your Powers Combined: As the Master of Harmony, Apple Bloom is able to use all the Elements of Harmony, and their special abilities.
- And I Must Scream: Twilight herself experiences this when she ends up consumed by her darkness.
- Anguished Declaration of Love:
- When she's performing her Heroic Sacrifice, Rarity chokes out one of these to an absent Spike.Rarity: crying I love you so much... Spikey... Wikey...
- Rainbow Dash confesses her love to Pinkie Pie when they're locked in the burning CMC clubhouse by Scootaloo.
- There's a much more straight-forward example of this trope when Lezard forcibly confesses his feelings to Apple Bloom.
- When she's performing her Heroic Sacrifice, Rarity chokes out one of these to an absent Spike.
- Arch-Enemy:
- Scootaloo gains two arch-enemies — Apple Bloom and Rainbow Dash — after joining Queen!Twilight's side.
- Applejack also opposes Queen!Twilight, while Rarity opposesTrixie.
- Armor of Invincibility:
- The Elements of Harmony become this when they evolve — during Rarity's Heroic Sacrifice, her Element transforms into a suit of armor that can't be removed even after she's defeated and captured. Trixie comments that it appears it won't come off so long as she needs it. It fails to protect her from a sneak attack from Trixie; while rendered catatonic, she passes the armor on to Spike.
- Fluttershy's armor activates after she's pulled back from the Despair Event Horizon, and grants her fighting skills and elemental powers she didn't have before.
- Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie's Elements evolve to armor when they confess their love for each other.
- Applejack finally gets hers when she admits her feelings of guilt over the part she played in Twilight's fall to darkness (locking her up and abandoning her).
- Twilight's armor evolves when the other Elements are used on her and, combined with her own Element of Magic and inherent goodness, forces the Queen persona out of her body. Unfortunately, it fails to protect her from the Queen's new form.
- The Atoner:
- Trixie starts out the story having completed a pilgrimage across Equestria to learn true magic, and comes to Ponyville so that she can become Twilight's student, all in a quest to make up for her boastful and arrogant past. Ultimately subverted, as her quest for power and desire to be Twilight's student leads to willingly following her in a Face–Heel Turn.
- Played straight for Twilight in the epilogue and The Last Letter.
- Ax-Crazy: Queen!Twilight is really not all there, but after Trixie dies, what little sanity she has left snaps. See Villainous Breakdown.
- The Baroness: Sweetie Belle becomes the Sexpot variety after her Face–Heel Turn, wearing an all black outfit that highlights her figure, complete with fishnet stockings and high heels. Both Queen!Twilight and Scootaloo qualify as well to a lesser degree.
- Beam-O-War: Occurs during Queen!Twilight and Luna's rematch. Luna still loses.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Apple Bloom, a ten-year-old filly, spends a few chapters complaining about wanting to be treated like an adult and not a child. She gets her wish Queen!Twilight forcibly ages her up into a young mare, robbing her of her childhood. She proceeds to lampshades the irony.
- Because Destiny Says So: Celestia states that the Twilight everyone knew was real, and not just a facade hiding the Queen of Darkness, but that she was destined to become the Queen from the day she was born and there was never a chance to avoid it. However, Celestia also says there's still hope to save Twilight.
- Berserk Button: Betraying her (or doing anything that she interprets as betrayal) and coming between her and Shining Armor are both buttons for Queen!Twilight.
- Bequeathed Power: When Rarity is left comatose, she passes the Element of Generosity on to Spike.
- Big Bad: Twilight Sparkle, at least in her Queen persona, is the main villain of the story whose plans to take over Equestria put her in direct opposition of the rest of the Mane 6 and their friends. Her connections to the Mane 6 also makes Twilight their Big Bad Friend, especially since Applejack played a huge role in Twilight becoming the Queen of Darkness. Then the Darkness is expelled from Twilight's body, revealing it to be the true villain of the story.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Adult Apple Bloom, Spike, and Lezard saving Applejack from a group of Neo Canterlot soldiers.
- Fluttershy likewise saving Rainbow Dash from another group of soldiers after being left for dead by Scootaloo.
- Just when it looks like Scootaloo's forces are going to defeat the remaining protagonists in Ponyville Rainbow Dash saves Pinkie from the burning CMC clubhouse by confessing her love, which evolves both their respective Elements, allowing them to save the others and send Scootaloo running.
- Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy show up just in time to save Rarity and Applejack from Queen!Twilight's soldiers as well as the brainwashed Princess Luna, and help them escape from Canterlot castle.
- The Element Bearers confront an increasingly unstable Queen!Twilight in Fillydelphia just in time to prevent her from executing Cadence.
- Big "NO!":
- Queen!Twilight has one when Trixie is fatally stabbed in front of her.
- The Darkness, when the combined form of Twilight and Apple Bloom/The Master of Harmony defeats it.
- Blow You Away: Fluttershy gains this power with her Element of Harmony armor.
- Bodyguard Crush: Trixie has all but confessed to being in love with Queen!Twilight. Unfortunatelly, the confession happens as she lays dying from a fatal stabbing injury in front of a distraught Queen!Twilight.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Sweetie Belle does this to every stallion in Fillydelphia, while Queen!Twilight does this to the Royal Guard and Princess Luna. In the latter's case, they're all freed from Queen!Twilight's control when the emotional trauma of watching Trixie die in front of her disrupts the spell.
- Breaking the Fellowship: Twilight's fall to darkness strains the relationships among the rest of the Mane Six. And by the time she's done crossing the
Moral Event Horizon, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy are too traumatized to do anything, Rarity is a prisoner, Rainbow Dash can't bring herself to fight her former friend, and Applejack is willing to kill Queen!Twilight. As of chapter 19, they've reunited in their goal to stop Queen!Twilight, even if they don't all necessarily agree on how. - Bring It:
- Rarity to Trixie during her Heroic Sacrifice.
- Queen!Twilight to Applejack when they finally confront each other near the climax.
- Brought Down to Normal: Cadence is subjected to Queen!Twilight's mind control power, which blocks her ability to use her powers. Her powers are restored when Queen!Twilight's spells are disrupted by her Villainous Breakdown.
- Cain and Abel: Sweetie Belle and Rarity, after the former joins with Queen!Twilight and rejects the latter. Interesting example, as the "Cain" in this case is actually the younger sibling.
- Queen!Twilight and Shining Armor eventually reach this status as well. Again, the Cain is the younger sibling, and only tries to kill the Abel after being rejected.
- Casting a Shadow: Another spell Queen!Twilight learns is moving through shadows. Trixie quickly copies it from her.
- The Cavalry: Both Shining Armor and Cadence lead the Royal Guard to keep Queen!Twilight's forces from marching on Ponyville while the other heroes fight her directly.
- Chekhov's Gun: Lezard's skills in chronomancy are mentioned when he's introduced, but he never uses them — until Applejack convinces him to help sneak her into the castle to confront Queen!Twilight.
- The Chosen One: Applejack has a dream hinting at the existence of a "Master of Harmony" who can wield all the Elements and may be the only one who can defeat the Queen of Darkness. It is eventually confirmed that the Master of Harmony exists, but as a reincarnation of the pony who defeated the original Queen of Darkness. Said reincarnation is Apple Bloom.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Twilight already had shades of this attitude towards her brother in canon. Queen!Twilight takes it up to eleven.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: After Rarity is captured, Queen!Twilight gives her soldiers permission to do whatever they want with her, which includes torture and rape. To her credit, Rarity remains defiant, mocking them when they're in the room and only breaking down crying when she's alone.
- Compelling Voice:
- One of the abilities that Queen!Twilight learns following her Face–Heel Turn is a Geass-like spell that allows her to brainwash whoever she uses it on, including Princess Luna.
- Sweetie Belle's singing voice is one of these due to her music-based magic.
- Conflicting Loyalty: This happens to Rainbow Dash.
- At one point, Rainbow's running late for meeting up with Pinkie, but then notices Fluttershy, who's depressed after everything that's happened so far in the story. She's momentarily torn, not wanting to keep Pinkie waiting but unwilling to leave Fluttershy when she needs someone. She ends up deciding that Fluttershy needs her more at the moment.
- Rainbow later has a more dramatic example connected to the main plot — she of course wants to stop what Queen!Twilight's doing, but can't bring herself to fight someone she still views as a friend. She ultimately chooses to fight Queen!Twilight because she's loyal to her friend — she's going to save Twilight even if she has to beat her senseless to do it.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Queen!Twilight versus Princess Luna. Luna loses.
- Applejack's first encounter with Queen!Twilight's soldiers. She doesn't win.
- When Applejack and Rarity are breaking out of Canterlot castle, they completely mow down the soldiers arrayed against them. Until they're confronted by the brainwashed Princess Luna.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The Storm Avatar spell drives its user crazy, right up until they lose control of its power and start destroying everything around them.
- Darkest Hour: The prophecy refers to the Queen of Darkness' reign as Equestria's darkest hour, and it definitely seems to be heading in that direction.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Invoked by Queen!Twilight, who uses this as a justification to Trixie for some of the less-than-ethical spells she starts using, stating that true magic is neither good or evil.
- Deal with the Devil: Rarity outright refers to Trixie joining Queen!Twilight for power as selling her soul. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo accepting Queen!Twilight's help in getting their Cutie Marks has undertones of this as well.
- Death by Childbirth: Big Macintosh and Applejack's mother died giving birth to their younger sister, Apple Bloom.
- Demonic Possession: Apparently, when you know how to astral project, you can do this to other ponies, but only when they're asleep and with their permission. Queen!Twilight talks Trixie into letting her do this after her Face–Heel Turn so that she can study new spells and gather power even while her body's locked up in the library basement.
- Despair Event Horizon:
- Both Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy cross it after Queen!Twilight crosses the Moral Event Horizon. They're both brought back from the horizon by Rainbow Dash and Big Macintosh's love, respectively.
- Cadence crosses it when Queen!Twilight depowers and imprisons her. This in turn nearly causes Apple Bloom to cross it as well, but the others talk her back from the brink. Cadence herself later recovers between the Battle of Fillydelphia and the Final Battle, presumably because she had her powers restored.
- Both Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy cross it after Queen!Twilight crosses the
- Deus ex Machina: It's implied that the Elements of Harmony are what saved Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie from burning to death in Sugarcube Corner.
- Deuteragonist: Apple Bloom is set up as this, getting plenty of Character Development and focus throughout the story. She also turns out to be the Master of Harmony.
- Didn't See That Coming: Queen!Twilight admits to not anticipating the Elements of Harmony evolving past what she'd seen.
- Did They or Didn't They?: Type 4. Chapter 28 ends with Apple Bloom and Lezard making out, and chapter 29 opens with them sharing a bed. Ultimately subverted though, as Apple Bloom makes it very clear that they didn't have sex.
- Disney Death: Rarity is seemingly killed by Trixie in Fillydelphia, but in truth, she was left comatose.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Rarity does this to a guard at one point to escape a dungeon cell.
- The Dragon: Trixie becomes this after Queen!Twilight takes her in as a disciple, serving as the Number Two in her mentor's plans. Trixie's death via stabbing emotionally breaks Queen!Twilight.
- Dream Weaver: Another ability that Queen!Twilight picks up, an extension of her Astral Projection — by entering another pony's mind while they're sleeping, she's able to shape their dreams. She first does this to Trixie to manipulate her and get her on her side, then does it to Fluttershy as part of the below Kick the Dog.
- Driven to Suicide: Fluttershy attempts to throw herself off a cliff following Queen!Twilight's crossing of the Moral Event Horizon, but is stopped at the last second by Big Macintosh, who talks her down.
- Drunk with Power: As mentioned below under Well-Intentioned Extremist, Scootaloo eventually admits that while she planned on betraying Queen!Twilight all along to end her madness, she ended up going on a power trip and tried to make herself ruler in her place.
- Dual Wielding: Celestia wields a pair of swords during the Final Battle.
- Easily Forgiven:
- Apple Bloom forgives Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo rather easily after their Heel Face Turns despite all the death, destruction, and suffering they both caused as minions of Queen!Twilight.
- Subverted with Twilight herself; she's put on trial for her actions as the Queen, but is acquitted and set free to go — she even gets appointed Princess alongside Celestia and Luna. On the other hand, The Last Letter shows that while she was officially forgiven, many are still uncomfortable around her. She also states that she'll never fully forgive herself.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Everyone goes through sheer hell to get there, but the Mane 6 and their allies both manage to stop Twilight's rampage, purge the Queen of Darkness from her body, and kill her, saving Equestria.
- Elite Mooks: Queen!Twilight's magically constructed undead soldiers.
- The Empire: After Queen!Twilight defeats the Princesses, she declares herself the ruler of the "Neo Canterlotian Empire" and proceeds to conquer Fillydelphia with the help of Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Trixie, though the other Element bearers eventually drive her forces out.
- The End of the World as We Know It: Queen!Twilight's goal post-Villainous Breakdown is to release the hordes of Tartarus and destroy Equestria.
- Enemy Within:
- What Twilight's "Queen" persona appears to have originated as. This is eventually confirmed by Lezard, who states that Celestia tried pushing the darkness in Twilight's soul out, but that just made it stronger, until it finally managed to take over.
- Fluttershy seems to have one too; when she regresses into herself following her Despair Event Horizon, she meets another personality who seems to represent all of her darker impulses. Turns out, it would be closer to say that it represented her id, and only seemed dark because she was repressing it.
- Enemy Without: When the Elements of Harmony are used on Twilight, the darkness of the Queen persona is removed, but it takes on a life of its own separate from her.
- Epiphany Therapy:
- The Element bearers apparently all need to have some kind of personal revelation that leads to them understanding the true meaning of their respective Elements in order to evolve them to armor form:
- Rarity realizing that true generosity is being willing to sacrifice yourself for others (her Heroic Sacrifice to protect Spike and Apple Bloom).
- Fluttershy realizing that true kindness means being kind to herself for once (admitting her romantic feelings for Big Macintosh).
- Rainbow Dash realizing that true loyalty is standing besides your friends even when you don't agree with them (agreeing to help the others fight Queen!Twilight even if Queen!Twilight is her friend, because she wants to save Twilight from the thing possessing her).
- Pinkie Pie experiencing true happiness (her and Rainbow Dash admitting their feelings for each other).
- Applejack eventually being honest with herself (that she's just as responsible as anyone else for Twilight's fall to darkness).
- When the Elements of Harmony are used on her, Twilight remembers her connection with the others; this not only expels the Queen from her body, it causes her own Element to evolve.
- According to Sweetie Belle, this also appears to be a key component of Queen!Twilight's cutie mark-granting spell.
- The Element bearers apparently all need to have some kind of personal revelation that leads to them understanding the true meaning of their respective Elements in order to evolve them to armor form:
- Eternal Recurrence: Lezard discusses the possibility of this when pointing out the similarities between the original Queen of Darkness' rise and fall/the original Master of Harmony rising to defeat her and Queen!Twilight's rise to power/ Apple Bloom stepping up as the new Master of Harmony.
- Et Tu, Brute?:
- Naturally, the reaction from the other Mane Six when Twilight goes dark and betrays them. From her own twisted point of view, Queen!Twilight sees herself as the victim of this. Twilight is half-right, as the Mane 6 agreed to lock her up and abandon her — an idea that she thought up in desperation to keep everyone safe from herself.
- Both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle betray their friends to join Queen!Twilight's side, devastating everyone. Apple Bloom and Rainbow Dash in particular are hit the hardest as they were the closest to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- Even after her descent into darkness and madness, Queen!Twilight still loves Shining Armor, and is visibly horrified at the thought of the others turning him against her. Unfortunately, she develops incestuous feelings towards him, which motivated her attempt to execute Cadence, who is Shining Armor's wife and an "obstacle" in Queen!Twilight's eyes. Naturally, Shining Armor rejects her, she is incredibly heartbroken.
- Queen!Twilight also seems to cherish the new friendships she's forged with her minions Trixie, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle due to her friends "betraying" her. Queen!Twilight is devastated when Trixie, her Number Two and the only person she could genuinely trust, dies in front of her.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Trixie initially had trouble with the more violent aspects of serving Queen!Twilight. Then she gets a glimpse of just how powerful the latter is, and decides anything is acceptable if it means she gets the chance to learn from her.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Lezard claims that the Queen of Darkness doesn't understand love, though from what we've seen from her perspective, it's possible he's not completely accurate in that statement.
- Evil Diva: Sweetie Belle post-Face–Heel Turn, who uses her singing voice to brainwash every stallion in sight.
- Evil Feels Good:
- After her fall to darkness, Queen!Twilight declares that she's never felt more alive. During the Final Battle, the other Element bearers call bullshit on this, pointing out all the emotional pain she's in.
- Scootaloo feels so as well, and while Sweetie Belle hasn't outright stated it, she definitely seems to enjoy all the perks of her new position.
- Evil Former Friend: As implied in the summary and shown elsewhere on this page, Queen!Twilight to the other Mane Six. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle are also this to Apple Bloom, as they were close friends prior to Queen!Twilight's rise.
- Evil Mentor: Queen!Twilight to her minions, Trixie primarily. Trixie primarily joined Queen!Twilight to learn how to get stronger in terms of magic, not caring if she was evil or not. Despite this, Queen!Twilight genuinely cared about Trixie and was very distraught when Trixie is killed in front of her.
- Evil Me Scares Me: Naturally, Twilight is horrified when she discovers the prophecy implicates her, and when she starts having nightmares about it coming to pass. When the darkness within Twilight takes over, the Queen persona wonders why she ever fought it.
- Evil Overlord: Queen!Twilight after she declares herself ruler of the Neo Canterlotian Empire.
- Evil Tower of Ominousness: There's one in the center of Tartarus that Queen!Twilight takes as her lair following her Villainous Breakdown. When the Darkness is forced from her body, it creates a new one in the sky, kidnaps Twilight and flees there.
- Exact Words:
- When Applejack is captured by Queen!Twilight's forces, she promises to not try to escape. As she and Rarity are breaking out, she explains that she has no intention of trying to escape; they are going to escape.
- This also pops up during the Final Battle — Queen!Twilight said that she would wait for the heroes in Tartarus to fight them one final time. However, as Scootaloo points out, she didn't say that her army would wait, and indeed her Mooks start marching on Ponyville while she's fighting the Element bearers. Fortunately, The Cavalry shows up to keep them busy.
- Eye Beams: An apparently inherent ability of Queen!Twilight's zombie soldiers.
- Eye Scream: During the Final Battle, Apple Bloom stabs the Darkness in one of its eyes.
- Face–Heel Turn:
- Twilight's gradual transformation into the Queen Darkness is the whole premise of the story, and is the primary source of conflict for the entire story.
- Trixe reluctantly goes along with Queen!Twilight's actions, until she gets a glimpse of how powerful she is, and fully turns in order to learn from her.
- In a major shock, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo willingly join with Queen!Twilight after Queen!Twilight ages them up and gives them their Cutie Marks.
- Familiar: After Spike becomes the new Element of Generosity and takes a couple dozen levels in badass, he's accompanied in battle by a spirit in the appearance of a white pony. It's strongly implied (and eventually confirmed) to be Rarity's disembodied spirit.
- Fate Worse than Death: When Applejack fails to defeat her during their confrontation, Queen!Twilight uses her Compelling Voice to place Applejack in a state of perpetual fear. It wears off when the emotional trauma of Queen!Twilight's Villainous Breakdown disrupts all her spells. She also condemns Scootaloo to a state of perpetual pain for her betrayal. It likewise wears off, but she's left physically and emotionally broken afterwards.
- Faustian Rebellion: Scootaloo originally planned on doing this to Queen!Twilight. But then she became Drunk with Power and her motives degrade to usurping Queen!Twilight as ruler of the Neo Canterlotian Empire.
- Faux Affably Evil: Queen!Twilight Sparkle keeps up the appearance of her old friendly personality to manipulate her followers and mock her former friends.
- Fighting from the Inside: The real Twilight is given the strength to do this when the Elements of Harmony on used on her, allowing her to reject the Darkness from her body.
- Final Battle: The final fight occurs both within Tartarus itself and on the fields outside its gates. However, the final portion of the battle occurs when the Darkness is separated from Twilight, and she and Apple Bloom fight it together.
- Freudian Excuse: Flashbacks reveal that Trixie's asshole father always told her she wasn't special, and that her one hope for a better life — Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns — rejected her on the grounds that she wasn't special enough for their criteria. This resulted in Trixie becoming a traveling showoff who belittled others to make herself look better.
- A Friend in Need: By the Final Battle, saving Equestria is pretty much a secondary goal for the heroes — they want to save their friend, and saving the world just goes with it.
- Friendly Enemy: Sums up Apple Bloom's relationship with Sweetie Belle following the latter's Face–Heel Turn. They still view each other as friends, even if they're now on opposite sides.
- Forced to Watch: After taking Cadence prisoner, Queen!Twilight makes her watch remotely as she disguises herself as Cadence to have sex with Shining Armor, her own brother.
- Foreshadowing:
- In Twilight's nightmares, the Darkness inside her is represented by a four-eyed black dragon. When the Darkness is forced out of her, guess what form it takes?
- Fusion Dance: Apple Bloom (in her Master of Harmony form) and Twilight fuse into a white alicorn to finish off the True Final Boss.
- Giant Mook:
- The Grendal that Queen!Twilight summons to cover her retreat from Fillydelphia easily towers over the rest of her forces.
- Another one (or possibly the same one teleported back) appears in Tartarus during the Final Battle.
- A God Am I: Not quite yet, but Queen!Twilight eventually realizes that in order to achieve full dominance over Equestria, she must shed her mortal form and become an alicorn. When Scootaloo overhears this, she realizes she has to make her move before it happens, and then figure out how to do it herself. Queen Twilight finally ascends as a result of the emotional trauma from watching Trixie die in front of her.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Twilight, after being consumed by her Queen of Darkness persona.
- Go Through Me: Trixie repeatedly places herself between Queen!Twilight and those that wish her harm, stating that she's protecting her, and they have to get past her if they want to try anything.
- Heel–Face Turn:
- Sweetie Belle performs one after her Heel Realization.
- Scootaloo also performs one after her failed attempt to betray Queen!Twilight, a Villainous BSoD, and a "Not So Different" Remark from Rainbow Dash.
- Heel Realization: Sweetie Belle almost has one shortly after her Face–Heel Turn, but a poor choice of words on Rarity's part sends her running back to Queen!Twilight. She has one for real after the Battle of Fillydelphia, when Rarity is almost killed in front of her, and Queen!Twilight abandons her. Even with Apple Bloom's help, [[spolier:Sweetie Belle stays in a state of shock for a few chapters before she eventually completes her Heel–Face Turn.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: Scootaloo, following her Face–Heel Turn, starts wearing what appears to be an anachronistic leather biker outfit (it goes with her Magitek motorcycle).
- Heroic BSoD: All of the Element bearers to varying degrees following Twilight's Face–Heel Turn.
- Fluttershy when she thinks Trixie killed Rarity.
- Applejack breaks down when she realizes that turning her back on Twilight when she was worried about falling to darkness contributed to it happening.
- Apple Bloom has one from the double whammy of killing Trixie and finding out that she's the Master of Harmony.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Rarity takes on Trixie, giving Apple Bloom and Spike a chance to escape Canterlot and get help from both Shining Armor and Princess Cadence. However, while she's defeated, it's later revealed she was only left comatose.
- An inverted example happens when Apple Bloom tries to immobilize Queen!Twilight with a non-fatal sword strike, only for Trixie to push her out of the way and be fatally run through instead.
- The original Master of Harmony sacrificed her own life force to use all of the Elements of Harmony to defeat the original Queen of Darkness.
- Subverted with Apple Bloom, who's willing to do the same to defeat Queen!Twilight (and later, the Darkness), but survives thanks to Twilight's help.
- Hidden Disdain Reveal:
- Silver Spoon secretly hates Diamond Tiara, and only hangs out with her because their fathers are co-workers and expect them to. As Apple Bloom befriends her in secret and gets to know her, it turns out she's actually a very kind and loyal person.
- Scootaloo claims to have been holding a grudge against Rainbow Dash out of jealousy for a long time.
- Surprisingly, Diamond Tiara herself isn't as much of an Alpha Bitch as she lets on — she actually cherished her friendship with Silver Spoon, and admits to having actually wanted to be friends with the CMC. The only problem is, she admits to not really knowing how to speak to anypony without insulting and looking down at them, which depresses her.
- Fluttershy eventually admits to having always been jealous of Rarity's beauty.
- Hope Spot:
- Rarity, Apple Bloom, and Spike are escaping from the castle and planning to go to Shining Armor and Cadence for help in the hope that the latter can use her powers to return Twilight to normal. Trixie intercepts them, and while Apple Bloom and Spike escape, Rarity is recaptured. Meanwhile, Queen!Twilight has learned of their plans; by the time the heroes are reunited, she's gotten to Cadence and stripped her of her powers.
- After Scootaloo goads Rainbow Dash into a race for the title of fastest pegasus, Dash pulls off a Sonic Rainboom and it appears she's going to win. Then Scootaloo cheats by pulling off a fiery equivalent of the Sonic Rainboom, driving Dash into the ground while allowing her to win.
- Applejack and Rarity are fighting their way through Queen!Twilight's forces, and it looks like they're going to win and escape, only to be confronted by the brainwashed Princess Luna.
- Spike confronts Queen!Twilight in Fillydelphia, and for a moment his heartfelt pleas seems to be getting through to the real Twilight — then she punches him across the room.
- When Applejack finally confronts Queen!Twilight, she eventually manages to overpower her and it appears she's about to finish her off and at worst give the story a Bittersweet Ending. However, she's unable to go through with it, and Queen!Twilight overpowers her and puts her in a temporary Fate Worse than Death.
- The Elements of Harmony are used on Queen!Twilight and, combined with her inner light and own Element of Magic, force the darkness out of her, both freeing Twilight and evolving her element to armor... but then the Queen's darkness takes on a life of its own, which proceeds to kidnap Twilight and flee.
- An Ice Person: The magic Rarity gains when her Element evolves into armor.
- If I Can't Have You…: For Queen!Twilight during her Villainous Breakdown, upon learning that Shining Armor is choosing Cadence over her.
- I Have No Son!: Following her Face–Heel Turn, Sweetie Belle rejects Rarity as her sister, substituting her in that role with Queen!Twilight. Upon her eventual Heel–Face Turn, she takes it all back.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Spike tries to reach the real Twilight when he confronts her in Fillydelphia. It doesn't work.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Trixie is killed when Apple Bloom accidentally stabs her while trying to stab Queen!Twilight.
- In Love with Your Carnage: A bit of an inverted example — Trixie starts out more or less on the positive side of the morality scale, only reluctantly going along with Queen!Twilight's actions. Then she sees just how powerful the latter is, and quickly completes her Face–Heel Turn in order to stay by her side.
- In-Series Nickname: Apparently, Fluttershy earned the nickname "Hurricane Fluttershy" after the events of the titular episode.
- Is It Something You Eat?: When Lezard asks the Element bearers if they're familiar with the concept of Reincarnation, Pinkie asks if it's tasty.
- It's All About Me: Scootaloo is convinced that she's the Master of Harmony, that she's the one who's destined to defeat Queen!Twilight, and that because of that she also deserves to be ruler. She's wrong; Apple Bloom is the Master of Harmony.
- It's All My Fault: Applejack eventually blames herself for Twilight's fall to darkness, due to abandoning her when she admitted to accidentally turning Celestia to stone.
- It's Personal: When Rarity and Applejack are escaping from the castle, Rarity takes the lead against Queen!Twilight's troops as payback for everything they put her through when she was their prisoner. Later, the entire final fight with Queen!Twilight is this for the other Element bearers, and later Shining Armor and Cadence.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Diamond Tiara towards Apple Bloom in 10 Years.
- Kick the Dog: While testing her powers prior to going public with her Face–Heel Turn, Queen!Twilight invades Fluttershy's dreams and goads her into nearly raping Big Macintosh before she snaps out of it. There was absolutely no reason for her to do this, other than shits and giggles.
- Kill It with Fire:
- Queen!Twilight attempts to kill Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie by locking them in Sugarcube Corner and setting the building on fire. She fails thanks to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie confessing their feelings for each other, allowing their respective Elements to evolve.
- Scootaloo develops a pyromaniac streak and attempts to do this to not only Pinkie Pie, but also everyone else she comes across.
- The Legions of Hell: Or, more precisely, the hordes of Tartarus. Midnight, the original Queen of Darkness, ruled them in her time, and Queen!Twilight takes up the reigns following her Villainous Breakdown with the intent of using them to destroy Equestria.
- Love at First Sight: Lezard eventually confesses to having fallen in love with Apple Bloom when they first met. The fact that she's actually a child causes him no small amount of angst.
- Love Makes You Evil: Trixie ignores any moral compass she might possess out of love for Twilight.
- Magic Music: Sweetie Belle's magic appears to be tied to her singing voice.
- Master Swordsman:
- Adult Apple Bloom quickly becomes one, justifying it by saying that a sword is just another tool, and her special talent is working with any tool.
- Shining Armor is one as well, as to be expected from a royal guard.
- Celestia turns out to be one as well, dual-wielding swords in her fight against Queen!Twilight.
- Meaningful Echo: Early on, when Apple Bloom sneaks into Canterlot to confront Rarity on everything that's been happening, Rarity says she'll tell her only if she promises to take the news like an adult. Near the end of the story, the aged-up Apple Bloom says pretty much the same thing to Diamond Tiara when she wants to know if the rumors about the impending destruction of Equestria at Queen!Twilight's hooves are true.
- Mentor Archetype: Zecora becomes Apple Bloom's mentor-figure and it's implied she knew all along that Apple Bloom was the Master of Harmony.
- Me's a Crowd: The unique magic that Pinkie Pie earns when her Element evolves into armor is to do this via illusion.
- The Millstone: Fluttershy starts to see herself as this after her role in Queen!Twilight's Moral Event Horizon which contributes to her suicide attempt. She ultimately subverts it with Big Macintosh's help, proving herself to be an important part of the team.
- Morality Chain: Trixie brought out what little compassion and light there was left in Queen!Twilight. When she died from an accidental fatal stabbing, Queen!Twilight lost her last remnants of sanity and shifted from an Evil Overlord to an Omnicidal Maniac.
- More than Mind Control: Trixie, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo all join Queen!Twilight of their own volition, after she plays on their desires and gives them all what they want.
- Mr. Exposition: Lezard seems to exist solely to explain the important parts of the story — he knows about the prophecy and explains its connection to Twilight, knows about the concept of the Elements of Harmony evolving, the Storm Avatar spell, the Grendal, etc. The only thing he doesn't exposit is the Master of Harmony, and even then he's the one who deduces that it's Apple Bloom.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Queen!Twilight attempts to execute Cadence when Shining Armor rejects her advances, but is stopped in time by the other Element bearers.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- Twilight's reaction when she turns Celestia to stone in a fit of anger. Of course, once she turns, she goes from regretting it to bragging about it.
- This is also Shining Armor's reaction when he realizes that the "Cadence" he slept with was actually Queen!Twilight in disguise.
- Apple Bloom's reaction when she accidentally kills Trixie with what was suppposed to be a non-fatal stabbing directed at Queen!Twilight.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: Trixie only qualifies as a villain because of her Undying Loyalty to Queen!Twilight — and it seems she doesn't differentiate between the original Twilight and Queen!Twilight. Also, she swore to be Twilight's student even before her fall to darkness, and her characterization in the story implies that she'd be just as happy to serve her if she were still a force for good.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- If Celestia had told Twilight about the prophecy before she found it, or broken the news to her in a gentler way, it's possible Twilight's downward spiral could have been halted. At the very least, Celestia wouldn't have been petrified.
- Twilight actually pulls this on herself. After the above incident, she begs her friends to chain her up in the library basement for everyone's safety while Rarity searches for a way to stop her fall to darkness. Instead, her being locked up while Spike's helping Rarity means that there's no one there to wake her up from her nightmares, wherein the Queen personality takes control of her mind.
- Sweetie Belle was wavering on having a Heel Realization, until Rarity's poor choice of words hit an emotional trigger Queen!Twilight had planted, leading to her fully accepting her Face–Heel Turn.
- Apple Bloom accidentally kills Trixie while trying to immobilize Queen!Twilight. This causes Queen!Twilight to have a Villainous Breakdown and to ascend to Alicorn-hood.
- Night of the Living Mooks: Yet another skill set Queen!Twilight picks up is necromancy, and she summons zombies to bolster her forces. Interestingly, the zombies appear to have some degree of sentience and free will — they can talk, and at one point, two of them argue over the best way to carry out an order.
- The Night That Never Ends: Not quite, but Queen!Twilight's goal, in addition to conquering Equestria, is to plunge it into a state of eternal twilight, which she eventually accomplishes by freezing the sun in place at early dawn. This turned out to be a tremendous drain on her physically and magically, which is what forces her to seek ascension to Alicorn-hood.
- No Body Left Behind: When Queen!Twilight's magically-constructed zombie Mooks are killed, their bodies dissolve back into the ground.
- Not Afraid of You Anymore: During the final face off with the Darkness, Apple Bloom realizes that it's feeding off of Twilight's fear of being reconsumed by it. However, her overcoming her own fears (of having to die to defeat it) helps Twilight overcome hers, and together they defeat the Darkness.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Rainbow Dash tries to talk Scootaloo into a Heel–Face Turn by explaining just how similar they are, and why because of that she'll never give up on her.
- Official Couple:
- Fluttershy and Big Macintosh, eventually when he pulls her out of her Despair Event Horizon.
- Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie end up together as well shortly after when Dash likewise pulls Pinkie out of her own despair.
- And of course, there's the canonical pairing of Cadence and Shining Armor.
- Apple Bloom and Lezard eventually work through their UST and end up as one as well. Until she chooses to go back to her proper age; even then, they admit to still being in love with each other, so Lezard searches for a way to either stop aging or time travel, so they can still be together when she naturally reaches adulthood again.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
- Rarity vs Trixie. While it happened off-screen, the fight was evenly matched enough that Queen!Twilight had to step in, and Trixie blames herself for not being able to defeat her on her own.
- During the battle against Scootaloo's troops in Ponyville, Fluttershy sees a group chasing Lyra and Bon Bon. She follows them behind a building, and by the time they show up again, the troops are gone and both Lyra and Bon Bon are safe.
- Omnicidal Maniac: After Queen!Twilight's true Villainous Breakdown, she decides to unleash the hordes of Tartarus and destroy all of Equestria instead of merely conquering it as she originally planned.
- One-Winged Angel:
- When Trixie evokes the Storm Avatar spell, she becomes a living storm that takes the combined efforts of all the protagonists to even knock out.
- After Queen!Twilight suffers a Villainous Breakdown from watching Trixie die in front of her, her inner darkness consumes her completely, and she transforms into an Alicorn.
- When the Darkness is finally expunged from Twilight's body, it takes on the form of a giant black dragon with four red eyes.
- Only Mostly Dead:
- Rarity appeared to have been killed by Trixie, but was actually left comatose.
- Apple Bloom after using the Elements of Harmony to defeat the Darkness.
- Our Angels Are Different: Apparently, Alicorns are born in Elyisum (the stand-in for Heaven), making them the equivalent of angels. The only exceptions are Luna (who was born in Equestria), and the original Queen of Darkness, Midnight (who was born in Tartarus).
- Parental Abandonment: Trixie's mother left her when she was very young, presumably to get away from her Jerkass father.
- Plagued by Nightmares: Twilight is plagued by them after reading the prophecy, right up until she's consumed by her inner darkness and turns on the others.
- Playing with Fire:
- Scootaloo gains fire-based speed and fighting powers after she joins Queen!Twilight and is aged to adulthood. As a consequence, she seems to have become a pyromaniac.
- Fire also turns out to be the special power Applejack gets when her Element evolves to armor.
- Please Wake Up:
- Queen!Twilight begs Trixie to wake up after she dies.
- Sweetie Belle, post-Heel–Face Turn, to a comatose Rarity.
- Plot-Relevant Age-Up: The Cutie Mark Crusaders are all forcibly magically aged up to adulthood by Queen!Twilight in an attempt to win their loyalties. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both accept it and she artificially gives them their Cutie Marks as well. Apple Bloom rejects the offer and gets locked up. At the end of the story, Luna finds a way to return them to their proper ages, though they keep their cutie marks and their memories of their time as adults.
- Power Born of Madness: Queen!Twilight's true Villainous Breakdown after Trixie's death is the final catalyst for her transformation into an Alicorn.
- Power Incontinence: An early sign of something being wrong with Twilight is a power surge much like the one when she got her cuite mark.
- Precursor Heroes: Bayonet, the original Master of Harmony. She's the one who defeated Midnight, the original Queen of Darkness, and gave her life doing so. It's revealed she reincarnated as Apple Bloom after her death.
- Predecessor Villain: Midnight, the original Queen of Darkness, was also the original ruler of Tartarus and the one who menaced Equestria in Bayonet's time. Her spirit possesses Twilight who also turns out to be her reincarnation in a Moment of Weakness, starting the story.
- Promotion to Parent: It's mentioned that Applejack became a mother figure to Apple Bloom after their actual mother died.
- Psychopathic Man Child: Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, as a result of being aged up into mares by Queen!Twilight, still act like fillies at times. As Lezard points out to the latter, while their bodies might be adults, their minds are still those of children. They get better after they both pull a Heel–Face Turn and Luna finds a way to turn them back into fillies again.
- Rage Breaking Point: After developing a true friendship with Apple Bloom, Silver Spoon's patience with Diamond Tiara starts wearing thin, and she eventually snaps at her after one insult towards Apple Bloom too many.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil:
- Queen!Twilight manipulating Fluttershy via her dreams into trying to rape Big Macintosh, and forcing Rainbow Dash to rape Pinkie Pie as part of a Sadistic Choice. What makes it particularly horrifying is that Fluttershy was apparently herself raped at some point in the past, and has treated it as a shameful Dark Secret (though it's what snapped her out of the attempt on Big Mac). There's no other reason for Queen!Twilight to do this other than For the Evulz.
- When Rarity is held prisoner, Queen!Twilight gives her soldiers permission to rape her. This is what more or less finally convinces Rarity that the Twilight she knew is gone.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Silver Spoon gives one of these to Diamond Tiara, when she finally has enough of her and her insults towards Apple Bloom.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Applejack notices that Queen!Twilight's eyes are a threatening red. The Darkness' dragon form likewise has four red eyes.
- Reincarnation: It seems Twilight was destined to become the Queen of Darkness because she's the reincarnation of the original Queen of Darkness, Queen Midnight. Similarly, Apple Bloom is the Master of Harmony because she's the reincarnation of Bayonet, the pony who harnessed all of the Elements of Harmony to defeat Midnight.
- Rousing Speech: Princess Twilight gives a brief one at the end of the story to the assembled ponies of Ponyville, accepting what she's done and hoping to move on from it, and admitting that Ponyville is her home.
- Sadistic Choice: Queen!Twilight pulls one on Rainbow Dash as part of her "coming-out party". She captures Pinkie Pie, and when Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy show up to help, she incapacitates Fluttershy as well and then threatens to kill her if Dash doesn't force herself on Pinkie. Applejack shows up to save them... but only after Dash has had no choice but to go through with it.
- Screw Destiny: Princess Luna explains to Apple Bloom that she doesn't believe in the inevitability of destiny and prophecies, saying that things don't come to pass because they're foretold, but because of ponies' actions. This is mostly to assure Apple Bloom that if she becomes the Master of Harmony and fights Queen!Twilight, it will only be if she chooses to, not because someone is telling her that it's her "destiny".
- Sealed Good in a Can: Princess Celestia is accidentally turned into a statue by a furious Twilight after revealing she knew about the prophecy and never told her about it. However, she later breaks free after Twilight Sparkle transforms into an Alicorn after Trixie's self-sacrifice.
- She Cleans Up Nicely:
- Rarity's birthday gift to Twilight is teaching her how to beautify herself, and the result is described as looking very attractive. Then she goes evil.
- This trope also pops up and crosses over with She Is All Grown Up in the case of the age-progressed Cutie Mark Crusaders.
- Ship Tease:
- So far, the story's dropped hints of Spike/Rarity, Big Mac/Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash/Pinkie Pie. The latter two are eventually upgraded to Official Couple status.
- Apple Bloom seems to have developed a crush on Lezard. It turns out that he feels the same way about her, but the sheer age-gap between them is a source of angst for him.
- Shock and Awe:
- Rainbow Dash gains the ability to actually turn into lightning when her Element evolves into armor.
- This also appears to be Trixie's preferred method of fighting.
- Shout-Out:
- Queen!Twilight's mind control spell is very similar to a Geass. In fact, her statement when shutting down Cadence's magic — "Never use magic again!" — is very similar to Lelouch's "Never speak again!" moment with Mao. Lezard even refers to this ability as "the Power of the Queen", and his explanation of how it works sounds very similar to the mechanics of Lelouch's Geass.
- When Applejack finally gets a chance to confront Queen!Twilight, the latter states, "Element of Honesty... Come to die."
- When Apple Bloom meets with Trixie in the afterlife, it plays out similar to a scene between Harry and Dumbledore in The Deathly Hallows.
- When Lezard brings up reincarnation and its implied Eternal Recurrence, the phrase "All this has has happened before, and all this may happen again" comes up.
- The way the series is structured seems to take a page from Kingdom Hearts. It has the first installment, then 2 spin-off/pseudo-sequels that take place at roughly the same time, and finally the actual numbered "true" sequel.
- Shrinking Violet: Fluttershy starts off as this as in canon, but after she hooks up with Big Mac, she opens up and becomes more confident.
- "Shut Up" Kiss: Apple Bloom gives one to Lezard during an argument when she's having a Heroic BSoD. She's as surprised by the action as he is.
- Slowly Slipping Into Evil: Trixie starts out the story just wanting to learn from Twilight; after Queen!Twilight convinces her that she's the victim, Trixie reluctantly goes along with her in attempting to kill the other Mane Six, but then when she gets a glimpse of how powerful the Queen is, she throws all her morals aside in order to prove she deserves to be by her side.
- Stalker with a Crush: Fluttershy, of all ponies, is a passive one towards Big Macintosh until Queen!Twilight manipulates her into nearly raping him for shits and giggles. Thankfully, Fluttershy snaps out of it by remembering her own experiences with rape.
- Start of Darkness: This story is one for Twilight, but the Queen of Darkness' legacy is revealed to go back further than that. The original Queen of Darkness was an Alicorn named Midnight who was spawned in Tartarus, but upon seeing the light and beauty of Equestria, she fell in love with it and eventually became its benevolent queen. Then the denizens of Tartarus tracked her down and demanded that she become their ruler and destroy Equestria. This caused Midnight's subjects to betray her, which in turn caused her to become the Queen of Darkness and try to destroy her former kingdom. Bayonet, the pony who would become known as the Master of Harmony, rose up against her and destroyed her with the Elements of Harmony. With her last breath, Midnight swore to return and have her revenge, and eventually she was reincarnated as Twilight Sparkle, who in turn was therefore destined from birth to become the next Queen of Darkness.
- The Starscream: Scootaloo seems to be heading in this direction — she claims that working with Queen!Twilight is just a means to an end for her, and that all ponies are now just pawns to aid her in reaching her goal, which appears to be supplanting Queen!Twilight's place as ruler. Scootaloo finally makes her move when Queen!Twilight is weakened by keeping the sun from rising, but is stopped from attacking her by Trixie. Trixie defeats her, and Queen!Twilight condemns her to a Fate Worse than Death for her treachery (though the spell eventually wears off).
- Storming the Castle:
- After Queen!Twilight takes Canterlot castle as her own, Applejack sneaks in in order to rescue Rarity. Just when it looks like their escape attempt is going to fail, the other Element bearers bust in to save them. But a true castle storming doesn't occur until Applejack talks Lezard into sneaking her in again to confront Queen!Twilight, and the others all come along to keep her from getting herself killed. By the time everything is over, Trixie's dead and Queen!Twilight's gone One-Winged Angel and fled.
- After this, Queen!Twilight sets up shop in Tartarus for the Final Battle. The Element bearers, the Princesses and the reunited Cutie Mark Crusaders don't hesitate to charge in and fight through her forces to break into her Evil Tower of Ominousness to confront her in her new throne room.
- When the Darkness is separated from Twilight, only to kidnap her and flee to a new tower, Apple Bloom charges in to save her.
- Super Mode: When Apple Bloom fully becomes the Master of Harmony, she fuses with the Elements and becomes an Alicorn. When that proves inefficent to defeat the Darkness, she then fuses with Twilight to become an even more powerful Alicorn, who finishes the job.
- Superpower Meltdown: During the Battle of Fillydelphia, Trixie evokes the Storm Avatar spell in order to combat the protagonists and ends up losing control of it, nearly destroying everything around her before the heroes knock her out and disrupt the spell.
- Supporting Leader: Both the Princesses and Shining Armor become this during the Final Battle, fighting Queen!Twilight's forces while the Element bearers and Apple Bloom go after Queen!Twilight herself.
- Tagalong Kid: Silver Spoon becomes this to Apple Bloom's group. Bloom herself doesn't count anymore, for obvious reasons.
- Take Over the World: Appears to be Queen!Twilight's ultimate goal.
- That Man Is Dead:
- Inverted, as Applejack declares the Twilight Sparkle they knew dead. Queen!Twilight, meanwhile, still sees herself as the same person as before, just with a new worldview. Post-Villainous Breakdown, however, she declares that Twilight Sparkle is gone and only "the monster" remains. Ironically, by this point AJ's worked through her guilt and depression and states that Twilight is still somewhere in there to be saved.
- Likewise, following the dissolution of their friendship, Scootaloo declares that Apple Bloom is dead to her. They make up after Scootaloo's Heel–Face Turn.
- This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Lezard says this to Applejack when Apple Bloom fights her former friends during the Battle of Fillydelphia.
- Time Master:
- Lezard is a chronomancer, a user of time magic. Among other things, it allows to slow down time around himself and those with him (this is how he sneaks Applejack into the castle) and to speed things up when they move (he does this to his allies in battles).
- Luna is also a chronomancer — as she explains to Apple Bloom, she used time magic to age herself to adulthood after the Elements of Harmony defeated her as Nightmare Moon and left her as a filly.
- Time Skip: The epilogue skips a month ahead from the previous chapter.
- Time Stands Still: When Lezard teleports into the Nextus, an alternate dimension where time doesn't physically exist. He uses it to travel distances when he has little time to do so.
- Title Drop: When Lezard is explaing that Twilight rejecting the darkness inside is what led to it becoming so strong:Lezard: The longer you ignore your inner demons, the stronger they become.
- Took a Level in Badass: All of the Element Bearers, Apple Bloom, and Spike become quite good at kicking ass over the course of the story. Unfortunately for them, so have all the villains.
- Underestimating Badassery: Trixie thought that her fight with Rarity would be a Curb-Stomp Battle in her favor, due to Rarity being just a dress maker. Instead, Queen!Twilight apparently had to step in to help end the fight. The Element of Generosity turning into a suit of armor probably helped with that.
- Undying Loyalty: Trixie makes it very clear, in no uncertain terms, that she will never betray Queen!Twilight and will follow her anywhere. And indeed, she doesn't — she dies serving Queen!Twilight to her last breath by taking a sword attack from Apple Bloom meant for Queen!Twilight.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Quickly develops between adult Apple Bloom and Lezard, and doesn't appear to be going anywhere.
- Villainous Breakdown: When Queen!Twilight realizes that Shining Armor is choosing Cadence over her, she completely flips her shit. Later, she has a more extreme one when Trixie dies — she starts laughing and crying, before transforming into an Alicorn and declaring her intention to unleash the hordes of Tartarus and destroy Equestria.
- Villainous BSoD: After Scootaloo's attempt to betray Queen!Twilight just results in her being beaten, tortured, and dumped on the street like trash, she falls into a depression and seems to give up on everything. When Rainbow Dash tries to talk her out of it and into a Heel–Face Turn, she lashes out violently, until Rainbow Dash gives her a "Not So Different" Remark and leaves her. She eventually recovers and pulls a Heel–Face Turn.
- Villainous Friendship: There appears to be a Type 3 between Queen!Twilight and Trixie — Trixie openly admires Queen!Twilight and seems to think they have a mentor-based friendship, but for now it seems that Queen!Twilight only sees Trixie as a loyal and important pawn and doesn't care about her personally. The same goes for Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo, both who Queen!Twilight manipulated into serving her. However, later chapters reveal the friendships turn out to be genuine, Queen!Twilight seeing them as the only real friends she has after the others "betrayed" her. When Scootaloo betrays her, Queen!Twilight responds by torturing and abandoning her, but it's when Trixie dies that Queen!Twilight flips her shit and settles with destroying Equestria instead of conquering it.
- Villainous Incest: Queen!Twilight has a fondness for Shining Armor that goes beyond her normal Big Brother Worship of him, and clearly desires to have him by her side. After depowering and imprisoning Cadence, Queen!Twilight disguises herself as her and forces Cadence to watch as she has sex with Shining Armor, who is unaware that his "wife" is actually his evil younger sister. Shining Armor is not happy when he learns that Queen!Twilight essentially raped him and rejects her, leading to Queen!Twilight trying to execute Cadence.
- Villainous Valour: Trixie is so loyal that she will do anything to fulfill the orders Queen!Twilight gives her. [[spoiler:Her last moments were spent protecting Queen!Twilight from Apple Bloom, which leads to her being run through.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left:
- Scootaloo flees from Ponyville when the protagonists defeat her forces.
- Likewise, Queen!Twilight grabs her lieutenants and flees Fillydelphia when she loses control of the situation there.
- When Queen!Twilight evolves into an Alicorn, she tells the Element bearers and their allies that they have three days to prepare for the Final Battle, before she flees and prepares herself.
- When the Darkness is forced out of Twilight by the Elements of Harmony, it kidnaps her and flees, though Apple Bloom quickly chases after them.
- Villain Protagonist: The story starts out focusing on Twilight, so naturally when she becomes a villain, this trope comes into play.
- Villain Song: In chapter 18, Adam Lambert's song "For Your Entertainment" is used as one by Sweetie Belle while she's brainwashing the stallions of Fillydelphia and sending the resulting mob after Apple Bloom's group.
- Voice of the Legion: After Queen!Twilight transforms into an Alicorn, it's commented on that her voice sounds like two voices speaking at once.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Scootaloo has shades of this — she admits to knowing what a monster Queen!Twilight was from the beginning, and is getting close to her so that when the time comes, she can end her. However, she also intends to take her place as ruler, so despite her justifications, she is not a good guy. She later admits to having gotten Drunk with Power and she does eventually pull a Heel–Face Turn.
- We Will Meet Again:
- When Scootaloo is defeated by the heroes in Ponyville, she manages to escape, swearing revenge.
- When things go downhill for her in Fillydelphia, Queen!Twilight grabs her minions and flees, promising that things are from finished.
- We Used to Be Friends:
- Much of the story's conflict comes from Queen!Twilight's fall to darkness and the emotional impact it has on the rest of the Mane Six. Applejack in particular goes from being determined to stop Queen!Twilight at all costs to realizing she played a role in everything by abandoning Twilight when she admitted to accidentally petrifying Celestia.
- Apple Bloom's relationship with the other two Cutie Mark Crusaders falls apart when she decides to take the search for her Cutie Mark more seriously. And then the latter two accept Queen!Twilight's Deal with the Devil, putting them on opposite sides. Though while Scootaloo wants nothing more to do with her, Sweetie Belle regrets losing their friendship and would want her to join them again and tries to talk her into accepting the deal as well. The three of them eventually reconcile after Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo betray Queen!Twilight and reunite with Apple Bloom.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: When Trixie evokes her Storm Avatar spell, she goes completely berserk. According to Lezard, this happens to anyone who uses that spell.
- With Us or Against Us: Queen!Twilight's worldview is that those who aren't on her side serving her are the enemy, so they might be convinced to join her or, failing that, culled. Sweetie Belle seems to be following her lead in this regard.
- Woman Scorned: Lezard quotes this when the mares of Fillydelphia fight against the stallions who have been brainwashed by Sweetie Belle.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Queen!Twilight qualifies, at least from her own point of view — her beloved mentor deceived her (which is actually true), and her friends and brother abandoned and betrayed her (not so much), so she's lashing out in anger at the world around her. Then Trixie, the only pony she genuinely considered to be a friend, dies; what little sanity Queen!Twilight has left snaps, her powers completely consume her and turn her into an Alicorn, and she decides that rather than being the world's ruler, she'll be its destroyer. Celestia actually lampshades the definition of this when assuring Shining Armor that Twilight can still be saved:Celestia: There is a difference between a monster and a destroyer. A monster has no heart, a destroyer may just be heartbroken.
- The Worf Effect:
- Twilight manages to petrify Princess Celestia by accident even before her Face–Heel Turn, giving us a taste of just how powerful and dangerous the Queen of Darkness will be. Which is proven when she wipes the floor with Princess Luna in combat.
- The first time we see one of Queen!Twilight's lieutenants in combat against the protagonists, Scootaloo not only beats Rainbow Dash in a race, but leaves her knocked out in a ditch. Said lieutenant also goes on to successfully fight the remaining Element bearers and their allies, until Dash and Pinkie's Elements evolve to armor, and they return the favor.
- Inverted examples: every time one of the Elements of Harmony evolve to armor, the heroes easily deal with whoever they're fighting. The only exception is Rarity's offscreen fight with Trixie; it's implied they were even until Queen!Twilight stepped in.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Queen!Twilight convinces Trixie to side with her by making it seem that the other Mane Six assaulted her and locked her up, conveniently leaving out that locking her up for everyone's protection was originally Twilight's idea. That being said, Trixie was apparently more interested in the fact that Twilight was powerful enough to petrify Celestia and wanting a piece of that power for herself, than in whether this was justified.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Scootaloo believes that she is the prophesied Master of Harmony who will defeat Queen!Twilight and save the world. She's wrong.
- Yandere: Queen!Twilight loves Shining Armor so much that she wants him on her side at all costs, resorting to despicable means like forcing his wife Cadence to watch while Queen!Twilight disguises herself as her to perform a rape-by-deception on him, and later executing Cadence when Shining Armor rejects her.
- You Are Not Alone:
- When the Elements of Harmony are used on Queen!Twilight, they remind her of how much her friends love her and how far they've come to help her; this grants her the strength to fight the Darkness and force it from her body.
- Happens again when the Darkness kidnaps her and tries to break her spirit so it can repossess her — Apple Bloom finds her and assures her that she's not alone, and together they defeat the Darkness for good.
- "You!" Exclamation: Queen!Twilight's reaction when Spike confronts her in Fillydelphia.
- You Shall Not Pass!:
- The cornerstone of Rarity's Heroic Sacrifice — she's keeping Trixie from going after Apple Bloom and Spike long enough for them to escape. She knows she can't win, and is just trying to buy them time.
- During the Final Battle, the Royal Guard, led by Shining Armor and Cadence, fight any of Queen!Twilight's forces that make it outside the Gates of Tartarus, keeping them from marching on Ponyville.
- You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: Since the Grendals are demonic personifications of wrath, they get stronger the angrier they get (a la the Hulk), making it all the harder for the heroes to take them down.
Fragments of Truth
- Curse: Midnight curses Morgana to live through every reincarnation she has without her magic.
- Deal with the Devil: Morgana made a deal with the King of Tartarus, then turned on him and stole some of his power.
- Fantastic Racism: The All-Mother looks down on Princess Luna because she's half Earth-pony.
- God Guise: Princess Celestia is in fact an Angel, sent to Equestria to control the sun.
- Good Is Not Nice: The All-Mother and her agents, the Angels, are inconsiderate about the ponies down below. The All-Mother briefly speaks to Luna and Rarity, outright insulting and denigrating both of them, and stating the ponies are essentially her property. The All-Mother also doesn't care when Vale's spirit usurps her reincarnation Rarity and overrides the latter's memories and identity, treating Rarity as a soulless vessel for one of her agents rather than her own person.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Katastroph, the King of Tartarus, Midnight's father. He briefly appears in a flashback, but in the modern day he's sealed away within Tartarus.
- Informed Attribute: We're told that Vale is exactly the same as Rarity in almost every aspect save her cutie mark. Rarity is a Drama Queen tailor who usually struggles between her greed and her desire to stand with her friends, and ultimately cares for the ponies around her. Vale is a stone-cold serious warrior-goddess who Would Hurt a Child, refuses to go against her "mission", and seems to think murder is the only solution to every damn problem she faces, regardless of whether it makes a situation worse or not.
- Kick the Dog: When Rarity vows not to be erased in favor of Vale, the All-Mother makes her fight a recreation of Spike.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: As Rarity continues up the tower, more and more of her memories are erased and replaced with Vale's. This is to make sure Vale won't be "confused" by any of Rarity's feelings for her friends and family.
- Like Cannot Cut Like: During a fight with a mock-up of Rainbow Dash, Trixie admits she can't help, since she's a reincarnation of a former bearer of the Element of Loyalty.
- Loss of Identity: By the time she reaches the sixth floor of the tower, Rarity can barely remember a single detail about her life thanks to Vale's spirit overtaking her.
- Love Makes You Evil: The reason Midnight embraced her purpose? The inhabitants of the village she lived in killed Azure Sky for defending her.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Midnight was already unstable after Azure's death. Then Vale decided to finish her mission, pushing Midnight right over into Omnicidal Maniac territory.
- Reincarnation: In addition to Twilight Sparkle and Apple Bloom from the first story, we have Rarity, who is a reincarnation of Vale, and Trixie, a reincarnation of Azure Sky, one of the first ponies who met Midnight, which makes Twilight and Trixie's relationship in the original story a Reincarnation Romance.
- Screw Destiny: Princess Luna expresses this attitude. It's why she tries to help save Rarity.
- Senseless Sacrifice: In the end, Rarity willingly gives up her body and soul for Vale... who goes on to become the genocidal Big Bad of Inner Demons II.
- Shout-Out: The framing device is a blatant reference to Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.
- Spanner in the Works: Both Princess Celestia and the first Sonic Rainboom, threw a monkey-wrench into the All-Mother's plan to resurrect Vale.
- Spirit Advisor: Trixie, who helps Rarity through the tower.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: The original Queen of Darkness, Midnight.
- Villainous Crush: Morgana had a crush on Vale. It's her reason for doing what she did.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: As far as the Angels are concerned, Rarity isn't really alive.
Inner Demons II
- Abusive Parent: Pearl Necklace, Diamond Tiara's mother, is an insane, needy, selfish, lazy, emotionally and verbally abusive pony, and the reason Diamond Tiara used to be who she was. Eventually Diamond Tiara reaches her breaking point.
- Anger Born of Worry: Fluttershy is falling to pieces with Rarity missing. It's implied she's been Drowning Her Sorrows over not finding Rarity in the evenings.
- Antagonistic Offspring:
- Twilight Sparkle (or more accurately, Midnight) and her father Katastrophus, King of Tartarus.
- Twilight is pretty shocked to learn that, yeah, Diamond Tiara does actually want to hurt her mother after all she's done.
- Antichrist: Diamond Tiara is the Appraiser of the End, the being who will lead Katastrophus out of Tartarus and bring about the end of the world. She's much rather be an Anti-Anti-Christ.
- Anyone Can Die: So far, Ponyville, Shining Armor and possibly Celestia have all died.
- Big Bad: From the looks it, Black Sun, leader of the Sons of Midnight. Vale is also a contender, given how she has explicitly stated her willingness to burn Equestria to the ground, killing millions, if it meant killing Twilight.
- Chekhov M.I.A.: Apple Bloom is currently "missing".
- Come with Me If You Want to Live: Said by Octavia to Diamond Tiara in chapter 8.
- Cult: The Sons of Midnight, who are an Obviously Evil bunch of ponies who wander around in black cloaks.
- Darker and Edgier: Not that the original Inner Demons was a romp in the park, but this story is pretty damn dark already.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Vale doesn't get why ponies don't want her to kill a pony.
- Face–Heel Turn: Luna. Apparently it's out of a desire for power.
- Foreshadowing: While wondering what sort of being Diamond Tiara could be, Silver Spoon checks a book which mentions among other things Succubi.
- Good Old Ways: Red Gala, a.k.a Granny Smith reborn, finds the way Sweet Apple Acres is being run by Applejack and Flim and Flam as disgusting.
- History Repeats: Diamond Tiara, like Twilight Sparkle, is hitting twenty-one and having ominous dreams about the future. Unlike last time, she's in a far worse situation than Twilight ever was.
- Idiot Ball: Somehow Twilight Sparkle cannot tell that leaving Diamond Tiara with her mother, whom she's openly expressed her hatred for, is a bad idea.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Vale refers to Diamond Tiara this way.
- Knight Templar: Vale is so convinced of her own righteousness and the importance of her mission that she is incapable of believing Twilight Sparkle is anything more than a monstrous demon. She also admits that if Twilight gets in her way, she'll do her level best to kill her.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk:
- Pearl Necklace. She makes a scene at her husband's funeral when Diamond Tiara's friends try to comfort her, then demands to leave before the ceremony's even over.
- Prince Blueblood. And yet Princess Celestia and Princess Luna actually think it's a good idea to leave Canterlot in his hooves.
- Laughing Mad: Diamond Tiara, once she accepts her role as the Appraiser and kills her mother.
- Let Me Tell You a Story: Twilight tells Fluttershy a tale about two goddesses. Fluttershy catches on pretty quickly that it's about Midnight and Vale.
- Mood Whiplash: Chapter 6 goes from a frank discussion of Pearl Necklace's mental state to Sweetie Belle wondering if Silver Spoon is in fact a robot (or, as the narration puts it: "a very sexy android").
- My Beloved Smother: Pearl Necklace is determined to control every aspect of Diamond Tiara's life.
- Not What I Signed on For: Tracy didn't realise what the Sons of Midnight were after. It's only when they prepare to sacrifice everyone in Ponyville that he realises they might not be on the same page.
- Official Couple: Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia have become one during the time skip.
- Psychoactive Powers: Diamond Tiara's magic responds to her emotions. The worse she feels, the more damage it does.
- Psychosomatic Superpower Outage: Pinkie Pie's Laughter-based powers stop working during a fight in chapter 9.
- Rage Breaking Point: Pearl Necklace insulting Apple Bloom finally causes Diamond Tiara to yell at her.
- Reincarnation: Octavia is Morgana reborn, the result of Midnight cursing Morgana to live through every reincarnation without her magic.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Just seeing Vale again is enough for Twilight Sparkle's eyes to turn red due to being Midnight's reincarnation.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Tracy wants revenge on everyone responsible for the death of his sister, Trixie.
- That Man Is Dead: Vale insists that Rarity is gone. Twilight exploits the fact that Rarity is not gone at all to anger her.
- That Thing Is Not My Child!: Pearl Necklace keeps calling Diamond Tiara a "devil-child".
- Took a Level in Jerkass: By the time the story starts, Fluttershy has taken several, becoming neglectful towards her daughter Daisy in the process.
- Villainous Incest: Red Gala, formerly known as Granny Smith, forces herself on Big Macintosh.
- Wham Episode: Chapter 9, where Pinkie Pie's Element stops working properly, and then goes dead.
- Chapter 10: The Sons of Midnight turn all of Ponyville into a sacrifice to free Katastroph, killing everyone left in it.
- Wham Line:
- "What she's trying to say is that Mister Rich had a heart attack!"
- "That pony... That's Granny Smith."
- Would Hurt a Child: Red Gala injures Daisy. This sets off Fluttershy's Mama Bear instincts.
