History FanFic / SubstituteHarmony

* BatterUp: Surprise's WeaponOfChoice is a baseball bat. [[EstablishingCharacterMoment In her first scene]], [[MoralEventHorizon attacks Mrs. Cake with it, beating her unconsious while laughing the whole time. She later trades it in for a whiffle bat.]]

[[caption-width-right:250:The Substitutes.]]

[[caption-width-right:250:the substitutes]]

--> '''I know this is stereotypically villainous of me, but...think fast!''' (blasts Luna with magic)

** Earlier, Celestia's response to being attacked is so oriented towards protecting everybody else she manages to instinctively save the lives of [[spoiler: two different groups of enemies doing self-destructive things she ''didn't consciously notice'']].

* PragmaticVillainy: Helios at his worst. He's not entirely sane, but remains mostly rational and entirely goal-focused. His motive for villainy in the first place is that he doesn't trust that he can attain his goals by moral or ethical means. At the same time he's very much aware both of the self-defeating nature of evil and of the nature of the Elements of Harmony. [[spoiler: (He ''made'' them, after all.)]] So as much ''as is practical'', he demonstrates honesty, kindness, and generosity, shows loyalty to his allies, and takes care to retain laughter and playfulness. As it turns out, enough so [[spoiler: the Elements can't touch him; he's neither evil enough nor threat enough to ponykind]].

** Pinkie's sisters, Blinkie and Inkie, are the names of the ghosts from ''VideoGame/PacMan''.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: It's clear early on Fluttershy's counterpart is Posey. And it's also clear the G1 crew are - changed - enough they're willing to kill if they think they need to, or to avoid getting into trouble. It's not so clear that [[spoiler: Posey will now kill when she ''doesn't'' need to, and when she knows it ''will'' get her into trouble - and she also mirrors Fluttershy's ability to exploit her genuine personality to manipulate others]].

** Pinkie's sisters, Blinkie and Inkie, are the names of the ghosts from PacMan.

* BatterUp: Surprise's WeaponOfChoice is a baseball bat. [[EstablishingCharacterMoment In her first scene,]] [[MoralEventHorizon attacks Mrs. Cake with it, beating her unconsious while laughing the whole time. She later trades it in for a whiffle bat.]]

* BiggerBad: Discord does not act in this story, nor did he plan any part of the plot. No character in the story is serving him and the one instant where it seems he could benefit gets immediately quashed. But it turns out he's intimately connected with every aspect of what's going on, and even ''in absentia'' none of it would have happened without him.

* [[spoiler:EverybodyLives: Even one character who was supposed to have already been dead.]]

* GenreSavvy: "This is the part where the villain underestimates the hero and is soundly defeated, right?" Of course, both sides firmly believe the other side is the villain.

* PragmaticVillainy: Helios at his worst. He's not entirely sane, but remains mostly rational and entirely goal-focused. His motive for villainy in the first place is that he doesn't trust that he can attain his goals by moral or ethical means. At the same time he's [[GenreSavvy very much aware]] both of the self-defeating nature of evil and of the nature of the Elements of Harmony. [[spoiler: (He ''made'' them, after all.)]] So as much ''as is practical'', he demonstrates honesty, kindness, and generosity, shows loyalty to his allies, and takes care to retain laughter and playfulness. As it turns out, enough so [[spoiler: the Elements can't touch him; he's neither evil enough nor threat enough to ponykind]].

* BigBad: Helios
* BiggerOnTheInside: Pinkie Pie's saddle bags [[spoiler:and the TARDIS]]

** Helios laughs like a mad pony when [[spoiler:the substitute six]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero release him]] due to the chains being quite ticklish.

* HealingFactor: All alicorns, it seems.

* MadnessMantra: Quoth Surpise, while clobbering Mrs. Cake with a bat: "'''NO WITNESSES! NO WITNESSES!!'''"

** Also whatever the 'grounding' was that Blinkie and Inkie referred to.

* SealedEvilInACan: Helios [[spoiler: Though slightly different in that he wasn't exactly evil prior to being sealed; rather the being sealed itself made him evil.]]

* TheDragon: Twilight Wish.