History Fanfic / ABriefHistoryofEquestria

* AmazonBrigade: Most pegasus soldiers were mares.

* BadassAndBaby: In a jury-rigged papoose made from bloodied bandages and stitching needles.

* BodyguardBetrayal: In the last Unicorn civil war many nobles were murdered by their own guards, [[spoiler:saving Princess Platinum the trouble of a long and drawn out civil war.]]

* CaligulasHorse: Puddinghead appointed her pet parrot speaker of the house, even after it died she had it stuffed and insisted it was still alive. Of course it could actually talk while alive, even if all it said was praises for its owner.

* ClaspYourHandsIfYouDeceive : [[spoiler:Platinum]], all the time.

** [[spoiler:The Pop Culture version of Princess Platinum is one in verse of her whole court.]]

* {{Determinator}}: [[GeniusBruiser Wind Whistler]], from the moment she decided Sullamander should be overthrown all the way to [[spoiler:her death at Sullamander's hooves. Even her death did not stop her, since by then Sullamander was doomed.]]

* {{Flanderization}}: Happens InUniverse to most of the historical founders, but ''especially'' [[spoiler:Pansy, and Princess Platinum's real personality isn't even remembered by pony culture]]. Puddinghead however was ''toned down'' in pony culture, being even ''more'' insane than what we saw in [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E13HearthsWarmingEve Hearth's Warming Eve]]. Is there a Trope for Reverse Flanderization?
** [[spoiler: While Fluttershy is [[WordOfGod a direct descendant of Pansy]] WordOfGod states that Pansy's personality was more like Rainbow Dash's. The thing is even Dash would have been considered ''timid'' by the standards of the Pegasi of that era!]]

* HeadDesk: Platiunim does this with a tree when her nobles are being overly dramatic and whiny on the way to a new land, as recorded by Clover the Clever:

* HiddenBadass: [[spoiler:Private Pansy.]] You wouldn't think much of her skills just looking at her Battle Scores in the academy. [[OhCrap …But then you let her out onto a REAL battlefield.]]
* TheHighQueen: Platinum, [[spoiler:even if her official title was "king".]]

* IllGirl: Platinum's mother, Queen Argentum, suffered from Haemophilia.

* ItRunsInTheFamily: All of Hurricane's children that we have specifically seen seem to inherit his badass gene.

** [[spoiler:Hell, Platinum did this with her ''own'' death, to the point even her own inner circle thought it was an accident.]]

* NonIndicativeName: The Wet Hooves Massacre four years after the Warming. It was a brief scuffle between a young, stuck up noble and some pegasi who didn't like him messing with some friends of theirs who used to be his family's serfs, but his version of events and the resulting gossip retellings made it sound much worse.

* OldSoldier: [[spoiler:Star-Swirl the Bearded]]. Also Hurricane's son Star Burst, who fought in the Talonhoof Assault in his ''eighties'', personally fighting Talonhoof himself and nearly killing him ''twice''.
** In fact, at the age of fifty at the time of the Assault, Talonhoof counts as well. Given the typically short lifespans of the period, not many lived to that age, fewer still were out leading massive armies on a quest for conquest.

* PoorCommunicationKills: During the Lake Trot Crisis/Celestine Civil War, a message meant for loyalist General Haymaker instead ended up in possession of General Downpour, who ended up launching an attack that claimed the life of her friend and fellow rebel General Torrent. When she realized what she had done, she killed herself.

* ThePurge: [[spoiler:Princess Platinum does one on her own court in the wake of Hearth's Warming.]]

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Grand Duke Benzatine's son apparently felt this wasn't enough, and was depraved enough to do so to his ''half-sister''. Suddenly his accidental death in hunting and his father's apparent lack of grief look interesting...

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Star Burst is left behind with all the other unwanted soldiers when the rest of the pegasus-dominated military goes to confront Talonhoof's horde. However, realizing that his overconfident superiors will need all the help they can get, he leads his forces out anyway, ending up being the only thing preventing Equestria from being overrun.

* SheIsTheKing: [[spoiler:Platinum. At least, had the Kingdom of Unicorns or Unicornia lasted.]]

* SilkHidingSteel: [[spoiler:Platinum hides her massive ovaries of steel under childishly ditzy silk with only Star Swirl, King Aurum, Velvet Hooves and Smart Cookie being the wiser.]]

* BadassGrandpa: [[spoiler:Star-Swirl the Bearded]]. Also Hurricane's son Star Burst, who fought in the Talonhoof Assault in his ''eighties'', personally fighting Talonhoof himself and nearly killing him ''twice''.
** In fact, at the age of fifty at the time of the Assault, Talonhoof counts as well. Given the typically short lifespans of the period, not many lived to that age, fewer still were out leading massive armies on a quest for conquest.

** Subverted with Luna's Foreword: K9 tried to make the text as close to [[HistoryOfEnglish Middle English]] as possible. While there are certainly elements of it and a close feel, no scholar would call it 100% accurate.

* {{Lolicon}}: Mareinus, the Commander before Sullamander, is suspected to have adored pederast poetry. [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial But this was clearly Hurricane Era propaganda.]]

It shows the ''real'' versions of Equestria's founders as shown in "Hearth's Warming Eve," presented as an extensive InUniverse history book. It starts with the nomadic ancestors of Equestrians settling of the Old Land that the ponies lived in, then describes the origins of the three tribes, the events that led to Hearth's Warming, and the formation of Equestria.

* SilkHidingSteel:[[spoiler: Platinum hides her massive ovaries of steel under childishly ditzy silk with only Star Swirl, King Aurum, Velvet Hooves and Smart Cookie being the wiser.]]

Now has a [[Characters/ABriefHistoryOfEquestria character page]]

* {{Expy}}: Puddinghead is one for Emperor UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}}, a UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan expy founded the Mongrellian Horde, the Commander before Hurricane was the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulla Sulla]] to his Creator/GaiusJuliusCaesar [[spoiler:although in the end she turned into Film/{{Downfall}}![[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]]]], and Smart Cookie is one for UsefulNotes/JohnAdams.

* CompositeCharacter: Hurricane is a hodge-podge of [[Creator/GaiusJuliusCaesar Julius Caesar]], with touches of UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson, Creator/BenjaminFranklin and UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan for flavor.

* [[ClaspYourHandsIfYouDeceive Clasp Your Hooves If You Scheme]]: [[spoiler:Platinum]], all the time.

* [[DirtyOldMan Dirty Old Stallion]]: Hurricane remains sexually active well into his golden years.
* [[DoesNotLikeMen Does Not Like Stallions]]: Sullamander.

* [[FairForItsDay Fair For His Day]]: In-Universe, Hurricane may come off as needlessly aggressive to modern Equestrians, but he was actually a lot more peaceful and diplomatic than most Commanders.

* InfantImmortality: Averted, as would naturally happen in a pre-industrial society. Smart Cookie makes mention that of seven fillies she gave birth to, only four of them survived to adulthood. And considering that, historically, only one out of every three children survived to adulthood, [[ShownTheirWork the number even fits with a typical family]].
** Averted with prejudice with Talonhoof, who makes an example of a young pony one of his minions spared during his rampage through Equestria.

* LargeHam: Hurricane

* [[CaligulasHorse Puddinghead's Parrot]]: Puddinghead appointed her pet parrot speaker of the house, even after it died she had it stuffed and insisted it was still alive. Of course it could actually talk while alive, even if all it said was praises for its owner.

* [[GondorCallsForAid Wind Whistler Calls For Aid]]: [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings And Star-Swirl the Bearded shall answer.]]

* WouldHurtAChild: The Unicorn nobles who attacked then Prince Aurum's family killed the foals as well, and chased him down in order to finish him off. Luckily Star-Swirl the Bearded intervened.

* UndignifiedDeath: Puddinghead died in the middle of a foolish dare to drink a gallon of cider while swallowing a goldfish atop a flagpole. She ended up falling off and breaking her neck, with nopony noticing she was dead for hours.

* [[NoExceptYes Yes, Except No]]: The ancient Manehattan ponies were an "easy and tempting target," except "an attack [on Manehattan] would become very unpleasant very quickly" thanks to the terrain, Unicorn magic, Pegasus weather control, and Earth Pony strength.
* YouAreInCommandNow: General Downpour's last act before committing suicide was to put her adjunct Major Wind Tailor in charge.

* [[NoSexAllowed No Heterosexual Sex Allowed]]: Well…Sullamander ''tried'' anyway.

* TheObiWan: Star-Swirl was this to many of the Founders.

** Talonhoof has elements of UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan, UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun, and [[Literature/LordOfTheRings Sauron]]. His battles with Star Burst are also similar to the rivalry between [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000}} Ghazkull Thraka and Commissar Yarrik]].

* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Smart Cookie was appointed Secretary of the Interior primarily so somepony could deal with Puddinghead's craziness directly. [[CrowningMomentOfFunny She was not enthused.]]

* HoldTheLine: Star Burst's force does this at the Battle of the Corridor to allow civilians time to escape Talonhoof's horde. [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome It works, providing a much needed morale boost]].

* PuppetKing: The Throne of the Kingdom of Unicorns has fallen far from the days of Æthelric. After some three-thousand years (give or take) of schemes and the occasional weak ruler, King Aurum [[spoiler:and Platinum]] basically has to do what the DecadentCourt wants, and it is no secret that they want to overthrow him and his family. And since Æthelric forced the Kingdom into existence [[WeAREStrugglingTogether to prevent all of the nobles from waging wars on each other]], and the nobles [[DecadentCourt haven't changed a bit…]] Well, let's just say that "implosion" would be a good word for a speculative Post-Royalty situation.

** Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Unicorns was forged by then Grand Archduke Æthelric the Stern of Two Dozen Sons, forcing the lesser Lords to swear fealty to him to prevent open war among all the other Unicorn rulers.

* GreatBigBookOfEverything: Well, more like "Great Big Book of Laws," but the Articles of Command (the full bound version at least) is described as 20x8 inches, [[{{Doorstopper}} consists of over 1600 pages, weighs forty pounds, and has 300 article]]s ''at least'' (the US Constitution has 7, not counting any that may be in the the 27 amendments), which covers (among other things one would assume) in no uncertain terms was is considered inside and outside the Commander's powers, and what to do when a Commander shows signs of turning into a Tyrant, right down to the methods of execution and how to dispose of the body. Not bad for a Stratocracy.

* CompositeCharacter: Hurricane is a hodge-podge of [[Creator/GaiusJuliusCaesar Julius Caesar]], with touches of UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson, UsefulNotes/BenjaminFranklin and UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan for flavor.

Not to be confused with EquestriaAHistoryRevealed

** Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Unicorns was forged by then Grand Archduke Æthelric the Stern of Two Dozen Sons, forcing the lesser Lords to swear fealty to him to prevent open war amongst all the other Unicorn rulers.

** Platinum herself wasn't above this, making sure to curry the favour of one of Benzatine's servants (who was pregnant with his son's foal, in addition to being his daughter as well) after his death to prevent said foal being declared Benzatines' heir.

* {{Badass}}: [[spoiler: Private Pansy, of all ponies. Star-Swirl as well.]]
** BadassBeard: Along with having one himself, this was a ''very'' important thing the stallion that Clover married needed to have by Star-Swirl's standards. Fortunately, Hurricane delivers.
** BadassGrandpa: [[spoiler:Star-Swirl the Bearded]]. Also Hurricane's son Star Burst, who fought in the Talonhoof Assault in his ''eighties'', personally fighting Talonhoof himself and nearly killing him ''twice''.
*** In fact, at the age of fifty at the time of the Assault, Talonhoof counts as well. Given the typically short lifespans of the period, not many lived to that age, fewer still were out leading massive armies on a quest for conquest.
** FourStarBadass: Hurricane, Wind Whistler, Sullamander, and Lady Cripps the Pink.
** BadassFamily: [[spoiler: Hurricane, Wind Whistler and Pansy]]. Hurricane's second family, with Clover, probably counts as well.
** HiddenBadass: [[spoiler:Private Pansy.]] You wouldn't think much of her skills just looking at her Battle Scores in the academy. [[OhCrap …But then you let her out onto a REAL battlefield.]]
** BadassAndBaby: In a jury-rigged papoose made from bloodied bandages and stitching needles.

** The Unicorn Royal family, who are by and large named after the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum_group Platinum Element Family]].

* MemeticSexGod: Commander Hurricane, InUniverse.
** This is the reason Pansy was, against her vehement wishes, appointed his second-in-command. He had literally knocked up every second-in-command he had ever had. Pansy was appointed his second because she had both the needed qualifications to serve as his second-in-command. The first is that she was good at her job. The second, and considered more important by the higher-ups, is that she was somepony that Commander Hurricane would refuse to have sex with, by virtue of being his daughter.

** Star-Swirl the Bearded has tones of [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Gandalf]] and {{Merlin}} in him.

* FantasticRacism: If you saw [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E11HearthsWarmingEve the episode]], then YouShouldKnowThisAlready.

* {{Flanderization}}: Happens InUniverse to most of the historical founders, but ''especially'' [[spoiler:Pansy, and Princess Platinum's real personality isn't even remembered by pony culture]]. Puddinghead however was ''toned down'' in pony culture, being even ''more'' insane than what we saw in [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E11HearthsWarmingEve Hearth's Warming Eve]]. Is there a Trope for Reverse Flanderization?