History Fanfic / ABriefHistoryofEquestria

* MemeticBadass: In universe, Lady Cripps the Pink becomes one for the Pegasi after the Lake Trot Crisis. May cross with WorthyOpponent.

* RasputinianDeath: Let's count the wounds on Sullamander when she died: One (1) [[EyeScream gouged out and profusely bleeding eye]], both a broken neck and broken jaw, Two (2) stab wounds (one to the right kidney, the other into the chest cavity from inside the collar bone), and "numerous" lacerations from a sword blade. What did her in was having said sword run through her from behind so deep it burst through the sternum. [[MemeticBadass But her rage and hatred kept her alive for a little while longer, just to spite Hurricane]].

* 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.]]

* RagTagBunchOfMisfits: The Burning Timber Wolves.

* TheStrategist: General Wind Whistler.

** With application of FridgeLogic, the whole of the Celestine Junta's military had institutionalized this: An officer could choose Stallions from under her command for ''[[DoubleEntendre comfort]]''. The stallion would be rewarded for strong foals born from such unions, especially if a filly was conceived. However, Mareinus and Sullamander's situation was…''Unique''.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: The Narrator is usually good at giving alternate takes of historical events and ponies their due respect. But [[{{Squick}} for some reason]] the moment the idea that Sullamander was gay and her predecessor was a Pedo is brought up, it's all nothing more than either [[CriticalResearchFailure shoddy investigation]] or GirlOnGirlIsHot-adhering scholars.
** To quote one reader: "Your bias is showing, Twilight."

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

%%* FantasticRacism: If you saw [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E13HearthsWarmingEve the episode]], then YouShouldKnowThisAlready. This persisted for at least the first couple of generations after unification, especially in the military.

** Hurricane's mother Star Saber [[UpToEleven took this]] [[EpicFail to a whole new level]].

* OutnumberedSibling: As described in [[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/23817/13/a-brief-history-of-equestria/star-swirl-the-bearded "Star-Swirl the Bearded"]]: Princess Osmium, with her four brothers.
* OverprotectiveDad: Hurricane doesn't like the idea of [[FantasticRacism filthy ground-pounders]] spending great deals of time alone with his favorite baby girl.
** This reached a boiling point when he tried to arrest and kill Trencher for getting Pansy pregnant, kicking off the Winter War.

* 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.

* NecessarilyEvil: Platinum was under no delusions that she was a good pony; doing horrible things for the greater good of Equestria took a horrible toll on her emotionally, and in her final moments she was convinced both that her father and Star Swirl would have been disappointed in her, and that she'd be facing eternal damnation]

** Star Saber's little group of thirty who tried to counter-revolt against Hurricane failed because they tried to steal weapons from an ''empty'' armory... which was positioned next to an active mess hall... [[TrampledUnderfoot in the middle of the day]]. Hurricane found this hilarious.

** Star Saber's little group of thirty who tried to counter-revolt against Hurricane failed because they tried to steal weapons from an ''empty'' armory... which was positioned next to an active mess hall... in the middle of the day. Hurricane found this hilarious.

* AbusiveParents: Hurricane's mother Star Saber treated him horribly, due to his being a colt. His response to seeing her dead body frozen in the snow after the Warming was to ''laugh'', and he has no regrets about it.

* AllThereInTheManual: Any extra bits that would be awkward in the main narrative are usually posted by the author in the comments section.
** As noted above, this is also the purpose of ''Brief History: Side Stories''.

* BadassFamily: [[spoiler: Hurricane, Wind Whistler and Pansy]].
* BadBoss: Sullamander. She killed General Thistle Whistle for questioning one of her new laws, and threatened the other Chiefs-Of-Staff with the same to keep them in line. And she gets ''worse'' during her final days, due to suffering a VillainousBreakdown.

* BalkanizeMe: The Griffin Empire fell apart into thousands of statelets and city-states due to breakaway warlords and barbarian attacks.
** Likewise, the Mongrellian Horde, stated to be the largest empire in history, fell apart due to a SuccessionCrisis after its founder's death, leaving only scattered packs.

* TheCaligula: CHANCELLOR PUDDINGHEAD. She managed to get elected via youth vote, and died shortly after Hearth's Warming via a stupid dare. To complete the reference to UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}}, many of her family were named after the man's family members. Fortunately, she's relatively harmless.
** Became a {{Cincinnatus}} after the Warming, when she stood down from her position and spent the last years of her life throwing parties to help interracial relations.

* CompositeCharacter: Hurricane is a hodge-podge of UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar, with touches of UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson, Creator/BenjaminFranklin and UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan for flavor.

* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler: Star-Swirl vs the entire Unicorn court.]]

* EpicFail: The Kingdom of Unicorns in the Lake Trot Crisis ended up taking ''way'' worse losses than the other tribes.

* FantasticRacism: If you saw [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E13HearthsWarmingEve the episode]], then YouShouldKnowThisAlready.
** This persisted for at least the first couple of generations after unification, especially in the military.

* {{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?

* ForegoneConclusion: Talonhoof the Reviled does not succeed in his plan to exterminate pony-kind, and will be defeated by Mimic, the Great and Powerful.

* FounderOfTheKingdom: Examples are given of the both the more Mythical and the more Historical takes of this trope for the Celestine Junta and the Kingdom of Unicorns respectively.

* GeneralFailure: Sullamander is not as competent a Commander as she would like to think.

* TheHorde: The Mongrellian Horde, which would eventually collapse to in-fighting over which line of descent from the founder should rule. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_Empire Just like the Real Life counterpart]]

* HetIsEw: Sullamander. [[InsistentTerminology As less-than-wholesome scholars]] [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial would like you to think.]]

* TheoryTunnelvision: The main RunningGag of the story is the Narrator being so driven to attach anything that goes wrong in history to [[HistoricalRapSheet the theory that Celestia is to blame]] that all kinds of historical evidence and common sense are [[IRejectYourReality outright rejected]].

* CriticalResearchFailure: InUniverse -- it's apparently common in fiction to portray Viscount Arsenic as Lady Cripps' father (the one who abandoned her and her mother after her birth) because of their rivalry prior to and during the Lake Trot Crisis. This despite the fact that he would have been all of ''two years old'' at the time.

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: The whole story is presented as an in-verse history book written by Twilight Sparkle ([[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E4LunaEclipsed in the wake of nopony recognizing her Star-Swirl costume]]) with the help of historians and scholars from two ministries of Celestia's government.

* [[GrandmaWhatMassiveHotnessYouHave Commander What Massive Hotness You Have]]: Commander Hurricane was pushing fifty during Hearth's Warming and still getting all the mares of the Celestine Junta, and married Clover, [[MayDecemberRomance who was less than half his age]] when he was almost ''sixty''. Nothing is said either way, but considering the above, he ''must'' have aged gracefully.

* OurLichesAreDifferent: Puddinghead was convinced that a [[EverythingsSquishierWithCephalopods Cuttlefish]] Lich-Queen lived in Lake Trot.

* AboveTheInfluence: [[ChivalrousPervert Hurricane]] comforts Clover after his father's death by sleeping in his bed... but strictly in a platonic sense.

* AboveTheInfluence: [[ChivalrousPervert Hurricane]] comforts Clover after her father's death by sleeping in her bed... but strictly in a platonic sense.

* AltarTheSpeed: For [[ShotgunWedding some reason]], Hurricane and Clover's wedding was prepared much faster than usual.

* BadassFamily: [[spoiler: Hurricane, Wind Whistler and Pansy]]. Hurricane's second family, with Clover, probably counts as well.

* BadassAndBaby: Pansy goes to stop her father from killing Trencher in a jury-rigged papoose made from bloodied bandages and stitching needles. This after she knocked out her guards despite having given birth not long efore.

* ProperlyParanoid: Princess Osmium (Platinum's aunt, and Aurum's older sister)was convinced somepony would try to kill her in her sleep. This was in fact what happened, but Osmium didn't last long enough to feel any validation about it.

** It is theorized that Platinum would regard modern Equestria as one. Yes it's a place where all live in harmony...but it's a diarchy, meaning everything she did to remove the monarchy and nobility of her dad was AllForNothing.