History Fanfic / AWitchInBroadDaylight

* Cult:

* Curse: A curse can do almost anything, but it's only effective if the caster tells the target what the curse does and the [[CurseEscapeClause conditions for breaking it.]] If the victim doesn't know, the effects will be minor and easily removed by any psychic. Twilight describes curses as largely psychosomatic.

* CuteMachines: Rarity's robots [[RobotKids are designed to look like her little sister Sweetie Belle]]. [[RoboticPsychopath Sweetiebot 9000]] is a very [[RobotMe convincing copy]], even having the same voice as the original. The [[MechaMooks older models]] get increasingly more robotic looking and [[RoboSpeak sounding]] the farther back you go. [[spoiler:Sweetie Belle herself eventually gets a Sweetiebot 9000 as [[FullConversionCyborg her new body.]]]]

* Determinator: Nothing will make Rainbow Dash give up on a goal, no matter how risky, or dangerous, or downright suicidal it is.

* Dracolich: While not more intelligent than the average zombie, [[EliteZombie zombie dragons]] are extremely dangerous. They regenerate quickly from any injury short of being burnt down to a skeleton and [[BreathWeapon breathe purple miasma]] that knocks out any pony that touches it.

* Familiar: [[spoiler: Rainbow Dash]] agrees to be Twilight's familiar and witch-in-training.

* IJustWantToBeLoved: Mixed with I Just Want to Be Normal. Because of her [[RealityWarper dangerous powers]], [[spoiler: Scootaloo]] was [[RaisedInALab raised by a corporation]]. None of them really cared about her unless paid to do so, even her [[ParentalNeglect adoptive father]]. They were only interested in exploiting her abilities for money and power. She came to believe [[AdultsAreUseless all adults only care about that]]. When [[spoiler: Scootaloo]] spends four days as [[spoiler: Rainbow Dash's [[BackstoryInvader fake sister]]]], she's genuinely shocked by how nice everyone is to her and becomes guilt-ridden about manipulating them. She desperately wishes she could be [[spoiler: Dash's sister for real.]] [[spoiler: She gets her wish after Dash becomes her legal guardian.]]

* Intangibility: Ghosts pass through solid objects, but psychic energy and some magic can be used to touch them.

* Mummy: Mummies are one of the few classic monsters that seemingly ''don't'' exist in this setting. Those who believe in them are mocked as conspiracy theorists. One pony tried dressing up as one to scare everyone away from his buried treasure. This backfired horribly, attracting massive crowds looking to find the "mummy." He was eventually [[Franchise/ScoobyDoo unmasked by a group of kids.]]

* StockholmSyndrome: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Rainbow Dash after she starts to like being forced to live with Twilight.
-->'''Pinkie:''' What have you been up to?\\
'''Dash:''' I kinda got kidnapped. For like two months.\\
'''Pinkie:''' Oh! Did you want me to rescue you?\\
'''Dash:''' Nah, I think the Stockholm syndrome is kicking in. It’s fine.

* Workaholic: Twilight became as powerful as she is by training as much as seventeen hours a day. Before meeting Rainbow Dash, she considered anything unrelated to magic a waste of time.

* Animorphism: Witches can [[VoluntaryShapeshifting transform into any animal]] they're sufficiently familiar with. The most common choice is a [[CreepyCrows murder of crows]].

** Deconstructing this trope is one of the story's central themes. It goes to great lengths to show horrible a society that runs on this would be, especially in a world where might is gained primarily by winning the [[SuperpowerLottery superpower lottery]].

* TheHeart: Though she doesn't seem to realize it, Rainbow Dash fills this role. She makes allies out of most of the main cast simply by caring about their problems.

* ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder: Gazing upon the [[Eldritch Abomination outer gods]] for more than eight seconds causes both [[GoMadFromTheRevelation brilliance and madness.]] The resulting [[MadScientist mad scientists]] are banished from mainstream society.

** A witch's spellbook is made of mind fibers which [[NeuralImplanting force their spells into the mind]] of anyone that touches the book, no reading necessary. Normal ponies can't handle such a [[My Skull Runneth Over flood of information]] and pass out, remembering none of it when they wake up. Witches undergo intense focus training for decades before being able to use one.

* ToxicInc: The Manehattan Electric Company, known by their Equestrian enemies as [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin Toxco]], joined forces with the witch Spatial Tear to create super-reactors providing near limitless low cost energy. The witch's true motive in creating the reactors was to cause enough pollution to collapse civilization. It was bad enough that Equestria declared war on Manehattan. The super-reactor in the city melted down during the fighting, killing Spatial Tear, every member of Toxco, and countless innocents. The irradiated portion of the city, called Old Manehattan, became a literal ghost town led by a specter named Meltdown.

* VengefulGhost: [[Parody Parodied]] with Zephyr Breeze, who died a virgin and now seeks vengence on anyone who's ever gotten busy, but is too pathetically weak to actually follow through on it. Pinkie effortlessly vaporizes him after realizing he was just a smokescreen for [[spoiler: Aria Blaze]] who is also vengeful, but for something that happened after her death.

* ScaryScarecrows: [[FluffyTheTerrible Smarty Pants]], Twilight's vaguely pony shaped scarecrow with long claws and fangs made of wood. Twilight converses with it regularly, but no one but her can hear it reply. Nobody knows if it can actually speak or if she's just [[HearingVoices hallucinating]] from centuries of isolation. She sometimes animates Smarty Pants as a golem, it attacks by extending sharp roots to impale its target.
* ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder: Gazing upon the [[Eldritch Abomination outer gods]] for more than eight seconds causes both [[Go Mad from the Revelation brilliance and madness.]] The resulting [[Mad Scientist mad scientists]] are banished from mainstream society.

* StealingTheCredit: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], as [[NoSocialSkills Twilight]] is completely onboard with Rainbow Dash being the center of attention, and only cares about the money and fame because it makes Rainbow Dash happy. However, feeling like she owes all her success to Twilight isn't helping Dash's InferioritySuperiorityComplex.

* StockholmSyndrome: [[Lampshade Hanging Lampshaded]] by Rainbow Dash after she starts to like being forced to live with Twilight.

* StockSlasher: [[EliteZombie Psycho zombies]] quickly [[ImplacableMan regenerate any injury and are relentlessly determined]] to kill ponies, following their victim for years if they have to. They move slowly when observed but [[CantMoveWhileBeingWatched seem to teleport when the target looks away]]. The only way to stop one is to seal it in a lake with magic. [[Sackhead Slasher Sawmill]] wears a sack over his head and wields two rusty [[ChainsawGood chainsaws]] attached to long chains.

* TongueTied: Twilight places a curse on Rainbow Dash that prevents her from finding Twilight's house again, talking about the curse, or telling anyone she found Twilight. It can only be [[Curse Escape Clause broken]] by finding [[NeedleInAStackOfNeedles one specific leaf in the forest]] Twilight lives in.

'''Twilight:''' Oh! I was only five at the time, so I don’t remember it too well. But I was covered in magic-eating leeches that sucked all the power out of me, had my hooves encased in cement, and was thrown into the river behind my house. Getting out of that now would be easy, but at the time, let me tell you!

* VanHelsingHateCrimes: [[Knight Templar Flash Bang,]] one of the [[TheAce elite four]] of the [[CreatureHunterOrganization Slayer Association]], advocates hunting down and destroying all supernatural threats indiscriminately. This puts her at odds with [[Zombie Advocate Nailbat.]]

** While the curse of undeath persists [[OurZombiesAreDifferent zombies]] can't be permanently killed, they just sink back into the ground to regenerate years later. Since ponies don't eat meat, pony zombies don't either. The normal ones are mostly harmless aside from causing famines by eating crops. The zombies become vastly more dangerous during a [[Bad Moon Rising Blood Moon]], however.

* Robot Me: The [[RobotKid Sweetiebot 9000]], a robot copy of the original Sweetie Belle [[spoiler: and prototype of her eventual [[FullConversionCyborg replacement body]]. Later repainted and [[AlternativeSelfNameChange renamed Saccharin Belle]] to avoid being confused with the original.]]
* SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining: Played for drama with Twilight, who spent her entile life [[The Ageless (over 600 years)]] doing nothing but study magic, to the point where she had never gone more than 30 feet from her house. While this made her [[The Ace one of the strongest ponies in the world,]] it also left her without any social skills or meaninful relationships. [[Defrosting Ice Queen She's getting better thanks to Dash.]]

* ParodySue: Trixie. She's a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot witch mad scientist psychic mutant vampire robot]] who boasts about being the only witch worthy of Twilight Sparkle's approval. [[spoiler: Her [[Freudian Excuse freudian excuse]] is that she was bullied for being weak as a child, and she would cope by imagining herself as a VillainSue who would be rescued by Twilight. Her witch training gave her the power to make it real.]]

* PhotoOpWithTheDog: [[spoiler: Rainbow Dash's plan to avoid a war between Twilight and the world is to have the former defeat the witches and other dangerous monsters under an alias to generate goodwill before revealing herself.]]

* MadScientist: Happens when a pony [[GoMadFromTheRevelation goes]] [[Science Related Memetic Disorder mad]] from looking at the outer gods for more than eight seconds. Many of them live as outcasts in remote bases after being banished from Equestria. Rarity became one intentionally after [[spoiler: normal doctors couldn't do anything to save her sister Sweetie Belle]] and now lives in a castle in the Everfree Forest. She is a member of the "Mad Science League", a post-money communist utopia whose members rarely meet in person, preferring to interact over the internet [[Played For Laughs (a forbidden technology of mad science.)]]

* IJustWantToBeSpecial: Combined with I Just Want To Be Badass. Rainbow Dash is so desperate to become a rich and famous [[Hunter of Monsters slayer]] that she resorts to near-suicidally dangerous plans to make it happen. As of the story's beginning none of them have worked and most of Ponyville considers her an incompetent fool. Her new scheme to rise to the top by finding evidence of Twilight Sparkle's location [[CurbstompBattle doesn't quite]] [[TongueTied go as planned]]. [[spoiler: Even after helping defeat Trixie and being promoted to S rank, she still struggles with [[Overshadowed by Awesome feeling like the weak link of her group]], as well as [[Stealing the Credit believing she's taking advantage of Twilight.]]]]

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Gazing upon the outer gods for more than eight seconds causes a pony to [[Science Related Memetic Disorder go mad.]] Doing this is illegal and punished by banishment from Equestrian society. "On the eighth" is an in universe expression for crazy.

* EveryoneCanSeeIt: With everypony considering Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle perfect for each other and suggesting they already are together.

* DisasterDominoes: A [[OurBansheesAreLouder banshee's wail]] places a death curse on anyone that hears it. The victim is repeatedly targeted by an elaborate chain of unfortunate events that ends in their [[Necro Non Sequitur death]]. The sequence can be broken by intentionally getting hit by one of the early (and less fatal) steps, but this doesn't remove the curse.

** His main competitor, Snap Allgood, is an even worse example. He is [[Abusive Parents horribly neglectful]] to his adopted daughter [[spoiler: Scootaloo, exploiting her reality warper powers for profit and refusing to ever call her by her name. When she runs away, he doesn't notify the authorities, who were paying him a considerable sum to watch her, to save face. He then sets up a device that drives the parasite berserk in the middle of a populated area in order to discredit Dash and regain custody.]]