History Fanfic / DuskShineInPursuitOfHappiness

* {{Bishonen}}: Dusk Shine is a total ChickMagnet and described to have feminine features, much to his dismay.

** After Nosey News' interview with Shining Armor ends, an old sweeper pony was revealed to have eavesdropped on their conversation and even stolen photographs of the Mane Six. He muses that jouranlists don't publish every news piece they found out of fear of punishment from the princesses, just as his eyes glow an intense and unnatural green.

* RealityEnsues:
** Dusk Shine publicly voiced his hatred to Princess Celestia during the Summer Sun Celebration after he loses his friends and blames her for causing his emotional pain, which shocks many ponies, even the Royal Guard. Even after Dusk Shine saves the day from Nightmare Moon, he's still met with animosity from the other Ponyville residents for this incident.
** In his subconcious, Princess Luna meets with Dusk Shine to get closer to him, but Luna later freaks out that she left other ponies to suffer from nightmares that she could've prevented, so she sadly acknowledges that she can't spend as much time with Dusk as she'd like.

** Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer were initilaly enemies who later became platonic friends. [[spoiler:Here, Sunset is supposedly Dusk's fiancé.]]

* HypocriticalHeartwarming: Deconstrusted with [[Dusk Shine and Sunset Shimmer's childhood friendship. While the latter always defended the former from bullies, she still regularly berates Dusk for being weak, but Dusk is too grateful to mind and wants to be Sunset's friend anyway. Instead of coming off as heartwarming, this dynamic creates a very shallow and emotionally abusive relationship that Sunset has no care to maintain and soon dissuades Dusk from future friendships.]]

** In canon, Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor had an extremely close relationship and "never had a single fight." Here, Dusk Shine and Shining Armor are more distant because most Canterlot ponies that Dusk Shine cheated on his exam to hatch Spike's egg and this perception was projected onto Shining Armor, draining much of the goodwill he earned in the military academy.

** Dusk Shine was even more antisocial than Twilight Sparkle in the beginning of the series because he largely felt overshadowed by his brother, Shining Armor, and an unknown childhood friend gave him terrible advice that denounced friendship.

** In canon, Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor had an extremely close relationship and "never had a single fight." Here, it's implied that Dusk Shine has a more distant relationship to Shining Armor due to feeling overshadowed by him.

* CluelessChickMagnet: Initially, Dusk Shine is completely unaware of the Mane Five, Princess Luna, and Trixie's affection for him. Most of this is due to his own lack of self-confidence and whenever they kiss him, he comes up with excuses to explain why, such as simply wanting to experiment. [[spoiler:He grows out of this after "Internal Changes," though he's still unsure what to do with this.]]

* WouldntHitAGirl: Dusk Shine would never even think of hitting a mare, which is why he becomes so enraged with Rarity's former coltfriend and hits Hoity Toity in the face when he mistakes him for the coltfriend.

** Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer were initilaly enemies who later became platonic friends. [[spoiler:Here, Sunset is supposedly Dusk's fiancé.]]

** Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer were initilaly enemies who later became platonic friends. [[spoiler:Here, Sunset is supposedly Dusk's fiancé.]]

* ShipperOnDeck: Sweetie Belle briefly becomes this towards Dusk and Rarity before developing a crush on him herself. [spoiler:After he gently turns her down, she becomes this as well along with her fellow Crusaders who decides to ship Dusk with the rest of the Mane Six.]]

** Sweetie Belle also harbors a crush on Dusk Shine, but when she proposes to him, Dusk declines due to their age difference.

* Fancy Pants makes an appearance at the Gala, despite first appearing in season 2.

The series is still ongoing.

* AdaptationalEarlyAppearance: Zig-Zagged. While Flutter-bat doesn't actually appear, it does take the place as Fluttershy's shoulder devil, far before it canonically appears in "Bats!"

** Surprisingly enough, [[ObliviousToLove Dusk Shine's]] first kiss wasn't his accidental one with Applejack, but with another mare in Canterlot. However, he doesn't remember much of it, likely because there was some tragedy behind his relationship with the mare and thus wants to forget about it.

* AudienceSurrogate: An InUniverse example. Fluttershy identifies herself with Rusty Sword, a character from a book she enjoys reading, and wishes to be as brave as him. When she successfully resolves the dragon problem in Ponyville, she even calls herself Rusty Sword.

* Bishonen: Dusk Shine is a total ChickMagnet and described to have feminine features, much to his dismay.

* PrecociousCrush: A younger Dusk Shine used to have a crush on his foalsitter, Princess Cadance.

* HaremComedy: The Mane Five and even Princess Luna compete for the affections of Dusk Shine, who is far too blunt too notice there efforts, [[spoiler:at least until after "Internal Changes."]]

[[caption-width-right:350:He'll have to deal with something more than friendship in Ponyville]]

* CoolBigBro: Even if they occasionally come into conflict (usually because Spike gets jealous of Rarity's interest in his brother instead of him), Dusk Shine still deeply cares for Spike and, before going to Ponyville, had the closest relationship to him alongside Princess Celestia.

* ObliviousToLove: Dusk Shine's denseness to love would put [[Franchise/Pokemon Ash Ketchum]] to shame. Although all of the Mane Five and Princess Luna have blushed at him and even kissed him at some point, he still doesn't get the message. [[spoiler:He wisens up on this after "InternalChanges."]]