History Fanfic / TheDuskGuardSaga

* GoodOldFisticuffs: Steel's WeaponOfChoice is a pair of heavy steel gauntlets.

* GenkiGirl: Cappy the mailmare, Pinkie Pie, Sky Bolt.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* HappilyMarried: Sapphire Song and Click Time.

* NiceHat: Hunter's Ranger hat. [[spoiler:Also a TragicKeepsake.]]

** When Steel tells Nova Beam that he can tell him something that will shut the annoying kid up, Nova asks if it is [[StarWars "I am your father"]].

* RequiredSecondaryPowers / RealityEnsues: Sabra can feel the full force of his magic-enhanced punch through his body, and skids a foot backwards. The Dusk Guard as a whole needs time to readjust to the increased speed of their movement while in armor, lest they sprain muscles, or worse.

* [[spoiler:HumongousMecha]]: [[spoiler:Radiant built a gigantic golem out of the stolen crystal.]]

* [[spoiler:MechaMooks]]: [[spoiler:The golems. Also {{Giant Mook}}s]].

* [[spoiler:VictoryFakeout]]: [[spoiler:The dusk guard has defeated the golem army and successfully escaped from the collapsing building. Too bad Radiant is dead. Wait... why is the ground shaking?]]

* [[spoiler:AllJustADream]]: [[spoiler:Sky Bolt wakes up from a very vivid nightmare about halfway though the first chapter.]]

* [[spoiler:IChooseToStay]]: [[spoiler:Sabra decides to stay with the Dusk Guard, even after he has found his answer.]]

* [[spoiler:EmotionBomb]]: The main power of the strange creature that Steel and The Doctor are chasing.
* [[spoiler:EmotionEater]]: [[spoiler:The Crystal Fae]] have a unique form of this, [[spoiler:inducing an emotion in the crowd around them and then feeding off the excess]].

* [[spoiler:InvoluntaryShapeshifter]]: [[spoiler:The Crystal Fae, since she is just a filly. Adults [[VoluntaryShapeshifting can control both the transformation]] and the emotional reflection]].

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: During a pre-match strategy session, Hunter says that Dawn's skill with ropes is terrifying, and so he wants her on base defense. Nova sniggers, and Hunter nearly bursts out laughing. Dawn and Steel are not amused.

Steel Song is a retired bodyguard, enjoys jogging, visiting his family, and tending to his garden. This changes one day, when he receives a mysterious package with no return address and is called out of retirement to join a newly-formed unit. Their first task: investigate strange thefts that had been occurring on the Equestrian Railway - an assignment that might just turn out to be much more dangerous and earthshaking than anyone had bargained for.

--> '''Nova''': “I am more than a thief!” (Casts [[NoKillLikeOverkill The Spell]]) “I am a Dusk Guard.”

* BadassGrandpa: While not technically a grandpa, Steel Song has a daily practice routine harsher than that seen for the Equestrian Royal Guard, leads an elite team of military commandos from the front, regularly fights ''and wins'' against much younger opponents, and [[spoiler:still soundly kicks manticore and giant golem butt]], all while pushing sixty.

* BilingualBonus: Sabra interjects in Swahili quite often.
** The Griffin language is rendered using Turkish.

* GoMadFromTheIsolation: Sombra's memories and psyche has shattered in the 1000 years he's been imprisoned.

* GrailInTheGarbage: [[spoiler:A break-in happened in a museum where some crystals being kept in a very old box were swiped, sans one. Luna later tells the guards that the three stolen crystals can become ''a key for unlocking [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E1TheCrystalEmpirePart1 Sombra]] from his prision''.]]

* {{WAFF}}: Lots of it, [[spoiler:courtesy of Sabra and Sky Bolt's interactions]].

* {{WAFF}}: This story is one long streak of adorableness and hilarity.

[[/folder]

* DarkerandEdgier: Compared to Rise. Not only are the protagonists more along the lines of Anti-Heros, but they rack up quite the kill count compared to the Dusk Guard. Combine that with the bleak Ocean, a cult dedicated to wiping out all non-unicorns and a [[spoiler:demigod necromancer]].

[[folder:Remembrance]]
* TearJerker: Hunter goes to visit Swift Wind's grave.

[[folder:Trust]]
* TheReveal: [[spoiler:Dawn finds a relative of Nova Beam from doing blood analysis.]]
[[/folder]]

The Dusk Guard Saga is a Series/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic fanfic by Viking ZX. The first book, ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/101441 Rise]]'', as well as several side stories ([[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/143394/carry-on Carry On]], [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/157816/the-definition-of-strength The Definition of Strength]], [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/173657/old-habits Old Habits]], [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/189918/emoticon Emoticon]], [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/155036/hearths-warming-cookies Hearth's Warming Cookies]], [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/207113/why-me Why me?]], [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/232347/remembrance Remembrance]], and [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/232371/trust Trust]]) have been completed so far.

* HonourBeforeReason: The Griffin society runs on this. It's the only way to avoid a wholesome slaughter between the clans.

* DoAnythingSoldier: While each member of the Dusk Guard is technically not this trope, the unit as a whole, is. During the initial interview, the princesses specifically asked Steel Song to select a group of five individuals that could perform any and all of a wide variety of completely different tasks.

* BarrierBustingBlow: Sabra accidentally rips a training dummy in half and sends it flying toward the yard wall when he is testing out the new armor enchantment.

[[folder:Beyond The Borderlands]]
* ChekhovsGun: The crystal that was stolen from a museum in Rise turns out to be [[spoiler:a key to Anubis' prison. There is also another key that was fragmented, but its purpose is unclear at this point]].
* DarkerandEdgier: Compared to Rise. Not only are the protagonists more along the lines of Anti-Heros, but they rack up quite the kill count compared to the Dusk Guard. Combine that with the bleak Ocean, a cult dedicated to wiping out all non-unicorns and a [[spoiler:demigod necromancer]].
* LeftForDead: [[spoiler:Anubis gets shot in the heart, cleaved by both sides of his scythe, and is on-board when the Necropolis crashes. Blade Sunchaser and her team think he's dead. In the epilogue, it turns out he's not dead, but very weakened.]]
* SealedEvilInACan: King Sombra. [[spoiler: Actually, it's for Anubis, the god of death.]]
* SecretCircleOfSecrets: The Order is a group of [[MasterRace xenophobic unicorn supremacists]] that [[ReligionOfEvil worship King Sombra]].
* SortingAlgorithmOfEvil: [[spoiler:In the Epilogue, Anubis (admittedly very weakened) is defeated by Kaan.]]
* VictoryFakeOut: [[spoiler:For the cultists, they thought they were releasing King Sombra. Who they got was Anubis, god of the dead.]]
[[/folder]]

The Dusk Guard Saga is a Series/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic fanfic by Viking ZX. The first book, ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/101441 Rise]]'', as well as several side stories ([[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/143394/carry-on Carry On]], [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/157816/the-definition-of-strength The Definition of Strength]], [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/173657/old-habits Old Habits]], [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/189918/emoticon Emoticon]], [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/155036/hearths-warming-cookies Hearth's Warming Cookies]], [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/207113/why-me Why me?]], [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/232347/remembrance Remembrance]], and [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/232371/trust Trust]]) have been completed so far. The second book, ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/268295/the-dusk-guard-beyond-the-borderlands Beyond The Borderlands]]'', is ongoing.

* PoorCommunicationKills / CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: [[spoiler:The whole mess with Cappy could have been avoided at so many points in time, if only someone would have stopped to explain it to Steel, or Steel had simply said why he didn't want to engage in a relationship.]]

* {{Magitech}}: Spells that mimic a flare gun, magilights, [[PoweredArmor enchanted gem-powered armor]].

* MightyGlacier: [[spoiler:The golems in general, but especially the crystal one. It's [[NoSell impervious to direct magical attacks]] and highly resistant to physical damage, can hit like a wrecking ball, and tramples anything in its path.]]
* MotorMouth: Pinkie Pie, as usual.