History Fanfic / ThePowerOfTheEquinox

* TwitchyEye: Both Peach Seed and Dusty Joy get an uncontrollably twitching left eye; the former when he sees the East Wing hallway in the condition Dimmed Star left it in, and the latter when she's ordered to clean up the mess to the best of her ability.

* ClothingConcealedInjury: Scootaloo is actually covered by the bruises and scars her adoptive father has caused her. She covers them up every day by using the makeup kit she gained from Sweetie Belle as a Hearth's Warming Eve present.

** Twilight/Dimmed Star is Spike's guardian.

** When Dimmed Star learns that somepony called Spike a pet

** Scootaloo has bags beneath her eyes when going to school in the 20th chapter. Note that in the previous chapter her adoptive father was confirmed to be abusive.

* TheGamblingAddict: Scootaloo's adoptive mother is this. It has left the family mired in debts as well as led to the degeneration of their homelife.

* TilMurderDoUsPart: [[spoiler:After Brutus causes Scootaloo to run off into the Everfree Forest, his wife keeps yelling at him for doing such a thing. Losing his temper with the wife whose gambling addiction has eaten up his savings, he kills her.]]

* TookALevelInJerkass: Dimmed Star is more ill-tempered, violent and assertive than Twilight Sparkle was.

%%* SmugSnake: Hasty Vote

* YouHaveFailedMe: The Queen is furious when Chrysalis returns to the hive without bringing Celestia to her as she was supposed to.

** Hasty Vote when she finds herself face-to-face with Dimmed Star [[PlayAlongPrisoner who was never a prisoner to begin with]].

** The Entity seems to have three triangularly-shaped red eyes. When it possesses Dimmed Star for the first time, her black eyes turn red over time, while a third red eye grows beneath her horn.

* TilMurderDoUsPart: [[spoiler:After Brutus causes Scootaloo to run off into the Everfree Forest, his wife keeps yelling at him for doing such a thing. Losing his temper with the wife whose gambling habits have eaten up his savings, he kills her.]]

* WasTooHardOnHim: When Celestia learns that Shining Armor has actually marked Twilight off the guest list, she thinks that was too harsh from him, even though she and the others were upset by Twilight's actions at the rehearsal. Unable to go anywhere as the wedding ceremony begins, she plans to talk with Twilight afterwards and get everything sorted out.

* YouHaveFailedMe: The Queen is furious when Chrysalis returns to the hhive without bringing Celestia to her as she was supposed to.

** When their train has nearly reached Ponyville, Spike's stomach rumbles out of hunger. Just a moment later, the same thing happens with all of the Mane Five and Cutie Mark Crusaders. All of them at the same time.

* HandshakeRefusal: After the Mane Six have lunch together, Applejack offers her hoof to shake it with Dimmed Star. Dimmed Star doesn't take it, however, stating that the lunch hasn't made things better between her and the rest of them.

* InnateNightVision:
** Dimmed Star can see in darkness as well as she can see in daylight.
** Changelings can naturally see in the dark.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: When Luna voices her intention to enter Celestia's dream to see what transpired in regards to Twilight, Celestia can barely contain her dread over having to relieve it all. Luna immediately apologizes when she sees how close to a breakdown her sister is.
* InsultBackfire: When Hasty Vote mocks Applejack's upbringing, the rest of the Mane Five gasp. Applejack, however, remains impassive as she fires an insult of her own.

** The Mane Five discuss this while following Dimmed Star in the 13th chapter. When Applejack says that they sort of are to blame for what happened to their friend, Rainbow Dash questions how it's their fault. She concedes Rarity's answer that their act of leaving Twilight alone at the rehearsal played a part in her transformation, but she asks if they can really take all the blame. Flutterhy answers that while they don't hold all of the blame, they still hold enough of it for Dimmed Star to be angry with them.

* JerkassHasAPoint: When Celestia demands Business Savvy to pull himself together if he's to attend to Dimmed Star's trial (which is [[YouKilledMyFather extremely personal business to him]]), she admits he's right when he claims that the conviction of her transformed student is a personal matter to her.

* LightningReveal: When [[spoiler:Cheerilee is about to follow Brutus inside his house]], a momentary flash of lightning reveals in the dark [[spoiler:hallway and stairs blood as well as feathers]], so [[spoiler:she runs for help, with Brutus pursuing her]].

* MoralityPet: Spike is one of the few individuals Dimmed Star shows affection towards. Scootaloo becomes another one to her as the neglected filly starts spending time in the Golden Oak Library.

* DemonicPossession: The Entity aims to consume Dimmed Star completely, but it's kept at bay by the light that represents her positive emotions. However, when Dimmed Star is on the verge of reconciling with her loved ones in the wedding hall, the Entity forcefully pushes her bad experiences from the rehearsal at the forefront of her mind, driving her into attacking everypony left and right. It takes the Element of Magic to force the Entity to relinquish its control over Dimmed Star's mind.
* DogPileOfDoom: When the guards discover that Dimmed Star has broken free of her restraints, they dogpile her before placing new restraints on her. [[PlayAlongPrisoner Of course, they're able to do all of this only because she allows them to.]]

* DyingRace: The Changelings were apparently on the verge of extinction until the mysterious Queen revitalised them by abducting for them ponies and other creatures from the surrounding nations. Despite this, the Queen claims that their situation has remained the same.

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: When Dimmed Star is brought to her trial, her amusement dies down when she sees her parents' distress over her new form and current situation. When she wakes up to find herself embraced by her weeping mother, she's touched.

** In the morning of Dimmed Star's trial, only light bags under her eyes show that Celestia hasn't slept last night. Business Savvy in turn has to show for his lack of sleep these as well as a stubble on his chin and a mane that's threatening to become messy.

** Applejack and Rainbow Dash help Princess Celestia to fight against the exposed Queen Chrysalis, so the Changeling queen doesn't take down Celestia like she did canonically. Also, Shining Armor is released from Chrysalis' spell when a buck from Applejack sends Chrysalis colliding with him.

* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Queen Chrysalis herself is bossed around by a mysterious evil creature whom she calls her Queen.

* GoodIsNotSoft: Celestia's reaction to first seeing Dimmed Star and sensing the twistedness emanating from her is to try to destroy her with a powerful magic blast. It's only after she learns that she blasted none other than Twilight that she starts feeling bad about this.

** When their train has nearly reached Ponyville, Spike's stomach rumbles out of hunger. Just a moment later, the same thing happens with all of the Mane Five and Cutie Mark Crusaders.

** When Dimmed Star falls asleep during Hasty Vote's speech ([[FellAsleepStandingUp while heavily chained and standing, no less]]), Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie can't help letting out guffaws of laughter. Celestia herself has to stop herself from snickering, admitting to herself that she might indulge in the humorous turn if the situation were less severe.

* AdaptationalHeroism: Unlike her canon counterpart who ultimately [[ItsAllAboutMe only cares about her control over the other Changelings]], the Queen Chrysalis of this fic seems to actually care for her subjects. She struck a DealWithTheDevil with the Queen in order to save them from extinction, tries to evacuate the hive to spare them from the Queen's wrath, and pleads for her not to punish them for her failure.

* AntiHero: Dimmed Star is so bloodthirsty and intimidating that she borders on a VillainProtagonist, but she still cares for her loved ones to varying extend.

** When Wind Rider probes Dimmed Star about what happened at the wedding, he asks if she remembers what she did to Shining Armor. Learning that she did something to her brother [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone fills her with dread]].

'''Dimmed Star''': I'm not sure, Pinkie. How many times have you and the girls come to visit me at my home this week, compared to the week before? Or perhaps the week before that? Or even before that?

* BerserkButton: When Celestia learns that Dimmed Star was heavily restrained without any resistance from her part, she becomes so angry that the courtroom's temperature rises. It becomes worse when Business Savvy calls Dimmed Star a monster.

* BigWhat: Spike when Apple Bloom tells him that Twilight is on trial that same morning.
* BlackEyesOfCrazy: [[AxCrazy Dimmed Star]] has black sclera, and her pupils are both formed out of three glowing, teal dots that form a triangular shape.

** Business Savvy dares to insult Princess Celestia in her face even as the room's temperature grows [[BerserkButton in reaction to him calling Dimmed Star a monster]]. After Dimmed Star has unshackled herself, he calls her a thing, so she grabs him in her tendril with the intention of throwing him out of the room, stopping only when Celestia pleads with her to release him.

* ButtMonkey: Dusty Joy, a maid working at the castle. She has to work overtime (as a Thestral, she shouldn't be awake at daytime) to clean the castle's longest hallway all by herself[[note]]with her two planned helpers having called in their vacation time in advance due to the wedding[[/note]], gets reprimanded when she kicks in the face a stallion who smacks her flank, almost loses her job when her superior assumes she abandoned her post out of laziness, tries in vain to clean the stains Dimmed Star's Ink left in the hallway, and once she's relieved of that impossible duty, she has to do even more cleaning in the wedding hall that's a total mess from the Entity-possessed Dimmed Star's rampage.

** Rarity face-hoofes in the 20th chapter when bringing up Dimmed Star's carnivore diet puts everypony on edge, despite the fact that they've all've had plenty of time to come to terms with it.

* AdaptationalHeroism: Unlike her canon counterpart who ultimately [[ItsAllAboutMe only cares about her control over the other Changelings]], this Queen Chrysalis seems to actually care for her subjects. She struck a DealWithTheDevil with the Queen in order to save them from extinction, tries to evacuate the hive to spare them from the Queen's wrath, and pleads for her not to punish them for her failure.

* ImAHumanitarian: Dimmed Star eats some pony flesh when she rampages under the Entity's influence, earning her charges of cannibalism. Dimmed Star herself doesn't consider it was cannibalism due to the fact that she's no longer a pony in the same sense as before.

** ''The School Yard'' — Spike watches in nervousness as Apple Bloom steps in view from behind a tree.

* KnightTemplarParent: Dimmed Star is not at all pleased to learn that somepony called Spike a pet. Her furious reaction makes Spike unwilling to tell her about the confrontation he had with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, for he fears that she'll kill them for taunting him. Later the Entity manages to make Dimmed Star to attack Pinkie Pie in bestial rage by conjuring in her mind an image of Celestia taking Spike away from her.

* TookALevelInJerkass: Dimmed Star is more ill-tempered and assertive than Twilight Sparkle was.

* AdaptationalHeroism: Unlike her canon counterpart, Queen Chrysalis seems to actually care about her subjects. She struck a DealWithTheDevil with the Queen in order to save them from extinction, tries to evacuate the hive to spare them from the Queen's wrath, and pleads for her not to punish them for her failure.

* DealWithTheDevil: Chrysalis apparently made one with the Queen in order to save her race from extinction. In return, the Queen wanted her to bring Princess Celestia beaten to her.

* PetTheDog: Dimmed Star doesn't hold a grudge towards Shining Armor and Spike over the wedding rehearsal because the former was mind-controlled and the latter is a child. She also adopts a less volatile demeanor towards Pinkie Pie in comparison to her other friends, due to her going farther out of her way to get on good terms with Dimmed Star.

* InnateNightVision: Dimmed Star can see in darkness as well as she can see in daylight.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: When first speaking with Pinkie Pie since returning to Ponyville, Dimmed Star bombards the party pony -- who insists that she just wants to spend time with one of her best friends -- with questions about if they're really still friends. Pinkie becomes depressed and confesses that she and the others have wanted to spend time with Dimmed Star, but are unsure how to break the ice.
-->'''Dimmed Star''': We're friends, are we?\\

* GrowlingGut: When their train has nearly reached Ponyville, Spike's stomach rumbles out of hunger. Just a moment later, the same thing happens with all of the Mane Five and Cutie Mark Crusaders.

* WalkingWasteland: When Dimmed Star phases or becomes enraged, her Ink causes surfaces, structures and fabrics to crack and decay as well as leaves in her wake a dark stain that's impossible to clean up.

* JerkassRealization: After the Cutie Mark Crusaders ask to be allowed to come to play with Spike after school, Dimmed Star realizes that she has been treating Spike like her caretaker instead of letting him be a kid. To make it right, she decides to do more chores herself in the future and gives Spike a chance to enroll in Ponyville's school for the sake of making friends of his age.

* LaughingMad: As the Entity enters Twilight's body, she starts laughing madly as her thoughts about the revenge she''ll exact upon the false Cadance grow increasingly morbid. She doesn't even notice [[ImMelting the dissolving of her body]], and her laughter subsides only when her throat has melted away.

* AnimalMotifs: Dimmed Star has a snake thing going on. When she becomes angry, she forms snakes from her Ink, and she tends to hiss as well.