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1%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
2
3''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/57206/Consequences-of-Unoriginality Consequences of Unoriginality]]'' is a ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fan fiction story by [[http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Andoriol Andoriol]].
4
5When Emeris Fillson is transported to Equestria, he finds himself turned not just into a pony but into an Alicorn, and a Suetiful guy at that. Thanks to a curse that Emeris calls the Gary-Stu-ness Effect or GSE, he is better than anypony at any of their special talents (especially when in direct competition), is loved obsessively by everypony he comes across aside from Celestia and, worst of all, is a DoomMagnet that continually brings devastation to Equestria in the form of monsters that only he can stop, and often not without immense collateral damage.
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7After two years of this nightmare, Emeris and Celestia manage to break the curse and turn him into a Unicorn/Earth pony hybrid — and then [[ProlongedPrologue the story begins]], as Emeris attempts to make up for all the trouble he has unintentionally brought to Equestria.
8
9Also has a ScrapbookStory spinoff by the same author, ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/60903/Letters-from-a-Fascinated-but-Frustrated-Scientest Letters From a Fascinated but Frustrated Scientist]]'', as well as an AlternateUniverse story in the form of ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/70756/twisted-reflections-of-consequences-the-despair-of-gary-stu Twisted Reflections of Consequences: The Despair of Gary Stu]]'' where everybody BUT Celestia [[ForWantOfANail hates him]].
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11It is complete, with a sequel, ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/235781/consequences-of-darkness Consequences of Darkness]]''.
12
13----
14!!''Consequences of Unoriginality'', its sequel, and the canon side-stories contain examples of:
15
16* AbhorrentAdmirer: Played with. The curse doesn't alter anyone's appearance, but does drive both mares and stallions into acting like a combination of this and a StalkerWithACrush towards Emeris. However, Emeris also points out how unfortunate it is for everyone affected, and it's later made clear that the curse caused others to act against their own wishes [[AndIMustScream while being completely unable to stop themselves]].
17* AboveTheInfluence: Despite his attraction to several of those that come on to him — particularly Applejack and Rainbow Dash — Emeris refuses to take advantage of anyone and constantly turns down anyone who asks. Due to enforced PoorCommunicationKills, few ponies actually know this.
18* AndIMustScream:
19%%** Emeris's initial fate.
20** Those affected by the curse, being completely aware of their actions but forced to act against their will with no way to stop themselves.
21** [[spoiler: What happens when Twilight's spell goes awry and merges Twilight and Emeris into a single being. Apparently this is exactly what Emeris did upon waking up, only to pass out from shock shortly afterwards]].
22* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Rarity ends up giving one to Emeris when she asks how many ponies know him for his true self.
23%%* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever: Some of the delights spawned by the GSE.
24* BadPowersGoodPeople: Emeris's special talent is black magic. He's a sweetheart.
25* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: As 'Gary', Emeris was unable to be scarred or have his appearance changed in any meaningful way.
26* BeneathTheMask: Because the slightest hint of affection would be taken as a sign of "yes, let's have sex" by anypony he talked to, as 'Gary' Emeris had to be cold, distant, uncaring, rude, impatient, and generally an asshole. Of course, this only reinforced everypony else's [[HeroWithBadPublicity real feelings]] about him.
27** Rainbow Dash is the only pony under the influence of the GSE to have any real understanding of who 'Gary' was as a person. She saw his abhorrence for the attention he received, admired him for the genuinely heroic and awesome deeds he did (even if he was forced into such situations by the GSE, he still controlled his own actions and could have sat back and done nothing), and was attracted to him for the way he selflessly went to fight unbearable horrors again and again… and for his general awesomeness, of course.
28*** She's also the only pony to not to blame for what how the curse made ponies act, once the GSE curse was removed, and didn't see why Applejack would. She had difficulties reconciling the real Emeris with 'Gary', but the reasons why she was attracted to him were entirely genuine (although her behavior was certainly the work of the curse). Considering how she behaves in canon around other awesome ponies she looks up to, she may not have noticed that every time she tried to talk about him she was forced into complying with the GSE's "Gary is awesome" directive.
29** Celestia, in an unpleasant way. Whenever Celestia is angry or irritated over what 'Gary's' curse does to her citizens, she freely vents (verbally) her anger on Emeris. Because in a world where the GSE ensures that nothing he does is a mistake and everything is "perfect" for him, her anger is the closest thing he comes to encountering genuine emotion — and he is grateful for it. Celestia hates it.
30%%* BerserkButton:
31%%** Don't ever imply that only 'Gary' is worthwhile around Emeris.
32%%** Do not try to eat a foal in front of Emeris.
33* BigBrotherInstinct: Emeris has a little sister, and as such is entirely understanding of any misgivings about him Big Mac may have. [[spoiler: And surprised when Big Mac doesn't beat him when he finds out about Emeris's interest in Applejack]]
34** Do not try to harm his friends in front of Emeris.
35* BlackMagic: [[spoiler: Emeris has it as his talent, despite having learned the minimum required to know it couldn't fix the GSE]].
36* BluntYes: Emeris gives one to Rainbow Dash when he refuses to run her obstacle course as part of her "coolness" test.
37-->'''Rainbow Dash''': Are you questioning me?
38-->'''Emeris''': Yes.
39* BodyHorror:
40** Emeris has his wings vaporized by the spell that breaks his curse. It's every bit as painful as it sounds.
41*** He gets absolutely mangled from [[spoiler: fighting off a pack of 30+ unnaturally determined timber wolves to save Apple Bloom]].
42*** Emeris [[spoiler: gets his ear cut off by a bitchy barber. Ponies have a vein in the ear that could have led to him bleeding to death if it hadn't been for Rarity holding the wound closed]].
43** The various [[MonsterOfTheWeek Monsters of the Week]] can lead to some very nasty cases of this for ponies, as shown in ''Twisted Reflections of Consequences'' where a mare gets turned into an EldritchAbomination. [[spoiler: The nightmares shared between Twilight and Emeris while merged]] show that this is fully present in the story proper.
44* BroughtDownToBadass: Even with his powers removed, Emeris is stated to be in the 0'75% higher end of Unicorn PowerLevels by WordOfGod. As he shows Rainbow Dash, he doesn't need his curse to be awesome.
45%%* ChickMagnet: The GSE turns Emeris into an ''extremely'' unwilling version of this.
46* CooldownHug: Emeris ends up receiving several. It would be hard for anyone to deny he needs them.
47* CoveredInScars: Emeris has several old scars (or the pony equivalents) return from his time as a human upon breaking his curse. He collects a very large amount of them after nearly dying saving Apple Bloom, and collects even more [[spoiler: during the ritual where Twilight is unmerged from him]].
48* CurbStompBattle: The magical equivalent, where Twilight crushes Emeris mentally during a test to determine how strong his magic abilities are now the curse has been broken.
49* CutHimselfShaving: Emeris passes off his and Rainbow Dash's injuries after their fight as the result of him falling out a tree. On to a Manticore. Which Dash tried to save him from but ended up being injured as well. Needless to say, this excuse is treated with a fair amount of skepticism.
50* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: Dark magic is one, to the point that Luna specifically authorized its use. The reason why is made clear when we see its overuse start bashing up the user's internal organs.
51* TheDarkArts: Grave Danger specializes in Necromancy and Vice Magic. It seems to have cost him a hoof.
52* DarkIsNotEvil: Despite being called "Vice Magic", it doesn't actually seem to be inherently evil, just unpleasant. Twilight even admits that darker magics are appropriate sometimes as a last resort.
53* DeathSeeker: Emeris is not one, but if they hadn't found a way to reduce the constant monster attacks, he would have reached this point.
54* DeconstructionFic: The whole premise of the story is set around deconstructing the idea of being a male ParodySue.
55* DefeatMeansFriendship: Between Rainbow Dash and Emeris. Though strictly speaking, it's more like "fighting each other to a stalemate before collapsing from exhaustion and injury" means friendship.
56* {{Determinator}}:
57** Emeris when protecting those he cares about. The amount of pain he went through just to end the curse was unfathomable, but he still controlled himself enough not to destroy everything around him in his pained throes.
58** Starcloak unicorns train to use magic even when their horn is injured — or even if it gets broken entirely. This is agonizing.
59* DemonicPossession: Emeris mentions to Luna at one point he had to MercyKill some foals who had been possessed by the MonsterOfTheWeek.
60* DoomMagnet: The curse turns Emeris into this leading to immense collateral damage for anyone unfortunate enough to be caught up in it, though the effect can be partially mitigated through magic and distance. And, as a pack of thirty-plus weirdly determined timberwolves seem to imply, he might not be out of the woods just yet.
61* DoubleEntendre: Celestia and 'Gary' have a conversation entirely comprised of these, when he reports the outcome of a successful mission to her in front of the nobility.
62* EarAche: When Emeris gets a mane cut from a stylist who still holds a grudge against him for the last two years, she gets reckless with her scissors and accidentally takes almost half of his ear off, causing severe bleeding.
63* EldritchAbomination: Gary Stu. Everyone around him is forced to love him with psychopathic intensity, completely overwhelming their normal behavior and personalities while leaving their original self to, fully aware, experience these unnatural feelings and behavior. Even [[TheScottishTrope talking about him]] invokes this. Even if he had no experience or practice, he ''will'' be superior to other ponies if it comes in any form of comparison or competition. The laws of the nation rewrite themselves to force him into the position of alicorn prince. He is described as a "flaw" in the world, and his mere presence is enough to make monsters appear to commit horrific catastrophes and atrocities for the sole purpose of giving him a reason to defeat them. His magic involves twisting reality itself to do what he wants it to — shattering the earth, creating volcanoes from the ground — not any of the proper methods that is supposed to guide the use of magic. And Gary can even [[spoiler: become real if the name becomes too associated with Emeris in the Aether. Not layering Emeris with the concept of Gary, but actually changing him into the GSE concept of what and who Gary Stu should be.]] And then the creatures from Beyond seep into the world through the cracks made by his flawed existence…
64** The creatures from the Beyond. Just knowing about them can be enough for them to spread into the world, and just [[spoiler: seeing Emeris's memories]] is enough to put Twilight in danger from them. The princesses had to erase her memory of what she saw, but even through that she still suffered nightmares over them.
65*** A living, sentient disease that spreads by blood and [[BrownNote laughter]], twisting the forms of the ponies it infects to make their eyes bleed and their mouths rip open into too wide, toothy grins as they laugh and laugh. And Gary, for all his seemingly limitless power, couldn't do a single thing to help a single pony who got infected except MercyKill them to contain the disease.
66*** A fire that ate flesh and couldn't be put out.
67*** A monster that was [[AlienGeometries always behind you no matter what you do]] and that you could only see in mirrors. Until it killed you—then everyone can see it in all its horrible glory.
68* EldritchLocation: The Beyond, which Emeris was unfortunate enough to be in before arriving in Equestria. Comparisons to [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Cthulhu]] were made.
69* ElementalRockPaperScissors: The ice wolves made by Vice magic are vulnerable to fire and Virtue magic — both of which are provided by Emeris.
70* EmeraldPower: Emeris's magic is green, and he's very powerful.
71* EmotionalPowers: How Vice and Virtue magic seem to work.
72* EnergyBall: [[spoiler: Emeris combines the powers of flames of hell, the unnatural cold at the depths of Tartarus, lightning, life energy, the power of the dead, the realms of dreams and nightmares, and his own guilt/self-loathing/suffering into THE HELLBALL]], which proceeded to [[spoiler: destroy a living mountain]].
73-->''A ball of sickly green with shadows seething across its surface, images of skulls and faces flashing in and out of existence as the burning sphere grew, the screams of a thousand souls heralding the blast, a warbling wail of pain and agony as the world shook. Pressure blasting away as the sphere of destruction grew, kicking up the snow and pushing us back even as we stood just over a mile away.''
74* FeeFiFauxPas: Emeris gets several as a result of his lack of knowledge of Equestrian culture. In particular he ends up grooming AJ and bumping cutie marks with her, both flirtatious gestures. AJ is quite understanding however (although not unaffected), and well aware that Emeris doesn't know what he's doing, as she points out to Rainbow Dash.
75%%* {{Fireballs}}: Amongst other elements involved in THE HELLBALL.
76%%* FlamingSword: Emeris can shoot them.
77* FullContactMagic: The Flowing Stream, Still Way, and Shattered Mirror martial arts seem to be this, at least in part. They are the only styles that let unicorns use magic safely while in melee combat.
78* GenderBender: [[spoiler: Twilight, when she messes up her spell and accidentally [[TwoBeingsOneBody merges both herself and Emeris into a male alicorn]]]].
79* GoodWithNumbers: Emeris was an accountant, which proves to be [[FunctionalMagic incredibly useful in the branch of magic he focuses in]], and makes him one of the best runic mages in the world.
80* GuiltComplex: This becomes one of Emeris's defining traits after the curse is broken, and is discussed as being indicative of how bad his mental issues are. If someone or thing is in any way remotely connected to the curse he suffered from, he will apologise relentlessly for it, despite it not being his fault in any way. He feels like he deserves every bit of hatred aimed at him, even when his ''detractors themselves'' admit that he doesn't and that he is completely innocent of any wrongdoing. Despite doing everything he could to help ponies who were suffering and in danger from unspeakable horrors (which is partly responsible for his PTSD), he blames himself because in his mind he was never good enough.
81** When [[spoiler: almost everypony in Ponyville]] ready up to attack Emeris, he tries to leave, but when they try to hurt the Mane Six to get them away from him he explodes in anger. But just before he railed on them for threatening his friends, one of the first things he says is that he probably deserves whatever they wanted to do to him. But just him.
82** Several stallions apologise to Emeris for trying to rape him due to them experiencing uncontrollable lust under the GSE. Like Emeris, they were completely innocent, being unable to control themselves due to the curse.
83* {{Hellfire}}: [[spoiler: Emeris can use it, at cost to himself]].
84* HeroWithBadPublicity: Played With. While everyone publicly espouses the virtues of 'Gary' and how awesome he is, they all secretly dislike him due to the way the curse makes them act. This is DoubleSubverted by ponies who actually get to know the real Emeris and find him to be a likeable guy.
85* HeroicRROD: Emeris severely damaged his internal organs when he [[spoiler: gathered energy from other sources to fire off a [[WaveMotionGun magic blast]] so powerful it blew apart a [[GiantEqualsInvincible walking attack-mountain]]]]. WordOfGod says that the total power of it wound up on the same level as a 9th circle spell.
86* HeroicSelfDeprecation: Emeris honestly doesn't understand why Rainbow Dash likes him, because he doesn't think he's awesome, cool, or in any way heroic at all. This is after proving himself to be a total badass many times over, even after having his Gary Stu overpoweredness and invincibility taken away. Despite his valiant actions, and a selfless willingness to endure pain and suffering to spare others, he can't comprehend why anyone would think positively of him, and fails to recognise or outright dismisses several of his own talents, such as his leadership abilities, tactical thinking, ability to keep calm in a crisis, and some considerable magical skills.
87** He also can't understand why Applejack would be in any way attracted to him, after he almost gets himself killed saving Apple Bloom's life from a large pack of timberwolves.
88* HeroicWillpower: Emeris when he manages to avoid the temptation offered by the mares who come onto him. He even manages to resist Fluttershy's stare, albeit with great difficulty. Also applies when a spell cures his curse, where he's still able to keep control of himself despite the agonising pain.
89* HorrifyingHero: Gary Stu. That the GSE forces everypony to love him anyways only makes it worse.
90** Emeris manages to pull this off himself, due to his natural affinity for dark magic. When he gets angry (universally, to date, from something threatening somepony close to him), green flames start to flicker from his mouth and he starts looking larger and more threatening than he truly is.
91* HumanoidAbomination / HumansAreCthulhu: [[spoiler: Human beings. Emeris's pony body is a shell of [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower harmony]] that allows him to exist in a universe with fundamentally different laws of physics.]]
92-->''There was something words failed to describe residing in the chest cavity of the body, shining with darkness, bent at impossible angles, twisting and shifting and impossible to describe. Twilight's mind recoiled from it… and yet it was so familiar because it was… it was '''EMERIS''' on a level that was hard to describe but was so fundamental that it actually hurt''
93* InTouchWithHisFeminineSide: Emeris goes to the spa with Rarity and Fluttershy for a manicure, pedicure, hoof-filing, etc. He likes pink, has a nice pink vest, and admits that he isn't really masculine.
94* IncendiaryExponent: Emeris starts throwing swords that are on fire. He also uses a blessing to give ponies flaming hooves, the colors of which changed to match the magic of the individual. Rainbow Dash's, obviously, looked [[TechnicolorFire fabulous]].
95* InformedFlaw: Emeris enthusiastically and repeatedly describes himself as an antisocial asshole, yet is constantly trying to help others and generally be an all around nice guy. The former might have to do with him staying away from town as much as possible as "Gary" to reduce others' exposure to the GSE. The latter just seems to be plain SelfDeprecation.
96** The intent could also be that he was more of an antisocial asshole as a human before being brought to Equestria and put through two years under the GSE.
97* ImaginationBasedSuperpower: Emeris's ability to make constructs with his magic, which he compares to a Franchise/GreenLantern ring. However, it is shown that almost all of his magic is based on him creating coding algorithms and running his power through it (not to imply that math or coding don't require imagination).
98* InformedAttractiveness: The process of converting Emeris into something that can exist in Equestria transferred his attraction to human women to attraction to mares. However, he has no idea ''what'' about them he likes, but Fluttershy definitely has it in spades. There's a reason she was a model.
99* InSeriesNickname: Rainbow Dash comes to start calling Emeris as [[FanFic/{{Xenophilia}} "big guy"]].
100** The Gary-Stu-ness Effect is GSE. More of an In-Series Acronym, though.
101* InstantExpert: The GSE turns Emeris into one at almost anything he tries, which causes him much frustration because it cheapens everyone else's legitimate talents, including several of his own skills.
102** What he put real effort into mastering — notably, his heavy specialization in unusual magic — remained even after removing the GSE.
103* InvincibleHero: Emeris under the GSE. He takes full advantage of it.
104* {{Irony}}: After Emeris has his curse broken, Rainbow Dash admits to Applejack she actually liked 'Gary' and that her attraction to him under the GSE was entirely genuine. The idea that Emeris might not actually be "cool" after all causes her a lot of frustration.
105* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Celestia takes on this role for Emeris to have ''somepony'' who won't crumple worshipfully under the effects of the curse. He appreciates this and willingly subjects himself to it. It helped keep him sane.
106** Emeris himself, as 'Gary'. Even a small amount of affection would be taken as a giant flag saying "rape me now". So he is forced to act distantly and rudely to everypony, including the ones he likes.
107*** Subverted in both of the above cases [[BeneathTheMask neither is actually a jerk]], and if the situation were different they would be wearing their gold hearts on their sleeves.
108** Twilight's initial behaviour towards Emeris, however wrong, stems from an altruistic desire to protect everyone (particularly her friends) from what she sees as an unrecognised danger.
109* KnownOnlyByTheirNickname: Emeris takes on the name of Gary while under the GSE, with Celestia being the only one who calls him by his real name when in private.
110* KungFuWizard: Emeris is experienced at battle magic and hoof-to-hoof. Most ponies don't use them in concert because the pain of having the horn attacked mid-spell is enough to knock most ponies out. Emeris's ability to tolerate pain is... abnormal.
111* LanguageOfMagic: Emeris looks at magic like a computer language, and makes programs that he can just run power through to get quick effects. His unique perspective on magic gave him a shortcut in mastering runes.
112* LifeEnergy: Invoked, along with a whole load of other powers, when [[spoiler: Emeris fires off his [[WaveMotionGun giant blast]] at the mountain]]
113* MagicalIncantation: The HELLBALL involved a long one, at least partially improvised.
114* MamaBear: Celestia is this to Equestria [[spoiler: and to Emeris]]. Although her first action when arriving at the [[spoiler: riot of Ponyville against Emeris]] was to have Luna peacefully incapacitate him, when she turned to address the crowd, she burst into angry flames and captured them in magical golden bands to force them to listen to her WhatTheHellHero speech.
115* MeaningfulName: While under the GSE, Emeris takes on the name "Gary Stu" to everyone except Celestia.
116* MercyKill: Emeris had to do it on occasion due to the GSE when even his enhanced powers were not enough to save ponies. For example, he was unable to cure a sentient disease spread by blood and laughter which caused the victim to bleed and endlessly laugh themselves, and had to vaporize the entire village to contain the threat and end their suffering. This is one of the many causes of his PTSD.
117* TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody: Being turned into a pony completely alters what Emeris finds physically attractive, thus making it much harder for him to resist any mare that comes on to him.
118* MonsterOfTheWeek: An in-universe example. When the curse was at its worst, Emeris ended up having to fight a monster or deal with some random catastrophe at least once a week. Said situation only being spawned by the GSE to give 'Gary' a crisis to play the hero of.
119* MustMakeAmends: Emeris feels that he has to for having been Gary. Nopony else who knows him to any degree feels the same.
120* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Celestia has a minor case of this when she discovers how much she had underestimated how badly her ponies would react to a de-Gary'd Emeris, and discovering just how close that mistake came to causing innocent ponies to die.
121* {{Necromancer}}:
122** Grave Danger is one.
123** He isn't one, but WordOfGod states that Emeris put some study into Necromancy in his general study of magical ways to enhance or augment themselves. Which makes sense as ''nothing'' about Gary seemed to be permitted to change. Even his mane and tail grew to full length after a night's sleep.
124* NightmareSequence: Because [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] are ''not funny''.
125* NoSocialSkills: Given his imposed isolation during his curse, Emeris ends up being completely oblivious to many of the social cues everyone else takes for granted, and inadvertently leads to several FeeFiFauxPas due to his lack of knowledge of Equestrian culture.
126* NoodleIncident: Some ''weird'' crap happened to Emeris while he was in the Beyond. We just don't know what. When he woke up as an alicorn, one of his first thoughts was that it wasn't the strangest thing that he had been or that had happened to him (although this was before he discovered the GSE).
127-->''I've been a lot of things. Monster, prey, beast, umbralkin, demigod, something straight out of bad fanfiction, and now a unicorn. A brightly colored pony unicorn. Yeah, it's been that kind of life.''
128* ObliviouslyBeautiful: Fluttershy is ''hawt'', but still has to be convinced (after coming right out of the spa!) that she's at all pretty.
129* OnlySaneMan: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. While Emeris and Celestia appear to be the only ones not caught up in the craziness surrounding the GSE, it's later revealed that everyone else is completely aware of how they're acting, but the curse prevents them from controlling themselves, to the point where they're physically incapable of spouting anything other than mindless adoration for 'Gary'. And thus, from talking to each other about anypony else's experiences with him. Classical conditioning ensures that this remains largely the same even after the cures ends.
130* ParentalSubstitute: [[spoiler: Celestia to Emeris]]. He does have an actual living mom, but is effectively unable to ever see or contact her again.
131* PersonOfMassDestruction: Emeris destroys a ''mountain'' with an attack he improvised on the spot, this is long after he's been BroughtDownToBadass, several of his friends are ''even stronger''. On that note there's also Sombra, who created said living mountain.
132* PoorCommunicationKills: [[EnforcedTrope Enforced]]. Nopony can talk about Gary, because anytime they try there are compelled by the GSE to gush about his amazingness. So nopony actually knows what Gary did to anypony else — and they have ample cause to assume the worst, although this excuse begins to run thin pretty fast. And because of the huge trauma and shame of how they were influenced, as well as two years of being conditioned not to talk about Gary, even after the curse is removed the misunderstandings just keep building up.
133* ProlongedPrologue: Weighing in at over 10,000 words, the story spends considerable time setting the stage and showing just how bad the curse actually is.
134* RapeAsDrama: While this doesn't actually occur to any named character on page (though Emeris likely had to deal with victims of this due to the GSE), this trope is played mostly straight when Twilight believes that Emeris ended up raping her friends by taking advantage of their behaviour under the GSE, not realising her attempts to trick him into sex were actually the closest anyone had gotten — although Fluttershy also came very close.
135** Emeris has had a number of close calls with rape himself. Both on the receiving end from stallions, as well as from addled mares trying to sexually assault or rape him using magic or drugs (which is still the receiving end, but with the added horror of the mare in question effectively being compelled to use him to rape herself). Two examples of the latter are when Twilight tried to use a combined love potion, lust potion, and enchantment spell, and Fluttershy trying to use her stare to command him into mounting her. Several stallions apologise to Emeris for this behaviour after the curse is broken (and like Emeris they are all completely innocent, though it adds even more to Emeris's guilt). All of these are treated as appropriately horrific.
136* RealityWarper:
137** The GSE curse itself works like this, as Celestia and Emeris discover when it spontaneously creates new laws declaring him a prince of Equestria and continually preventing him from abdicating. His use of magic as an alicorn mostly consisted of him deciding to do something, then throwing power at it until it happened.
138** [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] with Emeris, who becomes a master of "Reality Calcification"; the magic of restoring things to their proper order… although it had only a limited effect on the GSE. He becomes so skilled at it that it's one of the few abilities he keeps after the curse is broken, and his proficiency is on a par with the princesses.
139* ReasonYouSuckSpeech: Rarity absolutely rips into True Glamour for her behavior towards Emeris.
140* ReformedButRejected: A major part of story revolves around this. While Emeris wasn't a villain as such, many ponies tend to consider him one by blaming him for the curse and the problems it caused.
141* RuleOfCool: The GSE invokes this, with several of the monsters being spawned for the sole purpose of allowing Emeris to defeat them in flashy and spectacular ways.
142* SafetyInIndifference: Ponies got murdered, tortured, driven insane, and raped, for the sole purpose of creating a story for Gary Stu to play the hero of. This was the effect of Emeris being present in the world, and earlier on it would happen a minimum of once a week. It reached the point where he was no longer able to personally care for the victims of it, because no one can stand that much pain. Emeris still wants to protect ponies and does everything he can for them, but he couldn't emotionally invest more of himself into the ponies who were suffering because of him.
143** In a mix between this and ConditionedToAcceptHorror, Emeris no longer considers monsters to be frightening or even a cause for true worry. As Gary Stu, he was invincible, and he learned what true fear is in the form of the [[EldritchAbomination creatures from the Beyond]]. Even knowing that he's only a normal pony, something like a monster attack doesn't concern him at all… at least, not directed at him. [[spoiler: Apple Bloom, however…]]
144* TheScottishTrope: Even mentioning Gary forces everypony in the immediate vicinity to start talking about how amazing he is, preventing anypony from saying anything negative about him or describing their experiences about him. Leaving everypony with just the most horrible things their imagination can come up with to think about him.
145* SecretArt: Emeris, when trying to learn about the GSE, studied a lot of esoteric forms of magic. The most notable, and the one he is most proud of, is Reality Calcification — the use of magic to stabilize reality and stop that which would change it. Normal magic works just fine, but it was created to put order to Discord's chaos, and was capable of partially reducing the Gary Stu Effect. His knowledge and skill at the art is second only to the Princesses.
146* SecretTestOfCharacter: Celestia threatens to attack Emeris to determine his level of self-control, and thus whether it would be safe to cast the spell to remove his curse. She does apologize afterwards however, and comforts him when his fear at possibly having to fight her reduces him to the verge of tears.
147* ShellShockedVeteran: While Emeris doesn't show many ill effects after the curse is broken, when Rarity starts fussing over his appearance it gives him a panic attack, and [[spoiler:when Twilight's spell goes wrong and he thinks his curse has returned he becomes hysterical with fear before passing out. Twilight diagnoses him with PTSD, in part due to the years he's spent trying to avoid being molested or raped by his GSE-affected fans. She's proven right when Applejack and Rainbow Dash both ask him out at the same time and he suffers yet another panic attack.]]
148** He is shown to forgive way, way too easily. Rarity pointed out that [[BodyHorror what had just been done]] couldn't simply be forgiven like that, but he reacted as though she had told Fluttershy to kick a puppy.
149** Emeris doesn't often have dreams, but when he does his nightmares are full of horrors that no one should have had to face. Unlike most nightmares, his were all real.
150* ShipTease: There is quite a lot of teasing between Emeris and Twilight, even when they're antagonistic towards one another, although the relationship isn't given nearly the near-certainty that the [[spoiler: development with Applejack and Rainbow Dash is given]].
151** When using Virtue magic, Emeris pulled upon happy thoughts — his friends, obviously, but the only ones named were Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Twilight.
152** Applejack has shown a good deal of interest in Rainbow Dash — as much or more as towards Emeris, truth be told.
153* {{Shoutout}}: Several in every chapter.
154** Rainbow Dash's [[InSeriesNickname nickname]] for Emeris may seem familiar to anyone who's read FanFic/{{Xenophilia}}, along with several other references.
155** When Rainbow is stumbling over Emeris's name, she comes out with [[Franchise/MortalKombat Ermac]].
156** When Pinkie asks what his name is, Emeris's first thought is [[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail "Sir Lancelot"]].
157** Emeris channels his inner [[Franchise/StarWars Yoda]] at several points before [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] it.
158** When he wakes up in the hospital, he mentally comments on the ceiling. [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion He immediately lampshades this.]]
159** Emeris calls his combined attack with Quiet Rose [[ComicBook/GreenLantern "Emerald Dawn"]].
160* [[SlapSlapKiss Slap Slap Nuzzle]]: Not [[BelligerentSexualTension strictly a romantic example]], but after fighting each other to a draw and collapsing in exhaustion, Emeris and Rainbow Dash immediately start nuzzling each other, showing several characteristics of this trope.
161* SlippingAMickey: Twilight ends up doing this to 'Gary' to try and trick him into sex (combining 3 different magical effects into something strong enough to affect even him), though thankfully the arrival of Pinkie Pie brings Emeris to his senses and allows him to escape before anything happens. PlayedForDrama later on however, where Twilight doesn't realise she was the closest anyone had gotten to pulling this off, and believed Emeris had been [[RapeAsDrama taking advantage of her friends and other mares in this way]].
162* SpeakOfTheDevil: There are things from the Beyond should not be talked about and never be named.
163* SphereOfDestruction: The combined BlackMagic spell Emeris devises. And what a sphere it was.
164* StalkerWithACrush: The curse tends to turn ponies into this towards Emeris. See AbhorrentAdmirer.
165* SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic: Emeris knows coding and is good with numbers. As such, he has come to view magic as a code for the universe, allowing him to make spells more quickly than a classically-trained unicorn would, as well as "load" pre-programmed spells. His perception of magic as coding language is of great importance to his use of runic magic — this way of thinking allows him to work at a higher level than his knowledge of runes would normally allow, making him in practice one of the best runic mages in the world (although he is quick to point out that he "cheats" when somepony tries to praise him for it).
166** The side-story "Letters from a Fascinated but Frustrated Scientist" involve his analysis of many different aspects of Equestrian magic.
167* SuperpowerLottery: Twilight Sparkle wins at magic. Her maximum magic output, when compared to Emeris's, was as though a hurricane overwhelming a tiny raft. Emeris is described as having raw power in spades.
168** Emeris isn't adept at a lot of different forms of magic that even a basic mage would could do offhand. He can use battle magic as something of a catch-all though, and has a good deal of straight-up power that his affinity for dark magic makes more effective than it would otherwise be. His experience as Alicorn of the Earth also taught him how to tap into the leylines, a concept he recycled to draw upon... other powers, to make something immeasurably more powerful than he could accomplish on his own. His talent at Runes, although lauded by Twilight, is this so much as it is Superpower Shortcut; by treating it like a coding language, he can carry over a lot of tricks that would otherwise take a deeper understanding of runes.
169* SuperheroParadox: The curse created monsters for Gary to fight.
170* TakeThat:
171** At many Human-in-Equestria fics by pointing out the ridiculous characteristics many badly-written SelfInsert characters have, such as the clichéd red-and-black maned alicorn.
172** Emeris unfavorably compares his predicament to being stuck in ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'' as a self-aware Bella Swan.
173* TechnicolorFire: Rainbow Dash's magic makes Emeris's hoof-fire spell go rainbow-colored.
174* ThePowerOfFriendship: Along with ThePowerOfLove, this powers Emeris's Virtue magic.
175* ThePowerOfHate: This powers Emeris's Vice magic. The catch? It's ''self-hatred''.
176* ThePowerOfLove: Along with ThePowerOfFriendship, this powers Emeris's Virtue magic.
177* ThereAreNoTherapists: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. While therapists do exist, [[spoiler: and Emeris genuinely needs help, the Mane Six is reluctant to let him go to a therapist because of the very real danger of the therapist sabotaging his recovery. So they try to take on the role themselves, with professional therapy as a back-up plan]].
178* TwoBeingsOneBody: [[spoiler: The result of one of Twilight's spells going badly wrong... except it turned out that because of HumanoidAbomination hijinks, Emeris was actually absorbing Twilight]].
179* UtilityMagic: One of the first things Emeris does with his new magic is create a typewriter out of magical force.
180* WhatTheHellHero:
181** Celestia admonishes Twilight for attacking and injuring Emeris unprovoked, the day after his curse is broken.
182*** She later delivers one ''hell'' of a reprimand to [[spoiler: Ponyville as a whole for what they did to Emeris]] and quite thoroughly (and quite deservedly) shames the lot of them.
183** The rest of the Mane 6 deliver one to Twilight [[spoiler: when her spell goes awry and fuses both her and Emeris into a [[TwoBeingsOneBody single being]]]]. Luna and Celestia are no less disappointed when they find out, and punish her by banning her from magic for a month, as well as doing anything (beyond walking and personal hygiene) without asking for help from her friends.
184** There is a minor one when Rarity calls Emeris out on his extreme need to accept apologies. From somepony who just cut off his ear after ruining the haircut he paid for, and who had been nothing but vicious to him up to that point. As Rarity points out, some things can't — and shouldn't — just be forgiven on the spot like that.
185* [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman What Measure is a Non Pony?]]: Twilight tries to assuage her guilt after bullying Emeris — something she states herself no well brought up mare should do — by reminding herself that he's not actually a stallion, even if he looks like one.
186* [[WorldsStrongestMan World's Strongest Unicorn]]: Twilight has always been written as magically power, and is stated to have the most potential of any unicorn Celestia has ever seen. But this fic really drives in how ridiculously strong she is. Grave Danger, an Archmage and extraordinarily powerful, says that he could carry three train cars full of military supplies and still be able to fight. Twilight? She could carry ''the entire train'' with ease. The only reason she doesn't is because Emeris thinks she'll need every scrap of power to ensure nothing happens to her or the girls.
187* WreathedInFlames: Emeris coats everypony but Punic's (whose magic armor gets in the way) hooves with flames of justice.
188* YinYangBomb: Emeris uses both Virtue ''and'' Vice magic. This is not normal.
189* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm: Human beings are ''not'' supposed to exist in a world with Equestria's physics.
190** When he was trapped in the Beyond, Emeris learned not to try to grasp it at all—that on that route lie madness. Considering what he later fought, this is a very good lesson to have learned.
191* YouShallNotPass: Emeris gets a rather epic one where he holds off ''at the very least'' more than thirty timber wolves to give Apple Bloom time to escape, though it leaves him a hairsbreadth from death by the time Applejack and Big Macintosh show up to help.
192-->'''Emeris''': I'm drawing a line in the damn sand! And not a damn one of you will pass! So '''bring it on!'''"
193
194!!''Twisted Reflections of Consequences'' contains examples of:
195
196* BloodierAndGorier: Unlike the original story, ''Twisted Reflections of Consequences'' is not shy about showing just how horrific the MonstersOfTheWeek are, and how bad the collateral damage for the rest of Equestria is.
197* DarkerAndEdgier: Considering how dark elements of the original story were, this is saying something. Though according to WordOfGod, the kinds of horrors described in the story also took place in the canon original, albeit off-page.
198* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Celestia, Luna, and the Mane Six's attempt to break the curse goes horribly wrong and they are forced to banish Emeris into the void before his very presence breaks reality.]]
199* ForWantOfANail: What if the curse made Emeris hated instead of universally loved?
200* HeroWithBadPublicity: This version of the GSE turns Emeris into one, where everyone despises him to the point that they'll often attack him, even when he's in the middle of saving somepony's life.
201* ParentalSubstitute: While it happens in the original to an extent, Celestia becomes much more of a mother-figure to Emeris in this version.
202* TearsOfBlood: Emeris explicitly points out how stupid and messy this is, when his transformation in this version causes him to cry tears of blood.
203

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