[[quoteright:301:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Screen_shot_2013-02-04_at_11_47_06_PM_3284.png]]
[[caption-width-right:301:Harmony comes at a price...]]

The Elements of Harmony. For generations these ancient artifacts have served as the physical manifestations of Equestria's most important principles: Loyalty, honesty, generosity, kindness, laughter, and the magic of friendship itself. However, only specific ponies are capable of harnessing the Elements' power and little information on them exists in Equestrian literature. And many questions remain unanswered, but there is one above all else: what qualities, spiritual or biological, are needed to allow a pony to control the artifacts representing the Elements that protect the world, and thus assure that the world is not destroyed by the seeds of chaos? What does it take to keep harmony secure?

Twilight Sparkle doesn't know, but she intends to find out by creating her own research on the Elements and their bearers in order to achieve her own WellIntentionedExtremist goals. But how far will she go to preserve harmony and protect the future, and how will the fate of her friends play into it?

[[EvilutionaryBiologist Research]], [[ColdBloodedTorture procedures from]] [[MindRape the pits of Tartarus]], and a "harmonious plan" that [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans promises to bring about a new world]], that's what.

Started on July 25, 2012, by Shadowed Rainbow, Pages of Harmony is a grimdark MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic fanfic and contains extremely graphic content. The story itself can be read [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/5882/pages-of-harmony here ]], a reading is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWzw-htT_KY here]], and a short movie trailer can also be found [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIw8QmE8pr8 here ]]. But BE WARNED you'd better know what you're getting into.

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!!Pages of Harmony contains examples of:
* AfterlifeAntechamber: The bearers of the Elements that Twilight kills end up being sent here, able to communicate with Twilight when they directly speak to her.
* AxCrazy: Twilight Sparkle. [[spoiler:And Rainbow Dash after her MindRape.]]
* BadDreams: Twilight begins suffering from them after killing [[spoiler:Rainbow Dash]], beginning the cycle of communicating with her other victims as they're killed.
** This happens to Apple Bloom as well, right before she discovers that [[spoiler: Applejack is missing]].
* BerserkButton: Never suggest to Twilight that what she's doing is like Discord, or she'll attempt to attack you even if you're a manifestation of her conscience visible only to her.
* [[BigShutUp Big]] "'''''[[BigShutUp SHUT UP!]]'''''": Twilight shouts this at [[IgnoredEpiphany her conscience-self]] after the insistence that what she's doing is wrong.
* BreakTheCutie: WordOfGod says that Fluttershy gets the worst of Twilight's experiments because her Element is the hardest to break. Also, for a more meta reason, because Fluttershy getting hurt is generally considered [[LogicalWeakness the fandom's collective weakness]].
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Twilight herself betrays all of her friends, one by one.
* ColdBloodedTorture
* TheConscience: Rather than being a specific other character that is this in a narrative sense, Twilight's ''literal'' conscience manifests as another version of herself, who retains Twilight's normal appearence despite the MadnessMakeover and SanitySlippage that the real Twilight progressively goes through, attempting (and failing) to act as a MoralityChain
* DarkFic: The whole. Entire. THING. As said by one person on dA, it "makes {{Cupcakes}} look like [[BarneyAndfriends Barney]]".
* EnemyWithin: Subversion - Twilight sees her ''conscience'' as this, seeing it as an interference in her plan, even though her conscience is in fact attempting to steer her back on the right path..
* ElectricTorture: Used on [[spoiler: Applejack]] as a form of conditioning to [[spoiler: make her lie and thus lose her Element]].It also gets used briefly on [[spoiler:Rainbow Dash earlier in the story as a method of shattering her loyalty.]]
* [[HumanResources Equine Resources]]: Twilight separates the body parts of her friends after they die to preserve their bodies as books.
* EvilCounterpart: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. Twilight, the VillainProtagonist, is introduced first, while her [[TheConscience mirror-image conscience]] begins to show up around Chapter 4, trying to get her to see the error of her ways.
* EvilutionaryBiologist: Guess
* EyeScream: When Twilight tortures [[spoiler: Sweetie Belle and then brainwashes Rarity into killing the little filly.]] Fluttershy also gets [[spoiler: a hot plate pressed against her eye]] as part of the procedure to extract her Element.
* FlayingAlive: Done to each one of the other Element-bearers in the form of scalping, but done in a more complete sense to [[spoiler: Spike]].
* ForScience: Twilight uses this to justify what she's doing, claiming her experiments are necessary to strengthen Equestria's defense mechanism of friendship and harmony.
* FreudianExcuse: [[spoiler: Rainbow Dash]] is the most evident example. After Twilight uses mental manipulation on her to [[spoiler: rewrite her memories and destroy any sense of loyalty, and she dies soon after]], she swears to get revenge on Twilight by getting her to die and burn in [[{{Hell}} Tartarus]] for all eternity.
* GlasgowGrin: Dear GOSH poor [[spoiler: Sweetie Belle]]. The way that Twilight delivers lines right before it only makes it worse:
-->'''Twilight:''' Pinkie knows that smiling helps ponies be happy, and it's a fact. (leans closer) Now go on, ''smile''. It'll help you feel better. (after [[spoiler: Sweetie Belle]] doesn't smile) ''You're not smiling!''
* {{Gorn}}: The whole ENTIRE fanfic up to its current point (Chapter 9 currently) - in a very scientific matter.
* '''''[[GrimDark GRIMDARK AS TARTARUS]]'''''.
* HopeSpot: Rainbow Dash has one after Twilight finishes using a machine to briefly electrocute her. [[spoiler:Only for Twilight to reveal she was testing it to make sure it can administer jolts of electricity to Dash's brain properly]].
* HypocriticalHumor: Twilight claims that she's ridding Equestria of all evil when all she's doing is actually making things worse.
* IgnoredEpiphany: Twilight ignores her conscience after she starts her plans of taking the Elements.
* [[ImAHumanitarian I'm an Equinitarian]]: [[spoiler: Rainbow Dash as a result of Twilight using her MindRape techniques]].
* MadnessMakeover: As the fic progresses, Twilight goes from her normal-looking self to a disheveled-looking, pinprick-eyed LaughingMad mare.
* MadScientist: Twilight Sparkle, to the extent of [[spoiler:experimenting on her friends to extract their Elements]]. And it's implied with her talk of purity that her plan goes ''beyond that''.
* MadScientistLaboratory: Twilight has one directly below her library which she uses to perform her research.
* MindRape: Happens multiple times, each with its own horrifying twist.
* NecessarilyEvil: Twilight genuinely believes that [[spoiler:killing her friends and extracting their Elements from them will destroy chaos and allow harmony to reign]].
* PlayingWithSyringes: Twilight Sparkle, and each of them does something completely different.
* RedOniBlueOni: [[spoiler: Rainbow Dash]] is the red to Twilight's blue, though the character alignment is [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] with Twilight being the more villainous of the two.
* SanitySlippage: Twilight's sanity starts to noticeably decline as the story progresses.
* SchizoTech: Twilight's hidden laboratory.
* ShoutOut: During Rainbow Dash's {{Mind Rape}} torture, [[spoiler: the story slightly mentions both ''FanFic/RainbowFactory'' and ''FanFic/{{Cupcakes}}'', two other well-known gorefics. While Cupcakes is only slightly alluded to with Pinkie in one of Rainbow's MindRape visions threatening to hack her wings off, the Rainbow Factory mention is quite blatant... and it makes everything much worse]].
** In a non-MLP example, Pinkie's gesture language and Rainbow Dash's interpretation of it is an reference to Literature/HarounAndTheSeaOfStories, when Mudra the Shadow Warrior communicates to the Storyteller Rashid in this manner.
* ShownTheirWork: The amount of research put into this fic is astonishing. To elaborate it describes actual scientific procedures and forms of torture, among other things.
* SlasherSmile: Twilight has one and it's always present during one of her experiments.
* SpiderSense: Pinkie's "Pinkie Sense" makes an appearance when her pinchy knee tries to signify something scary's going on. Unfortunately, by the time she's figured out what it is [[spoiler: it's too late for Rainbow Dash... and her]].
* SpiritualSuccessor: Possibly to The experiments of Twilight Sparkle. Albeit a much better written one
* StrappedToAnOperatingTable: Twilight restrains her friends in this manner so she can [[spoiler: experiment on them and remove their elements]].
* SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic: Everything having to do with Twilight's Element-Analysis.
* TalkingInYourDreams: The ponies that Twilight takes their Elements from communicate with her in this way.
* TwoPlusTortureMakesFive: Twilight does this to [[spoiler:Applejack]]. Complete with 1984-esque ElectricTorture.
* VillainProtagonist: Twilight, obviously. [[spoiler: Rainbow Dash]] is a secondary example of this.
* TheVoiceless: Pinkie forcibly becomes this when she [[spoiler: has her larynx ripped out]].
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Twilight's goal to preserve harmony in Equestria is admirable. Unfortunately her methods are anything ''but'' admirable.
* WouldHurtAChild:Two of the characters that have been killed by Twilight have been [[spoiler:Sweetie Belle and Spike.]] Not because they were essential to Twilight's plan, but because Twilight thought [[HeKnowsTooMuch they posed a potential threat to her.]]
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