The Petriculture Cycle by Kwakerjak is a WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic [[FanFic fanfiction]] series that all starts with Twilight asking the question: [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E23TheCutieMarkChronicles "Just what IS 'rock farming', anyway?"]] Suffice to say, the answer turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined...

The series currently consists of, in chronological order: ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/14298/petriculture Petriculture]]'', ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/35688/inscape Inscape]]'', ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/68226/avocation Avocation]]'', and ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/87692/- Pi]]''. (Also, as the premise of each successive story is more or less grounded in the surprise ending of the previous story, be extra careful of spoilers below!)

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[[folder:''Petriculture'']]
* AbsenceOfEvidence
* ConvenientlyUnverifiableCoverStory: The driving plot point of Petriculture.
* FantasticAesop: In certain contexts, [[spoiler:friendship can ''literally'' be a form of magic]].
* IJustWantToBeNormal: Pinkie Pie.
* SmarterThanYouLook: Pinkie Pie's intelligence is only hinted at in this story, but it becomes ''extremely'' prominent in ''Inscape''.
* TriggerPhrase: Combined with MyArtMyMemory
* [[spoiler:{{Tulpa}}]]: Pinkie Pie [[spoiler:used to be Twilight Sparkle's imaginary friend, Surprise.]]
** The ending reveals that [[spoiler:Discord was Celestia and Luna's imaginary friend as well.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Inscape'']]
* AntiHumor: The preferred form of humor among griffons, much to Pinkie Pie's consternation.
** "Why did the griffon cross the road? Because there was an annoying twit trying to have a stupid conversation with her on the sidewalk when she had better things to do."
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: "What are ''you'' gonna do?"
* CantStayNormal: Pinkie Pie.
* TheCoup: Subverted. Due to The Nightmare's corruption, Twilight wants Celestia's and Luna's thrones for herself. Due to her own bookishness and sense of order, Twilight doesn't try to take the throne by violence--instead she presents logical arguments for why the princesses should cede the throne. [[spoiler:This is then double-subverted, when Pinkie uncovers that the Nightmare ''wants'' a violent coup--her real goal isn't power, but killing Celestia--and is manipulating Twilight to that end. Nothing comes of this manipulation, however, because Twi learns about it and immediately turns on the Nightmare.]] In the aftermath, Twilight is mortified at her actions and asks for forgiveness. Luna points out that she doesn't need to be forgiven, because she never broke any laws during her attempted power grab.
* CurbStompBattle: Implied to be the inevitable result of attempting to [[BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind fight a mentally stable pony in their own head]]. [[spoiler:Twilight Sparkle eventually demonstrates this on the Nightmare.]]
* FaceHeelTurn: Twilight Sparkle.
* GroupHug: Pinkie Pie manages to weaponize one when she loudly announces that it's the Nightmare's birthday. All of Twilight's memories of Pinkie come out from hiding to [[TheGlomp tackle]] her before hauling her off to a party.
* INeverSaidItWasPoison: Twilight Sparkle falls into this trap three times in the first chapter.
* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind
* NotBrainwashed: Twilight Sparkle.
* PowerLimiter: Pinkie Pie is voluntarily keeping most of her Imaginary Friend power sealed off to avoid hurting others by accident. Unless a Pinkie Promise is involved - in that case, the entire arsenal is at her disposal for the purpose of Keeping the Promise.
* [[PuppetKing Puppet Princesses]]: Twilight offers to let Celestia and Luna remain on their thrones as figureheads while she pulls the strings.
* SecretTestOfCharacter: The Nightmare convinces her hosts to administer these as part of her corruption methodology.
* SimpleCountryLawyer: Parodied when Pinkie Pie interrogates the Nightmare in Twilight's mind.
* SympathyForTheDevil: [[spoiler:Nightmare Moon]] is given another chance.
* TitleDrop: Mentioned by Pinkie Pie in the very last chapter.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, and the Nightmare are all capable of this to some degree.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Twilight really does believe that Equestria will be better off with her in charge.
** TheExtremistWasRight: By the end of Twilight's presentation, even Celestia and Luna agree with her points regarding the research itself and give Twilight the go-ahead to access them. The main issue is handing actual rule of Equstria to Twilight, to which Celestia notes Twilight would be ill-suited for because of all the politics involved.
* WhatTheHellHero: The first half of Twilight's proposal basically amounts to a meticulously-researched one of these directed at the Princesses.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Avocation'']]
* AdamSmithHatesYourGuts: Penumbra, without fail, quits or gets herself fired from every job that she can find.
* [[spoiler:AnEntrepreneurIsYou]]: [[spoiler:Penumbra's final solution to steady employment is to just go into business for herself! As a cloud artisan she gets to both [[SecretArt bring back an old tradition]] and [[PublicMediumIgnorance not have ponies question her attitude at work]].]]
* BerserkButton: Scones are supposed to be '''''PLAIN.'''''
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Subverted. Penumbra is ''unquestionably'' good at several the jobs she applies to, but ends up losing each one due to her own person being... less than unquestionable.
* DidWeJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu: Considering the plot of the Cycle at large, the story synopsis is essentially: [[spoiler:Nightmare Moon goes job-hunting]].
* FishOutOfTemporalWater
* IReadThatAs: Penumbra applies as a Barrister for Starbucks.
* MortonsFork: Penumbra being [[spoiler:a thousand years old]], she has no idea how modern workplace relations work. In the various jobs she tries, she is sent mixed signals of the highest degree, in job being fired for being too cold and "only doing her job" while in another quitting over sexual harassment.
* MundaneUtility: Penumbra is a [[spoiler: pseudo-alicorn super-pegasus]] with enhanced ''everything.'' What does she consider most useful? Her super preening oil! That she is [[spoiler:actually a thousand years old]] just means she has planty of experience with preening feathers!
* [[NoodleIncident Noodle Incidents]]: Because Penumbra [[UnreliableNarrator withholds details from her letters]] in an effort to put the most positive spin she can on her actions, many of the events described come off feeling like these.
* ScrapbookStory: The story is told through a [[EpistolaryNovel collection of letters]] written from Penumbra to Luna (whose responses are not included).
* TrueArt: Penumbra's reasons for selecting [[spoiler:cloud sculpting and contruction]] as her final job. She just got fed up with the mass-produced versions floating around everywhere.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:''π'']]
* AlternateUniverse: While previous stories in the Cycle only explore the aspects and characters that the author introduces, π sets the series firmly in this category by introducing these aspects and characters into the canonical premise of [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E5MagicDuel Magic Duel]].
* BerserkButton: Trixie ''loathes'' circles.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Penumbra was very rude when she thought Twilight was leaving her friends. But, she wants Twilight to win the duel against Trixie, because she is also her friend.
* TookALevelInJerkass: Trixie, though she is shown to be wearing the [[ArtifactOfDoom Alicorn Amulet]]. She has leveled significantly for this story in particular.
* DramaQueen: Rarity.
* [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Hoist By Her Own Petard]]: Subverted ''hard'' when [[spoiler:Trixie finds out Twilight's attempt to beat her with smoke and mirrors. YMMV as to whether it makes more sense for Trixie's familiarity with her own trade or her megalomania to win as in the original episode.]]
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:In the end Trixie escapes Ponyville without learning her lesson ''or'' being punished for her actions.]] Nevermind that her actions are perfectly defendable in court...
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Discussed and averted. Not only does Penumbra not put any stock in this trope, it turns out that it isn't even applicable. Alicorns aren't actually immortal; they just "don't leave until they're ready to go."
* WorldOfCardboard: Twilight inverts this to rationalize ''not'' using her [[spoiler:god-like Alicorn]] powers to beat Trixie.
** TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Penumbra counters by inverting ''this'' trope to un-guilt Twilight into using them after all.

[[/folder]]
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