* AlternateCharacterInterpretation
** Is Charisma a [[TragicVillain tragic ]][[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds and pitiful character who]] would have been an innocent pony, if not for forces outside her control? A sadistic BloodKnight who may have been a [[UsedToBeASweetKid innocent child]], but grew up to be the monster she is on her own, regardless any outside forces? Or just flat out insane from the get go? Also, does she have enough self control to resist her blood thirsty urges, but gives in willingly, or was there no hope of her ever fighting them, and what little control she has, will inevitably falter?
** Was Max Cash just a ruthless if eccentric crime lord before he got a hold of the elements, or was he never a normal pony to begin with? Is he even the same pony, as he was before he started using the Elements, or have they just turned him into a hollow shell of whoever he used to be? Not only do they all have evidence, but recent chapters have implied [[spoiler: he has some connection to Discord, if he isn't ''Discord himself'']]
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: What was Blaze doing holding a bunch of bowls when an entire town was being destroyed?
* CrazyIsCool: Trail Blazer is a [[PluckyGirl Plucky Guy]] with so many of Pinkie's mannerisms, readers have sworn he has to be her descendant from his introduction onwards.
* CreepyAwesome: All three of the main villains are this to some extent.
* CryForTheDevil: Charisma, after finding out that the talent she's had for most of her life, [[spoiler: is constantly telling her to kill everyone around her]], whether she wants to or not. It's kind of hard to say she she ever had a chance of being anything, other than the psychopathic killer she is today.
* DracoInLeatherPants: Charisma. Though she does have a sympathetic backstory and a few redeeming moments,[[note]]It also helps that she's possibly the most badass character in the story.[[/note]] Charisma ''is'' still a sadistic blood thirsty monster, who '''does''' enjoy killing and torturing ponies ForTheEvulz, even if it was forces outside of her control made her into what she is. Yet, throughout the whole story, readers have been hoping she would make a HeelFaceTurn and join the heroes.
* MoralEventHorizon:
** It's hard to pin-point exactly when Cash crossed the line, but a good candidate is when he ordered the massacre of a whole town, [[spoiler: including driving the communication crystal operator to commit suicide and setting the school on fire, while exposing Calumn, to pin the blame on a Changeling attack,]] all to cover his own escape.
** Charisma as well, for willingly going along with this and slaughtering a whole crowd of ponies.
*** One comment even mentioned this trope by name.
* TheWoobie: Many.
** Rainbow Dash. She wakes up stranded in a CrapsackWorld, with none of her friends and is thrown into all the hell the future has to offer.
*** [[spoiler: When Rarity and Applejack started waking up, they had to face the same problems, but with one sad difference: Their families are gone.]]
*** [[spoiler: Fluttershy. She comes in on Max Cash's disemboweled corpse, and later sees Rainbow Dash ''kill'' Charisma.]]
** Star Fall: Being the first Pegasus in modern Equestria, with magic talents, has caused her to be a political pawn in the kingdom for a large portion of her life. Starting with her being taken from her parents (Though at least, by a future parental substitute.) and later, leading to her being forced into an ArrangedMarriage by the king, hoping she could produce an Alicorn offspring. [[spoiler:Later, she's forced to banish her own parents, so they can't be used to get to her, while they think she's simply disowning them. Then, it's revealed that her mentor/ParentalSubstitute was a traitor.]]
** Calumn: As a Changeling, he naturally relies on deception to achieve his goals. But, after he starts to become attached to [[spoiler: the mother of the soldier he's impersonating]] and finds a MoralityPet in Trail Blazer, he has a huge identity crisis and questions what it means to be part of his species.
** Melody loses everything she cares about, is betrayed by a pony she trusted and looked up to, and is driven insane, after Max Cash manipulated her master into helping him. He then [[spoiler: brainwashes her into standing by him, even ''after'' he is nothing more than a rotting corpse, and she can do nothing about this but wait for help.]] After she finally catches up with Max, he bluntly tells her that [[ButForMeItWasTuesday he does not even remember who she is]], before [[spoiler: killing her in cold blood.]]
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