Audio Play / The Nistverse

The Nistverse is a series of three interconnected My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic audio dramas (and their supplementary materials) from Australian content creator MuseScript. It consists primarily of The Heart's Shell (2017), The Color Goddess (2018-2021), and The Demon's Daughter (2022-).

The Heart's Shell is set shortly after the episode "Tanks For The Memories." While trying to cope with the fact that her pet tortoise Tank has to hibernate for the winter, Rainbow Dash is suddenly granted an opportunity to have him by her side again. But after a mysterious illness befalls Tank, she must confront the being that did it to him- her demon foal, the embodiment of her grief towards Tank. However, it soon becomes apparent that this being wants much more from Rainbow than to see her pet gone.

The Color Goddess begins three months after the end of the previous story. After Rainbow Dash's defeat of the evil Tenebris, Princess Celestia holds a celebration in her honor where she reveals that the reason she is able to perform the Sonic Rainboom is because she possesses the powers of the Color Goddess, Hureca. When an old villain of the princesses, King Sophiros, plans an attack on Equestria, Rainbow must team up with a mysterious pony named Nistee to learn how to use her power to bring him down and restore peace to the Canem lands he rules over.

The Demon's Daughter takes place five years after The Color Goddess. Nistee is getting used to her new life as a princess. But when a mysterious merchant approaches her and tells her she's one of seven warriors he's looking for, she starts to wonder if she's destined for something more. When a poor choice of words on her part leads to Rainbow Dash being put in serious danger, Nistee must go on an adventure to take down the newest threat to Equestria and learn about the true origins of her past self.

The Heart's Shell was notable for just how involved MuseScript was with every aspect of production: directing, writing, editing, composing both an original score and songs, doing most of the artwork, and voicing the vast majority of the characters (only four: Princess Luna, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Blue Streak had a different voice actor, and even then, Muse voiced Luna in her first appearance). While she did get more people to do art and voices for The Color Goddess and The Demon's Daughter (as well as having PeaInAPod as a cowriter on the latter), she still handles a lot of the work on them herself.

The Heart's Shell can be found here.

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Tropes present include:

• Alternate Timeline: Confirmed to be one due to the fact that Rainbow Dash's mother in the audio dramas is Firefly rather than Windy Whistles, as well as having two completely different ponies as Applejack's parents (since The Heart's Shell was written before any of these characters appeared in the show proper). Lampshaded at the end of The Color Goddess, where Rainbow Dash's cheering squad at her first Wonderbolts show consists of Firefly, Blue Streak, Tank, and Windy Whistles and Bow Hothoof who "claim to be her parents in an alternate dimension." Additionally, the holiday special for The Heart's Shell is set in a different universe from the audio drama, one where Blue Streak didn't have to return to her own time.
• April Fools' Day:
  • For 2022, due to a few fans complaining about Rainbow Dash giving up her Sonic Rainboom to resurrect Nistee and herself at the end of The Color Goddess, Muse made a fake "Episode 10" of the audio drama where she instead chooses to keep it. This leads to Hureca making sure she's dead, revealing to her sisters that she was Tenebris all along, and Rainbow Dash being blissfully unaware of her death as she proudly proclaims that she can perform the Sonic Rainboom whenever she wants.
  • For 2023, Muse made a video promoted as the "In a Nutshell" version of The Color Goddess, but is actually the stick pony versions of Nistee and Rainbow Dash reenacting the "Steamed Hams" meme. She later announced that the actual "TCG In a Nutshell" video would be coming a few weeks later.
• Art Evolution: MuseScript's art style, which is the dominant one throughout most of the audio dramas, has gotten more refined as she's been drawing more and more. This post compares an image from Episode 1 of The Heart's Shell to a redraw of that same image four years later.
• Ascended Extra: Nistee was the antagonist in The Heart's Shell (as Tenebris), the co-protagonist alongside Rainbow Dash in The Color Goddess, and the main protagonist in The Demon's Daughter.
• Bait-and-Switch: Episode 5 of The Demon's Daughter opens with what appears to be a flashback from four years ago of Nistee confessing her love to Rainbow Dash- only to then reveal that it was just a dream she had back then.
• Bespectacled Cutie: Nistee wears purple rimmed glasses. The reason why is implied to be because her eyes were red for several years when she was Tenebris. When she gets resurrected as an alicorn, she no longer needs them, presumably because Hureca restored her vision.
• Black Sheep: Hexar, being the brother of the three goddesses, is this to their family, being the only one who wants to use his power for evil.
• Book Ends:
  • The Heart's Shell begins and ends with narration from Rainbow Dash.
  • Likewise The Color Goddess begins and ends with Nistee's narration. Additionally, the first song of the audio drama is "Going My Way," and the last song before the credits is its Triumphant Reprise.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Pinkie Pie, as per the usual, as well as Blue Streak starting in The Color Goddess.
• Canon Character All Along: The end of The Color Goddess reveals that Rainbow Dash's grandmother Blue Streak was given a second chance at life by Hureca as her pet tortoise Tank. This plays into the grief that Rainbow felt over Tank in The Heart's Shell being similar to the grief she felt when her grandmother died.
• Conlang: Two, actually:
  • The first is the ancient Canem language, which gives the Canem characters names relating to their notable traits ("Sophiros,", "Liaco," "Deara," "Brucus," and "Arcus" meaning "ferocious," "little," "beloved," "brute," and "armor," respectively).
  • The second is the ancient goddess language (also referred to as "Musian" by Muse herself), which is heavily based off of Latin, and was used to make the song "Tra Godyasee" ("Three Goddesses"), which draws heavily from medieval ballads, to promote Episode 3 of The Color Goddess. Parts of the song's melody were later recycled for the song "Ballad For My Sisters" in Episode 5.
• Cool Aunt: Seeing as Nistee's father is Hexar, that makes Hureca, Satura, and Lumina, the three goddesses, her aunts.
• Creator Cameo: MuseScript's OC, as well as those of the rest of the cast and crew, often make background appearances. Highlights include Muse appearing to hand Pinkie Pie script notes explaining why Spike doesn't have wings in The Color Goddess when he got them in the main show, and a chorus of six Muses showing up out of nowhere to sing backup for the song "Genie Of the Locket."
  Rainbow Dash: Where did they come from?
• Creator In-Joke: A common joke made about MuseScript's OC is calling her a "Musetree" due to her green and brown color scheme. A lot of times when trees show up in The Color Goddess, the artist will sometimes include a note somewhere referring to them as Musetrees. This may have also influenced Nistee's "In a Nutshell" name, "Nistree." Additionally, the "In a Nutshell" video for The Color Goddess represents the part with Rainbow Dash lifting a tree to test out her powers by having her instead lift Muse's OC, who shouts "Hey, put me down, I am not a tree!"
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: The audio dramas seem to do this with Rainbow Dash a lot.
  • The Heart's Shell deconstructs her tough attitude by putting her through grief when her pet has to hibernate, as well as exploring the earliest moment of grief in her life that it reminds her of (when her grandmother died).
  • The Color Goddess deconstructs Rainbow's role as the overconfident hero seeking glory by revealing she has the powers of a goddess, but having her admit she doesn't want all that responsibility hanging on her; all she really wants is to be a Wonderbolt. Her overconfidence is further deconstructed when she's put up against a villain she truly feels she can't take down on her own, to the point where she breaks down when Nistee, the one who's been training her, leaves her.
• Depending on the Artist: Since various artists have contributed to the audio dramas, the style of the characters can vary wildly from scene to scene. One notable inconsistency that varies depending on the artist is the size of Blue Streak's genie form (though Muse has justified this by pointing out that as a genie, Blue Streak can most likely change her size at will).
• Disney Death:
  • Tank in The Heart's Shell.
  • Arcus, Nistee and Rainbow Dash in The Color Goddess.
• Double Meaning: When Nistee asks Rainbow Dash why it's always her who ends up in danger, Rainbow suggests that maybe it's because she "attracts dangerous villains like a magnet." While it comes off as her trying to remain confident in front of Nistee, considering that Nistee herself was once a dangerous villain and has a crush on Rainbow Dash, it's not too hard to see it as shipping fuel.
• Family of Choice: After Brucus and Arcus reform, they comes to accept Liaco as their adoptive little sister, and Liaco likewise accepts them as her adoptive older brothers.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Muse and her artists will frequently sneak gags or cameos into the background of scenes, to the point where Muse did a series of videos pointing out every instance of these in The Color Goddess.
• Genki Girl: Blue Streak, Rainbow Dash's grandmother, who Rainbow encounters in her younger form in the Demon Caves. She is very enthusiastic and excitable. Even more so when she becomes a genie in The Color Goddess.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Tenebris, who after the events of The Heart's Shell is absolved of her grief eating powers and is transformed into the earth pony Nistee, who trains Rainbow Dash to use her powers to battle King Sophiros.
  • Brucus pulls one after King Sophiros seemingly kills his brother.
  • King Sophiros himself at the end of The Color Goddess.
• Hero-Worshipper: Or Villain-Worshipper, rather. The three apprentices of Hexar who haven't been reformed all seem to admire the schemes of one of the ones who has, wishing they hadn't turned good afterwards. Queen Chrysalis feels this way about Nightmare Moon, Tirek about King Sophiros, and King Sombra about Discord.
• It Was His Sled: Tenebris becomes Nistee and does a Heel–Face Turn.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler:
  • Even so much as saying the name "Nistee" is a major spoiler regarding what happens to Tenebris at the end of The Heart's Shell (though the full extent of it isn't revealed until the beginning of The Color Goddess).
  • Likewise, Nistee being an alicorn in The Demon's Daughter is a huge spoiler for the end of The Color Goddess.
• Legion of Doom: Hexar is clearly trying to assemble one in The Demon's Daughter, getting Queen Chrysalis, Tirek, and King Sombra as part of his team. Nistee, King Sophiros, Luna, and Discord are also meant to be part of his plan, but seeing as they all went through a Heel–Face Turn, recruiting them is harder.
• Love Confession: Nistee gives one to Rainbow Dash in The Color Goddess while sacrificing herself for the latter, but Rainbow Dash just interprets it in the moment as meaning she loves her like a best friend. She appears to try to confess again in a flashback in The Demon's Daughter, this time confirming that her feelings are more than platonic, but that's eventually revealed to just be a dream she was having at that time.
• The Man Behind the Man: The Demon's Daughter reveals Hexar to have been this toward King Sophiros, preying on his need to keep his kingdom alive and his lack of powers necessary to do so in order to corrupt him and turn him evil.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: The Canems are half dog, half dragon hybrids.
• Precision F-Strike: The audio dramas are mostly free of profanity (with Blue Streak even using the word "beep" as a stand in for whenever a swear would seem appropriate). The one exception is when Blue Streak sees King Sophiros up close for the first time, to the point where Muse had to put in a censor bleep.
  Blue Streak: Oh my Celestia! You are f**king HUGE!
• Precocious Crush: Spike develops one on Liaco. Albeit, a relationship between them is much more plausible than his similar crush on Rarity since Liaco is only three years older than Spike and her species is half-dragon. Though she does seem a bit annoyed by his constant letters to her in The Demon's Daughter. Much to her surprise though, she discovers that she may actually be starting to develop feelings for him during a heart to heart conversation with Nistee about loved ones.
• Prequel: Muse has put out shorts explaining the backstories of characters more in depth.
  • The first prequel for The Heart's Shell, "The Story of Tenebris," explores Tenebris' early life living with the princesses, and the events that led to her banishment.
  • The second THS prequel, "The Story of Blue Streak," focuses on Blue Streak's beginnings with the Wonderbolts and how she ended up in the Demon Caves.
  • The comic "The Birth of Iris," released during the time of The Color Goddess, but set before The Heart's Shell explains how Tenebris set into motion her plan to make Rainbow Dash suffer.
  • The first prequel for The Color Goddess, "A Love Backstory," shows how Angel Bunny met Holly, his love interest in TCG, and how she helped him become a better bunny.
  • The second TCG prequel, "A Royal Backstory," focuses on the early life of King Sophiros, how he met his future wife Deara, and the circumstances that led to him becoming the ruler of the Canem lands.
  • The third TCG prequel, "A Sister Backstory," focuses on the three goddesses Hureca, Satura, and Lumina, their friendship with the Canem royals, and how they ultimately had to go against them to save Equestria.
  • The fourth TCG prequel, "A Brother Backstory" is about the Canem brothers Brucus and Arcus, how they became Sophiros' guards, and the birth of Sophiros' daughter Liaco.
  • The fifth TCG prequel, "A Shell Backstory" is about how Blue Streak was resurrected as Tank after being killed and how she was able to reunite with Rainbow and become her pet.
• Rebellious Princess: Liaco to King Sophiros. Granted, she has a reason to be since she doesn't want her father destroying the land of the ponies.
• Retcon: In Episode 2 of The Color Goddess it is mentioned that the goddesses were captured 10,000 years ago. Later on, Muse decided that 1,500 years ago would be a better time frame. Episode 8 has Blue Streak directly calling Muse out on this change, which they then try to justify by saying the goddesses were there so long that it felt like 10,000 years to them.
• Self-Parody:
  • For the 4th anniversary of The Heart's Shell, Muse made a video parodying the audio drama in the style of the My Little Pony in a Nutshell videos by Round Trip (who, it should be mentioned, is her boyfriend and has done additional voices in The Color Goddess and The Demon's Daughter), complete with the series' "stick pony" style and parody names for the characters- demon foals become "demon lols," Blue Streak becomes Blu Strek and Tenebris becomes Tenbreezie.
  • She would later make another "In a Nutshell" style video for The Color Goddess (after initially promoting a video on April Fools Day as it, which was actually the stick pony versions of Nistee and Rainbow Dash reenacting the "Steamed Hams" meme). Nistee's parody name is Nistree (a possible Creator In-Joke, see above), King Sophiros is King Sophomore, Liaco is Lie-co, Hureca is Heroco, Satura is Sitting Co, Lumina is Lumpco, and Deara is Deera (represented by a photo of a deer with stick legs below).
• Ship Tease:
  • Plenty between Nistee and Rainbow Dash in The Demon's Daughter.
  • There's also Spike and Liaco in The Color Goddess, though it's mostly one-sided on Spike's part due to him being 12 and Liaco being 15. Though by the time of The Demon's Daughter (five years later), Liaco discovers that she may be starting to reciprocate his feelings.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: By MuseScript's own admission, it takes a while for things to really get going in The Heart's Shell. The catalyst for the events of the main plot occurring (the mysterious watch appearing in Rainbow Dash's house) doesn't happen until the very end of Episode 2, and Rainbow Dash doesn't find it until Episode 3. Most of the first two episodes are spent establishing Rainbow Dash's grief over Tank having to hibernate, which, while important, doesn't do too much in advancing the plot early on. The Color Goddess and The Demon's Daughter are much better at getting the story going early on, however, with King Sophiros' attack on Equestria in the former and the concept of the seven warriors in the latter both being established in their first episodes.
• Spirit Advisor: In The Color Goddess, Liaco is guided on her journey by a mysterious voice which turns out to be her mother, Queen Deara.
• Suddenly Voiced: Angel Bunny and Tank in The Color Goddess, the latter revealed to be the resurrected form of Rainbow Dash's grandmother Blue Streak.
• Token Good Teammate: Liaco is this to the Canems.
• Trademark Favorite Food:
  • Nistee loves chocolate cupcakes.
  • Blue Streak seems to have a thing for donuts.
• Unexplained Accent: Blue Streak has an Australian accent (same as her VA, PeaInAPod) even though no one else in Rainbow Dash's family does. Her elderly self doesn't have it though, despite MuseScript, who voices the elderly Blue Streak, also being Australian.
• Viewer Pronunciation Confusion: Due to some of the voice actors mispronouncing names within the audio drama itself, Muse has had to confirm how certain names are pronounced:
  • The end of Tenebris' name is pronounced like the cheese "brie," but a few of the voice actors have been guilty of sometimes pronouncing her name in a way that makes it rhyme with "this."
  • King Sophiros' daughter Liaco has the "i" in her name sounding like an "e," as in "Venus," but some (including Liaco's own voice actress Kenzie Mayne- in her introductory scene, no less) at first pronounced it with a long "i," like in "enterprise."
  • Sophiros and Liaco's species, the Canems, is pronounced with a long "a" sound, but was sometimes mispronounced with a short "a" sound instead.
  • On that note, a few of the VAs have also pronounced Sophiros' name with a long "i" sound when that's also supposed to sound like an "e."
  • Eventually, Muse lampshaded the mispronunciations by including a poster in the background of one scene showing the correct pronunciations of "Liaco" and "Canems."
• Villain Song:
  • "The Fiery Orbs" for Tenebris in The Heart's Shell.
  • "Crush the Land" for King Sophiros in The Color Goddess.
• "The Villain Sucks" Song: "Our Poor Brother," sung by the three goddesses about Hexar in The Demon's Daughter.