Codex Equus / Tropes S to T

Tropes for Codex Equus
Tropes A to B (Abusive Parents, Adaptational Badass) | Tropes C to D | Tropes E to F | Tropes G to H | Tropes I To J | Tropes K To L (Laser-Guided Karma) | Tropes M To N | Tropes O To P | Tropes Q To R | Tropes S to T | Tropes U To V | Tropes W To X | Tropes Y To Z

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Codex Equus provides examples of:

S

• Sapient Eat Sapient: As noted under Eaten Alive, this is a depressingly common occurrence on Equus, with many monstrous or monstrous-sized sapient beings having no problems with eating other sapient beings, from cannibalistic cultists ritualistically devouring their victims, to predatory sapients targeting prey sapients, to gigantic beings eating whole lands and even Gods eating each other (And anyone else less powerful). Partly explained in that their very natures often mean they can't afford to be picky, and where they could choose to eat non-sapient sustenance they would often choose not to eat sapients, downplaying this aspect.
  • Giants races and other enormous-sized beings like Giant deities and Dragons require enormous amounts of food to sustain their bodies (And even then, only to catalyze Magic Eater metabolisms, since the square-cube law means after a certain threshold no amount of food could have sustained them). Since their hunger means they can't afford to be picky, and their innate domineering instincts, this results in them having little to no reservations against eating the smaller 'Tinies' races. Hungry Giants can consume whole villages, towns and cities; meanwhile their gods can swallow whole kingdoms and pantheons in an afternoon. As a rule of thumb/hoof, if they have even the slightest Giant heritage, they've more likely than not eaten people (And even enjoy it). However, benevolent members of these species tend to only eat those who had it coming.
  • Temnobog Cultists, particularly those who worship Bolezn, a member of the Four Terrors and the Deer god of Greed and Gluttony, are known for depraved cannibalistic rituals whereupon a sapient sacrifice is devoured alive as an offering to Temnobog and his son. The fact that they usually only target those abhorrent enough to deserve it does not diminish the horror of their actions, but they never claim they were saints.
  • Griffons used to prey on ponies as their natural predator, resulting in Fantastic Racism between the two. However, this practice died out a long time ago.
• Science Fantasy: The main author had stated his intention to portray the setting as one. Magic is portrayed as the Fifth, grand-unifying Fundamental Force, for example, and treated as natural as the other four Forces. As in canon, many technologies depicted in the setting are either magitech or enhanced by magic.
• Screw Destiny: One of the main themes of Codex Equus, as sapientkind, both divine and mortal, has the power to change their own fates despite some people dictating otherwise.
  • It's revealed that Crystal Prism's transformation from a unicorn to an Alicorn was intentional - Noble Grace and Bubbling Beaker wanted to make an Alicorn that embodied Rebirth and Change so he could serve as the herald of a "new age" for Ponykind. This is why Crystal Prism's appearance and powers centered mostly around butterflies, such as light manipulation, telepathic butterfly control/summoning, and "cocoon-healing". Golden Scepter, however, would encourage him to forge his own path instead.
    Crystal Prism: Well, I guess she still got what she wanted, in the end... I Ascended and became the Alicorn of Rebirth and Change, heralding a 'new age' and all that. I suppose it's my only destiny now... right?
    Golden Scepter: "No... no, my little pony. It is not the only destiny you have... far from it, actually.
    Crystal Prism: What makes you say that, Emperor?
    Golden Scepter: I have the power to see the future of every pony on this planet. And yet, an old friend of mine taught me that 'nothing is truly set in stone'. Every person, divine and mortal, has the power to change and determine their fate, including you.
    Crystal Prism: But... how can I do that if... if...?
    Golden Scepter: You embody Change, do you not?
    Crystal Prism: Er... yes?
    Golden Scepter: Then you have your answer. What that old mare and her crony did to you was wrong. However, you have more roads open to you now. What you will do with your life and your new divinity from this point on, is entirely up to you.
  • Crystal Prism would later suggest this to his friend Katastrofa, who is also Ispita's youngest son - since he already knows what's going to happen, he has the ability to prevent the bad outcomes he foresees from happening. Katastrofa was noted to be caught completely off-guard by this.
  • One of Luminiferous's powers is to "Reject Fate" - as the Alicorn god of Potential, he can change prophecies and fates to his will, no matter how inevitable they are. This makes him a valuable boon to some, and a bane to others (particularly villains that are protected by prophecies). This also made him a target of ire among the Changeling Kings of the Summer Court, who believe that their divine lineage as children of Emperor Blackthorn makes them entitled to royal privileges and the right to rule.
  • Destiny and fate, so far, had also been portrayed in a negative light as something that restrains the freedom of those caught in its grasp and damn them to terrible dooms, or used as justifications for atrocities and absolving responsibility of terrible misdeeds and mistakes. There are examples of destiny and fate as positive forces, but they are rarer and less prominently depicted.
  Second Age Proverb: Destiny is the creed of tyrants and the excuse of fools.
• Sealed Evil in a Can:
  • Many of the Summer Courts' First Spawn are this for many reasons.
  • Like what happened in canon, Celestia had to seal Princess Luna in her own moon for a thousand years after the latter became Nightmare Moon and provoked a civil war in Equestria, something that Celestia herself regretted since Nightmare Moon's "birth" was largely caused by her own neglect of her little sister. Nightmare Moon eventually escaped, but the Mane Six use the Elements of Harmony to purify her, turning her back into Princess Luna and leading to her Heel–Face Turn.
  • Blackheart the Accursed, one of Blackrose's daughters and one of the Spring Court's few "bad apples", was imprisoned by her own mother for her crimes towards Changelingkind. This was in part because she became immortal and couldn't be killed.
  • Dread was imprisoned underneath the ocean. It's unknown whether or not he's still alive after the thousands of years he's been sealed.
  • Yamata no Orochi's corpse is sealed away, with the demons spawned from his severed heads also being imprisoned.
  • Grogar was repeatedly sealed away in legend. Whether or not he's dead or simply still imprisoned is currently unknown.
  • The surviving Dyvaos eggs they couldn't destroy were sealed away by Mothryu and Battryu after the creatures nearly wiped out life on Equus. Brachion was tricked into releasing them in modern day, and notably admits it was a mistake.
  • Like Nightmare Moon before her, Final Epoch was sealed away in the Realm That Never Was (a potential future that is now impossible but not an alternate universe). Starlight Glimmer's time-altering revenge plan damaged time enough for her cult to set her free... which led to her defeat and Heel–Face Turn.
• Sealed Good in a Can:
  • Discord sealed his 'little brother' Pakak in a locket during his reign. One story in the Codexverse depicts Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie being sent by the Cutie Map to help Discord free him and make amends.
  • This can apply to most members of the Church of the Stars - they all sealed themselves and put themselves into magical stasis so they could Fling a Light into the Future, and wake up in a later Age so they could help guide and prepare those of the Fourth Age against powerful threats.
    • Queen Dazzleglow has been dormant for 20,000 years and only awakened recently. It's revealed that she had done this after the Second Age ended during the "Void Aeon" event, so she could help the people of later ages break "cycles" and become strong enough to fight the Void Sovereign. Her awakening is the subject of one Codexverse story, where Daring Do has to revive her and ward off Ahuizotl and other malicious factions who are working to destroy her.
    • Princess Jiniri, formerly Razzaroo, did this at the end of the Third Age, sealing herself away in a genie lamp until Daring Do found her at Queen Dazzleglow's request.
    • Princess Brightglow, Dazzleglow's younger sister, also did this at the Second Age's end, though she went to sleep separately at different places so that if one of them falls, the other would wake up and take over their duties.
    • Prince Arcaniss of the First Age also did this after it ended, eventually waking up during the Fourth Age.
• Secret Test of Character:
  • Midnight Bell's temporary transformation into a unicorn was actually this trope. Luminiferous, the one responsible for her change, had overheard her wish and wanted to see if she actually wanted to be a unicorn, with everything that comes with it. As it turned out, Midnight had so much difficulty with unicorn magic and the accompanying expectations that she eventually decided that it wasn't worth keeping once her wish ran out. When Luminiferous appeared to her in disguise and asked her if she wanted to be a unicorn again, Midnight refused, stating that she has everything she needs now, which greatly impressed and pleased the antediluvian Alicorn.
  • Temnobog, the Bogolenya Deer god of Suffering, Darkness, and Evil, sees his domains as forces that test the heroic will and resolve of good-minded people, and never lets the villains and evildoers he "blesses" to become completely undefeatable. This would make every battle between good and evil this trope by default. In addition, many Roedinian myths spoke of deer champions and heroes seeking out Temnobog for aid, which led to them being tested by difficult trials in order to prove their worth. If they succeed, Temnobog will relent and give the heroes what they wanted.
    • And if Temnoism prevails on Equus and monopolizes all Evil as Temnobog seem to intend, he plan to ultimately make it that every conflict between Heroes and Villains, Good and Evil become this, ensuring both concepts of Evil and Good will survive and never grow stagnant/self-destructive, ensuring mortals will continue surviving and grow better.
  • It's implied that Emperor Blackthorn of the Summer Court gives his sons/Scions the freedom they have so he could see which ones are exceptionally useful to him and his Court. He seems to lean towards those who prove themselves to be benevolent and competent individuals, such as King Lasius and King Metamorphosis, as they're more focused on ways to benefit the Summer Court as a whole rather than scheme and secure their own power. He's even on cordial terms with Prince/Captain Polistes despite having "betrayed" his father and becoming an Autumn Changeling/air pirate, and uses him as a smuggler for rare and exotic goods.
• Seers:
  • The antediluvian Alicorn goddess, Queen Hylia the Wise, was known for being a powerful seer when she was alive. Her fellow Alicorns believed that the only "mistake" she made was falling in love with a mortal, the original Gleaming Shield.
  • Hylia's mortal reincarnations, all named Radiant Primrose, would inherit her power. This is what allowed her to make the best decisions and aid Gleaming Shield's various incarnations in winning their battles through many lifetimes.
  • Princess Celestia was described as having a "gift of prophecy", which played an important role in Final Epoch's eventual defeat when Queen Dazzleglow received a telepathic warning from her through her Sun.
  • Crystal Prism has an incredibly rare type of empathy that allows him to receive prophetic visions by displaying strong emotions/thoughts for someone before going to sleep. The Church of the Stars called this "emotional foresight". This came in handy a couple of times, such as getting Midnight Bell the psychiatric help she needed to avoid falling into chronic depression, and allowing Luminiferous to give Button Mash a magical trinket that will lend the colt his future potential in order to defeat "CreepEntity513".
  • Foresight is a prized ability in Alvslog Deer society, which is why they revere High King Irminsul, a precognitive, so highly. Kúzelník, a former Elternteil deity and the Deer god of Sorcery, was responsible for cultivating the largest numbers of seers and oracles among his worshipers, with many of them going on to work in the royal courts of great Alvslog Deer Kings and Queens - an example would be the realm of Thicket, whose royal family has many Seers and Druids under their employ, as they were present during Captain Blackthorn's interrogation to see if he was actually the disguised Changeling Emperor Blackthorn. Alvslog Deer rulers who are born with foresight, especially Deer Kings, are also highly celebrated by Alvslog Deer, as they are able to take care of their subjects efficiently.
  • Prince Blueblood, Celestia's adoptive nephew, has a special talent in clairvoyance, in which he is able to find various things based on which paths his magical intuition reacts strongly to. This is what allows him to manipulate and direct government power and authority to areas that need it most, making him an incredibly competent politician. However, by his own admission, he sees people like Celestia as "true" Seers in that they receive visions even while awake.
  • Belyolen of the Bogolenya Deer Pantheon is a precognitive, being described by his entry as having "a touch of prophecy". It's implied that this is one of the abilities he gives to his worshipers and champions whenever he empowers them, as Queen Vesna of Bitaniya earned it on the day of her coronation when she and her brother, King Strazha, were blessed.
  • Belyolen's younger twin brother, Temnobog, is an inversion since he has retrocognition. His entry states that such an ability is incredibly handy in looking into the past of criminals who try to hide their deeds from him. It's implied that this is one of the abilities he gives to his worshipers and champions whenever he empowers them, as King Strazha of Bitaniya earned it on the day of his coronation when he and his sister, Queen Vesna, were blessed.
  • Golden Scepter, who is the Captain Ersatz of the Emperor of Mankind, is described by his entry as a powerful clairvoyant who has both precognition and retrocognition, allowing him to see the futures and pasts of sapient creatures, especially Ponykind, which he embodies. Notably, he was able to foresee Prince Sparkling Wing's future as the beloved ruler of a great kingdom, and has started mentoring the young Alicorn on leadership.
  • As the Alicorn demigod of Prophecy, Prince Bright Eyes has precognitive abilities like Crimson Star, but his are more potent and accurate than his brother's. He can receive flashes during the day, which allows him to predict and avoid his opponent's attacks, but it's noted his visions are enhanced when he's asleep. He can grant these visions to others if he desires.
  • One of the abilities Prince Crimson Star, Golden Scepter's eighth son, has is precognition, which he shares with his younger brother, Bright Eyes. However, after he lost his sight saving a classmate in a carriage accident, he became a Blind Seer. It's noted by his entry that while his foresight isn't as powerful as Bright Eyes', Crimson Star was still able to put it to good use, averting several crises in the process.
    • During the "Temptation Unbound" event, Crimson Star foresaw his brothers being turned against each other one by one, creating a schism so catastrophic that his father would die trying to stop it. He brought his vision to Golden Scepter's attention, ultimately saving his family, while exposing the malicious deities and their worshipers who tried engineering his family's downfall to remove a large threat to their plans.
    • When he foresaw the untold amounts of destruction and death affecting the Nine Realms, Crimson Star pleaded for Golden Scepter to let him avert this bad future. Golden Scepter would give his son his blessing, allowing Crimson Star and a few of his brothers to participate in the "Final Ragnarok" conflict while the rest of his family fought in the "Storm King Crisis".
    • In general, whenever he teams up with Fanged Paw to kick ass, one of the ways he helps out his older brother is predicting when and where an enemy will attack with his foresight.
    • A canonized Codexverse drabble implies that he foresaw Pegasus tribalist factions, such as the Scions of Hurricane, getting their hooves on the Order of the Weathersmiths' complete anthology/lore and using it to "save" the Pegasi from the so-called "tyranny" of the other Pony tribes and/or the Equestrian Princesses. This motivated him to personally fund heroic adventurers like Daring Do/A.K. Yearling to find it, while making sure that said adventurers are competent and trustworthy to ensure that the Weathersmiths' lost knowledge isn't used as a tool for destruction and suffering.
      Prince Crimson Star: (to Prince Palatine Phoenix) Should the lore of the Weathersmiths be successfully discovered, it might enlighten the Pegasi and help them reach new heights magically and intellectually. I AM aware of the potential consequences, but that is what precognition is for - to prevent supremacist factions like the Scions of Hurricane from using the lore to spread that deluded, steaming pile of garbage they believe will 'save' the Pegasi.
    • According to Jasper, he foresaw one of Pokhot's sons, a Bogolenya Deer god of Pride, Deception, and Evil, becoming a Fallen deity and causing much destruction. This motivated Crimson Star to make a risky gambit that involved "losing" his soul in a devil's deal and humiliating the Deer god by having him nearly lose to a mortal (Jasper) in a card game. Golden Scepter showing up and repeatedly poking the Deer god until he got his son's soul back just made everything work out even better.
  • Katastrofa, Ispista's youngest son with Discord, has the ability to see only bad outcomes. This would eventually wear on his mind until he became an apathetic and nihilistic person who believes he's only good at sowing misery through destruction, and everything will end badly no matter what he does. Crystal Prism suggesting he could use his foresight to actively stop the disasters he sees took him completely by surprise.
  • Pokhot, the youngest daughter and child of Temnobog, has a gigantic Deer-Spider hybrid form that grants her limited precognitive abilities, which references the spider being a symbol of destiny and mysticism. This allows Pokhot to predict the outcomes of certain actions, but she prefers not to use it because 1) being able to predict anything will make her fights boring, and 2) she prides herself in her individuality, so she hates ruining the future potential of heroes and champions before they had the chance to properly grow into it. Doing so will make her no different from the pride-breakers she loathes with a passion like her mother, Ispita, and her paternal grandfather, High King Irminsul.
  • One of Pokhot's (many) divine and demi-divine sons, Prince Stoltur Skjöldur, has inherited her precognitive abilities, though it's different for him. His entry notes that as the god of Potential, he can see both the good and bad potential of people, and what they could be even years ahead.
  • One of Blue Suede Heartstrings' domains is Humility, which gives him a form of precognition that makes him see a person's future depending on their actions - he sees good futures if a person is humble and virtuous, but bad futures if not. This allows Blue to warn people of the consequences of their pride and other depravities, and help them redeem themselves. It's noted that Blue's foresight is similar to Stoltur's foresight, in which the latter sees people as they are if they reach their future potential for both good and ill.
  • As the Alicorn goddess of Happy Endings, Princess Twilight/Amicitia Sparkle Equestria has precognitive abilities. While the domain of Happy Endings hasn't been entirely explored yet, Luminiferous believes that it gives her a "subconscious foresight" that allows her to see and guide her towards happy endings to terrible conflicts.
  • As the Alicorn demigod of Temperance, Prince Red Blade possesses a form of precognition that shows him a person's future depending on the actions they take. This allows him to warn people of the consequences of pursuing vice, while encouraging good actions. It's noted by his entry that his precognition is heavily similar to Blue Suede Heartstrings' Humility-based precognition in this regard, except Blue focuses on discouraging unchecked Pride.
  • Prince Night Shade possesses psychic foresight just like his father and some of his brothers, except unlike them, he only sees the worst possible futures, despite not embodying Bad Ends. This partially factored into his puristic mindset as thanks to his visions, he started believing that all criminals, real or perceived, must be punished for their actions. Under the Poenan Pantheon's guidance, he also used his foresight to stamp out Evil and other crimes before they could be carried out. Fortunately, his experiences in Nocturna, including befriending the Pony family whose mother saved him, showed him otherwise, and his foresight turned out to be quite useful in predicting the arrival of malicious threats. It's because of his specific foresight that he deeply sympathizes with Katastrofa, as the Draconequus god suffered from the same thing and was driven into depressive apathy because of it, and also showed great approval of Crystal Prism befriending him. It's heavily implied that he inherited this ability because he is the Reincarnation of General Hanging Edge, who possessed the same catastrophic foresight, except without anyone to help him deal with his visions, he was slowly driven insane until he became an utter monster.
    • It's inverted with Night Shade's retrocognitive abilities, allowing him to look into a person's past. This comes from his domain of Karma, which gives him spells that can either help or hinder someone depending on their morality and actions beforehand.
  • All members of the Trimortidae have death-based clairvoyance, allowing them to sense people's impending deaths. Some Trimortidae go further in possessing true precognitive sight.
    • Bossa Nova Heartstrings, Blue Suede Heartstrings' older identical twin brother, has precognitive abilities as part of his domain of Death - namely, they allow him to foresee how a person is going to die. While it's normally a terrible power to have, he only sees it as motivation to comfort the dead and dying however he can.
    • One of Moon Ray Vaughoof's strongest Psychic Powers is precognition, which gives him symbolic future dreams (usually from his perspective) that surpass even Bossa Nova's. While his precognition first emerged during his addiction period, it's only after his death and his Ascension that he became aware of his ability. His domains of Death and Temperance lend to this, making him see visions of a person's death and a person's future based on their actions, respectively. It's later revealed he was supposed to be a god of Prophecy, but he unwittingly repressed his domain with his own flaws and traumas; only by letting all of them go was he able to manifest his Prophecy domain in full. Once it does, he gained the ability to grant visions, sense innate precognitive power in others, and predict the future via hydromancy. Unfortunately, because he didn't naturally grow into his Prophecy domain, he became prone to falling asleep often due to the sheer power he now possesses. ​It's hoped that he will overcome this weakness given time.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
  • During his period of addiction, Moon Ray Vaughoof often dreamed of himself drowning in water, which was supposed to warn him of the deadly consequences of his drug/alcohol abuse if he continued. Not knowing he was a latent Seer at the time, Moon Ray continued doing abusing alcohol and drugs in a vain attempt to suppress his dreams. He ended up nearly dying when he collapsed from a gang plank during tour, and a trip to the hospital revealed the full extent of the damage he had inflicted on himself. Fortunately, he was able to turn his life around from this.
  • The Elternteil Deer Pantheon's actions regarding Temnobog resulted in one. They abused him since fawnhood because Irminsul killed his son in-utero while trying to purge him of his inner evil, and so he taught everyone to treat the young Temnobog as unrepentantly evil to make up for his mistake. The constant abuse he endured eventually caused Temnobog to snap and become genuinely evil out of sheer resentment, validating his family's views of him. However, upon learning the truth of his existence, Temnobog reconciled with Belyolen, whom he previously hated for being their family's favorite, and seeks to prove the Elternteil Deer Pantheon wrong by following 'constructive Evil'.
  • The Third Splintering happened because of Irminsul's psychological abuse of another son, Phoenix King Naur, who embodied Fire. Centuries of dealing with the Elternteil's abuse and toxic hypocrisy left Naur increasingly angry and bitter, finally reaching a breaking point when an Alvslog Deer Realm was destroyed thanks to Irminsul's neglegigence and stubborn pride. Naur expressed his desire to leave and succeed where his father failed, spurring Irminsul to outright restrain him with his powers. It only led to Naur attacking him with the same fire magic he was taught to suppress for much of his life, leading to the Elternteil Deer Pantheon's divine realm being scorched from the fight. Arvan intervened and let Naur leave, while restraining Irminsul with her own power despite her husband's protests.
• Semi-Divine: Demigods are mentioned, with many of them being heroes in various cultures, though few have gotten prominent focus.
  • It turns out Party Ponies with strange abilities like Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich likely are this trope: Pakak had twin daughters, Katharsis and Arlequin, with his wife, Shady of G1, who in turn ascended to godhood and had children of their own and thus distant descendants, leading to similar powers to Pakak's Toon Physics powers showing up in a very diluted form. Though this would mean the divine blood is extremely diluted by now.
  • Every Royal Changeling is a demigod, due to Blackrose and Blackthorn having multiple flings with mortals from different races. This makes them more powerful than the Common Changeling, being stronger, smarter, tougher, and magically more powerful as well as possessing a natural aura that attracts Common Changelings to them. Unfortunately, their divine heritage also gives them an strong sense of entitlement, seeing themselves (and their Parents) as the rightful rulers of Changelingkind and treating their "rebellious" subjects as ungrateful, disobedient children for leaving their Court. Luminiferous notes that ironically, Thorax, a lowly drone, was the only one to break his Curse and Ascend into something far greater, something that Blackrose or even Blackthorn's children have never done, which is a sign that their grudge against Dragonkind is really holding them back.
  • Thorax is a strange example in that he was once a lowly drone of Chrysalis's hive who became a Royal Changeling by willingly sharing his love with his ex-Queen. Despite being the equivalent of an infant demigod, it's implied that he's incredibly strong, even sending Changeling King Zorpheus halfway across Avalon with a single arcane blast that would've killed normal Royal Changelings. If he were to go further on his potential, he would've become a god on the same level as Blackthorn and Blackrose.
  • Crystal Prism, once a unicorn colt named Page Wheel, is physically a teenage Alicorn after Ascending very early in his life thanks to unethical experiments and strange, traumatic circumstances. According to Twilight Sparkle, Crystal's stint as a magic-absorbing monster gave him so much magic that after he was killed by Luminiferous and the Equestrian Princesses, the magic reacted by reviving Page Wheel's dead body in a cocoon, Ascending him in the process. So he's quite young both in mortal and divine terms, especially the latter since he's the equivalent of an infant demigod. It's revealed that his current state is because he was intended to become the Alicorn god of Rebirth and Change so he'll symbolize a "new age" for Ponykind, but he was encouraged to forge his own path instead.
  • All nineteen sons of Golden Scepter, an antediluvian Alicorn Emperor, are demigods, having been sired with a mortal pegasus mare, Blessed Skies. However, through gaining Character Development by doing positive things based on what they each embody individually, all of them would become demi-Alicorn gods, making them the equivalent of infant divines. A few of them are Prince Blazing Hoof, the oldest of Golden Scepter's sons, and Prince Crimson Star, a blind psychic prodigy, though as more entries are published, more sons are named such as Prince Fanged Paw, Prince Written Word, and Prince Steel Barricade.
  • The villainous Dark Illustration is the son of the Fallen goddess Ispita and a mortal Pony stallion. His entry calls him a "demi-draconequus" whose chimeric traits are based on circus animals, though it's noted that part of this is due to shapeshifting abilities that he possesses.
  • Prince Stoltur Skjöldur was born the demi-divine son of Pokhot, an Evil Deer-Draconequus hybrid goddess and member of the Four Terrors, and a mortal Cervidian Deer stag who was an incredibly depraved warlord in life. After Pokhot secretly sabotaged Stoltur's father and left him to die at the hooves of his own subjects, she would take little Stoltur with her and raise him herself, teaching him the philosophy of "constructive" Evil until he grew up and Ascended to true godhood.
  • One interpretation of Blue Suede Heartstrings' backstory is that Amareros, the Love Primeval, sired him with a mortal mare, and he eventually Ascended to true godhood. This might explain why he has Philia Love as one of his domains.
  • It's rumored in-universe that unicorn lyrist Lyra Heartstrings is a mortal descendant of Blue Suede Heartstrings through one of his deceased lovers. However, the fact that her ancestor is an Alicorn suggests that she has at least a partial divine heritage.
• Sensory Overload:
  • Aniwye's musk is far worse than their smaller skunk cousins, to the point of being able to repel an adult dragon and render ponies unconscious.
  • Stellar Scents and other Perfume Ponies are capable of doing this with their scent manipulation abilities.
  • Moufette, the Parental God of sapient skunks, has spray horrid enough to knock an adult dragon unconscious. This trait applies to many of his children as well.
• Shared Universe:
  • It's eventually revealed Filly Funtasia is set in the same universe, merely on a different planet with the Fillies being descended from lost pony settlers who evolved into a unique species over time. It's in the same solar system as the planet that Queen Sunsparkle founded Neo-Friendship Gardens on, meaning a proper crossover may be coming.
  • The Melowy books are eventually revealed to be set on another planet colonized by lost colonists from the Alicorn Civilization and the Princess Ponies books are set in the EG universe, being the result of the natural portal to Equestria shown in Spring Breakdown allowing Equestrian magic to leak through and influence the evolution of nonsapient horses until they became sapient.
  • It eventually turns out the Spyro the Dragon franchise happened with different names, with, as with the MLP side, all three iterations existing in the same timeline with the three Pyros all being part of the same bloodline. In present the Skylanders exist, with Pyro III being a major player.
  • Emily Carroll's comic anthology, Through the Woods, occurred in the Codexverse via its short story "Our Neighbor's House" taking place in the early Fourth Age's 'Three Tribes Era'. During a Windigo attack on the continent that would become present-day Equestria, a certain Trimortidae by the name of Moon Ray Vaughoof visited a dying village whose inhabitants knew him as 'the stallion with the wide-brimmed hat'. He came across a trio of fillies who lost their parents to the devastating snowstorms, and ushered them one by one after hypothermia claimed them; the middle-born filly was the last to go after she died traveling alone to a neighbor's house for safety.
  • Story of the Blanks took place during the Fourth Age in an Equestrian hamlet that's now located within the Everfree Forest, is full of ruin and overgrowth, and is populated by Pony zombies who are part of a fanatical anti-Cutie Mark Cult.
  • A few entries and drabbles reveal that Children of an Elder God happened in the Second Age, with the event referred to as the 'Angelic Impact Crisis'. Much like the story inspiration, five teenage Neighponiese foals ended up becoming eldritch deities by fighting Angels and assimilating their essences, only for them to learn they were Unwitting Pawns for a couple who wanted to use the foals' divine power to create a utopia for their son, who is part of the group. They kill the masterminds to save everyone, but the experience leaves them with incredible PTSD that would not be resolved until three Ages later.
  • A Kickstarter-backed cardboard game called Flamecraft has its world take place in Cobbletown, a formerly run-down town that was gradually transformed into the cosmopolitan capital of a thriving kingdom thanks to a pack of young Dragons who decided to aid the poor locals. Their most famous creations are Dragon-Elemental hybrids called 'Firecrafters', created via a collaboration between Prince Arcaniss and Cobbletown's local pantheon and finest mages. Small-sized yet adorable creatures, the Firecrafters possess an innately altruistic nature and are very eager to help others with their magic and skills.
• Shock and Awe:
  • One of the things Prince Crimson Star can do with his Psychic Powers is summoning bolts of psychic lightning to strike his enemies.
  • It's mentioned that Prince Sparkling Wing, who embodies Weather, can summon lightning with his weather magic for quick, precise strikes against his enemies. But due to being a Martial Pacifist, he generally doesn't do it unless he has to.
  • Prince Steel Barricade's entry notes that he is an incredibly powerful and skilled lightning mage, something that developed even during his time as a mortal demi-divine pegasus. This is because lightning/electricity is closely intertwined with technology, which he embodies. Most of his applications of lightning magic are physical, such as covering himself with lightning to discourage physical contact with his enemies, turning himself into a makeshift taser and shocking his opponents by channeling lightning through his hoof-strikes, and enhancing his natural speed. He can also sense the presence of lightning and electricity, allowing him to dodge lightning-based attacks with ease and predict where they are coming from. However, some of Steel Barricade's more powerful techniques include forcibly taking electricity away from technology to shut them down, creating bombs made of condensed lightning that induce shocking explosions as a form of "crowd-control", using certain conductors to channel electricity over a wider area such as blood and metal, and combining lightning with the powers of those who embody Weather and Wind to create powerful and deadly lightning storms. And much like how Written Word can turn himself into wind energy using his famous "The Wind of Faith" technique, Steel Barricade can turn himself into pure lightning energy, enhancing his speed tenfold and making him incredibly dangerous to face in combat. It also allows him to travel through electrical wires and pieces of technology that are powered by electricity (making him potentially ideal for infiltration), feed on electricity and empower himself with it, and "possess" things like radios and computers and talk through them (if they have auditory output) or at least communicate through digital text. However, in some ways he is more vulnerable in this form, as users of wind and water magics can weaken and nullify his attacks.
• Shocking Defeat Legacy:
  • The 'Storm King Crisis' was this to Equestria. From what we know so far, given how most of their country got occupied by the Storm Empire during the conflict and that the Royal Guard got decimated so badly they are in process of being replaced by a new Equestrian military force.
  • The 'Battle of Moroz Valley' for the entirety of Giantkind. In ages past, it was considered a given that in any confrontation, Giants will win most conflicts against Tinies by virtue of their great sizes and power. While the Tinies could win, it is often difficult and costly. Then the Cloven Empire inflicted a decisive Curbstomp Battle against a Rampage of 50+ Giants (Between 40-80 meters tall) without a single loss on their side through cunning tactics and superior firepower. On that day, to Giantkind's horror, they discover that despite their small size, not only could Tinies advance quickly and sufficiently enough to become their equals, they could even SURPASS them.
    Cyclops King Occulus: For the longest time, it had been given that the Great will win over the Small, barring unique circumstances - maybe they have the luck, maybe they have the numbers, maybe they have the means. Even then, the Small have every reason to fear the Great would crush them as they always had.
    
    Now they have all three, and they do not fear… They CANNOT fear.
• Shout-Out:
  • A Noodle Incident mentioned in Guiding Light's entry apparently involved snails and birds and was "really gross". This referenced a chapter/case in The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, where people got infected and developed mutated eyes from eating infected snails, which compelled them to climb things like trees and telephone poles under the delusion of becoming a "bird" so they can be eaten by birds.
  • Quite a few references to If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device had been made in regards to the Terran Empire's royal family, given that two Codexverse writers are fans of the show.
    • Golden Scepter telling his sons stories of the Alicorn Civilization's Free-Love Future as well as his own sex life paralleled how the Emperor of Mankind recalled his past exploits with many human women and expressed surprise that some of his lovers managed to survive long enough to have his children. Prince Crimson Star's reaction is exactly how poor Magnus reacted, which is hilarious considering how he's based on Magnus the Red - according to one of the Codexverse writers, TTS!Magnus was also one of her inspirations for Crimson Star's character.
      Prince Crimson Star: (singing) LA LA LA LA LA, I CAN'T HEAR THIS, I DON'T WANT TO BE ON THIS PLANET ANYMORE!!!
    • One assassination attempt on Golden Scepter's life involved a Griffon Autorist sending him a magical plague bomb, which was thankfully contained and defused by his son, Prince Death Shroud. In Text to Speech, a Nurglite Chaos follower sent a plague bomb to the Golden Throne through a letter in Text to Speech's second Q&A video, though it failed to infect everyone inside due to them being immune to it. Golden Scepter almost quotes the Emperor verbatim, "This smells slightly better than the poison one of my chefs tried lacing my spaghetti with a few weeks ago", while Prince Crimson Star quotes TTS!Magnus, "Just refrain from breathing through your noses, and we should be fine".
    • Another assassination attempt involved poisoned spaghetti in reference to the Emperor's quote, "This smells better than the spaghetti [Karl the Deranged] cooked for me." A Terran Griffon chef by the name of Gilded Stove tried killing Golden Scepter for his Autorist backers by lacing his spaghetti with acid. Golden Scepter caught on, however, and was so disappointed by the lack of creativity and effort that he snidely suggested that Gilded Stove learn from his sons to do a better job.
    • Jasper is a walking Shout-Out to the entire Text to Speech series in that his life more or less parallels that of "Little Kitten" - like Kitten, he's treated like shit by military personnel, he's a Badass Bookworm, he's best friends with one of Emperor Golden Scepter's sons (in Jasper's case, it's Crimson Star), and he has a slavish devotion to Golden Scepter that he's gradually getting out of. A few of his exploits involved exposing/incapacitating moles disguised as Terran Imperial Council members (echoing how Magnus and Kitten killed several Xenos disguised as the High Lords of Terra), nearly beating one of Pokhot's infernal divine sons in a card game (echoing how Kitten fought and beat Tzeentch in a card game), and going on an adventure that somehow turned his fur gold while Crimson Star transformed into a blue-feathered chicken (echoing Magnus and Kitten months-long adventure away from the Golden Throne that ended with Magnus being transformed into his blue-feathered Daemon Primarch self by Tzeentch).
  • The Accumulated Text: "THOU SHALT NOT MAKE A CONSTRUCT IN THE LIKELINESS OF A THINKING MIND."
  • According to one of the Codexverse writers, Moon Ray Vaughoof being known as 'the stallion with the wide-brimmed hat' is a reference to Through the Woods by Emily Carroll, specifically the story "Our Neighbor's House". During the time of the Windigos, Moon Ray visited a dying village where he ushered in the souls of three orphaned fillies who lost their parents to the cold and died themselves soon after. In "Our Neighbor's House", three girls lost their parents to a harsh snowstorm and were subsequently haunted by a man with a wide-brimmed hat, who is implied to be The Grim Reaper ushering in those who died in the cold.
    • Moon Ray's narcoleptic sleepiness stemming from suddenly manifesting his Prophecy domain in full was inspired by Kiyoko/Number 25 from AKIRA. Like Moon Ray, Kiyoko is also a sleepy precognitive, though in her case it's because she's of poor health and thus spends much of her time in bed and hooked up to life support.
  • At one point, Princess Hnignun, the Deer-Draconequus goddess of Death, Poverty, Decay, and Sickness, was romantically pursued by a nihilistic Deer stag who committed increasingly depraved atrocities to win her love. This echoes the relationship between Thanos and Death, whom Thanos has a crush on but is never successful in actually wooing her. Unlike Thanos and Death, however, Hnignun decides to deal with the problem permanently by giving her Abhorrent Admirer over to her older twin brother, Prince Stækka, who angrily proceeds to avenge his sister's honor.
  • Prince Dissonant Tune undermining an Autorist rally by using his Magic Music powers to play looping fart noises is reminiscent of Steven Universe and Lapis doing the same thing to Mayor Dewey's campaign speech in the episode "Mirror Gem".
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Many examples.
  • Celestia and Luna, as in canon. Celestia wields Sun magic and is serene and graceful, while Luna wields Moon magic and is boisterous and outspoken.
  • Belyolen and Temnobog are identical twin brothers thanks to a ritual their father, Irminsul, cast to get rid of all of his elder son's flaws, and are literally a God of Good and God of Evil, respectively. Belyolen is compassionate and uses his powers to help people, while Temnobog uses his powers to tempt people to the side of evil in order to test their resolve, and condemns those who willingly gave in to his influence. While this veered into Cain and Abel territory for a time due to Temnobog resenting Beloyen for receiving praise while he was cast off, they eventually reconciled as their unique nature prevented them from killing each other (one would be weakened/strengthened, and vice-versa), and Belyolen revealed that he always loved his brother despite being born as a tainted god.
  • The Dragon deities, Yin and Yang, are literally this, embodying Shadow and Destruction and Light and Creation respectively and are opposite right down to their appearance. However, like actual yin and yang, each also has some small aspect of the other (Yin is an Ice Queen with a Hidden Heart of Gold while her brother, Yang, is warm and friendly, but has a vicious side that comes out when enraged for example). They're joint gods of Balance for this reason, and get along well with one another despite how different they are.
  • Arlequin and Katharsis are the twin daughters and G1 Shady and Pakak, and have a similar yin-yang to Pinkie Pie and Maud Pie - the fun-loving Arlequin is a prankster, while Katharsis is a stoic goddess who encourages emotional release from those she helps. Fitting, given one of them is likely the Pie Family's ancestor.
• Sizeshifter: Many deities are explicitly or implicitly capable of this. Amusingly, Astrid of the Jotunn Pantheon never manifests as anything but gigantic; even though she could easily be the size of a non-giant deer.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Prince Crystal Clear, Blue Suede Heartstrings' oldest adoptive son and child, is demisexual, a type of asexuality where he only feels sexual/romantic attraction towards people he established close emotional bonds with. By his own admission, this allowed him to better understand his friend, Prince Shamrock Bloom, who is aro/ace.
• Smelly Skunk:
  • Aniwyes are jumbo-sized versions of these. They're mostly peaceful if left alone, but their spray is much worse than normal.
  • Pakak, the Draconequi Spirit of Mischief and Karma, has a fully functional skunk tail as one of his parts. He can actually create an aspect of himself based off it that assumes the shape of an Aniwye which was guarding his prison. Unfortunately for Rainbow Dash, she gets sprayed retrieving it, though luckily Pakak rewards her by cleaning her off. His daughter Katharsis inherited this aspect from him.
  • The Great Skunks are a race of anthropomorphic sapient skunks, though of a more realistic version. Their Parental God Moufette is basically Pepe Le Pew, and actually is the stinking 24/7 type of skunk (though mainly due to lack of self control, as he can turn it off). Moufette is also far worse than even Aniwyes, to the point he can knock out fully grown dragons.
  • Disskunks are Emotion Eaters that feed off disgust and revulsion. As such they effectively feed by spraying their prey, with their smell being worse than a normal skunk (though not as bad as an Aniwye's). Appropriately, their names sound like "disgust" when said out loud.
• The Social Darwinist: King Brachion Lyonesse is this, in part due to being cast out by his bigoted Alvslog Deer royal family as a child for being a dormant Royal Changeling and forced to survive in a deadly forest environment. Notably, for this reason he apparently has respect for his Arch-Enemy Kick Hopper for being a fellow survivor.
  King Brachion: The Law of the World is the Law of the Jungle.
• Soiled City on a Hill: The Four Terrors have delivering divine wrath upon extremely sinful places as one of their jobs in realms in their pantheon's domain. When a kingdom grows so morally bankrupt that It Is Beyond Saving, the rest of the Bogolenya Pantheon gives them a Last-Second Chance to change their ways. If they don't, they evacuate the good mortals still there and 'Call the Terrors' to wipe out the kingdom and claim the wicked who remain. The kingdom is then left behind as nothing but a gigantic scorch mark that's still there after several generations has passed, serving as a warning to other kingdoms that the Four Terrors might go after them, too if they don't change their ways.
• So Last Season: Toxikon was smart enough to study and develop countermeasures for every method the Changelings had made to slay dragons, meaning using them against him will fail at best and backfire at worst.
• Solar System Neighbors: In the Codexverse, life is so abundant across the cosmos that many worlds within the solar system itself is inhabited with intelligent extraequusian life and alien civilizations. In the 'Great Wars Era' of the Second Age alone Equus (then called Tellus) experienced dozens of invasions from its Maretian neighbours in the Maretian-Tellusian Wars. Incidentally, this also means there's no such thing as the Fermi Paradox in the Codexverse.
• Space Cold War: Throughout the four Known Ages, several of these 'frozen' conflicts, standoffs and competitions appeared between various mortal nations and immortal pantheons over conflicts of interests and influence, usually either eventually escalating into all-out war or eventually cooling down into long peaces and reconciliation.
  • The 'Second Age''s version of the Cold War was known as the 'Twilight Struggle', which began after the 'Second Great War' and involved no less than FIVE superpowers at any one phase (although players would come and go depending on the time period), lasting nearly 150 years and even turning hot into new Great Wars between the superpowers and their allies, although they always never escalate beyond limited WMD exchanges, owing to a desire to avoid Mutually Assured Destruction, especially when they often have to grudgingly work together to fight off even worse threats than each other from wiping them all out.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Princess Laska, who was based on Princess Euphemia. Unlike Euphemia, who was accidentally Geassed by Lelouch into committing genocide against the Japanese and then was Mercy Killed by Lelouch to stop her, Laska was never Geassed. Instead, Strazha, Lelouch's Expy, would save her from being Geassed into committing genocide against Bitaniya's non-Deer population by Deer Autorists, having been tipped off by his sister Vesna's prophetic visions. The result was Laska and her knight/fiance Falling Leaves (Suzaku's Expy) saving her would-be victims.
  • Golden Scepter, being based off of the Emperor of Mankind, is another example - in the WH40k 'verse, the Emperor of Mankind was reduced to a shriveled, mummified husk, kept alive by the Golden Throne and sheer willpower, after he was gravely wounded in the Horus Heresy, which was largely caused by his mistreatment of his Primarch sons. Here, Golden Scepter was put in magical stasis after the "Aurum Apostasy" conflict with the intention to heal him later after sufficient medical technology was produced, only to be gradually forgotten by his subjects and ended up sleeping well into the Second Age, where he would be found and revived by Luminiferous and Queen Dazzleglow. It's noted that Golden Scepter is eternally grateful for their help, saying that if it weren't for their kindness and patience, he would have rotted away a long time ago.
  • Konrad Curze slowly went mad from being constantly plagued by the catastrophic visions granted by his foresight, with no one to help him deal with them or his increasing psychosis. Discovering that Nostramo, his home planet, had slipped back into its depraved and criminal ways after he left for the Great Crusade caused him to snap and fall even further, to the point where he let an Imperium assassin kill him after seeing he became no different from the criminals he hunted down. By contrast, Night Shade grew up with a stronger moral compass due to growing up with a loving family and befriending those who cared about him, and while he suffered the same problems as Curze and nearly became as bad as him, he ultimately realized the horrific truth behind his actions and morality. This allowed him to atone for his mistakes, which saved him from receiving Curze's fate. What made this even more notable is the implication that Night Shade is the present-day reincarnation of General Hanging Edge, who is the expy/ersatz of Konrad Curze and thus bore all of the latter's worst traits and impulses.
• The Sponsor: Moon Ray Vaughoof is one, being based on Stevie Ray Vaughan. After becoming sober, Moon Ray helped his bandmates in Double Trouble achieve sobriety themselves. When not performing, he would help other addicts clean up and share stories about his own experiences. After dying in a helicopter accident and Ascending to godhood through forgiveness, he would continue helping people this way, giving him a reputation of being a redeemer. This made Moon Ray a fierce enemy of the Poenan Pantheon, whose followers believe the people he helps don't deserve redemption though he has redeemed some Poenans by helping them see the error of their ways. One of his students and adoptive daughter, Princess Voľná Láska, was a former drug addict in her mortal youth. Even after re-Ascending as an eldritch god, he still helps addicts achieve sobriety.
• Start of Darkness: Plenty are given to many villains or evil characters featured or mentioned.
  • Changeling King Brachion of the Summer Court started life as a Deer Prince in a forested Alvslog Deer Realm, with no idea of his Royal Changeling heritage, yet was still condemned to death by his own Deer parents for his heritage when it was discovered. This forced him to flee into the dark, forbidden depths of the forest, still a young buck at the time, where he was forced to survive for years, alone, against the elements and vicious predators, before his Royal Changeling side manifested. This traumatic experience directly contributed to him becoming the Mad Scientist and The Social Darwinist as a Changeling King he is today.
  • The young Yeti who became the Storm King was born in a harsh, unforgiving mountainous land where those who lived in it had to be just as harsh and unforgiving just to survive. His mother disappeared when he was too young to remember her, and his father and brothers were abusive towards him. Constant competition and betrayals between him and other young Yetis for power and status in the band culminated in him ending up getting backstabbed and thrown off a ravine where he nearly died. All these experiences molded him and his worldview into one of a ruthless warlord who doesn't trust or care for anyone other than himself, and believes strength and power is all that matters in the world.
  • Changeling King Xestobium was once a noble knight, living in a kingdom now long-forgotten - because said kingdom was destroyed by a terrible dragon, killing everyone, including his own family, and even took one of his legs, before his True Nature manifested. This traumatic experience fills him with an understandable hatred for all dragons. This only worsened as he entered the Summer Court, which encouraged these sentiments with their historical enmity against Dragonkind; seeing only the worst of Dragonkind every time he and his hive goes out to slay them (And feed on the love reciprocated by those they saved); and in the process seeing his own tragedy repeated, over and over again. Adding the fact that his family are mostly monsters no different from the dragons in going about destroying others for their own gain, Xestobium's sanity slipped until he finally snapped, becoming an genocidal maniac who would stop at nothing to destroy Dragonkind (And the Summer Court, his own family) - even if it meant wiping out the whole world in the process.
  • It's speculated in-universe that the reason why Blood Fang was driven to conquer Hyrule and ultimately fell to evil is because he and his loved ones lived in extremely harsh environments, motivating him to conquer more fertile lands such as Hyrule so they could have the good life they never had. However, if one were to go further back, the greater demon Demise was also responsible for Blood Fang's evil, having possessed his ancestor Blood Feather in a last-ditch attempt to spite him, Radiant Primrose and Gleaming Shield for his defeat at their hooves. A portion of that same evil stayed with him when some gods reincarnated him after death.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Deconstructed, as having this attitude creates and enables misogyny on a societal/cultural level, leading to everyone suffering.
  • The Elternteil Deer Pantheon's traditionalist views on gender mean that Elternteil Deer goddesses (as well as their female mortal followers) are expected to be supportive and intelligent, yet submissive, loyal, and deferential to their elders, especially their male counterparts. They also generally don't have any say outside of their roles, either. It's deconstructed in that this view is shown to be outdated, sexist, and psychologically harmful, and by making their females submissive, the Elternteil Deer Pantheon ended up encouraging and enabling toxic behaviors among themselves and their mortal Deer Herds.
  • Meanwhile, in emulation of High Queen Arvan, female Alvslog Deer are expected to be supportive and intelligent, yet submissive, loyal, and deferential to their male counterparts. They also generally don't have any say outside of their roles, either. It's deconstructed in that this view is shown to be outdated, sexist, and psychologically harmful, and by making their females submissive, the Alvslog Deer Herds ended up encouraging and enabling toxic behaviors among themselves.
  • Among other things, one of the things promoted by Confusionism is filial piety, which includes women being required to be submissive to their husbands and male counterparts. The problem is that this kind of attitude is a reflection of Confusious' patriarchal beliefs, and it wasn't long until Chineigha (and the rest of the Far East) was turned into a deeply toxic, stagnant, and misogynistic environment. It took a 'Century of Humiliation' for the entire Far East to realize this was wrong, and in the Fourth Age, the latest Oriental Pantheon chose to let Confusionism die out partly for this reason.
• Stronger with Age: Deities increase in power the older they become, and given they're immortal they can get very old. Deities predating recorded history, such as Luminiferous, Golden Scepter, and Queen Mzazi, tend to be immensely strong. Amareros, the Eldest of the Wood, and Choice are among the oldest known deities and all of which are incredibly powerful, with Amareros being known as a Grand Primeval and even the Kings of the Summer Changeling Court are afraid of him. His siblings, also Grand Primevals, are every bit as powerful as he is, and likewise no one wants to mess with them. Higher on the divine hierarchy are the three Cosmic Sovereigns, Void, Perpetuity, and Genesis, the latter being revealed as the Grand Primevals' grandmother. And even higher are the Architects - they are so ancient that they are full-blown Eldritch Abominations, but they are completely benevolent and love all of their creations.
  • There are exceptions to the rule, however. Under certain circumstances, deities can accelerate their age through various means, such as absorbing huge amounts of magic (as what happened to Queen Aoide Mousikós and Princess Arcus), having their divine natures completely altered (as what happened to Moon Ray Vaughoof/Prince Canticum Lunae Cahaya; only by reaching an epiphany and coming to terms with himself was his condition stabilized), or becoming the divine avatar of a concept that the entire galaxy believes in (as what happened to Diamond Tiara/Queen Elpis).
• Stuff Blowing Up:
  • On any occasion Blastfire is applied this happens, as Blastfire is what happens when Fourth Age Equus discovers an alchemical 'high explosive' (without ever inventing a 'low explosive' like gunpowder) which due to a 'arcane resonance effect' increases in efficiency the more amounts you have. This becomes a problem when it comes to ballistic propellants since its unique properties mean the inverse phenomena happens when you scale it down, resulting in a world where huge bombards and railway cannons are the norm and encouraged, but no infantry/personal firearms as we know it.
  • Also, the Mana Bomb, courtesy of the Cloven Empire, is more or less a Fantastic Nuke and the Fourth Age's equivalent of nuclear weapons, with magic. Nuclear weapons had also existed on Equus at one point, during the 'Great Wars Era' of the Second Age.
• Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Owing to the overall Science Fantasy setting and being portrayed as the grand-unifying Fifth Fundamental Force of the Codexverse, Magic is subjected to this constantly and such view of it is even encouraged by the authors both in-universe and out.
  • In the 'Second Age', the least magical and fantastical of the Known Ages, what magic that was eventually known to the Technological Civilizations at the time is classified as 'Metamagnetism' and is treated as just another natural force/phenomena which could be studied, manipulated and utilized like the other Fundamental Forces. The in-universe authors of Codex Equus cautions the readers to not judge them too harshly for this view, because all things considered it is technically true. It is not that they disbelieved in the existence of magic; unlike those of the other Known Ages, they simply don't attach too much mysticism to it, at least on an academic level.
• Summon Bigger Fish: Yearling/Daring Do can do this, as she's psychically bonded to Gamarea, but prefers not to as he's generally busy making sure the Dyvaos can't overpopulate and destroy the world, and she doesn't want to rely on him if she can handle things herself. That and she sees it as her job to help him with their bond, not the other way around.
• Super-Empowering:
  • Luminiferous has the ability to do two flavors of this: using an ancient artifact granted to him to battle his father (despite being a 'newborn' in comparison) called the "Divine Unity", he can let two deities lend their power to a champion which he used to do. The other version of invoking his power as a God of Potential to lend someone their true potential temporarily, though he can make it last longer by lending them his weapon, a poleaxe called Arisen Demon, which extends it indefinitely as long as they're holding it. The second version is to show them what they can potentially become. During the battle with Apertus, he does this to Ember and Thorax, temporarily turning them both into gods to both hold her off and to show both the Changelings and Dragons what potential they were squandering by fixating on their racial grudge, while those two had long let go of theirs. This is particularly notable because Thorax became a Changeling God when his potential was unlocked, something the Summer Court had long believed to be impossible.
  • Prince Léon, an Alicorn toddler, has the power to empower people based on how deeply he trusts them, as he embodies Trust. This ability was discovered by accident during an attack on by tribalist factions, after Léon spontaneously empowered Cadence and Blueblood while laughing at the former's silly faces, allowing the adoptive royal cousins to defeat and drive off the tribalists with their strengthened magic.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Many of the crises, especially the more recent ones, happen within moments of one another, justifying why some characters aren't available or won't show up until much later as they are either busy fighting another battle elsewhere or are still recovering from fighting.
• Superhero: Superheroes (and supervillains) would appear and become a very prominent feature of the Second Age of Known History, the time of Ponyland and the Tales Seven where magic was less prominent and Equus was a world of advanced technology. One of the first and greatest to appear is none other then a Superman Substitute, Metamare, though other heroic individuals have been recorded and confirmed by Queen Dazzleglow, such as Shadow Sentinel I, Silver Smith, Sr., and Wind Runner/C-009 and the 00-Cyborgs.
• Super Prototype:
  • Machina's Colossus turns out to be this, as later mass production models are created that are far smaller, weaker, but much more cost effective. Of these the Flight Type is this trope to the High-Mobility Type and eventually ends up in the possession of the Kamili Empire.
  • It turns out the Time Twirler was this. Ourophion made it, but deemed it too easily abused. He later make Time Twirlers for those he deemed worthy with far more restrictions and limiters (such as only being able to revert to a single set point in time Ourophion himself decides and making memories fogged rather than exact) to prevent this.
• Superior Successor: One of the running themes in Codex Equus is that evil and/or incompetent authority figures almost always get disposed of and replaced by benevolent ones, because their cruel methods have directly and indirectly led to the suffering of innocent people.
  • It's implied that Golden Scepter sees Prince Stoltur Skjöldur, one of Pokhot's many divine sons, as a successor to Morning Star. Both Morning Star and Stoltur are prideful and sadistically cruel beings, except Morning Star had grown so arrogant that he destroyed the Alicorn Civilization and nearly ruined the entire world just to fulfill his own twisted ideas of perfection. Despite Stoltur having similar evil and prideful qualities, his honor code and genuine love for his family keeps him from sinking to the depths of depravity that Morning Star had reached in his time. This once caused Golden Scepter to remark that Stoltur Stoltur heavily reminds of Morning Star if he became a "constructive" Evil deity and helped the Alicorns prosper by motivating them with his Evil. True to form, when Stoltur listened to Golden Scepter's stories of Morning Star's atrocities, he was so horrified that he had nightmares about it and swore never to become like the Fallen antediluvian Alicorn god.
  • After King Lasius of the Changeling Summer Court killed off both the nobility and royalty of his childhood Pony kingdom, he would inherit the throne and quickly proved to be The Good King who looked out for the well-being of his subjects. He brought them out of their poverty and used his family wealth to improve their living conditions, to the point where said subjects simply didn't care when he was revealed to be a Changeling.
• Supernatural Floating Hair: Often a hallmark of ancient and powerful deities. They have so much magic that it causes their hair to ripple in an unseen breeze, provided that it's long enough to show it. In the case of feathered deities, their feathers taper into rippling energy instead.
• Suppressed History: The Void Aeon, a period of time that is around 15,000 years long during the Second Age. Practically nothing is known about that period while those that do clam up with a vice. This turns out to be for very good reasons - the Church of the Stars, most of whom lived through both the Second Age and the Void Aeon event, doesn't want people to learn of the existence of the Void Sovereign because it'll cause a planet-wide existential crisis, knowing that something is lurking out there and everyone's on a metaphorical timer. Queen Dazzleglow genuinely wants to help the people of Equus get strong enough to fight the Void Sovereign on the day he breaks free from his cosmic prison, and even though Golden Scepter was worried about the secrecy, he came to agree that it was a necessary evil.
• The Strategist:
  • Warlord Balander 'The Undefeated' from Queen Colossos' Empire is a notable military example. On top of being a Giant like the rest of his race and a peerless warrior, he is considered the greatest military commander ever produced by Colossos' Empire, a master of both strategy and tactics on par with the greatest conquerors of Known History. Famous in-universe for being undefeated in battle as his title implies, as well as masterminding Queen Colossos' invasion of the Crystal Empire when war broke out between the two realms. The Author compared him with the Real Life figure of Subutai, Genghis Khan's primary strategist and one of the most famous military commanders in history. His name is a wordplay of Balamber, a ruler of the Huns who predated Attila in real life.
    • To demonstrate how good he is, he was responsible for double-bluffing the Crystal Empire into believing their main invasion are coming from the south and getting them to scatter their forces trying to stop his incursions, allowing them to attack and destroy them piecemeal once the actual invasion came from the north. Then the Giant hordes rampaging in the south rallied, and under his command managed to crush NINE legions of the Crystal Empire's troops within a WEEK, THREE of them in the span of a single DAY. The Crystal Empire would remember that event as "The Week of Annihilation" - the single greatest military defeat they had ever suffered in their history.
  • Bellamos 'the Divine Strategoes' is a divine version of this from the Pramanthan Pantheon, known for very effective and efficient strategies. This stems partly from experience travelling the world and a desire to end conflicts as quickly as possible so senseless death and destruction could be avoided.

T

• Take Over the World: Multiple overlords and empires had attempted this throughout the Known Ages, with varying levels of success. Attempts to takeover certain countries like Equestria are generally more common and successful... though it is also deconstructed in that various entries had noted just how incredibly difficult it is for anyone to take over the world - whether due to logistical impracticality or stiff opposition from other world powers. Pretty much every attempt mentioned so far had failed, and had been noted in hindsight to have limited possibility of success from the start.
  • An insert in Chrysalis' entry analyzing her world domination plans exemplifies this: her plan to take over Equestria, harvest its love, use the power boost to usurp her mother and sisters and then use the Spring Court to take over the world sounds simple, but in practice it does not consider facts such as her mother being a goddess whose magnitudes older and more powerful than Chrysalis is and is prepared (to the point of drastically modifying her own body in various ways) to take on Discord himself; that her sisters are generally older and more experienced, and their hives possess more resources than her hive; that the Changeling Summer Court would intervene in accordance to the agreements the Spring and Summer Courts had made (not to mention Blackthorn's more personal relationship with Blackrose); and last but not least, the other Gods of Equus, like the ones in the Cosmic Council, would not sit back and watch Equestria and the Spring Court get taken over by Chrysalis, especially since many are friends with Celestia and Blackrose. All things considered, it is believed that the absolute best Chrysalis would hope for is keeping large parts of Equestria and holding the rest of the world off in a stalemate.
  • The Storm King attempted this during the 'Storm King Crisis', and if all the hints so far had suggested anything, practically the entire world united immediately to stop him, both divines and mortals alike. The opposing side would also include villains who retain an honor code and/or are at least pragmatic enough to see what consequences the Storm King's campaign would bring if executed successfully. The Storm Empire got stomped out of existence within a short time. How it happened remains to be seen in the 'Storm King Crisis' entries.
  • The kingdom of Hyrule is often the target of conquests of this nature, usually made by Blood Fang, an evil Alicorn conqueror. Of course, just like in The Legend of Zelda, renowned heroes such as local master swordspony Gleaming Shield and Hylian Queen/Princess Radiant Primrose will always succeed in defeating Blood Fang before he could make his dreams of conquering Hyrule a reality, and their clashes has been the stuff of legends throughout (and even before) Known History.
    • That being said, other evil overlords and villains have attempted to conquer Hyrule, but they always ended up being used as pawns by Blood Fang until they fall to either Gleaming Shield's sword, and/or Radiant Primrose's magic. Blood Fang doesn't tolerate anyone trying to conquer Hyrule first because he already "called dibs" on it, and will not hesitate to get rid of them at first opportunity... which is a good thing since Blood Fang's victims are usually worse - prominent examples are Malus Tenebris, who planned to plunge both Hyrule and Equus in "twilight", and one of the Storm King's generals who would've turned Hyrule and its surrounding lands into a Wretched Hive. It has been implied and later confirmed that Blood Fang's behavior and "losses" to his Eternal Foes aren't what they seem - according to the Erobreseg Deer herds, he's actually an agent of Temnobog, who hired him to keep testing Gleaming Shield and Radiant Primrose's moral integrity because he has acknowledged their good deeds and wants them to always be strong enough to fight Evil.
  • There are some exceptions to that rule: Overmare, the greatest supervillain of the 'Second Age', was such a genius Diabolical Mastermind that while she ultimately still didn't succeed, she has a realistic chance of actually pulling it off. Her Arch-Enemy, Silversmith, the World's Smartest Pony, estimates that starting from nothing and taking into account the social, political, economic, military and other factors at the time, she only need 2 months and 1 hour to completely take over the continent of Marerope. Granted, for this she was classified as a 'macro-historical anomaly', but it shows that under the right circumstances, the right individuals could actually pull that off, even if the odds of it happening is astronomical.
  • Emperor Golden Scepter is heavily hinted to have succeeded in doing this during the 'Imperium Era' of pre-Known History; he not only took over Equus, but much of the galaxy for Ponykind in establishing the Imperium.
• Takes One to Kill One: While it can be done with extreme levels of magic, due to the unique variety of magic that compose them, this is generally the case with deities, as divine magic has an inherent advantage over regular magic. Mortals managing to defeat them isn't completely unheard of, but it's also extremely rare and takes far more magic than is normally possible.
• Take Up My Sword: Exaggerated by those categorized as 'Torchbearers.' These are heroes who don't necessarily take up a power held by previous, but rather the heroism and ideologies of the entire proceeding Age during an 'Era of Embers', the transitionary period between Ages. Their duty is the carry on the benevolence of the previous Age to lay a good foundation in the next while defending it from that Age's remaining malevolence.
• Take That!:
  • Moon Ray Vaughoof expresses annoyance towards his fellow Trimortidae for pestering him with requests to play "Thriller" ever since they discovered he can manipulate souls through music. The only reason he could give for his annoyance is that the song's creator is "...controversial".
    Moon Ray Vaughoof: Fer the last time, I ain't playin' Thriller!
  • The Codexverse also harshly condemns the Greek Pantheon, whose members are depicted here as the Old Orosian Pantheon. Most of the Orosian deities behaved like vindictive, spoiled, hedonistic, and immature brats who abused their mortal worshipers/subjects by raping anyone who attracted their lusts, punishing them for perceived slights, and used them as cannon fodder in wars started by petty rivalries. Unlike the Greek Pantheon, who received no punishment for similar actions, the Orosian Pantheon was eventually wiped out once their victims decided they had enough - an event that would be called 'Twilight of the Orosians'. The surviving Orosians either were genuinely benevolent people or realized what monsters they were and strived to atone for their sins.
  • At one point, Princess Hnignun finds herself being romantically pursued by an extremely nihilistic Deer stag who committed increasingly depraved atrocities to woo her. She deals with him permanently by giving her Abhorrent Admirer over to her older twin brother, Prince Stækka, who proceeds to avenge Hnignun's honor.
  • Both Warhammer: The End Times and its sequel/semi-reboot, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar (both respectively titled as Ponyhammer Fantasy Battle: Time of Endings and Ponyhammer: Age of Sigmare in the Codexverse), are revealed to be badly-written interpretations of events that actually happened during pre-Known History. Not only were both games massively unpopular with fans In-Universe, but the goddess Sigmare, who was alive to witness said events, was furious with both the terribly-written gameplay rules and the flanderization of certain historical characters, and had to be physically restrained from outright smiting the game company responsible. The game company's terrified employees quickly discontinued and literally buried both Ponyhammer games to appease her.
  • At one point, Prince Healing Song recounted to Rainbow Dash an incident where he witnessed a pseudo-Mag'nean rock band from the Second Age being sued by its own audience for a horrifically bad performance.
    Rainbow Dash: Wait, so a bunch of people decided to sue a pseudo-Mag'nean rock band for a sucky concert in the Second Age, and WON?!
    Prince Healing Song: Yeah! From what I remember, the band's frontpony decided to get himself so drunk and addled that he performed only three songs before passing out on-stage. The guys lost millions of dollars as a result, and the band split up. It was pretty wild, haha.
    Rainbow Dash: What happened after that?
    Prince Healing Song: Oh, the band that formed after the split was pretty good. I think their guitarist got voted as one of the 'elites' in the music communities. As for the frontpony? Kicked out, and fell completely down the gutter.
    Rainbow Dash: Somehow I'm not surprised...
  • At one point, Princess Rarity/Lucia voiced her displeasure towards In-Universe "porn fics" that flanderize her and others as "hormone-crazed sex fiend(s)" willing to sleep around, regardless if the actual person said porn fics were depicting is in a committed relationship or not.
    Princess Lucia: Hmmph. Seems like, the more popular a public figure is, the more likely some crazy fan is to write some sort of - fan fiction depicting said public figure as a hormone-crazed sex fiend who (sometimes literally) couldn't keep it in their pouches if their lives depended on it. Even if said public figure is already in a committed relationship. Admittedly, that's true for SOME of those public figures (and I'm enough of a lady to NOT specify which ones), but NOWHERE NEAR all of them.
• Taking You with Me:
  • During Queen Colossos' War, some of the Crystal Ponies, whether driven by despair or fervor, proposed releasing Rabia and the Umbrum from their prison beneath the Crystal Empire's capital in hopes that they can do this to the Giants. Crystal Empress Coronam refuse to even consider it, knowing how bad the idea is (And possibly because they don't know how to do it even if they want to).
  • Even after he is defeated - and outright obliterated - Changeling King Xestobium still tries to do this with Dragonkind (and the Summer Court), first by triggering a Mana Bomb that was barely defused in time, and then with the Primordial Quintessence halve of his soul post-mortem trying to dive into the ritual that would set off a chain reaction destroying the dragon homelands of Draconia, again stopped only barely by a prepared counter-spell from his own father.
• Talking Down the Suicidal:
  • Sort of with Prince Shamrock Bloom. While Shamrock did consider committing suicide out of despair over losing everything and being mistreated by the more emotionally insensitive Virtusidae for grieving Stitching Time's Fall, he ultimately couldn't bring himself to do it. Fortunately, Blue Suede Heartstrings would arrive in time after tracking him down, and lend his godson some much-needed support.
    Prince Shamrock Bloom: Look at me... I... I'm too much of a coward to even... to even...
    Blue Suede Heartstrings: You aren't a coward. You're brave. Quitting is easy, living? Livin' is harder than dyin'.
    Prince Shamrock Bloom: W-Why? W-Why do I lose everything?
    Blue Suede Heartstrings: You haven't lost me yet, have you?
  • Later on, Prince Shamrock Bloom would be the one to talk down a despairing Blue Suede Heartstrings from committing suicide when he found his godfather just about to jump off a cliff, even though being a god meant that Blue Suede likely wouldn't be harmed much. Hearing Shamrock forgive him for all his mistakes and flaws drove Blue Suede to tears, and they would share a hug afterwards.
    Prince Shamrock Bloom: Y'know, uh... I-I remember a certain stallion telling me that... that quitting is easy, and living is harder than dying. And those words, they, uh... they saved me. During a really hard spot in my life.
    Blue Suede Heartstrings: ...Ah'm sorry, Rocky. Ah failed y'all in more ways than Ah can count, both as yer godfather an' a teacher. An' not just you... Ah failed ev'ryone Ah know. Ah dunno if Ah can continue livin', knowing the things Ah did...
    Prince Shamrock Bloom: We both made mistakes, Uncle Blue. I, um... I scare easily. You've seen me how I act sometimes. And you... uh, you tried saving the entire world from its mistakes by yourself. But it's not the end. All we gotta do is... pick ourselves up where we fell and, um... keep going.
    Blue Suede Heartstrings: But how? Ah turned mahself into a monster, an' Ah didn't practice what Ah preached fer... what? Thousands a' years? How can Ah go on after that? How can the King forgive me fer actin' like some crazed hound dog all this time?
    Prince Shamrock Bloom: Like- like you said, the King in Heaven is forgiving. If he's like... y'know, the Poenans, you would've been in Hell a long time ago. But- but you aren't. That means he's, um... willing to give you another chance. If he can forgive someone like me... then... he can forgive you, too. And I forgive you, Uncle Blue.
    Blue Suede Heartstrings: Rocky... thank you...
  • Blacktip did this with ex-Dragon Lord Isona at one point, saving her in time just as she attempted to kill herself out of guilt by slitting her wrists and convincing her she could atone for her crimes instead. Isona considers her suicide attempt to be a very foolish act on her part, but Blacktip doesn't hold it against her and only focused on helping her redeem herself.
• Team Switzerland: Sauropoda is this, refusing to ever start a fight nor take sides in any external conflict. That said, they are more than capable of defending themselves. This is all based off of the real life Switzerland.
• Technology Levels:
  • The 'Great Wars Era' of the 'Second Age' of Known History corresponds to the Industrial, Atomic and Information Age (and beyond) of RL Earth, but is evidently much more advanced than RL Earth was thanks to a combination of leftover tech from failed alien invasions, many super-geniuses (who are not being constrained by the Reed Richards Is Useless trope), various secret conspiracies and factions as well as hidden entities and deities like Luminiferous and Golden Scepter, all working overtly or behind the scenes and altering the rate and directions of technological advancements. To note, by the 1920s specific geniuses have medicine and bio-engineering that could suppress congenital conditions and enhance biological bodies while Ponykind as a whole could develop rockets that could send Ponies into space, and by the 1930s they have chemical compounds that could freeze water or deflect force and heat, energy weapons reverse-engineered from the Maretian heat-rays, giant building-sized electrostatic weapons, crude mechanical robots and powered armour and even Captain America-style Super-Soldier programs. They had built advanced cyborgs by the mid-late 20th century and military spaceships that could reach as far as Codexverse Neptune by the early 2000s and even an FTL drive within the Tales Seven's lifetime.
• Technology Porn: Many of the entries involved with both civilian and military technologies by some of the authors are noted for not only the sheer amounts of details in terms of description of their capabilities, strengths and weaknesses, but also dense summaries of their in-universe performances and service past and present that references other events and entries that had not been covered or left open for interpretation by readers. This is particularly notable in entries concerning weapons and warfare from the 'Second Age' of Known History, an era whose technological Pony civilizations were infamous in-universe for being called the 'Lords of War', not only for the sheer amounts of conflicts they have experience and their prowess at war, but also for the sheer destructive capabilities of their advanced military technology, which were apparently so potent it gives WAR GODS of later eras pause. Other non-military technologies are also given detailed and thorough examinations rarely seen in other fanon verses. This is partly justified by the fact that 'Codex Equus' is primarily a world-building project portrayed as an in-universe encyclopedia.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Xestobium's brothers laughed and mocked him when he stated his intention to wipe out the dragon race, as they'd tried collectively to do so and failed despite coming close, so how could he do it alone? Cue the completely insane Xestobium launching a plan that if successful wouldn't just wipe out the entire continent of Draconia and everyone in it, but possibly everyone else, the Summer Court included.
  • In a more hilarious example, during Golden Scepter's stay in the Bogolenya Deer pantheon, he nearly got exposed to puns by Phykti, the Bogolenya Deer goddess of Cruelty and Despair, after he asked Yarost what puns are. Yarost, considering puns a Fate Worse than Death, warned him to leave as fast as he can before Phykti hears him, which he did. Phykti was noted to have been rather disappointed with this.
    Emperor Golden Scepter: What are... puns?
    Yarost: ...I think you should leave this place as fast as you can before you suffer a fate worse than death itself, Emperor.
    Emperor Golden Scepter: Why, pray tell?
    Yarost: ...SHE might come.
  • In another hilarious example, Yarost warned one of his surviving younger sisters, Phykti, that he'll jump off a nearby cliff if she made one more pun in his presence... only for Phykti to comment she finds that "edgy".
    Narration: Incidentally, that cliff was later renamed 'Yarost's Fall'.
  • Prince Crimson Star's entry notes that he believes that all knowledge is worth learning, no matter what the subject is... until Golden Scepter told him and his brothers stories about the Alicorn Civilization's Free-Love Future and his own sex life. Cue Crimson Star bolting out the royal Terran palace, singing and screaming how he "doesn't want to be on this planet anymore" at the top of his lungs.
• Temporal Paradox: Because Time Travel exists in the Codexverse setting, so too exist a considerable risk of time paradoxes occurring as a result. Fortunately, various laws of nature as well as entities like time deities ensure that timeline would not change, and on rare occasions preventing the change is impossible, it would not be observed as it would simply split off into its own alternate timeline.
  • Various entries mentions the application of the 'Neighvikov Self-Consistency Principle', a scientific principle which in Real Life was conceived as a solution to the paradoxical nature of time travel, speculating quantum mechanics would ensure in the event of a time travel to the past, any action or event caused by the time-traveller which could cause changes to the timeline would be cancelled out, if not outright coopted/railroaded to ensure events as they originally unfolded would unfold as they would, ensuring no time paradoxes occur. There are ways to get around it, but they are incredibly difficult and rare to facilitate, making it nearly impossible to change the past and with it the present and future. In the Codexverse, the principle is an actual cosmic law, and Twilight Sparkle's time-travelling shenanigans in the FIM episode "It's About Time" is depicted in the Codexverse as essentially the principle in action, as nothing the time-travelling Twilight did in the past changed anything and even ensured she would eventually attempt to temporarily travel into the past, completing the loop. As far as the universe is concerned, the self-consistency of the timeline and flow of causality takes precedent over everything else, even free will of those existing within the timeline.
  • The one truefire, safe way of altering the past also subverts this entirely: true temporal reversion sends everyone's souls backwards along the Fourth Dimension, effectively making them collectively reincarnate into their past selves. As time is truly reversed, paradoxes are impossible. Only Ourophion is capable of doing this, however.
• Terror Hero: Gabriel D. Griffin during the Battle of Dragontown. Played with, in that Gabriel did not want to become one, seeing it as slipping back into his prior habits as a dreaded warlord. Given the sheer carnage that ensued, Gabriel’s fears were not entirely unfounded.
• Therapy Is for the Weak: Justified and deconstructed. A common theme in the Codexverse is various characters refusing to see a therapist, whether due to cultrual indoctrination, shame and/or fear of being ridiculed for seeking help, a lack of good therapists, or some other reason. However, because the caring of mental health is just as important as physical health, choosing not to seek a therapist will always have extremely bad consequences down the line.
  • Blue Suede Heartstrings avoided seeing a therapist for three Ages because the last time he tried seeing one, his abusive manager, "Colonel" Hollow Note, bribed said therapist into becoming a Yes-Man who reported everything, leaving him with deep trust issues. Growing up in a time where mental health wasn't taken seriously and being around Jerkass Gods who looked down on such things only worsened his situation. As a result, Blue Suede kept quiet for fear of receiving more abuse and became wary of all therapists; according to his twin brother, Bossa Nova/Rubeus, when he went to go see Mentálne for the first time as one of her patients, Blue Suede had a panic attack and "shut down" shortly after, requiring him to be accompanied by someone wherever he went. Thankfully, he would gradually accept psychiatric help and started seeing Mentálne regularly, leading to his recovery. He also became so attached to his medical Glory Hound, Sunny, that he never goes anywhere without her.
• Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: Boogeymares are this, being small imp-like Emotion Eater creatures that feed off of fear and use their Master of Illusion powers to terrify children to feed. They're generally harmless and seen as household pests, but if they get strong enough their powers trade up into Reality Warper territory, though that's not easy for them to do. Dreadmares, however, are much stronger mutant variants and legitimately dangerous.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Even in the Codexverse where some truly horrific Evils or crimes could be done and yet still be forgiven (if the person is truly, sincerely repentant and willing to do whatever it takes, however long it takes, to make up for it) there are some deeds and actions that are so abhorrent and taboo, it is beyond forgiveness.
  • Afterlife damnation requires the damned in question to have committed sins and showing no remorse nor take responsibility for them, thereby placing them and their actions beyond forgiveness and redemption. Those who are condemned as such are free-game for those who are duty-bound (or interested) to torment them in the Hell-Realms to do whatever it is they like.
  • The 'Primeval Laws' laid down by the Primevals and Grand Primevals of Equus contains prohibitions against certain actions which are regarded universally as this trope since the dawn of Equus itself, and committing them could potentially bring forth the wrath of The Old Gods upon your head as well as the most spectacular and terrible of sanctions. One law prohibits irreversible reduction of sapient creatures to non-sapient beasts, though exceptions are allowed if it occurs as a proportionate punishment to severe crimes; this is exemplified with a captured group of modern-day Iron Wolves being magically transformed into rabid, non-sapient wolves by Prince Night Shade for attacking the Terran Empire out of racial hatred and (in Prince Fanged Paw's words) behaving like vicious animals.
  • There is a general agreement on Equus that souls of the departed are to be given their just reward and allowed to rest in the afterlives they have earned their places in. Doing anything to bar the virtuous souls from going to Heaven-Realms stands as one of the cardinal, most unforgivable action one is capable of committing and is considered an in-universe crossing of the 'Moral Event Horizon'. This is such Serious Business, in fact, the prohibition against this deed is even codified as one of the 'Primeval Laws', and as shown in a drabble, a Demon who had stolen virtuous souls from some heaven-realms was hunted down and was sentenced to complete obliteration by the Judgement Primeval herself, with no objections from the Demon's superior who, despite being an inequine force of Evil herself, draws the line in doing that and had forbidden her other infernal and mortal beings under her command from doing so as well.
• Time Abyss: Given the Codexverse is conceived in part as an Epic, some characters and events exists in time-frames spanning aeons, a testament to the sheer scales of setting and worldbuilding involved.
  • Equestria of the Codexverse is set in the Fourth Age of Known History. Known History itself however stretches back at least 45,000 years, and there are hints that sapient life and civilization exists long before that in earlier Ages.
  • Choice and the Eldest of the Woods, both ancient deities, are stated to had been around for eons, long before even Discord came. Choice in particular is said to be as old as sapient life capable of free will had been around - which in the Codexverse has appeared multiple times on Equus.
  • Mothryu and Battryu, Expies of Mothra and Battra, are also super ancient deities. They've at least existed long enough to see one of those pre-known history civilizations, as Battryu was the one that destroyed it in the first place.
  • Queen Dazzleglow is over 33,000 years old. Downplayed, as she's spent 20,000 of it Sealed Good in a Can, but that still makes her over 13,000 years old.
  • The author states that the Codexverse would be exploring timeframes of up to tens of millions of years before the present, if not billions of years, in future/potential sections and entries.
  • Due to the passing of ages and deliberate misinformation, no one outside the Changeling Courts - and not even the common Changelings themselves - knew how long Changelingkind had been around. They could had appeared during one of the Four Ages of Known History; they could had been around long before Known History. The best estimates placed their existence to be within at least tens of thousands of years, but who can tell?
  • Queen Mzazi, the Mother of all Zebra, is stated by her entry to be over 4 million years old, having guided her people's evolution since then. Since she frequently incarnates herself as a mortal to check up on her mortal children, it's possible that her age might go back even farther than the time she was the G1 zebra Zigzag.
  • Amareros, a Grand Primeval, is impossibly ancient to the point of being there since the beginning of life on the planet. The same could also apply to the other Grand Primevals, who are his older/younger siblings and thus similarly ancient.
  • The Alicorns from before Known History are extremely ancient, and have been considered to be the greatest of the god Equus's mortal/immortal Equine children. Luminiferous and Golden Scepter are examples of this, as they are the oldest members of the Church of the Stars and have been around since even before the First Age, though Golden Scepter is even older due to being an "Antecedent"-ranked Alicorn who lived before the Alicorn Civilization's fall. He even has three pairs of wings, with a fourth one on the way, to represent his age.
  • Blue Suede Heartstrings, who is based on Elvis Presley, was born in the early Second Age, which gave his origins some ambiguity - theories include being former royalty, an apathetic and selfish god who was turned into a mortal as punishment for devouring populated worlds, an Ascended demi-divine son of Amareros, and a distant descendant of "Visitors" (especially the Celestial Ponies). His age and tall height would make him one of the older deities, especially when compared to those who were born and Ascended later in the Second Age, such as Queen Dazzleglow, Princess Brightglow, Princess Stitching Time.
  • Due to being Amareros' firstborn son and child, Canteros, the god of Requited Love and Reconciliation, is almost as ancient and eldritch as his father and the rest of the Grand Primevals, to the point where his divine ranking is yet to be officially determined by the Cosmic Council. It is known, however, that his existence predates even the most ancient of Alicorns, with those like Golden Scepter coming off as extremely young compared to him.
    Canteros: I was there when the first Alicorns came into being. I was there when their civilization gasped its last breaths.
• Time Skip: Because of the non-chronological nature of its entries - going from the distant past before the 'First Age', to the 'Fourth Age' and the near/far future beyond it - the Codexverse's entries can skip plenty of time periods back and forth.
  • Several events are set decently into the future, but perhaps the biggest thus far is the War Against Order, which is set several decades in the future at a point where Equus has redeveloped space capabilities and satellites.
• Token Evil Teammate:
  • Temnobog the Dark One, co-ruler of the Bogolenya Deer Pantheon, comes to mind. He's very literally a God of Evil who revels in causing suffering of those he believes 'deserves it', and for the longest time was the enemy of his older twin brother, Belyolen the Radiant Stag. This trope was deconstructed in that, having been born "evil", he was emotionally abused by his own family and peers in the Elternteil Deer pantheon, who thought that his corrupted nature would taint the benevolence of the Elternteil pantheon. Despite not having done anything evil at the time, Temnobog's mistreatment eventually turned him into the God of Evil that he was feared and expected to be out of misery and resentment. This caused Belyolen himself to rebel and leave home to start his own pantheon, as he was so compassionate that he felt understandably disgusted and upset with his fellow gods' petty hypocrisy. The reason why Temnobog took so long to let go of his grudge was because he thought that Belyolen, too, looked down on him for being "evil", but then he learned that his brother really did love him despite everything. After their reconciliation, this trope was reconstructed - he had become his brother's equal and his greatest supporter, directing his innate evil nature to a better purpose, embodying evil and suffering as a testing force, driving the good and noble among mortals to rise up and oppose evil while weeding out the evil and wicked to be punished for their moral failure.
  • Temnobog's hellish hybrid children, the Four Terrors, are also this for the Bogolenya pantheon. While they are devoted to using their evil for constructive purposes like their father, they are rightly feared for their horrific actions, and as such, "Calling the Terrors" is treated as an absolute last resort for dealing with sin in the Deer realms. On the plus side, they are tolerated and even respected, with their grandcousins, Medik, Zmluva, and Mentálne, understanding their roles and holding no ill will for it.
  • Chrysalis was this for the Spring Court, until her two attempted attacks on Equestria that resulted in Thorax usurping the throne from her and Ascending got her banished to the Winter Court. And the Winter Court entry reveals she wasn't the only Changeling Queen who had gone evil in the past.
  • The Summer Court Changelings are this to Changelingkind in general. While a few steps above the Winter Court (which even they see as abhorrent), they are essentially a Decadent Court that is rife with treacherous scheming and chronic backstabbing. Emperor Blackthorn himself is amoral and selfish than outright evil, but his motives are so ambiguous that more heroic-minded people like to think of him as evil.
• Token Good Teammate:
  • King Metamorphosis of the Changeling Summer Court is notable for being a reasonable, fair and benevolent outlier among his generally amoral, scheming and back-stabbing Royal Changeling brothers, lacking their fratricidal tendencies and power-hungry ambitions, dedicating solely to his hive's prosperity and success. While it is implied that he had done some questionable things himself, it is always only if absolutely necessary, and always strive to find another way to solve problems that doesn't involve ruin and deaths of innocents, even non-Changelings. Changelings nicknamed him 'Summer's Conscience' for this, earning him undying loyalty from his own subjects and respect of those outside his hive (That aren't his brothers). This actually impressed his father enough that he's currently considered his favorite, and he had become the Summer Court's liaison to the Spring Court and Equestria following Thorax's ascension and the fall of the Masquerade.
  • King Asbolus Lyonesse is another fairly benevolent member of the Court, due to being a Noble Demon and Gentleman Thief with little desire to conquer or do unnecessary harm. While he is a thief, he will never target those who are incapable of defending themselves and often let's his hive better themselves using his stolen goods.
  • The Nameless Queen is this to the Winter Court, being the only one among them to have had a Heel Realization and become The Atoner.
• Too Kinky to Torture: A number of beings on Equus, by virtue of their very nature is immune to and even enjoys pain, suffering and humiliation, making it very difficult for them to be intimidated.
  • Hydianites, up to their founder and Grand Matron, Hydia, believe and see pain as a good thing, which comes from their extremely twisted worldviews. As such, they cannot be tortured in conventional ways and instead are affected by the opposite - according to Hydia, her Hell-Realm consisted of her being trapped in a place that's perpetually happy and sunny with singing flowers, which are good things to everyone else but absolute torture for her.
  • Played straight with Joyous Freedom, the Rapturous Nirvana, who being a demonic goddess of pleasure, pain, love, lust and corruption is practically immune to pain and enjoys it. Also Defied with a divine spell in her possession called the 'Ten Thousand Coloured Stagnation', which can subvert this trope by allowing her to peel away any being she targets on a physical, mental and even spiritual level, allowing her to manipulate body, mind and soul in anyway - up and including, for example, shutting down all the psychological 'Defence Mechanisms' or delusions the target have that allows them to tolerate pain and suffering, making them no longer 'too kinky' to be tortured. In one Drabble she used this on a Hydianite Witch who managed to piss both her and Vicearch Iniquitous off after they caught her, upon realizing that Vicearch Iniquitous, being a divine incarnation of Evil and Vice herself, isn't exactly up for the usual method to punish Hydianites i.e. surrounding them with cuteness, love, joy and other happy things which they in their warped worldview utterly despises. With the Hydianite Witch no longer possessing the defences and delusions needed to tolerate and enjoy their own pain and suffering, the two dark goddesses can now punish her to their hearts' content, to the utter horror of the witch in question.
• Top God: Various pantheons and other divine groups are headed by these types of deities, whether male or female. Depending on the individual pantheon/group, they can be either ruled by a god, a goddess, or both.
  • Queen Tiamat and King Bahamut are co-rulers of the Dragon Pantheons.
  • High King Irminsul and his beloved wife, High Queen Arvan, were once the co-leaders for the entire Elternteil Deer Pantheon. However, the pantheon fractured when everyone started disagreeing over Deerkind's future and (in Belyolen's case) the mistreatment of Temnobog, leading to the birth of two other Deer Pantheons, the Bogolenya and Hoyklan Pantheons.
  • The Bogolenya pantheon is co-ruled by Irminsul's twin sons, Belyolen and Temnobog, founded by Belyolen who desired to get Temnobog away from their family's emotional abuse and give him the love and respect he deserved. Ironically, Temnobog initially sought to become this by usurping his brother, but he was given equal leadership power once both of them discovered they had a unique magical bond that would weaken/strengthen them if one of them tried killing the other, and that they were really born divine equals.
  • The Hoyklan pantheon is ruled by High King Kaldr, a divine Moose who was once Oakley the Moose from the First Age, and his wife, High Queen Haust. Kaldr became the leader of the divine Hoyklan Deer because Haust realized she couldn't efficiently protect her relatives and peers from Irminsul, who is her uncle, and appealed to Kaldr for help.
  • Empress Blackrose and Emperor Blackrose are each the Top God of their respective courts. Blackrose spawned the Spring Court, while Blackthorn spawned the Summer Court.
  • Indostruus, the Deer God of Industry and Modernization, is the leader of the Novellus Pantheon. Unusually, Munditia is older than him, but sees him as the better leader and thus follows him, though he's still the strongest.
  • Fik’iri, the Goddess of War and Love, and Zinabi, the God of Storms and Wind, co-led the Abyssinian Pantheon and were its strongest members. However, they were also Jerkass Gods who treated their worshipers rather callously, and refused to help protect their followers from the Storm King out of spite. This act got them overthrown by the benevolent members of the Pantheon, with Fik'iri losing her position and most of her power to Wibeti, the Goddess of Beauty and Romance, while Zinabi was overthrown by Jegina, the God of Courage and Heroism. Unlike most Top Gods, however, Jegina and Wibeti aren't romantically involved since the latter is dating Moufette, the leader of the Great Skunk pantheon.
  • Despite religious worship of the royal family being officially banned in the Terran Empire, some of Golden Scepter's mortal subjects still see him as the leader of a benevolent "pantheon" that includes his now-deceased wife and his nineteen Semi-Divine sons, ruling over the Terran Empire for eternity and ensuring its success over the lands. Naturally, this makes him extremely uncomfortable.
  • The Grand Primevals in general seem to be this for all of Equus, as they're regarded as so powerful and ancient that almost everyone respects and/or fears them enough not to tick them off. Their opinion is generally given a lot of weight even by deities who don't follow them directly.
  • Moufette, Wibeti's boyfriend, is the leader of the Great Skunk Pantheon.
  • The Church of the Stars, while technically a pantheon, is actually a religion started by Queen Dazzleglow, a Sparkle Pony Alicorn Queen from the Second Age, making her its leader. However, she credits her father for coming up with the original idea that she expanded on, technically making her father the true Top God of the Church of the Stars.
  • It's later revealed that there exists individuals who are even more powerful and ancient than the Grand Primevals - namely, the Genesis Sovereign and the Void Sovereign, who are their grandmother and great-uncle, respectively. They are both extremely alien compared to the other deities of Equus, though the Genesis Sovereign is compassionate and benevolent, while the Void Sovereign is bent on returning all life to the Void.
• Touché: Essentially Emperor Blackthorn's reaction to Crazy Ant's Dead Man's Switch, being more impressed than angry.
• Toxic Phlebotinum:
  • Shinka Rays are a mysterious, exotic form of metamagnetic energy from outer space which had bombarded Equus and other worlds of the cosmos at rare and random intervals throughout the aeons, and while they are known to be empowering and evolutionarily-accelerating to certain biological lifeforms - such as modern Ponies - and an incredible power source for various technologies (like giant robots), it is infamous for being utterly lethal to other lifeforms which couldn't handle them on account of being 'evolutionary dead-ends' or otherwise 'unfit'. The Dinosaurs' twilight/extinction came in part due to a cataclysmic exposure of antediluvian Equus by a shower of Shinka Rays - paleo-archeological evidence suggests Dinosaurs who were unfortunate enough to get a full dosage died with their flesh melting right off their bones, and said bones end up breaking down into countless fragments for good measure.
• Tragic Villain:
  • Chieftain Maul was simply an animal trying to survive, having enough intelligence to make a simple plan but not enough to properly comprehend the consequences of it. Mistmane felt genuinely bad for having to kill him to save Equestria.
  • King Xestobium is an Omnicidal Maniac, but at his core he's the result of the deaths of his entire kingdom and family by a dragon, was then adopted into a race of tyrants who fed that hatred, and even while trying to do good to feed his hive, was constantly exposed to the absolute worst Dragonkind had to offer. All these things eventually caused him to snap and attempt to perform genocide on the Dragons and Summer Court in a way that would trigger a mass extinction event, but at his core, he's nothing but a product of his environment and the tragedy of his existence is recognized.
  • Princess Apterus, the child of a Changeling Queen and a Dragon Lord, had her parents sealed away due to Fantastic Racism, and was kidnapped and abused horribly for a thousand years by a particularly cruel Changeling King with no knowledge of her true nature. It's little wonder she completely snaps when she learns the truth and goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  • Dr. Toxikon showed a Changeling King kindness and mercy when he found him near death. The King repaid him by using what he'd learned staying with him to wipe out his entire clan as part of the Time of Broken Scales, which saw the near extinction of his kind. He then tried to become an intellectual dragon to avoid it happening again, but his species wouldn't listen and looked down on him for it for five thousand years. He finally snaps when Xestobium launches his genocidal rampage and acts on plans he'd hesitated to launch for five thousand years to attempt the destruction of the Changelings and death of all dragons over a certain age (the latter to force the survivors to finally grow meaningfully, as he fears their species will die out if they don't).
  • Katastrofa, Ispita's youngest son through Discord, once worked for the good of mortal sapientkind by testing mortal heroes with his visions and catastrophes. But eventually he began to believe that he's only good at destroying things, which caused him to become very apathetic and nihilistic. He even sided with Ispita based on this reasoning, but even then, unlike his siblings who either enjoyed sowing Evil or were thoroughly corrupted into madness, he doesn't do anything but sit around uselessly unless motivated or ordered to do something. His rather Odd Friendship that he forms with Crystal Prism during the "Temptation Unbound" event does give hope that he can get out of his funk and become good again.
  • Anarchie, Katastrofa's biological sister, used to be a sweet-hearted and heroic goddess who embodied the good aspects of anarchy, inspiring people to tear down tyrannical autocracies and regimes so they can build more benevolent ones. However, after Discord twisted and corrupted her for Ispita's plans, she became insane from the abuse and now inspires the evil aspects of anarchy, spreading total lawlessness and disorder. Even Phykti, Anarchie's half-sister who embodies Cruelty and Despair, was horrified to see what had been done to her and nearly faltered in their fight multiple times out of pity.
• The Trickster: A sub-type of deity is this, which are all known to be good shapeshifters as part of their portfolio. Blackrose and Blackthorn are included in this, due to the nature of their sire race. Others mentioned includes Lepus, parent deity of the Great Rabbits and Jackrabbits, Mchezaji, the Zebrican spider god, and Tachos the Orosian deity of Messengers and Fools. However, two trickster gods in particular have had entries devoted to them:
  • Narren of the Elterntil deer pantheon, the God of Songs and Celebrations, is well known as this, and often plays pranks on his fellow gods. He also managed to outsmart Temnobog and rescue the Top God of the pantheon from him (while accounts have been exaggerated and skewed, that part actually did happen).
  • Pakak, the Draconequus of Mischief and Karma, has this as his Red Baron. He's very much a Karmic Trickster who punishes the wicked with curses made from their own bad karma, as well as a major mischief maker. He and Narren are good friends.
  • Tikuri, the Abyssinian God of Bad Luck and Trickery, is also this, using his ability to cause bad luck to punish those who harm his followers, or his followers if they do wrong. He's also a Trickster Mentor to his followers, and likes playing tricks and pranks on others. Upon his release, he tricked his captor into being imprisoned in his place.
• True Companions: Much like the source material, there are plenty of groups who stayed friends with each other through thick and thin despite enduring many hardships.
  • Despite their many flaws and mistakes, all of the Mane Six share a very close friendship with each other long after Twilight brought them together. They even Ascended to godhood so they could stay friends for eternity. This became a plot point in dealing with Starfall Dusk, as the Mane Six's close bonds let Twilight/Mana Equus summon them as magical spirits while inside a Pocket Dimension, allowing them to free the bound spirits of Starfall Dusk's tortured friends.
  • While they do screw up with each other at times, all members of the Redeeming Six are close friends and loyal to each other. Notably, if one of them makes mistakes, the others won't hesitate to call them out on it and help them learn from said mistakes. They also chose to Ascend under Moon Ray/Canticum's tutelage despite knowing they'll turn into eldritch Alicorns if they used his 'Spark' (and seeing the consequences firsthand in Sunny Field/Serenum) because they wanted to ensure that Moon Ray/Canticum and his brother wouldn't be alone as the only eldritch deities in the group.
• A True Story in My Universe:
  • The Resident Evil series (titled Denizen Evil here) was a Second-Age adaptation of the "Parasol Crisis", in which a group of brave souls attempted to stop both the corrupt Parasol Corporation and the Undead scourge the company created. When the video-game developers of the Denizen Evil series learned the events in the game really did happen, they understandably freaked out.
    Second-Age video-game developer: The stories in our games...! THEY ACTUALLY HAPPENED?!
  • Similarly, the Dead Space series was another Second-Age adaptation of real-life events, this time based on the "Ishimura Incident" where both the United Tellus Government and their alien allies purged the Second Age's Church of Unitology to destroy malicious xeno influence through the Markers the Church's members worshiped, and to prevent corruption of innocent people into space zombies. According to BrutalityInc, both Dead Space and Denizen Evil were based on psychic visions on the future that occurred long before the actual events happened, which served as inspirations for the respective franchises.
  • The G1 children's book, My Little Pony: Glory the Magic Unicorn, was a Lighter and Softer First-Age adaptation of what happened to Queen Magus Kawan, then known as Glory from G1, in her mortal fillyhood. Like in the story, Glory teleported herself to a Human kingdom out of desire for acceptance, ran afoul of the wizard Omar who cut off her horn, and befriended the young Prince Rudolph over their shared loneliness. But unlike the book, Glory's loss of her horn was treated seriously, Omar was an Evil Sorcerer seeking to seize the throne from Rudolph's father, King David, and both Rudolph and Glory worked together to expose Omar's treachery. Glory also stayed friends with Rudolph long after their adventure ended, and continued visiting him until the day he died of old age.
• Trumplica: One Codexverse drabble features Blasting Trumpet, a corrupt businessmane from the Second Age. According to witness testimonies from that Age, Blasting Trumpet was a deeply racist and unpleasant stallion who (among other things) rigged elections in an attempt to become the President of Ponyland, supported Pony supremacist groups like the Proud Colts (though he vehemently denied it), and encouraged racism in the general populace under the claims of wanting to "make Ponyland great again". However, unlike the real-life Trump, Blasting Trumpet's budding political campaign came to an abrupt end when standard screening by authorities revealed hidden ties to Uberreich, kicking off a series of events that would see Blasting Trump's entire family (save for relatives who had nothing to do with him) and most of his supporters arrested and harshly punished (or killed), his businesses and properties completely dismantled, and his name/legacy being reviled by the country at large. There was also a violent uprising held in his name much like in real life, though it was quickly stopped through military intervention. Codex Equus researcher Jade Shell was absolutely stupefied when Prince Maestro I, one of the deities responsible for stopping Blasting Trumpet's plans, recounted everything to her in their interview.
• Tube Travel: In one incident, Princess Melody, Princess Radiant Rapier, and Prince Crystal Clear witnessed a corrupt Canterlot noble they were chasing escape justice by entering a toilet magically modified to function like a 'Warp Pipe'. While an ingenious escape method, the Alicorns were quite flabbergasted and grossed out. Fortunately, said noble was eventually caught and arrested for their crimes.
  Princess Melody: Uhh...
  Princess Radiant Rapier: Well, that's... one way to escape the law.
  Prince Crystal Clear: I'm never lookin' at toilets the same way again.

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