Fallout Equestria / Tropes N to Z

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N

• Nailed to the Wagon: Littlepip by Velvet Remedy. She gets tranquilized and transported, in what happens to be a wagon, to a clinic against her will to get rid of her addiction to Party Time Mint-Als. She doesn't take it well.
• Nay-Theist: While Littlepip freely believes in the divinity of Celestia and Luna and is reverent towards them, she does not agree with Red Eye that the Wasteland needs a god to save it, or that it needs a living god to make everypony behave.
• Narrator All Along: The Afterword reveals the entire story up to that point had been a book written by Littlepip herself, edited by Life Bloom.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Most of the major players in the Great War caused severe consequences or problems which lingered on two-hundred years later:
  • Princess Celestia - Building Luna's magical academy in Littlehorn Valley and the massacre that followed led to the darker years of the war.
  • Princess Luna - While she did not do any major damage, her very presence as monarch triggered a devastating shift in the zebra's war mentality, not to mention the damage that was caused as a result of the Ministries that she created.
  • Twilight Sparkle - Her alicorn project led to the creation of the Goddess and the alicorn army, and the discarded Impelled Metamorphosis Potion batches eventually were mixed with balefire radiation, creating mutated species.
  • Applejack - Her Ministry built many weapons which devastated zebras and ponykind, help fund many companies which caused just as many disasters in the war, and founded the Steel Rangers who eventually became hoarders of technology, abandoning their oath to protect Equestria.
  • Rarity - Her Ministry's role making propaganda only fueled the hatred towards zebras.
  • Pinkie Pie - Pinkie Pie subverted her own Ministry's war on drugs, leading to rampant drug problems in Equestria, and even cooked up Party Time Mint-als.
  • Fluttershy - She gave megaspell science to the zebras, in the hope to end the war peacefully. Instead, it lead to a apocalyptic holocaust via magical superweapons.
  • Rainbow Dash - The alarms Rainbow Dash rigged to the box of memory orbs in Canterlot end up triggering the Enclave invasion of the wasteland two centuries later. Oops.
• No OSHA Compliance: Lampshaded by Littlepip herself in this quote from Chapter 29 when the Goddess plays a video recording of the incident that created her.
  "Again with the catwalks-over-factory-floors aesthetic of wartime Equestria," I groused.
• Not What I Signed on For:
  • An unnamed Pegasus Enclave soldier, upon witnessing his squadron leader vaporize a terrified filly.
  • Later: the entire crew of an Enclave airship. They cease their bombardment of Friendship City once it becomes clear that the defenders can no longer fight back. Their former allies promptly blow them out of the sky.
• No Place for Me There: Red Eye knows that he isn't fit to rule Equestria once he's restored it. Thus his plan to ascend to godhood and control the sun, moon, and weather in the background while Littlepip takes the lead.
• Nuclear Mutant: Magical radiation and 'Taint' mutated parasprites, bats, phoenixes and pretty much every other creature out there.
• Nuclear Option: Littlepip kills the Goddess and destroys the Black Book by detonating a megaspell. Note that it was more or less the only option, as both are pretty much invincible otherwise.
  • The Black Book is a soul jar, which are confirmed to be indestructible by the existence of Rarity's many Soul Jars, which are all in pristine condition in spite of being in places which were hit by megaspells, as well as Celestia's soul jar, the true indestructibility of which is a plot point. Therefore it's more likely the Black Book is merely burred under tons of rubble somewhere under where Maripony was. Littlepip merely thinks if anything could destroy it, that it would be the balefire bomb she just detonated. Seeing as how she survived the blast despite being in it, this should be taken with a grain of salt.

O

• Once More, with Clarity: Littlepip will often recall a seemingly inconsequential throwaway detail in someone's dialogue, memory, or audio log several chapters down the line to either provide another layer of philosophical reflection, unravel the pre-apocalypse conspiracy, or arm herself in the present.
  • Justified: the entire book turns out to be based off a direct copy of Littlepip's memories, edited and all.
• One-Gender Race: The alicorns are all female. Even if they try to assimilate a male, he won't be one anymore by the time the transformation is complete. This is actually bad for them: they plan to become the dominant race in Equestria, which can't be done unless they have a method of reproduction outside of assimilation. In the coda, many of them have been turned back into males with the help of Xenith and the killing joke.
• Only the Leads Get a Downer Ending: By the end of the fanfic, the last two Element Bearers have been found, the Gardens of Equestria, which is designed to purge the land of radiation and taint, has been activated, alicorns are now a viable pony species, and the New Canterlot Republic is a stable government. However, for this to happen, Littlepip, the main character of the fic, had to permanently seal herself into the SPP mainframe, essentially giving up everything she holds dear and placing her in an And I Must Scream situation to ensure control of the weather. The only alleviation of this bleak ending for Littlepip is that the afterword shows that her friends can occasionally see her, and sealing herself extended her life after it was cut short by her times in the Wasteland.
• Operation: Jealousy: Subverted. While angry at Calamity, Velvet considers doing this with Littlepip. Littlepip immediately rips into her for it, pointing out that Velvet is trying to manipulate someone who has an unrequited crush on her in order to get back at someone else.
• Opposites Attract: Calamity and Velvet Remedy.
• Our Ghouls Are Creepier: Just like the Fallout version, some are mindless and feral while some are intelligent and a couple are allies (like Ditzy Doo, SteelHooves and Lionheart.) Though they might actually be undead due to the possibility of necromantic magic in the Balefire bombs. There is no doubt about the Canterlot ghouls: save beheading, they always come back after being "killed".

P

• The Paralyzer: Part of the Fallen Caesar style of fighting.
• Patrick Stewart Speech: Littlepip delivers one to Red Eye during their final confrontation.
• Persecution Flip: The Enclave encourage homosexuality among its rank and file as a means of population control, given their limited arable farmland.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Next to Homage, Calamity is Littlepip's closest friend. He's even the last person she asks to see before she activates the Single Pegasus Project.
  Littlepip: Please, Celestia, if you would, show me Calamity.
• Plot Armor: Littlepip's escape from Fillydelphia involves an extreme amount of action and combat, much of which the character performs while suffering from both a fractured leg and a punctured lung.
• Plot Hole: A minor one in chapter 5: Calamity casually mentions his mother reading child stories to him. Actually, she died giving birth to him.
• Population Control: Due to lack of farmland the Enclave doesn't allow ponies to reproduce until they've served in the military. Homosexual ponies are given preferential treatment.
• Posthumous Character:
  • Pretty much the entire cast of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. If the war didn't kill them, the two centuries in between the war and the events of the story did. The only known exceptions to this rule are Ditzy Doo, Spike, and Twilight's mother — Star Sparkle.
  • If you can count being/part of a multi-conscious being 'alive' then Trixie and Twilight Sparkle are also exceptions. Twilight Sparkle survived the destruction of the Goddess by body-jumping into an alicorn, though she apparently died shortly afterwards.
  • Rarity is still alive to an extent, having put most of her soul into the 42 figurines of the Ministry Mares.
  • If you count being turned into a tree as being 'alive', then Fluttershy is also an exception. You'd better, however, count her getting cured and rehabilitated.
  • Celestia is still alive, having downloaded herself into the SPP's Crusader mainframe and turned it into a soul jar.
• Powered Armor: All Steel Rangers, Applejack's Rangers, and Enclave soldiers wear a powered suit. Similar to Fallout power armor.
• Pragmatic Hero: What Littlepip has to become in order to save the Wasteland. Also one of the defining themes of the story.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: A partial one from Littlepip.
  Littlepip: How do you like...[them apples] (Just before sending a bunch of apple grenades down Mr Topaz's throat)
• Properly Paranoid: Scootaloo goes to extreme measures to have safe meetings with her friends, thinking the Ministry of Morale may be watching. She's right.
• Punch-Clock Villain:
  • While in Shattered Hoof, Littlepip meets some Raiders that aren't raping-and-killing monsters, and are just trying to survive in the wasteland.
  • Rank-and-file Enclave soldiers taking part in Operation: Cauterize are just following commands of their superiors, many of them don't seem to bear any ill will towards inhabitants of the Wasteland and some even disagree with their orders to the point of — in some cases — openly defying them. Sadly, they tend to pay dearly for such acts of basic decency (see below).
• Punished for Sympathy: During attack on the Friendship City, the crew of an Enclave warship "Altostratus" flat-out refuses to open fire on the town and retreats from the "battle" in disgust. They are rewarded by getting blown out of the sky by a sister ship "Pyrocumulus".
  Commander Ice Break: Raptor Pyrocumulus, the ponies of Raptor Altostratus regret to inform you that we will not slaughter helpless ground ponies, no matter what our orders say.
• Punny Name: It's a Friendship is Magic fanfiction. Go figure this will be a good chunk of the cast, of whom cheese shop owner Monterey Jack is only the first.

R

• Radiation-Immune Mutants: Ghouls and other creatures that survived the original balefire fallout, such as phoenixes are resistant and even heal in the presence of radiation.
• Recursive Fanfiction: Has spawned far, far, far, far too many to count.^note And there are more on google docs!
• Revolvers Are Just Better: Little Macintosh (a scoped revolver) is one of Littlepip's most powerful guns. May be justified, as this one was crafted by, and shown in SteelHooves' memory, used by, the head of the Ministry of Wartime Technology AKA Applejack, and would therefore pack quite a punch.
• Rogues Gallery: Although Littlepip and co. usually dispatch Raiders and the like, she has a number of foes that she crosses paths with on multiple occasions, the most notable ones being Red Eye, the Big Bad of the story; the Goddess, the most powerful entity in the Wasteland and the ruler of the Alicorns, and Colonel Autumn Leaf, Calamity's older brother and leader of the Grand Pegasus Enclave.
• Running Gag:
  • Whenever Gawd's name is used in conversation. Ex — "I'm on a mission from Gawd."
  • Littlepip's obsession with lockpicking and hacking.
  • Calamity's penchant for looting whenever possible.
  • Homage having way too much fun embarrassing Littlepip over the air.
  • Watcher sneaking up on Littlepip.
  • The Ministry Mares playfully hitting on Applejack, particularly Rainbow Dash.
  • Littlepip being a toaster repair pony.
  • Every chapter ends up with Littlepip gaining a new perk, which are parodies of Fallout ones. Some examples are:
    • Cherchez La Filly - +10% damage to the same sex and unique dialogue options with certain ponies.
    • Math Wrath – You are able to optimize your PipBuck’s targeting spell logic. S.A.T.S. is now 20% cooler.
    • Mighty Telekinesis (level three) – Your telekinesis is Twilight Sparkle tier. You can handle multiple objects with ease; and with enough focus, you could probably carry around an Ursa Minor!

S

• Screw You, Elves!: Pegasi have become the elves of the setting, living safely in the clouds and claiming that they'll come down to save Equestria, but never getting around to it. Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo and Calamity (who are pegasi themselves) gave them this treatment, with Calamity doing it every chance he gets. And now that they've descended, pretty much everyone is giving them this treatment.
• Secret Police: The Ministry of Morale.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The zebras feared that Princess Luna taking over the rule of Equestria was the beginning of a prophecy that Nightmare Moon would return and destroy the world. Cue the zebras going to such lengths to prevent that from happening that they end up destroying the world out of sheer desperation.
• Sequel Hook: A handful. The cloud cover is broken, the taint and radiation are mostly cleansed from the land, and Equestria sees a period of relative peace. However, the remains of the Enclave and Red Eye's forces are engaged in bitter civil wars, energy sources remain a long-term concern, the bearers of Magic and Generosity are never named, and the fate of Rainbow Dash remains a mystery.
• Sex Is Interesting: Mentions of sexuality are common. Characters usually have "lovers"^note which basically means "these individuals are having sex" rather than "fillyfriends" or "coltfriends^note which don't necessarily involve sex. There are at least two lesbian mares and two gay stallions. Littlepip's profanity is usually some variation on "[Celestia/Luna/Both] [sexually violate] me with her [body part]!". Lifebloom notes that he was kicked out of the Republic because his homosexuality, while the population-wary Enclave are explained to give preferential treatment to homosexual officers (with Calamity referring to one of his older brothers as an example).
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Equestria was mere weeks from decisively winning the war. Twilight Sparkle had cracked the zebras' spell Bypass, enabling her to create impenetrable megaspell shields if she had just a little more time, and had begun testing the alicorn mutation formula the day of the bombings. The only reason the apocalypse started was because they thought Nightmare Moon was going to exterminate them after winning the war and that they seriously had nothing to lose.
  • Even more heartbreakingly, Pinkie Pie's strike team was mere minutes too late breaking into the Four Stars building to stop the megaspell that would destroy Manehattan. Her call to Twilight asking for help with her drug addiction and to repair their friendship was sent minutes after Twilight got bombed in Splendid Valley, and minutes before Pinkie herself was incinerated in the Manehattan blast.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Stated quite emphatically by both Calamity and Velvet Remedy in Stable 29. Littlepip doesn't buy it.
  Littlepip: By the Goddesses, could they be any more obvious!
  • Also an example of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, as part of the reason they hooked up is because Littlepip thought it was inevitable.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!:
  • Fluttershy (or at least a vision of her) gives one to the Black Book. "Hush now. Quiet now."
  • Littlepip delivers a barn burner of one to both Red Eye and herself.
• Shout-Out:
  • An audio log in Stable 24 mentions sending a guy with a flamethrower into the ventilation system to root out the monsters.
  • When they first meet, Calamity tells Littlepip that: "Ah see a raider headin’ at a caravan, ah’m gonna perforate her till she ain’t movin’ no more! It’s muh policy.”
  • "Mission from Gawd", anyone?
  • The water talisman in stable 29 being damaged is one for Fallout 1; however it doesn't turn out very well this time.
  • Spike reminds an Enclave soldier that she's "tasty and goes good with ketchup" (the "Meddle not in the affairs of dragons..." meme).
  • Several events in the show are off-handedly mentioned.
  • When drunk and reminiscing, Homage recalls a pony she calls Mr. Whooves, who likes to talk about his box that's bigger on the inside. She is not impressed, given the carrying capacity of the average Fallout container - she herself had four saddlebags that could hold upwards of 30 assault rifles with ammo, each.
  • Littlepip meets a slave pony called Daffodil, whose cutie mark is a very angry yellow flower.
  • Xenith describes Angel — whom zebras called a Doombunny — as "death with sharp, pointy teeth".
• One could say that guarding the Cathedral in the Everfree Forest is Red Eye's black dragon.
• Single-Minded Twins: Gestalt and Mosaic, Twilight Sparkle's head researchers in the Ministry of Arcane Sciences. Not only to they Finish Each Others Sentences, but each other's spells, too.
• Skeletons in the Coat Closet: Nightseer wears the bones of Princess Luna as armor/trophies. It's ultimately her downfall, as Littlepip telekinetically impales her with them.
• Slept Through the Apocalypse: Spike. He feels immense guilt over this, since this left his closest friend Twilight Sparkle to die alone.
• Slobs vs. Snobs: A lot of the arguing between Velvet Remedy, Calamity and to a lesser extent Littlepip can come across as this.
• Soul Jar: A form of dark zebra magic.
  • The Black Book acts as this for the mad zebra who created it.
  • The 42 figurines of the Mane Six serve as this for Rarity, though she was doing for altruistic reasons.
  • The S.P.P. Crusader mainframe is one for Celestia.
• The Speechless: Ditzy Doo.
• Spell My Name With An S: Littlepip's name can be a source of confusion, with readers sometimes spelling it as LittlePip or Littlepip. This isn't helped by the fact that the spelling is occasionally inconsistent within the story itself ^note The very first mention of her name, for example, is 'LittlePip'.
• Spin-Offspring: Velvet Remedy is a direct descendant of Sweetie Belle, while Littlepip is descended from an undefined branch of the Apple family.
• Stable Time Loop: Pinkie's drug-induced interactions with Littlepip inspire her to safely stash the memory orbs Littlepip used to interact with her 200 years later.
• Standard Post-Apocalyptic Setting: The story takes place about 200 years after a magical-nuclear war between the zebras and ponies destroyed almost the entire world and left behind a barren waste dotted with ruined cities and home to mutated monsters and small survivor holdouts, and is about what it takes to try and bring light back to the wasteland.
• State Sec: Applejack's Ministry of Wartime Technology created the Steel Rangers, a force of Power Armor equipped soldiers that fought alongside the Royal Army and later became the analogue to Fallout's Brotherhood of Steel. Not to be outdone by her old friend, Twilight Sparkle's Ministry of Arcane Science attempted to create their own force of alicorn demigoddess super soldiers, which backfired horribly, creating the analogue to the Master and the Super Mutants.
• Stealth Pun: Her image devastated after the events of "Boast Buster" Trixie is implied to have wound up pulling tricks by a Canterlot Turnpike.
• Stepford Smiler: Silver Bell
• Suicide by Cop: Monterey Jack
• Sugar Apocalypse: This is the world of Friendship is Magic after the equivalent of a nuclear war, after all.
• Take That!: Chapter 11 has a jab at the one-use nature of permanent items.
  (It's not as if books can only be read once, after all.)
  • The story also takes jabs at various parts of the games, such as:
    • Megaton in Fallout 3, when sheriff Railright comments on how keeping an undetonated megaspell in a town would be a terrible idea.
    • There's an alicorn that appears in Chapter 37 that's a likely reference to Dog and God from Dead Money. Velvet comments on how someone with a mental illness that deep-seated couldn't simply be cured by talking to them.

T

• Take Up My Sword: The world needs six new bearers for the Elements of Harmony so they can cast a mega-spell that can restore Equestria. The first prime candidates are Ditzy Doo as Laughter and Homage as Honesty, and later Velvet Remedy as Kindness and Calamity as Loyalty. (Was there ever any doubt?)
  • Near the end, Lifebloom comments that magic has always come easy to him, and he's never found a spell he couldn't learn: however, the limits to the strength of his magic are far weaker than Littlepip's, much less Twilight Sparkle.
• Taking the Bullet: Big Macintosh took a shot meant for Celestia, hence the memorial statue in Ponyville.
• The Team: Littlepip has a dorky charisma and is talented at bringing out the best, and worst, in people. Calamity is forthright and honourable. Velvet Remedy is a mare who prefers not to use violence, and looks for the best in all beings, while SteelHooves is the most capable fighter and wearing Power Armor on a (necessarily) consistent basis. The Balefire Phoenix, Pyrelight, is incredibly dangerous in the right circumstances, but otherwise just pretty and radioactive. Xenith joins late, but still fits well with the team, filling in skill areas like stealth and close quarters combat.
• Telepathy: The green alicorn's unique ability. Acquired from Gestalt and Mosaic.
• Terminally Dependent Society: In part. One of the main reasons for the Great War was strained relationships with the zebras, resulting in Equestria not getting the coal it needs to fuel its infrastructure. Lampshaded by Littlepip when she berates the old government for running a country on a resource that it didn't even have.
• Thanatos Gambit: Monterey Jack. By his admission of banditry, and subsequent execution, he forces the responsibility of his children's fate onto the now guilt-ridden Littlepip.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Red Eye poked around a little in confidential Enclave secrets. As a result, the Enclave finally descend and launch a full-scale military invasion to kill Red Eye and anyone else who might also have the information. And since they can't be certain how many people know the information, best to destroy entire cities just to be safe. This may have been Red Eye's plan all along, as their overreaction is destroying the Enclave's claims to be Equestria's saviors and allows him to bait and trap Colonel Autumn Leaf.
  • Also the modus operandi of SteelHooves and Butcher, who both have a tendency to fire their huge guns at any kind of threat, even in enclosed spaces and if a single bullet would have sufficed. Lampshaded multiple times by Littlepip.
  • Apparently the sum total of the Enclave's battle tactics. Then again, they're the ones with siege platforms made of thunderclouds and bristling with magical energy weapons.
• The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Littlepip's Memory Gambit as noted above counts on her not watching her own extracted memories until after everything is in place, and has written a letter to herself explicitly telling her this. Naturally, the first thing she does is watch the first one — and immediately catches an angry earful from herself for being nosy.
• Title Drop: The epilogue's subtitle is 'Of Forgiveness and Fallout.'
• Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Black Book.
• Tough Love: An example in Chapter 19, where Velvet Remedy shoots Littlepip with a dart gun to paralyze her and then drag her to Doctor Helpinghooves to forcibly put her through the addiction treatment. Littlepip is understandably upset afterwards, though that may be because Velvet's intervention resulted in Monterey Jack's death.
• Town with a Dark Secret: Arbu
• Transferable Memory: Memory orbs, they can be used by unicorns or ponies with Recollectors to live another pony's memory. It's a dangerous process, since the user won't be able to perceive their environment during the memory.
• Training the Peaceful Villagers: Glyphmark receives a fair bit of training and equipment from Littlepip and Co.
• Twin Telepathy: Gestalt and Mosaic. It's the source of the green alicorns' telepathy.

U and V

• Unnamed Parent: Littlepip’s mother.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Littlepip's plan to deal with the Goddess. An interesting example in that Littlepip doesn't know what it is either. It works quite well, although the untimely arrival of the Enclave made the exit rather ugly.
• Unstoppable Rage:
  • Littlepip goes absolutely kill crazy after finding out the ponies of Arbu are cannibals. Leads to a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against every inhabitant there.
  • Not as extreme as Littlepip's, but Velvet Remedy goes trigger happy on a group of raiders who not only tortured and forced a number of young pony children to fight for their amusement, with the added promise of getting their parent's dead bodies back, but they also have the gall to set up their camp at, and defile Fluttershy's cottage, a mare who Velvet looks up to.
• Villain Team-Up: Red Eye and the Goddess have such an alliance, though both are plotting behind each other's back. Subverted when the Enclave tries to form one with the Goddess. Since she has just a few minutes before being killed by a megaspell when they make the offer, the Enclave has incredibly bad timing.

W

• We Can Rule Together: Done by Red Eye to Littlepip. He's aware that he's the last pony the wasteland needs as a ruler, so he offers Littlepip the chance to ascend to Godhood with him, becoming the resulting being's conscience. Her response is an impressive Shut Up, Hannibal!.
• Weather-Control Machine: It's the reason why Equestria is perpetually cloudy. During the apocalypse, the pegasi that would become the Enclave protected themselves by filling the sky with clouds, making the zebras unable to target their cities. It's also the source of the Enclave's power: by using it to grow crops above the clouds and using the perpetual cloud cover to fabricate stories about the surface world, they can maintain their autonomy. If control was ever taken away from them, they would not be able to survive and would be forced to leave the skies and join the rest of the world.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 29: The Goddess is Trixie, and Twilight Sparkle is part of her Mind Hive.
  • Chapter 38. The Goddess dies and the Enclave arrive.
  • Episode 39 is worse. SteelHooves dies, Velvet Remedy leaves the group, the Enclave take control of the Wasteland, and the chapter ends on a cliffhanger ending where Ditzy Doo apparently dies. The next chapter reveals that Ditzy survived, but that doesn't detract from the wham, since Ditzy instead pulled off a Sonic Rainboom.
  • According to the author, chapters with "The X of the Y" titles (such as Chapter Seventeen: "The Villain of the Piece") are plotted to be "Wham Episodes" which significantly alter the course of the story, although sometimes only obviously so to readers in retrospect.
• Wham Line: Chapter 25. "Burning hoof means Littlepip's watching me.". It takes "Pinkie Pie is watching you FOREVER" to a new, horrifying level.
  • Chapter 38, when Littlepip finally discovers just what she was planning.
  Littlepip's alarm: >RUN!
  >XENITH HAS PLANTED THE BALEFIRE BOMB BENEATH MARIPONY.
  >YOUR FRIENDS ARE SAFELY AWAY.
  >YOU HAVE THIRTY-EIGHT MINUTES TO GET CLEAR.
  >RUN!
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In this case, referring to an actual mouse. Littlepip and friends set off a spell that turns the dragon in the Canterlot Royal Treasury (possibly Spike's mother) into a field mouse. They then leave (only confirming the spell's success through a gem), and later Canterlot is destroyed by the Enclave. Subverted when the mouse reappears in the Chapter 43.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • DJ-Pon3 calls Littlepip out on this after killing all the inhabitants in Arbu.
  • Scootaloo planned to pull off an absolutely epic one to the Ministries and the Princesses themselves. When the Ministries, governors, and Princesses show up Stable 1, Scootaloo would seal the door and then viciously call them out on the horrific war that has cost so many lives. And since she believes that they don't deserve to have Equestria, even when it recovers, she designed the stable to remain shut forever until every single one of them (plus any descendants) died. It doesn't quite work, since most of the ponies never arrive, but goddamn Scootaloo.
  • Littlepip - called out by both Velvet Remedy and Littlepip herself after her destruction of the Goddess also wiped out the Splendid Valley hellhound warrens. Notably, the hellhounds living outside the area did not levy the same condemnation considering the Splendid Valley hellhounds had been engaged in a genocidal war against ponies.
• What Would X Do?:
  • SteelHooves basically runs on "What would Applejack do?" This doesn't mean he won't do things he knows Applejack wouldn't approve of. Realizing how much he's strayed, and living up to her legacy becomes a big part of his character development.
  • Later invoked by Littlepip asking herself what the late SteelHooves would do.
• What You Are in the Dark: Littlepip has a particularly jarring encounter with an obviously magical mirror which depicts her inner soul- as a raider dying in combat.
  • It is revealed to actually show her at her finest- shot repeatedly while dressed in raider armor, she nonetheless stood undaunted between a caravan of unarmed innocents and what she believed to be an attacking raider.
• World-Healing Wave: The purpose of The Gardens of Equestria.
• Written by the Winners: The Enclave's approach to history.
• You Are Not Alone:
  • When the Black Book comes dangerously close to corrupting Littlepip in a dream, Rarity's soul jars take the form of the Mane Six and give Littlepip a Mind Hug.
  • Mentioned off-screen with Velvet Remedy, whose figurines comfort her after the onslaught of emotions following SteelHooves' death.
  • From Littlepip to Celestia, claiming that everyone needs friends.

Y and Z

• You Can't Fight Fate: Upon realizing that Pinkie Pie is aware that Littlepip is watching her through memory orbs, Littlepip tries to avert the megaspell apocalypse by communicating with her. Pinkie refuses, because that's a secret, and secrets are something that should be kept FOREVER! Though it's later revealed that Pinkie did act on this knowledge, creating a Stable Time Loop.
• Zero-Approval Gambit: In the story it's referred to as becoming "The Villain of the Piece" — doing what is right even though everyone will think you're a horrible person for doing it. It's very easy to slip from this into actual villainy, though, if your moral compass is skewed.
  • Scootaloo first uses the phrase to describe her decision to seal the Manehattan Stable before the apocalypse actually happens. If the end doesn't come, everyone will think she imprisoned hundreds of ponies on a whim. Since it was her idea to run 'experiments' on the Stables before the bombs dropped, public approval wasn't much of an objective. When the bombs do drop, however, it's a happy coincidence that the Stables were already occupied.
  • Littlepip ultimately makes a similar decision. To heal the wasteland, the cloud cover must break, which means destroying pegasus agriculture. Like Scootaloo, Littlepip is forced to choose between the lesser of two evils.
  • Littlepip's plan to destroy the Goddess. Detonating the balefire bomb under Maripony was necessary not only to save the Wasteland at large from the Goddess and the Black Book, but also to save Homage and those in Tenpony Tower from Red Eye. The downside? Littlepip's responsible for a nuclear holocaust that kills a massive population of hellhounds, which indirectly causes SteelHooves' death. The worst part about it? It was the "best" possible option.
    
    Part of it is alleviated, though, with a discussion with the Albino Hellhound. "The Splendid Valley pack declared themselves at war with ponies. When you're at war, you don't git tu complain when the enemy kills you. Uh don't blame you fur them." The only real problem he has with Littlepip is her inability (or unwillingness) to spare or rescue territorial yet neutral packs like the ones at Ghost Farm. The silver lining, though, is that the contributions and decisions she makes after that point improve relationships enough to allow Fluttershy the chance to give them a safe place and peace within the NCR years later.