Fanfic / Alicorn

When an incredible revelation sends Rainbow Dash's life into a tailspin, she finds herself at the mercy of emotions she never thought she had, faced with hard questions and impossible choices.

Rainbow Dash is not having a good week. Between angry farmers, weird nightmares, and a splitting headache, she would do anything for it just to be over so her life can go on like normal. When she passes out and wakes up in the arms of Princess Celestia, however, she learns that her life will never be normal again. For you see, seventeen years ago, Celestia had a daughter, a beautiful pegasus filly named Aurora whom she gave up for adoption.

And Rainbow Dash has just grown a horn.

Alicorn is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic written by Aldea Donder where Rainbow Dash is revealed to be Celestia's alicorn daughter. Originally written in 2011 as a fan-sequel to Fairy-Slayer's oneshot Mother Nearest, it was revised slightly in 2012, and given a complete rewrite in 2015, continuing the core premise but expanding it into a larger narrative, with more rewrites in 2017 and 2019.

Tropes

• Twenty Percent Cooler: From the Trope Namer no less. Rainbow explains her feelings towards Celestia by framing it as two columns with cool and uncool things. Celestia has more points in the "cool" column after saving Sweetie Belle and her dad, but still not enough to outweigh the "uncool" points. Celestia doesn't quite follow the math, but gets the jist of it.
• Acquired Situational Narcissism: Rarity, in a rather bad emotional state, accuses Rainbow of having forgotten what it's like for the little guy after becoming a princess. Rainbow might have had a habit of this previously, like with the Mare-Do-Well episode, but right now she just wants to be treated normally, and the accusation pisses her off more than anything.
• Actually Pretty Funny:
  • After Celestia asks Twilight if she was alright after a fall but not Rainbow, Rainbow calls her out on it and Celestia explains that she didn't want to question her "Awesomeness" in front of the crowd. Rainbow has to let out a laugh at that.
  • After Luna pranks her by giving her a dream where she swaps bodies with Pinkie, Rainbow gives her both an angry glare and a reluctant smile because it was a pretty great prank.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In general, most of the characters are a lot more rude, aggressive, and insensitive than in the original show. Tropes Are Tools, however, as this is caused by generally more stressful and even traumatic situations. Case in point, Rainbow is dealing with massive upheaval that has changed her entire life for the worse and is lashing out in anger, Twilight is dealing with envy for Rainbow's situation and unintentionally lets that bleed into how she acts around her, and Rarity nearly lost her sister and father in a terrorist attack and is projecting her own fear and distress onto the ponies around her.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: In the show, Celestia and Rainbow merely know each other through "work" and through being mutual acquaintances of Twilight. Here, they are mother and daughter, with a very fraught relationship.
• Adaptational Species Change:
  • Rainbow is an alicorn, though it was impossible to tell before she grew her horn in early adulthood. Her father was also an Earth Pony, rather than a pegasus.
  • Cadance is a regular pegasus, rather than an alicorn, though she's still a princess and Celestia's niece (through many generations).
• Adaptational Upbringing Change: Rainbow in the show has two loving and supporting (if a bit overenthusiastic) parents who are still alive and seem to not be in any financial trouble. In the fic, which was written long before her parents were introduced in the show, her parents were poor and sickly, but did their best to give her a happy childhood before dying when she was eleven, and she seems to have gotten by on her own since then, helped by an inheritance she happened to receive after their deaths (really a gift from Celestia).
• A Good Way to Die: Played for Laughs. Rainbow hopes she doesn't die of the feather flu (a routine influenza) because she's already imagined her death, which involves samurai swords, zombies, and explosions.
• Allohistorical Allusion: Twilight briefly entertains the notion of becoming an alicorn, but dismisses it as impossible.
• Alternate Universe: The fic diverges strongly from canon, not just in Rainbow's parentage but also in the nature of alicorns, as there is no ascension and the only way to become one is to be born as one. The timeline has also taken a hit, as the fic takes place after Discord's return, and before Shining Armor and Cadance's wedding, which would place it in season 2, but season 3 episodes like "Wonderbolt Academy" and "Magic Duel" have already happened.
• Ambiguously Related: Cadance is described as Celestia's many-times-great niece. Since Celestia only has one sibling, this would presumably make Cadance a very distant descendant of Luna, unless he's adopted or related differently and "niece" is just shorthand.
• Amplified Animal Aptitude: Rainbow at one point walks in on Philomena and Tank playing poker. Justified for Philomena, who's an immortal magical phoenix, but Tank is just a regular tortoise.
• Animal Espionage: A crow and a bluebird watch Shining and Twilight's reunion with great interest and concern. Who they report to is yet unknown.
• A Place Holds Memories: When seeing Celestia's chambers for the first time, Rainbow is struck with a lot of memories of the three months she spent with her mother after her birth before she was given away, most of which were spent in that room.
• Armor-Piercing Question: After Celestia admits her failings as a parents and claims that even though she messed up royally, she does love her, Rainbow asks her if she would have ever said anything if she hadn't grown a horn. Celestia doesn't know the answer to that.
• Armor-Piercing Response:
  • When Rainbow first learns the truth about her parentage and accuses Celestia of being a liar, Celestia insists that she would never lie to her. Rainbow yells back that Celestia has lied to her her entire life.
  • During a bad argument regarding Rainbow's introduction to the public, Celestia offhandedly mentions that she's been sheltering her from the press. Rainbow, furious, tells Celestia that everything she has ever done has been the opposite of sheltering her, which shuts the argument down on Celestia's side (and causes Rainbow to break down in tears).
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: Discussed. Rainbow doesn't want a crown, which Celestia respects, and any actual crowning would be purely ceremonial since she's been a princess since the day of her birth. Celestia does, however, want to make ceremony out of introducing Rainbow as her daughter, since not having a proper introduction would lead to scaremongering and speculation in the papers, and she's so used to the trappings of royalty that she feels it's required to be a grand ceremony. Rainbow flatly refuses, since being introduced to the public as Celestia's daughter would mean that no one in Equestria would ever think of her as anything other than "Princess Bucking Aurora."
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Played for Laughs. In chapter 4, Twilight recounts how Sweetie Belle is on vacation with her parents, leaving Rarity to lament the "loss" of her sister in typical dramatic fashion.
• Bash Brothers: Shining Armor and Daedalus Tristar have clearly fought together before and act like experienced partners when fighting the Ascendancy, complete with playful banter despite the serious situation.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Equestria's moon has a breathable atmosphere, since both Pinkie and a hydra (It Makes Sense in Context) can survive there just fine. Luna and Rainbow Dash can too, but both are alicorns so they might actually be able to survive in vacuum.
• Bat People: Luna's personal guard consists of batponies, which she sends to annex Rainbow's house for a few hours in chapter 9. They also seem a bit nicer than the regular royal guard she deals with, using her correct name and having appropriate respect for her without going overboard.
• Bear Hug: Once she gets her alone, Luna pulls Rainbow into a hug that knocks the breath out of her lungs, all the while crying tears of joy from meeting her niece.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: In the first chapter, Rainbow looks at a poster for the Wonderbolts and tells herself that she has to show she's good enough. Being revealed as Celestia's daughter and an alicorn certainly shows that she's good enough for just about anything, but only due to the priviliege of her birth and nothing she herself did. Not to mention that it locks her out of virtually any careerpath that is not Princess.
• Best Friend: Fluttershy is Rainbow's. She's the first pony she goes to after the trauma of learning her parentage, and the first pony who makes her laugh despite everything.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Luna's revenge for Rainbow trying to prank her with a fake cockroach is to conjure up a massive illusory cockroach to chase her and Twilight around the castle.
• Big Damn Heroes: Whitehoof shows up just in time to save Tristar from an Ascendancy cultist after the latter is knocked down for the count. He is followed by Princess Celestia, who takes longer but once she does appear, ends the battle instantly.
• Big Damn Reunion: Chapter 11 has a long and emotional scene of Twilight and Shining Armor reuniniting after he's been in a coma for a few weeks, with lots of crying, emotional conversations, and chewing him out for being careless enough to get himself injured.
• Bilingual Bonus: When getting a drink with Twilight, Tristar says "Salud," the Spanish version of Cheers.
• Bland-Name Product: In chapter 6, Twilight picks up some Prongles, describing them as "stackable, shaped like a hyperbolic paraboloid, and pizza flavoured".
• Blood Magic: Magic by this name uses blood as a medium to affect the ponies who's blood was used, and has been illegal in Equestria since before it was Equestria. The Ascendancy use it to cast Geases on themselves to bind their voice to a "blood warden" who decides if they can speak or not. Twilight admits that the name makes it sound more dramatic than it is, though, and generally only takes a single pinprick
• Brick Joke:
  • Rainbow jokingly suggests that Pinkie could throw an encyclopedia-themed party for Twilight. The next chapter, guess what the theme of Pinkie's party for Rainbow is.
  • Applejack calls Rainbow's horn a can opener first time she sees it, much to Rarity's horror. Several chapters later, one of the assignments Twilight gives Rainbow when tutoring her in magic is opening a can.
  • Early in chapter 9, Pinkie suggests that they can prank Luna with a snake nut can (i.e. springloaded snakes in a can), which Rainbow dismisses as too basic. At the end of the chapter, their final prank does include a snake nut can, this time loaded with a fully grown hydra (with Celestia's help).
  • Also in chapter 9, Rainbow remarks that Luna probably doesn't eat donuts cause they don't have donut shops on the moon, much to Pinkie's horror. Part of their prank on Luna with Celestia's help is to create a phantasmal donut shop on the moon.
• Broken Pedestal: Rainbow was loyal to and looked up to Princess Celestia until she learned that the princess is her mother, gave her away as a foal, and never mentioned anything even though they've met several times before. By now, her view on the princess is decidedly less charitable.
• Butt-Monkey: In his only appearance, Princes Blueblood is having a lovely morning when Rainbow Dash crashes through his house, pursued by a legion of guards, completely destroying it.
• Call-Back: When Rainbow hears that Derpy is handling the weather while she was out, she immediately catastrophizes a Discord-esque scenario that will no doubt come of this (which doesn't happen). Several chapters later, Twilight learns that Rainbow might become better at magic than her, and immediately catastrophizes a similar scenario.
• The Cameo: Tristar mentions in chapter 10 that he walked past a poster for the Flim and Flam brothers' super cider squeezy 6000.
• Cassandra Truth: In chapter 4, a small filly tells her grandmother that there's an alicorn flying around above them. The grandmother is too busy bartering to pay attention and dismisses it as ridiculous... until Rainbow pulls off a sonic rainboom right above them.
• Catapult Nightmare: Rainbow suffers a series of nightmares about being ripped away from her mother, waking up hyperventilating and unable to stop herself from crying every time, one time even screaming "Mommy!"
• Catch-22 Dilemma: Played for laughs. Rainbow's guards won't let her enter a restaurant before doing a security sweep, but it's also raining outside and they're protecting her from the rain with their wings, so they can't go do the security sweep without risking the princess getting wet. Rainbow pops a vein before yelling at them to get on with it.
• Cerebus Callback: In chapter 4, Twilight mentions that Sweetie Belle is on vacation with her parents, and Rarity is mourning her "loss" in typical dramatic fashion. The very next chapter we see Sweetie Belle caught up in a terrorist attack which leaves her and her father injured and buried in rubble, crying out for her parents and sister.
• Cerebus Retcon: The entire story is one of Mother Nearest. While that fic was largely comedic and the reveal of Rainbow's parentage was treated as shocking but not negative, this fic is longer and goes into great detail about how such a massive upheaval affects Rainbow emotionally, how the relationship between her and Celestia is unsalvagable, and how much her life is changed beyond repair, not to mention other, more exotic consequences.
• Chekhov's Gun: In chapter 8, Twilight finds Celestia reading a small blue book. Two chapter later, this book becomes relevant, as it is a photo album containing pictures from Rainbow's life.
• Chekhov's Gunman: An ancient pegasus king named Atlas is mentioned at a few points as a significant figure in Equestrian history. It's not until chapter 10 that we learn that he was Celestia and Luna's father, and Rainbow Dash's grandfather.
• Civil War: The War of the Night Eternal, the conflict between Celestia, ruling from Canterlot, and Nightmare Moon, ruling from the castle of the two sisters in Everfree, was a civil war in Equestria's early history, a thousand years before the present. The war ended in a siege of the Everfree castle, where Luna and Celestia fought each other personally, ending with Luna's banishment to the moon.
• Classified Information: The mysterious upcoming incident involving something called the Ascendancy in Manehattan is deeply classified. The ponies in the know have to meet in a rarely used war room and can't bring documents out of the castle, and Celestia won't even tell her daughter or student what's going on.
• Color-Coded Wizardry: Different unicorns (and alicorns) have different coloured magic, usually reflecting their eyecolour. The ones from the show retain theirs, while the others;
  • The Ascendancy cultists have pitch black magic, likely the result of being enchanted by Black Magic prior to going into battle.
  • Inversely, Rainbow Dash's magic, once she learns to use it, is pure white. Interestingly, this does not reflect her eyecolour, nor does it match her mother's (who's aura is yellow gold).
  • Blood Magic, when seen through Twilight's True Sight spell, is sickly red.
• Comically Missing the Point: When a server at a restaurant in Ponyville starts bowing and scraping for princess Aurora, Rainbow points out that she worked as a weatherpony in the town less than a month ago and knows the server personally. At which point he keeps acting the exact same way but switches to calling her Princess Rainbow Dash.
• The Commandments: Celestia's school of gifted unicorns is based on the pillars of Wisdom, Fortitude, and Devotion. Sage Whitehoof has to admit that Rainbow sorely lacks all three.
• Commonality Connection:
  • Celestia and Rainbow eventually start bonding a bit over a shared love for sports, as well as Celestia's understanding of how difficult it is to be a princess at such a young age (she herself was crowned when she was 16, one year younger than Rainbow is now).
  • In chapter 10, Celestia confides in an unconscious Rainbow that she knows all too well what it is like to lose your parents young, to be willing to do anything to have them back, and to be lonely.
• Converse with the Unconscious: Celestia has a lengthy talk while preening Rainbow in chapter 10, telling her about how she watched her mother die when she was even younger than Rainbow was when her parents died, something that she has never told anyone, not even Luna. Or at least she would have, if Rainbow was awake for it, but Celestia admits that she's too cowardly to talk to her while she's awake.
• Cool Aunt: Luna adores her niece, and greatly enjoys being an aunt. On Rainbow's side, she likes her aunt fine, better than Celestia at least, and they have a shared love of playing pranks to bond over.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Rainbow and Pinkie got to a lot of trouble to steal the key to Luna's chambers, and as soon as they enter they see a balcony Rainbow could've easily flown to.
• Covers Always Lie: The cover used for the fic is a piece of fanart by MysticAlpha depicting Celestia and Rainbow on a cloud, Celestia blowing a raspberry and Rainbow smiling and laughing. The implication this gives about their relationship is quite the opposite of what it is in the fic itself.
• Cryptic Background Reference:
  • An ancient pegasus king named Atlas is mentioned a few times, hailed as having raised the heavens and lifted the world out of shadow. While the fic eventually confirms that he was Celestia and Luna's father, what accomplishments made him so renowned are left unclear.
  • When Luna is beating herself up for being too weak, Celestia assures her that she was a victim, "As much as Hurricane, as much as Father—" What Luna, Commander Hurricane, and Celestia and Luna's father were victims of has yet to be explained.
• The Dark Arts: Twilight lists necromancy, blood magic, and chaos magic as schools of magic that have been outlawed since the day of the ancient unicorn kingdom, and only trained mages like Twilight can even recognize it when she sees it. Of course, the Ascendancy makes full use of them. Tristar also calls Whitehoof's communication orbs black magic, but that's probably just Tristar being Tristar.
• Darker and Edgier: On a personal level, the emotional conflict between Rainbow, Celestia, and Twilight plays into a lot of trauma and emotional issues on all parties, and has no obvious solution. On an action level, the Ascendancy attack involves ponies being violently knocked around, nearly killed, and magic be used in extremely brutal ways, all perpetrated by a group of fanatic cultists. All in all, a lot darker than the children's show it's based on.
• Death by Adaptation: Rainbow's parents, who were established after this fic was published to be alive and well (if a bit estranged) in the show, died when she was eleven in this continuity.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best:
  • Rainbow has fond memories of her late adopted parents, and a fair bit of her angst about Celestia being her biological mother is that any positive feelings she has for Celestia feels like a betrayal of the ponies she's always seen as her real parents.
  • Celestia reminisces fondly about her own mother, who died when she was very young, while preening Rainbow Dash. She likewise speaks highly of her father, calling him the greatest pony she's ever known.
• Deconstruction: The fic is a deconstruction of stories that focus on one character in an Ensemble Cast by making them much more important and powerful than the rest (in this case via Really Royalty Reveal). Rainbow Dash is revealed to be the alicorn daughter of princess Celestia, making her functionally a demigod far above her friends in both power and status, and it tears a massive rift in their friendship. The difference in status means that they really can't interact the way they used to, and Rainbow being both an alicorn and Celestia's daughter causes a lot of jealousy and resentment from Twilight. It also examines how suddenly becoming one of the most important and powerful people in the world overnight affects Rainbow emotionally and functionally ruins her life.
• Delayed Reaction: When she wakes up after growing her horn, Rainbow is still a bit delirious and calls out for her mother, and Celestia answers. Rainbow nuzzles closer to her... and then realizes that this is very much not a normal situation.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Not explicitly stated, but Equestria seems to have a different age of majority than most places on Earth. Rainbow is 17, yet is living on her own and holding down steady employment (though it could be because she's an orphan).
• Demoted to Extra: Aside from Rainbow and Twilight, most of the mane six are reduced to smaller roles only popping up now and then, since most of the story takes place in Canterlot.
• Disappeared Dad: Rainbow's adopted parents come up semi-frequently, and her biological mother is a main character, but her biological father is only brought up when Celestia recounts how she met him, and has yet to be mentioned at all outside of that.
• Distracting Fake Fight: Twilight and Rainbow pull one in chapter 4 while being manhandled by Tristar's soldiers, distracting them while Twilight sets up a flashbang spell.
• Divine Parentage: Rainbow is the daughter of Celestia, an immortal demigod who raises the sun every morning, and an unnamed Earth Pony father. Rainbow herself has inherited a bit of her power, though she's clearly not as powerful as her mother, and she's still mortal. Celestia also implies that her and Luna are only half alicorn themselves.
• Don't Explain the Joke: After Rainbow gives a joking speech about refusing to stand for Luna's hoarding of chairs, she goes on to explain the joke to Twilight.
  "Like, literally, get it? Because we’re all gonna be sitting. You got that, right Twi? I’m still new to this witty banter stuff, you’ve gotta let me know if I’m hitting the mark—”
• Dramatic Irony: After the Ascendancy attack, newspapers slam Celestia for being so late to enter the fray, arriving a whole five minutes after the royal guard. As the reader knows by then, this is because Celestia was busy keeping the injured alive, and her being late is the only reason there were no casualties.
• Dramatic Thunder: When some royal guards invade Rainbow Dash's cloud house, her demanding that they leave is accopmanied by the house itself turning dark and roiling like thunderclouds, complete with lightning bolts. She plays it cool afterward, so it's unclear how much of it was actually her doing it on purpose, and how much was Power Incontinence.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Rainbow is the daughter of Princess Celestia, Scion of the Realm, next in line to the throne, and has helped save Equestria several times, but you wouldn't know from the way the Royal Guard treats her. Captain Tristar views her with obvious disdain, yelling at her like she's an out-of-line soldier and at one point ordering his soldiers to assault her when she refuses to follow his orders without an explanation. Justified because Tristar is a colossal Jerkass who hates Rainbow, and Rainbow is too prideful to ask Celestia to stop him.
• Dynamic Entry: Celestia in general tends to make her appearance accompanied by sunlight. At the battle of Manehattan Central Station, her entrance is heralded by warm sunlight flooding through every window, every cultist being easily put down for the count, and a pillar of fire so bright that ponies have to avert their eyes. By the time she herself actually appears, there isn't a battle anymore.
• Dysfunction Junction: Oh lord yes, everyone is dealing with something or other that often cause emotional conflict between them and their loved ones. Rainbow Dash is lashing out because her life is undergoing massive unwanted changes, Twilight is struggling with jealousy, Celestia is a deeply flawed parent who plays favourites without even realizing, Luna has a massive guilt complex, Rarity is projecting her fears onto the people around her, Tristar is a gargantuan jerkass, Whitehoof's attempts at being reassuring generally just make the issues worse, and that's barely touching on it. Much of the fic is focused on exploring how these emotional issues clash in the most catastrophic ways.
• Easily Forgiven: After ignoring her daughter in favour of work out of fear for a while, Celestia expects Rainbow to be furious at her. To her surprise, Rainbow takes it in stride, understanding that taking care of the Ascendancy was more important, and thanking her for saving Sweetie Belle and her father. She's still angry and resentful, but she understands that Celestia has important things to deal with.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: After the Ascendancy attack, Fluttershy's animals are all on edge, despite it happening across the country from where they are. It's not impossible that Fluttershy is projecting.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Rainbow and Pinkie happens to have been sneaking into Tristar's office when he has a meeting with Twilight, during which Twilight gives word to her resentment of Rainbow and frustration with teaching her magic, and doesn't really defend her friend when Tristar calls her a "gutter trash hoodlum," straining their damaged relationship further.
  Twilight: Do you think I’d be wasting my time trying to teach Rainbow Dash how to use her stupid magic? Do you think I even would’ve bothered to convince her to come?
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Rather than just saying outright that she's her mother, Celestia choses to explain it by recounting how she met an Earth Pony diplomat who made her laugh after centuries of solitude, and how that led to an "indiscretion." Rainbow, meanwhile, is regaining memories of being held in Celestia's arms as a filly, until she finally realizes what Celestia is trying to tell her.
• Failed a Spot Check: In chapter 9, both Celestia and Luna are so caught up in their conversation that they fail to notice that the two ponies that just delivered their evening meal were dressed in obviously fake moustaches, were pink and blue, had clothes and chef's hats that might cover up any horn and wings, and snickered when they left. Even worse, their discussion was about Luna's ongoing prank war with Rainbow and Pinkie.
• Failed Dramatic Exit: After challenging Luna to a prank war before dinner, Rainbow dramatically storms out while declaring that they haven't seen the last of her. Celestia gives her 30 seconds before she comes back. She's back in 20.
  Rainbow: Uh, sorry. Forgot I hadn’t eaten yet.
• Fantastic Racism: Rainbow accuses Celestia of this, asking if she left her to be raised by someone else because she wasn't born with a horn, then took in Twilight who was.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: As is common in fics, the Equestrian government takes cues from that of Britain, with a monarch head of state, a parliament consisting of both nobility and elected representatives, and a shadow chancellor, among other similarities.
• Fat Bastard: The narration dedicates an entire paragraph to describe how fat Lord Brilliant, the lord who wants to turn Central Park in Manehattan into a factory, is.
• Food Fight: One happened offscreen sometime between chapters 2 and 4, between Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Pinkie. It got a bit out of hand since Pinkie had been experimenting with nitroglycerin in the recipe.
• Forced Sleep: To alleviate the pain from her horn growing in, Twilight tries to use the sleeping spell she used on the Ursa Minor on Rainbow. It works, but only barely, leaving her half-conscious. It's unclear if this is because her pain is too great, or if Twilight's spell isn't powerful enough to work on an alicorn.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In chapter 1, Rainbow jokes that playing Monopony with Twilight will ruin their friendship forever. A big part of the rest of the story is Rainbow and Twilight's deteriorating friendship due to very different circumstances.
  • In chapter 11, Luna describes her fall as having burned bridges, and warns Twilight that if she ever ends up in a similar situation, "don't burn it." The chapters ends with Twilight being influenced by the Nightmare into burning Rarity's apology letter to Rainbow.
• Founder of the Kingdom: Equestria's four founders are there, of course, though the fic also throws another important figure into the mix; Atlas, the First King.
• Four-Legged Insect: Rainbow's first strike against Luna in their prank war is to put a cockroach cutout on the inside of her reading lamp to freak it out, though makes it with only four legs. Luna is unimpressed.
• Freak Out: Learning the truth about her parentage is extremely traumatic for Rainbow, leaving her an emotionally broken nervous wreck, before she flips around to becoming much more impulsive and reckless than normal to deal with how much she's lost control over her life.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: Luna's second prank on Rainbow in their prank war is to give her and Pinkie a shared dream where they swap bodies, leaving Rainbow to wake up at sugarcube corner in Pinkie's body, and Pinkie Pie in the body of an alicorn who can break the speed barrier at will.
• French Jerk: The Canterlot chef, who refuses to just take Rainbow's request for simple food and keeps offering extravagant dishes because making daisyburgers with fries is beneath his dignity and he considers it food fit only for "sweaty, uneducated commoners who toil in the fields and skies, bucking trees and pushing clouds," has a thick French (or Pony-French) accent.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: The first time Rainbow's full name of Rainbow Miriam Dash is used in the fic is when Twilight says it in shock after hearing what she called captain Tristar's mother.
• Get Out!: Before leaving at Rainbow's request, Celestia turns around to tell her that "I always-". Rainbow tells her to "Get. Out." She does the same later to some guards who entered her cloud house without permission though that time it comes with a hefty dose of Power Incontinence.
• Gilded Cage: How Rainbow feels about Canterlot. She can't leave the castle, she's not allowed to fly, and she is attended by guards and servants who care more about what is proper than what she wants. After an incident where she gets into a fight with the royal guard because she went out flying, Celestia gives her free rein to leave the castle when she wants. Twilight likewise can't leave the castle, and isn't very happy about it because it keeps her away from her friends.
• Gilligan Cut:
  • In chapter 2, Twilight convinces Snips and Snails that the rumor about Rainbow growing a horn is ridiculous, and pats herself on the back for having saved her friend from the clawing hooves of the press. Then it cuts to a couple mares gossiping with a journalist about that same rumor on the train to Manehattan.
  • In chapter 6, the narration describes how Twilight is in complete control of her emotion, only to cut to Twilight's internal monologue giving a Cluster F-Bomb.
• Given Name Reveal: When Celestia reveals that she's Rainbow's mother, she also reveals that Rainbow's birthname is Aurora.
• Good-Looking Privates: Rarity makes not attempt at hiding how highly she thinks of Captain Tristar's appearance, going on a lengthy tangent about how attractive he is and how lucky his wife is. Rainbow, meanwhile, is gagging.
• Good Parents:
  • Rainbow has nothing but good things to say about her adopted parents, who worked hard to give her everything they could and was always there for her when she was young. Sadly, they died when she was eleven.
  • Twilight Velvet and Night Light are deeply loved by their children, and raised them both to be good and well-adjusted adults. Celestia herself says that she admires them for that, while clearly thinking of her own less-than-ideal relationship with her daughter.
• Goshdang It To Heck:
  • Like a lot of Friendship is Magic fics, the story uses "Buck" in place of the real expletive "Fuck." At one point Rainbow goes on a Cluster F-Bomb saying "Buck Celestia."
  • "Cockatrice sucker" is used as a standin for the rather more explicit "Cocksucker."
• Gossipy Hens: Ponyville has some extremely active ones. Within days of Rainbow growing her horn, rumors are already reaching Manehattan about it.
• Grandfather Paradox: Mentioned by name when Twilight imagines the damage Rainbow Dash might cause with her magic.
• Gratuitous Latin: The Canterlot War Room is marked with the phrase "Si vis pacem, para bellum". "If you want peace, prepare for war," losely adapted from a quote by Vegetius but in concept dating back at least to Plato.
• Great Offscreen War: Twilight dates the Canterlot Warrens to sometime before the War of the Night Eternal, presumably the offical term for the whole Nightmare Moon business. Celestia gives some more details in chapter 10.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Rarity admits in an apology letter that she was jealous of Rainbow, since Rarity has always aspired to be part of high society and Rainbow became part of the quite literal top of society overnight. She's realized in hindsight that this clouded her judgement and caused her to not recognize how miserable Rainbow was over having it thrust upon her with no choice in the matter, and apologizes profusely.
• Gray Rain of Depression: When the mane six visit Sweetie Belle in the hospital, it's raining heavily across all of Ponyville, adding to the overall depressing mood. Rainbow remarks that Derpy is doing her job as weatherpony well.
• Hallucinations: Rainbow's dreams about her mother in the first chapter eventually get to the point where she starts seeing them in her waking life, at one point falling into them while talking with Pinkie.
• Hannibal Lecture: Bedlam T. Bustle is good at this. During his interrogation by Tristar, he gets him to lose his composure by graphically describing what it must be for a pegasus to fall to their deaths - specifically Tristar's wife and child. During his interrogation by Twilight, he unsettles her by flirting, uses her anger and frustation to break her composure, and fully unbalances her by suggesting that she has seen the Nightmare just like he has. In an unintentional instance, he also tells Twilight that Celestia doesn't love her - which is just part of his dogma, but happens to trigger Twilight's Mommy Issues.
• Harmless Electrocution: In chapter 9, Celestia takes a bite of a cake intended for Luna containing a piece of thundercloud, getting a nasty shock. She's fine aside from a sooted face, her hair standing on end, and embarassment over having fallen for it.
• Headache of Doom: The story kicks off with Rainbow suffering a literally splitting headache from her horn growing in, not helped by continued nightmares and hallucinations about her mother. By the sixth day, the pain hasn't lessened in the slightest, no matter how much painkiller she takes, and she eventually passes out and falls from a cloud due to the pain.
• Heartfelt Apology: Rarity writes a letter to Rainbow in chapter 11, apologizing for how she took her anger and frustration over recent events out on Rainbow, and for having let her jealousy over Rainbow's newfound royalty cloud her judgement so she didn't realize how utterly miserable Rainbow was. It goes over several paragraphs and is clearly written from the heart. Twilight reads it first since she couldn't help her curiosity, and it has the effect of making her realize that she's been unfair to Rainbow as well. Too bad Rainbow never reads it, since Twilight burns it in a Nightmare-induced bout of spite and anger after Rainbow ends their friendship.
• Hell Is That Noise: Rainbow Dash's screams and sobs of pain in chapter 1 are repeatedly mentioned as being horrible to listen to, and several characters have to leave the room because it becomes too much. Of course, this is less about the noise itself being hellish and more about the fact that their friend is in pain and they cant do anything to help.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In a Cryptic Background Reference, Celestia mentions that her father gave his life to secure the harmony that she and Luna proceeded to squander.
• Hero Secret Service: Celestia reveals that the mane six, as bearers of the element of harmony and multiple time saviors of Equestria, have unknowingly been guarded by a contingent of covert bodyguards since the day they became element bearers. It was Luna's idea, since a more public guard would interrupt their daily lives. As soon as she learns, Rainbow starts theorizing on who it is.
  Rainbow: I’ll bet it’s Stormwalker, isn’t it?! I KNEW it was too good to be true when Cloudsdale conveniently found somepony to fill that opening last summer! No, wait—It’s Flitter! That two-timing Flitter— I always felt like there was something funny about her! It better not be Thunderlane! If my bodyguard is putting in that many sick days, he’s BENCHED!
• Hero-Worshipper: Scootaloo admires Rainbow deeply, and is in tears when she has to leave for Canterlot. Rainbow cheers her up by giving her the job of being Ponyville's most awesome pony while she's gone.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: A secondhand example. In chapter 11, Whitehoof's suggestions makes Rainbow realize that Twilight's recent attitude has been motivated by resentment and jealousy. This leads to Rainbow letting all her anger and frustration out on Twilight in a later argument, solidly ending their friendship.
• History Repeats: Over a thousand years ago, the broken relationship between two sisters caused Luna to become Nightmare Moon under the Nightmare's influence. By modern day, Rainbow and Twilight are both children or surrogate children of Celestia, and their relationship is rapidly going the same way, with the Nightmare whispering to Twilight in her dreams.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: "By Starswirl's beard" is used as an expression of shock at one point.
• Hope Spot: In chapter 11, Twilight reunites with Shining Armor, is reassured by Celestia that she loves her and sees her as a daughter, and a letter from Rarity causes her to relize how unfairly she's been treating Rainbow, resolving to apologize and make amends. The main emotional conflict of the episode finally seems like it's about to be resolved, only for Whitehoof to whisper some choice words in Rainbow's ears, causing her to realize the exact reason why Twilight has been acting so weird lately and make her question if Twilight really is her friend. When Twilight comes to apologize, Rainbow is in no mood to listen, giving her a furious verbal lashing before telling her that she hates her and ending their friendship for good. And to make things worse, the Nightmare is quick to exploit Twilight's despair afterward, the chapter ending on Twilight burning an apology letter intended for Rainbow.
• Hypocritical Humor: When Twilight and Rainbow find a set of eyeholes to spy through, Twilight initially refuses because it's too risky. Then Rainbow remarks that Celestia is on the other side, and Twilight immediately gets in place to have a look.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: In chapter 8, Rainbow explains that she doesn't regret anything because regrets are dumb and only drag you down. She then accidentally drowns her lunch in ketchup, and tearfully says she regrets the consequences of her actions.
• Immoral Journalist: As the first new alicorn in living memory, Luna warns that Rainbow will be hounded by insatiable journalists who will demant to know every little bit of her personal life, never leave her alone, and interpret everything she says in the worst possible way. She has personal experience with this, the press having done a lot of scaremongering around her less-than-ideal return to Equestria, and gives it as a reason that Rainbow should move to Canterlot.
• Impact Silhouette: In chapter 9, Twilight and Rainbow are thrown into a wall and leave pony-shaped indentations in the plaster.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: Luna asks Rainbow if her recent nightmares have been about her mother. Rainbow immediately insists that Celestia is not her mother, which is as good as confirmation that her dreams are about Celestia.
• Innocently Insensitive: Rarity catches a rather bad case of this in chapter 6. Being scared and emotional after her father and sister are hospitalized from a terrorist attack causes her to pressure Rainbow into sending extra royal guards for protection, call Rainbow ungrateful for not appreciating the safety and security she has in Canterlot, and make an insensitive remark about Rainbow having no family members left in Ponyville to lose, which happens to check the list of everything Rainbow hates about her life at the moment. It escalates into a rather bad argument until Rainbow storms off.
• Inside a Wall: Twilight and Rainbow, through complicated events, end up in some tunnels that happen to pass right by a room where Celestia and Luna are holding a secret meeting, leading to some spying. And then they're found by Tristar, leading to a fight that sends them all crashing through the wall into the meeting room.
• Instantly Proven Wrong:
  • Rainbow insists that Celestia can't buy her affections with gifts. At which point Celestia presents two tickets for the Wonderbolts, immediately causing Rainbow to declare that Celestia is cool.
  • During the prank war between Luna, Rainbow, and Pinkie, Celestia says that she'd feel embarassed if an earth pony and former pegasus got the drop on her. She then takes a bite of a piece of cake intended for Luna that Rainbow had hidden a stormcloud inside, getting a nasty shock from it. Luna wastes no time in gloating.
    "Oh! I'm so sorry, Tia. How are you feeling? Not too embarassed, I hope?
• Interclass Friendship: Between Rainbow and the rest of the mane six once it turns out that the former is Equestria's crown princess. She worries a lot that this will impact their relationship, and it's certainly the elephant in the room whenever they're together.
• Intoxication Ensues: Rainbow ignores the doctor's prescription on how much cough syrup to take, and proceeds to get very drunk on the 50% alcohol content.
• In Vino Veritas: Played for Drama in chapter 10. After getting drunk on cough syrup, Rainbow spills all her heartache and insecurities to Celestia, including her grief over her parents' deaths, how messed up her life has gotten, her wishing that Twilight was still her friend, and how she feels that Celestia gave her up because she wasn't good enough. She even expresses some suicidal thoughts. By the end, Rainbow is asleep and Celestia is falling apart.
• I Want My Mommy!: In the first chapter, Rainbow Dash has several dreams about losing her mother. When the pain is at its worst, she half-consciously calls out to her while in the hospital. Twilight asks if they can get Rainbow's parents, but Applejack explains that they passed away some time ago.
• Lineage Comes from the Father: Gender-inverted. Rainbow Dash's father was an Earth Pony, but she's a pegasus-born Alicorn, with no mention of her earth pony blood.
• Loyal Animal Companion: Philomena the Phoenix has been Celestia's companion for centuries, until she gives her to Rainbow to make sure she is accompanied and safe when flying outside the castle.
• Luke Iam Your Father: Celestia reveals that Rainbow is her daughter near the end of the first chapter, asking Rainbow to recollect her vague memories about her mother while recounting a story about a relationship she once had with an Earth Pony that resulted in a pregnancy.
  “And then you were born, my little Aurora.”
• Magibabble: Any time Twilight starts to explain magical theory, it immediately turns into this. Poor Book Dumb Rainbow has trouble following any of it.
• Man Bites Man: Pony bites pony, at least. Rainbow is willing to use her teeth as a weapon in a pinch, at one point tearing out a solid chunk of Tristar's neck.
• The Masquerade: Rainbow is initially kept secret to the public, for her own safety since a child of Celestia would be a target for both dissenters and the media. It lasts for maybe a week, when she gets sick of being locked in the castle and goes for a very obvious flight through the city, before stumbling into a war council full of officials who didn't know about her. Her exact relation to Celestia is still unknown a month after her ascension, though ponies that know about her can make an educated guess (she's too old to be Luna's, and she has a Strong Family Resemblance to Celestia).
• Master Race: Discussed. Tristar's view on Equestrian society is that unicorns are on top, since their magic powers all the technology, their telekinesis lets them perform fine tasked that other ponies simply can't, and they are constantly inventing new spells and technologies that render the other tribes' specialities obsolete (citing Flim and Flam's apple picking and cider squeezing machine as an example). Worth noting is that Tristar is himself pretty racist, though he does make some points. He also calls out Twilight, a unicorn, for being ignorant to the way society favours her and gives her the privilege to succeed that she wouldn't have if she wasn't born at the top.
  Tristar: Hamrmony's a pyramid with your kind at the top.
• Memory Trigger: After growing her horn, Rainbow starts recollecting a lot of memories of her short time with Celestia after her birth, which is both painful for obvious reasons and confusing since she wasn't older than three months at the time.
• The Migration: The Migrations is the in-universe name for the period leading up to Equestria's founding.
• My God, What Have I Done?: In chapter 11, Twilight reads a letter from Rarity to Rainbow which gets her to realize that she's been completely blind to Rainbow's mental state ever since she moved to Canterlot, and a later speech from Shining about the little tests one is put through in life - tests like empathy and compassion - has her fully realizing how callous and dismissive she has been of Rainbow's issues due to being too caught up in her own jealousy and arrogance.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Rainbow suspects that the reason Celestia gave her away was that she wasn't born with a unicorn horn, which Celestia denies. This was the reason in the original fic by Fairy-Slayer, though in that case it was because Celestia feared an apparent pegasus wouldn't be happy in the unicorn-dominated courts of Canterlot, rather than personal prejudice on her part.
  • Twilight pokes fun at Shining Armor for having had his and Cadance's first date at an Ogres & Oubliettes convention, in reference to the "Neigh Anything" arc of the comics, where Shining Armor's teenage romance with Cadance and his love of O&O are both a big focus.
  • Luna, who speaks normally in this fic, mentions that she has a recurring dream of a version of herself who speaks in third person and is very loud.
• Named by Adaptation: The mountain Canterlot is built against is named Atlas Rise, the Crown of Equestria, the Seat of the Sun, and many others.
• Nepotism:
  • Rainbow describes the experience of being an alicorn as wearing a sign that says "Insert false praise, get favour." Everypony and their mother want to butter her up so she'll put in a good word for them, including Rarity who, emotional and scared after the Ascendancy attack, asks Rainbow if she could get Celestia to place a few extra guards to keep her family safe.
  • Her own connection to Celestia means that Rainbow doesn't suffer any consequences for things like accidentally blowing up a dining hall, or spying on a highly confidential war meeting, since there aren't anyone who can actually enforce rules on her aside from Celestia, who's too terrified of damaging their relationship further to do anything.
• Nightmare Sequence: Rainbow suffers a few, generally revolving around her being torn away from her mother. Chapter 10 mixes it up by having her dream about failing to save Rarity from falling to her death, along with the aforementioned dreams about Celestia, all reflecting her fear of not being good enough.
• The Night That Never Ends: Downplayed, since it did end and happened long before the plot starts. Celestia mentions that the day she gave away her daughter, she was so distraught that she couldn't raise the sun.
• Noodle Incident: Celestia mentions a time when she and Luna were children where Luna chased Celestia around the mountain while throwing rocks, resulting in Celestia being without magic for three months, and Luna being grounded for six.
• Not Enough to Bury: Celestia and Luna's mother was killed by something that also ripped their home apart, and did not leave enough to bury. As Celestia remembers it, she was there one moment and gone the next. This was apparently not uncommon back then.
  Celestia: There wasn’t even a body to bury… There never were bodies, in those days.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore:
  • Celestia warns Rainbow that, no matter what she wishes, being her daughter means that her life will change, and not necessarily for the better. This sadly turns out to be true, as everypony around Rainbow treat her differently because of her horn, even her best friends.
    Rainbow: What’s the point, even? Home isn’t home anymore, nothing feels right, nopony’s the same, and my whole freaking life is just as bucked up as my house.
  • After the Ascendancy attack, the first such incident in over a century, Twilight somberly thinks on how she's living in a new world. Nightmare Moon and Discord may have been big threats, but a terrorist attack from a group of fanatic cultists is a much more worldly and tangible horror.
    Rarity: How could something like this happen, Applejack? And not because of dragons, or chaos gods, or monsters of the Everfree Forest, but because of ponies! Ordinary, everyday ponies! Flesh-and-blood ponies, no different than you or I!
• Not Quite the Right Thing: Whitehoof thinks that he'd be a poor teacher to Rainbow and suggests that they bring in Twilight Sparkle instead, since she and Rainbow are friends and she might get through to her better. Well-reasoned, as it goes, but also very very wrong since Twilight's theory-heavy way of learning absolutely does not mesh with Rainbow, and only causes a rift between them.
• Oblivious Adoption: Rainbow's parents never told her she was adopted, and she never suspected since she looks a lot like her father. They were apparently in contact with Celestia, though they may not have known who she was aside from Rainbow's mother.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot:
  • Luna is not good at being reassuring, starting off her meeting with Rainbow Dash by listing all the traumas she's no doubt feeling bad about.
  • Twilight is, if anything, even worse. At one point while Rainbow is deep in despair over her conflicting feelings over her parents, Twilight tries to reassure her by telling a story about her own childhood under Celestia's wing. Rainbow, who's deeply resentful of Celestia for abandong her as a foal, is not very happy about hearing someone else's happy childhood memories of her. The actual anecdote Twilight was trying to share does cheer Rainbow up a bit, but she phrased it in a rather unfortunate way.
  • Celestia herself laments to Luna that no matter how much she tries, anything she says to Rainbow seems to damage their relationship further.
• Orphaned Etymology:
  • Twilight at one point mentions that she can count on one hoof the number of times she's met Luna after the first. Presumably the amount she can count on one hoof is one, which may be intentional.
  • Definitely intentional in chapter 9, where Pinkie suggests a Chinese fingertrap to prank Luna with, and Rainbow asks what a finger is.
• Our Founder: The oldest statue in the Canterlot Gardens depict Atlas, a pegasus and the first king of Equestra. Oddly enough, he's not one of the six founders, and is explicitly stated to be a different person from Commander Hurricane.
• Painful Transformation: It's only a small part rather than a full transformation, but turning into an alicorn is agonizing, particularily the horn growing in. Rainbow suffers a week long headache that steadily gets worse until she's delirious from pain, at one point hitting herself in the head with her hoof just to make the pain stop. According to Celestia, the alicorns of old called this process "Unity", and everyone had to go through it, though for them it happened at a young age, and was faster and much less painful.
• Parental Abandonment: Celestia, Rainbow's biological mother, left her to be raised by a regular pegasus couple when she was just a filly. Learning this as an adult feeds a lot into Rainbow's fears of never being good enough, not even for her own mother. In a rant, she tells Twilight that her adopted parents gave her everything until they died, but after that she was completely alone for years and Celestia never once thought to show up, not even when they actually met several times. Celestia did follow Rainbow's life from afar, and gave her secret help from time to time, but never said or did anything in person.
  Celestia: I would… I would like to be able to make this right. I know I can never make up for what’s happened to you—for what’s been taken from you. But if you’re willing… If there’s any way that I can earn your forgiveness… I would welcome you to Canterlot. I would welcome the chance to spend time with you. Maybe… the chance to get to know you better.
  Rainbow: You had the chance.
• Parental Love Song: Celestia sung a lullaby to Rainbow when she was a child, and sings it to a her again when her horn starts growing in, and again in chapter 10 when she's sick,
  Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry.
  Go to sleep, my little baby.
  When you wake, you shall have,
  All the pretty little ponies.
  Blacks and bays, dapples and grays,
  All the pretty little ponies.
  
  Way down yonder, in the meadow,
  Poor little baby crying mama.
  The birds and the butterflies flutter ’round her eyes,
  Poor little baby crying mama.
  
  Can you see the little ponies dance before your eyes?
  All the pretty little ponies will be there when you arise.
• Parents as People: Celestia does genuinely love her daughter, but she is a very flawed pony. When Rainbow demands to know why she was given away, Celestia has no better answer than that she was afraid of loving someone truly and genuinely and risk the hurt and heartache again, and of messing it up and hurting her daughter. Of course, that just hurt Rainbow even more when she actually learned the truth, and Celestia is desperate to make it right again, but by this point there's nothing she can do to make up for her failings.
• Physical God: Celestia and Luna are repeatedly described as goddesses, a not inaccurate description since they do raise the sun and moon. Rainbow, despite being Celestia's daughter, is just a powerful mortal.
• Plaster Cast Doodling: The CMC wonder if they can get "Cast Graffiti" cutiemarks by drawing funny and gross stuff on Sweetie Belle's father's cast.
• Platonic Declaration of Love: Celestia tries to tell Rainbow that she loves her when the truth first comes out, though Rainbow is in no mood to hear it then. She does it again while taking care of an unconscious and sick Rainbow in chapter 10.
  "And… even though you might never look on me as a mother, I s-swear, you will always, ALWAYS be in my heart! I will NEVER forsake you again! If I could change the past, I would—b-but all I can do is promise—for every second I wasn’t there, I’ll love you ten times more! I’ll move the sun and sky for you, if that’s what it takes!”
• The Pollyanna: Rarity and Sweetie Belle's father's reaction to being injured in a terrorist attack while on vacation is to start planning for his next vacation.
  Applejack: Well, at least he ain’t emotionally scarred or nothin’.
  Rarity: I'M emotionally scarred!
• Poor Communication Kills: All over the place, but one of the more notable examples come about with Twilight's attempts at tutoring Rainbow. While Rainbow genuinely wants to learn and is trying her best, she simply cannot wrap her head around Twilight's lecture-heavy way of teaching, which to Twilight just feels like she's ignoring her lessons out of spite - especially since, as an alicorn, Rainbow is supposed to be naturally good at magic.
• Primal Fear: A perp Tristar interrogates gets to him by describing in detail the fear of falling to your death, wondering if all pegasi carry that fear on some level despite being natural flyers. Based on Tristar's reaction, he's onto something.
• Psychological Projection: Said word for word by Applejack when she points out that Rarity is projecting her fear and need for safety after the Ascendancy attack onto Rainbow Dash by assuming that she's comfortable and happy in Canterlot, far away from the concerns of the world, which Rainbow decidedly is not.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In chapter 10, Twilight sits Tristar down and insists on him telling her why he's such a jerkass to her. What follows is a vicious verbal lashing as Tristar points out how sheltered and naïve Twilight is, a beneficiary of Equestria's heavy bias towards unicorns who is utterly ignorant to the fact that she was born into privilege and acts like nothing is wrong simply because she can't see the problems from the top of the pyramid. He also takes an aside to call out her resentment of Rainbow. He may not like her, but at least he's not claiming to be her friend while harboring anger and jealousy over something she has no control over.
• Related in the Adaptation:
  • The core premise of the fic is that Rainbow Dash is Celestia's daughter, which also makes her Luna's niece.
  • Cadance is stated to be a relation of Celestia, unlike in the show where she's her adopted niece. This also makes her a very distant cousin of Rainbow.
• Royal Blood: Since the only alicorns in the story that exists are the royal sisters Celestia and Luna, as well as Celestia's daughter, being an alicorn is a sure sign of royal blood.
• Rule of Symbolism:
  • After the main hall is used as a battlefield, the only part that is unscathed of Manehattan Central Station is the roof, enchanted to look like the night sky. Considering that the attackers were Nightmare cultists, it's rather apropos.
  • During an argument between Rainbow and Celestia, a nearby phoenix chick starts crying over the loud noise. Rainbow proceeds to ignore the argument to soothe the chick, while Celestia tells her to ignore it because its mother will come around soon. This pretty much boils down to the failures in their relationship; Rainbow avoids Celestia as much as she can, while Celestia abandoned Rainbow when she was a child.
  • Celestia bitterly remarks the cruel joke of Laughter being the element that no longer resonated with her after she banished Luna to the moon; Without her little sister, there was no joy left in her life.
  • Whitehoof instructs Rainbow in magic by having her snuff out a purple candle. In the scene that follows, Rainbow is pushed into ending her friendship with Twilight, and the scene ends with her snuffing out the candle with her magic.
• Rule of Three:
  • The reasons Luna lists for why Rainbow should move to Canterlot are; She has a horn (so she might accidentally hurt someone due to not knowing her own magical strength); She has a horn (so the press will hound her constantly and never give her a moment's peace); And she has a horn (so people might come after her with ill intent due to her being Celestia's daughter).
  • In chapter 11, Twilight tries to plead with Rainbow that they're friends three times before Rainbow tells her to stuff it
• Sex for Solace: How Rainbow Dash happened. Celestia is The Aloner who still hadn't gotten over the loss of Luna, Dash's father was the first pony in centuries to make her laugh, and she was desperate to keep that feeling of brief happiness close, resulting in a brief affair.
• Scenery Porn: The narration goes all in for describing Rainbow's arrival at Canterlot, going to great lengths to depict both the majesty of the mountain it's built on and the beauty of the city itself.
• Shout-Out:
  • Luna reads a book called Crime and Ponyshment.
  • In chapter 9, Pinkie gives Rainbow a briefing á la Mission: Impossible.
    Pinkie: Listen up, Dashie! Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to infiltrate the private office of one Daedalus Tristar, Captain of the Royal Guard.
  • Rainbow compares Luna's fight with the Hydra to a Michael Hay movie.
  • Chapter 10 is named Once Upon A December, after the song from Anastasia.
  • The scene in chapter 11 where Twilight sees the Nightmare in Whitehoof's orb is very reminiscent of Pippin seeing Sauron through the Palantír.
• Sick Episode: Rainbow comes down with a bad case of feather flu, along with acute bronchitis, in episode 10. Her part of the chapter largely deals with Luna, Celestia, and the royal physician dealing with this (as well as her stubborness). At one point, delirious from sickness, Rainbow opens up all her insecurities and sorrows to Celestia, leading her to have a talk with Luna and opening herself up more to Rainbow emotionally.
• Some of My Best Friends Are X: Played for laughs when the Caretaker uses the phrase "shake of a lamb's tail", and Rainbow objects that some of her best friends are lambs.
• So Proud of You: Celestia tells this to an unconscious Rainbow in chapter 10.
  "I’ll never stop being proud of you! You’re so brave and devoted, and so, so smart! I know you don’t think you are, but you are! So many others would yearn to be in your place, but you above all of them have the wisdom to recognize this for the gilded cage, the poisoned chalice it actually is."
• Spinning Paper: After the Ascendancy attack, Equestria's reaction to it is shown through a newspaper clipping from the Canterlot Sun, largely revolving around growing distrust in the crown and conflict between different factions of the government, doubling as setup for Rainbow and Rarity's argument over the contents of said paper a bit later in the chapter.
• The Spymaster: The first time Celestia appears in the fic, she's discussing something ominous with a griffin who's gathering information through his "contacts" on behalf of Equestria. Celestia also laments that Luna is much better at espionage than her, implying she used to hold a similar position.
• Story Breadcrumbs: The story takes this approach to anything surrounding Celestia and Luna's backstory and the Nightmare. Rather than revealing anything through exposition dumps, it gives small hints divided across multiple chapters, and any actual explanations are so vague that the reader has to put several of them together to make a clear picture. For example, Celestia remarks that her family was happy until the Nightmare came, later describes how her mother was killed by something resembling a storm, and Luna says the Nightmare came like a storm. Alone these are vague, together they paint a clear picture of what happened.
• Survivor's Guilt: Almost played for laughs, if it wasn't endemic of a larger issue. After Rainbow's guards insist on leaving the mane six waiting outside while they do a security sweep of the restaurant they want to eat at, Rainbow is perfectly dry because a pegasus guard shielded her, while her friends are all soaking wet. She feels really bad about it, especially since she doesn't mind being wet but others do, but the guards wouldn't listen when she asked them to help her friends instead.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial:
  • The server in chapter 6 claims that he hasn't heard any rumours about princess Aurora, and certainly not in any newspaper, which he doesn't read, and he's going to cancel his subscription tomorrow.
  • In chapter 11, Twilight gets a letter from Spike where he insists that he's doing great and Rarity definitely hasn't been spoiling him with more gems than he could ever dream of.
• Take That!: While discussing partygames for a one-year friendaversary she's throwing for the mane six, Pinkie suggests Monopony. Rainbow points out that playing that would not celebrate their friendship with Twilight so much as destroy it forever.
• Talking to the Dead: Rainbow stops by her parents' grave in chapter 2, telling them about her life before breaking down and swearing that Celestia won't replace them and that they'll always be her mom and dad.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: Rainbow and Pinkie's first real strike during their prank war with Luna is replacing the interior of a cake she always eats at evenings with a thundercloud, giving a nasty shock to whoever bites into it. It misfires slightly, since Celestia was visiting Luna that particular night and took a bite first.
• Tantrum Throwing: After the reunion with her daughter goes poorly, Celestia locks herself in her room, tells the guards she is not to be disturbed, and wrecks the entire room with both hoof and magic. The first item she throws is a bust of herself, which reflects how she feels at the moment.
• Tempting Fate: After Rainbow storms out due to a bad argument with Rarity at a restaurant, Applejack assures Fluttershy that it at least can't get any worse. At which point the server arrives with Rainbow's comically huge order and asks who's paying.
• Thicker Than Water: Celestia and Rainbow's relationship starts out deeply broken on unspeakably many levels, but slowly, over time, they start growing closer. Not to anything resembling a normal mother-daughter relationship, mind you, but as Celestia starts actually spending time with Rainbow, always letting her set the terms of their relationship, Rainbow responds in kind by seeking out Celestia's company, talking with her about shared interests or asking for help with magic she's struggling with. Eventually, Celestia and Rainbow find themselves spending time together daily.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Captain Tristar, after he had his soldiers assault and manhandle Rainbow, is reminded by Luna that Celestia will expect a full report. He clearly doesn't look forward to telling Celestia about how he treated her daughter.
• This Is My Chair: On her first day in Canterlot, Rainbow goes to eat and plops down in Celestia's chair, much to the staff's horror. She doesn't really see the issue since Celestia isn't there anwyay (and Celestia probably wouldn't mind or dare to argue about it). She does it again with Luna's chair during dinner with her, Celestia, and Twilight. While Twilight is horrified, Rainbow makes a joke of it that Luna finds amusing and plays along with.
• Unbroken Vigil:
  • While Rainbow Dash is recovering from the pain of growing her horn, Celestia remains by her side the whole time, gently holding her close under her wing.
  • When Shining Armor is put in a coma after the Manehattan attack, his entire family are gathered around him waiting for him to wake up for at least three days.
• Underground City: The mountain Canterlot is built into includes a series of tunnels known as the Warrens, that were once inhabited according to Luna. Twilight identifies at least part of them as catacombs.
• Unexpected Inheritance: After her parents' deaths, Rainbow received an unexpected inheritance that let her build her rather impressive cloud house. In reality, it wasn't inheritance but a secret gift from Celestia.
• The Unfavorite: Twilight and Rainbow both feel like this in regards to Celestia. Twilight because she was practically raised by Celestia only to feel like she was shoved aside when Celestia's actual daughter shows up, and Rainbow because she feels that she was shoved aside and replaced by Twilight from the start.
• Un-person: Downplayed, she wasn't erased from history or anything, but Ponyville hospital burned all their records of Rainbow after forwarding copies to the royal physician, presumably to stop them from leaking to the press.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Pinkie showing up in chapter 9 is barely remarked upon by anyone except Twilight, who's briefly confused but accepts it quickly. Everyone's used to her by now.
• Unusual Pets for Unusual People: Celestia, the immortal alicorn of the sun, is accompanied by Philomena, an immortal phoenix. She later gives her to her daughter, who is hardly an average pony either.
• Wham Line: In chapter 10, a line that shows that Tristar's dislike of Rainbow is more than just elitism;
  "You'll NEVER know what disappointment feels like - not until you've seen the clouds roll in after the sky shatters into a miracle of colors, and listened to the silence that comes after the boom."
• What the Hell, Hero?: Upon learning that she's Celestia's daughter, Rainbow is furious and asks why she never said anything in all those times that they met, if she wasn't good enough to be her daughter, and if she gave her away because she didn't have a horn. After all, she took in Twilight, so what was wrong with Rainbow?
• Wound That Will Not Heal: Neither conventional medicine, unicorn magic, nor Zecora's brews and ointments can do anything to heal the wound in Rainbow's forehead, or even lessen the pain. This is, of course, because the wound is caused by her horn growing in.
• Wrong-Name Outburst: In chapter 8, Twilight, dealing with severe feelings of being The Unfavorite, goes to Celestia's room, asks to be held like she was when she was young, and if she'll always be important to Celestia. Celestia is half asleep and not clearly seeing what's going on, and having told Rainbow earlier that she's welcome to come by the room anytime, responds "Of course you will, my Aurora..."
• You Keep Using That Word: Played for laughs when Rainbow learns the word "Annex" in chapter 9, and proceeds to use it repeatedly in ways Twilight points out are wrong
• Your Mom: Rainbow apparently made some unflattering remarks about Tristar's mother, which is why she's fleeing from the guard at the start of chapter 4.

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