The Flipverse Six (and Twilight).note
The Flipverse is a fanfiction series and universe based upon My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, created by Bed Head
. It is an Alternate Universe in which the roles and species of Twilight Sparkle and Spike are flipped; Spike is a unicorn stallion, and Twilight is his dragoness assistant.
Spike Flail is a reporter for the Canterlot Sun newspaper, looking to make a name for himself in the world of journalism. Lacking much field experience, he is given the rather routine assignment of going to Ponyville to cover the Summer Sun Celebration. But when Nightmare Moon returns after her thousand year banishment, it's up to him and five new friends - Big Macintosh, Cheerilee, Ditzy Doo, Thunderlane, and Time Turner - to find the Elements of Harmony and save Equestria.
Episodes
Canon
- "Flipside" - the pilot episode. An alternate retelling of "Mare in the Moon" and "Elements of Harmony", in which Spike and his friends face the evil Nightmare Moon. It is complete.
- "Boast Backers" - a retelling of "Boast Busters", in which Spike and his friends have to deal with the return of his foalhood rival, Trixie. It is complete.
- "Ticket's Taken" - a retelling of "The Ticket Master", in which Twilight tries to find somepony to give her a spare ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala. It is complete.
Non-canon
- "Multiversal Harmony" - a Crisis Crossover with five other alternate MLP universes. Spike finds himself transported to another universe along with five alternate Element Bearers, and must work together with them to save the world. It is in progress.
Flipside Pilot contains the following tropes:
- Adaptational Species Change: Spike and Twilight's species are swapped from what they were in canon, so Spike is a unicorn while Twilight is a baby dragon.
- Adorably Precocious Child: Twilight is weapons-grade adorable.
- Badass Bureaucrat: Time Turner. He's the Mayor's assistant and the manager of all clocks and timepieces in Ponyville, and despite such a workload seems pretty efficient at his job.
- Barrier Warrior: Shining Armor, as per canon. Since Shining and Spike are brothers, Spike also learned how to generate forcefields, although with far less power.
- Benevolent Boss: Aside from the occasional work-related argument, Spike and his editor Ink Blot are on pretty friendly terms.
- Big Brother Instinct: Big Macintosh and Thunderlane almost beat Spike to death when they're led to believe that he's working for Nightmare Moon, who has put all of Ponyville's foals (including their younger siblings) into comas.
- Shining Armor, meanwhile, isn't too pleased with Rainbow Dash's accusations against his little brother.
- Brutal Honesty: Thunderlane, which earns him the Element of Honesty.
- The Chessmaster: Celestia. She manipulates her subjects in unseen ways, going so far as to disguise herself from her own personal student. In particular, Celestia is the only pony in Equestria who knows of Nightmare Moon's impending return, and is trying to manoeuvre her subjects so they won't be in harms way when she arrives. Even after Nightmare Moon captures her, she still avoids direct action, by temporarily stalling Nightmare Moon to give Spike and his friends a chance to find the Elements.
- Cowardly Lion: Spike has cripplingly low self-esteem, so much so that he's truly frightened that his newfound companions would actually kill him if he admits that he inadvertently ensured there would be no champion to fight against Nightmare Moon (in all fairness, Big Mac and Thunderlane had attacked him before when they thought he was to blame for the foal's comas, so it isn't a stretch to think they'll react badly again). But he continues to push through his insecurities and fears to keep fighting, just because he wants to help those selfsame ponies.
- Crash-Into Hello: Spike first meets Ditzy Doo when she crashes into him at the train station.
- Cute Monster: Twilight.
- Does Not Know His Own Strength: Big Mac usually does, but he forgets it when helping Spike up after the battle with Nightmare Moon.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Spike insists on being called by his pen name, Purple Prose, as he doesn't think that anyone would take a name like "Spike Flail" seriously in journalism.
- Evil Is Hammy: Nightmare Moon, as per canon, is fond of grandiose declarations and shouting.
- For Want Of A Nail: Since Twilight's not a unicorn and Spike isn't as magically talented as her canon self, the role of Celestia's student goes to Trixie... who ends up expelled for being a bully. As such Celestia has no potential Element of Magic on standby with Nightmare Moon about to return.
- Go Through Me: Big Macintosh against the Ursa Minor.
- And again when he does the same versus Nightmare Moon!
- Gone Horribly Right: How Celestia describes letting Spike publish his article on Trixie in the second grade. It was supposed to be a test of character for Trixie, who was her student in this world... except that it showed the character of everyone involved. Spike got his Cutie Mark and saved Twilight, Trixie tried to sabotage the article, and Celestia, seeing the darkness in Trixie, expelled her and revoked her status as Celestia's Student... which in her opinion was the wrong move, and not just because it prevented Celestia from having a magical champion at ready when Luna showed up again.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Twilight. Even as a dragon, she's still scarily organised and far more professional than Spike most of the time.
- King Incognito: Celestia disguises herself as the principal of her School for Gifted Unicorns, even though it's technically her school anyway.
- The Klutz: Ditzy Doo, although her disability might be responsible for that.
- Love at First Sight: Spike with Rarity, as per canon.
- Mama Bear: Cheerilee.
- To say nothing of Ditzy Doo. Everfree Forest? Slim chance of a fairytale legend stopping Nightmare Moon? All worth it if it means saving Dinky.
- Meaningful Name:
- Ditzy is a bit ditzy.
- The prevalence of this trope is why Spike prefers to go by his pen name of "Purple Prose," as "Spike Flail" doesn't have this trope in regards to his chosen field of journalism.
- Mistaken for Spies: Due to Nightmare Moon — who mistook him for a herald — forcing Spike to announce her return and overthrow of Celestia, all of Ponyville (led by Rainbow Dash) becomes convinced that Spike is working for her. After she's defeated and Celestia explains what happened, Spike ends up drowned in apologies.
- Monster Is a Mommy: The Ursa Major.
- Mundane Utility: Spike learned how to generate forcefields from Shining Armor, but doesn't have nearly as much power as Shining, certainly not enough to protect himself from Nightmare Moon. Instead, he finds another use for them; by enclosing himself in a forcefield sphere, he can quickly roll himself (and the Elements) away from the danger.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When Spike remembers how Trixie was Princess Celestia's student, he realizes that she could have stopped Nightmare Moon, and he is overcome with guilt since he wrote the story that got her dismissed as a student. Thunderlane talks him down.
- Mythology Gag: Being an Alternate Universe version of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, there are many references to the show:
- Pinkie Pie sings the Welcome Song from "A Friend in Deed", and as in that episode, mistakenly puts cake batter in the confetti cannon.
- Ditzy Doo's first encounter with Spike is very similar to Rainbow Dash's first encounter with Twilight.
- Even in this universe, Spike still becomes infatuated with Rarity from the moment he meets her.
- Fluttershy reacts excitedly to Twilight in pretty much the same way she reacted to Spike in "Mare in the Moon".
- Twilight uses Spike's 'looking reeeeal good' line to compliment his new Element.
- Non-Pony Sidekick: Twilight.
- No One Could Survive That!:
- Nightmare Moon believes that Time Turner and Twilight were killed by falling from the cliff. Like all overconfident villains, she doesn't bother to check.
- Nightmare Moon says this again when her magic fails to kill Big Macintosh. In this instance, it's probably true - her spell would have killed him if not for Big Mac's Element manifesting at that moment.
- No Sense of Direction: Ditzy Doo gets lost in Ponyville, her own hometown. What's even worse is that her job is to deliver the mail.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Apple Bloom gets uncomfortably up close and personal with Twilight in her excitement at seeing a dragon for the first time.
- Only One Name: Twilight doesn't appear to have her second name (Sparkle) in the Flipverse.
- Running Gag: Ditzy seems to only be able to greet ponies in a manner referred to by NASA as "Lithobreaking," which is a kinder term for "Crash Landing."
- Sealed Good in a Can: Celestia ends up trapped inside Nightmare Moon's aura, Forced to Watch as she torments Spike and his friends.
- Shoulder Teammate: Twilight rides on Spike's back most of the time.
- Shout-Out:
- Time Turner (considered by fans to be the pony equivalent of The Doctor) describes himself as "manager of all things timey-wimey".
- While reporting, Spike uses a Come-to-Life spell on his quill to make it transcribe conversations for him.
- Celestia disguises herself as Principal Sunny Skies, a reference to the popular fanfic Sunny Skies All Day Long.
- Technicolor Fire: Twilight can breathe magenta flames.
- Tempting Fate: Spike is worried when he discovers how close the Everfree Forest is to Ponyville, but Twilight reassures him that at least they won't be going in. No prizes for guessing where they end up six chapters later...
- Unlikely Hero: A defining characteristic of Spike. He isn't The Chosen One, or Celestia's personal student, or even that good at magic. He's just an average stallion who wants to improve his career.
- Would Harm a Child: Nightmare Moon places every foal in Ponyville into a coma.
- You Shall Not Pass!: Big Macintosh proves himself as the Element of Loyalty by holding off an Ursa Minor to protect his friends.
Boast Backers contains the following tropes:
- Berserk Button: Spike snaps when Trixie grabs Twilight, and causes a fight that devastates the town market.
- Trixie in general is one for Spike.
- Compressed Adaptation: While the main plot is based on "Boast Busters", it quickly adapts elements from "Bridle Gossip" as well.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Trixie is enraged by Spike receiving the Element of Magic and goes to Ponyville to humiliate him.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard: Trixie's first attempt at revenge is to pull Spike on stage to embarrass him in her magic show. Unfortunately Rainbow Dash (and the rest of Ponyville) had already heard about what a troublemaker Trixie is. Trixie winds up being the one humiliated when Rainbow Dash calls her out on her behavior and the crowd proves to be on Spike's side.
- Trixie tries to embarrass Spike with a mud trap laced with Poison Joke. Three guesses who also winds up being caught in it.
- Nightmare Sequence: Twilight has one where Trixie comes after her for helping Spike tattle on her to Celestia back in school. According to Spike, she used to have these all the time.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: No one seems willing to let Rainbow Dash forget how she falsely accused Spike of being a traitor in the first story. Similarly, Cheerilee isn't above reminding Big Mac and Thunderlane how they almost beat him to death over Rainbow's accusations.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Thunderlane chews Spike out for giving into Trixie's prodding and facing her in the Everfree Forest. At night. Alone.
