Big Macintosh had a perfectly good reason for taking Twilight's doll; he wanted to use it to finally start a conversation with her. But Applejack's having none of it, Rarity's getting the wrong idea about everything, and the Cutie Mark Crusader Matchmakers are about to really throw a spanner in the works!
Starting with A Simple Plan, Fixing Up Miss Smartypants
swiftly spins into a comedy of errors, as Big Mac, Twilight, and the rest of their circle of friends get caught in the middle of Ship-to-Ship Combat.
Sadly, the sequel Three Magics isn't as light. Set five years later, we follow the adventures of a Twilight who, for reasons that become clear later on, lets all the friendships she made slip right through her hooves.
This My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Fanfic contains examples of:
- Aesoptinum: The magical storage crystals Twilight was proud of in "Three Magics" had the nasty side effect of draining away her soul. By the time the story started, she was so obsessed with her work, her friends had all but given up on her.
- A Simple Plan: Return Twilight's doll and use it as a conversation starter. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
- All Love Is Unrequited: Inverted with all the main couples, they're mutually attracted, but too afraid to act on their feelings for fear they'll discover they aren't returned.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Applejack, when participating in a Zany Scheme.
- Bad Liar: Scootaloo.
- Berserk Button: Big Macintosh really doesn't like anyone calling Ditzy Doo 'Derpy'.
- Brick Joke: Where Smartypants eventually ends up.
- Crazy-Prepared: Pinkie Pie. Even if her solution does boil down to throw a party.
- Everyone Is Bi: Invoked; Twilight mentions early on that most ponies tend to swing both ways, explaining the high amounts of Homoerotic Subtext.
- Fourth Ranger: Dinky Doo gets recruited into the CMC after they learn she drew on the various cutie marks she's been seen with in the series.
- Freudian Slip: Combined with Exact Words when it's pointed out that Applejack didn't accuse Twilight of trying to take Fluttershy away from Big Mac, but from her.
- I Have This Friend: Rainbow Dash tries this tactic when asking Twilight for a book on dating advice.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Spike, mistakenly believing that Rarity's in love with Twilight.
- In-Series Nickname: 'Derpy Hooves', which Macintosh reprimands Apple Bloom for using.
- Incoming Ham: Trixie's intro.
- Irony (Situational): Just before getting dragged into the chaos of the main plot, Twilight tells a friend they should just tell the object of their affection how they feel.
- It's All About Me: Trixie, who laughs at the thought of breaking her marefriend's heart.
- Kick the Dog: Trixie casually throws a wrench into Pinkie Pie's plans just to amuse herself, then decides to take advantage of the lovelorn Fluttershy just to hurt her marefriend.
- Love Dodecahedron
- Love Epiphany: Eventually, the real reason she's so dead-set on making Fluttershy part of her family strikes Applejack.
- Love Letter Lunacy: Set in motion by the Cutie Mark Crusader Matchmakers.
- Malaproper: Dinky Doo, by virtue of misusing words she's heard only once or twice.
- Maybe Ever After: "Three Magics" ends with Twilight and Big Macintosh more or less promising to see where their relationship is going. This meshes nicely with how she's reestablished friendships with most of the Mane Six.
- Noodle Incident: How the CMC figured out that 'Drum Catapulting' didn't get you a cutie mark.
- Not What It Looks Like
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Played for Laughs; the Cutie Mark Crusaders dismiss Rarity's calling something "the worst possible thing" as part of her usual theatrics until Sweetie Belle reveals she was so upset she went completely silent over it.
- Operation: Jealousy: Octavia accuses her ex-marefriend of this; what's worse, she appears to be invoking it with Tavi's sister Pinkie Pie!
- Rarity tries her hoof at this and ropes Doctor Whooves into reluctantly playing the role of her date; it works better on Ditzy than it does on Dash.
- The final chapter sees an Aversion through Trixie; she appeared to be doing this, but when confronted, reveals this was her way of breaking up with Octavia.
- Poor Communication Kills
- Redundant Romance Attempt
- Ship-to-Ship Combat: In-Universe; Applejack doesn't have anything against Twilight, but would prefer seeing Big Macintosh get together with Fluttershy over her.
- Shipper on Deck: All over the place.
- Smug Super: Trixie, who gleefully claims nopony has the power to stop her from walking off triumphantly after her Kick the Dog moment. She was wrong.
- Snowball Lie: When Applejack tells Rarity she's the one who wanted to fix up Miss Smartypants for Twilight, the seamstress completely buys it, getting one of these rolling.
- Twice Shy: Big Macintosh and Twilight.
- Unwanted Assistance: Even before the CMC decide to interfere in Big Macintosh's love life, Apple Bloom makes repairing a broken fence take far longer than anticipated.
- What Beautiful Eyes!: Big Mac fell in love with Twilight's eyes while she was rambling on about the mechanics of a color-changing spell.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Pinkie Pie runs an impressive game of this to try and ensure that despite everypony else's plans, everything works out for the best.
