The Iceverse is an Alternate Universe My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfiction. It is written by Ice Star
, and while still ongoing, is fairly extensive and currently over one million words. Starting in 2015, the stories follow King Sombra, Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, and others on extensive adventures. The series is currently on its second arc, but has two that are completed. Tropes account for all stories, including the various standalone entries and arc two.
The series features many original locations and characters alongside the canon elements, but includes references to various mythologies alongside the original worldbuilding, with a heavy fantasy influence. However, there is also considerable drama and mystery elements present.
There are numerous odd friendships and other interesting relationships present in the various arcs, which are usually fleshed out in the drama portions of stories, and many characters who are side characters in canon have a prominent focus in the stories.
The stories can easily be accessed here, and so can the official timeline.The folders below represent the completed arcs, but does not list all their side stories.
Arc Zero Main Stories
Arc One Main Stories
Arc One Side Stories
Arc Two Main Stories
Arc Two Side Stories
The entire Iceverse has examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Multiple:
- Despite the era, Clover the Clever's parents are arguably abusive. They sold their young daughter into servitude.
- Coppertangle's father, Lord Silvedas, is a very classic example.
- Princess Platinum's father, King Tantalum, was homophobic and obilivious to her mental health. Her mother was also described as uncaring towards her daughter in life. Though the notes for Pri(n)celess never confirms the nature of Queen Vitalis as a ghost or part of her daughter's imagination, she still degrades her daughter constantly to the point of a mental breakdown and more.
- Starswirl himself isn't technically a parent, but he was the legally appointed guardian of young Luna and Celestia, who he beats, starves, drives apart, and generally scars for life.
- The Ageless: Alicorns and any immortal creatures, such as the Reapers and other gods. Alicorns are a species composed of nigh-eternal beings. Demigods like Twilight and Cadance age more gracefully, but are still mortal ponies gifted with a great transformation.
- Alliterative Title: A Blade of Moon and Stars, Final Frontier.
- Alternate Universe Fic: The series includes very little canon after season five, and then only includes small things when the author chooses to, like minor locations. Staff tweets, comics, and other soft canon for MLP are also rarely acknowledged by the author. While this is very obvious in the longer stories, most of the shorter installments can stand alone easily.
- All Just a Dream: Averted. The dreams of Luna, Celestia, and Lumina are all very important foredreams, and even when they art, they still are important to pay attention too because of their motifs and content. Even the dream chapters of Sombra in Favorable Alignment form one of their own subplots.
- Amplifier Artifact: The series is absolutely filled with these, and so is most of the world. The Elements of Harmony, the Alicorn Amulet, and the Crystal Heart are all canon examples that are given more lore in the series and are all capable of this. Others include the regalia of the princesses, the hearts of sirens, and the wishing werelights from Stardust Bridge and Wishing Werelights.
- In Crystalline: Her Destiny Heart's Desire does this.
- The Eyes of Sapp'ra in The Company We Keep.
- Most of the weapons used in the series are enchanted to have some amplifying powers.
- It is revealed that dark magic in general grants incredible power. This means that the Book and all the other artifacts of Umbra qualify. By extent, Sombra himself and all other demons have this status.
- Ascended Extra: Sombra is a major main character overall and protagonist of various stories.
- Back from the Dead:
- Sombra himself cannot truly come back from the dead, but he has a very similar ability where he can resurrect himself. Though, perhaps a more traditional example would be in Divine Move where he cheats death.
- Starswirl the Bearded in Tomb of Magic.
- Opal Charm in The Company We Keep where she is shown as a lich.
- At the end of Crystalline: Her Destiny Cadance certainly counts.
- Battle Couple: Luna and Sombra oh so much. Cadance and Shining Armor also show hints of this.
- Beta Couple Shining Armor are this in Favorable Alignment and frequently appear in the rest of the universe.
- Big Bad:
- Crystalline: Her Destiny has the Northbound Wraith/Coppertangle.
- Tomb of Magic has Starswirl the Bearded's undead spirit.
- The Company We Keep has Opal Charm.
- Favorable Alignment has Umbra who is the Big Bad for Arc Zero and One.
- Black Comedy: Most of the humor in the series is this, especially when Sombra is involved.
- Blood Magic: The Alicorn Amulet is capable of this, and by extent, so are the ponies corrupted by it later on. In Favorable Alignment this is extremely relevant saves Luna and Sombra at the world's end.
- Chastity Couple: In Favorable Alignment (and Luna and Sombra are confirmed to not have sex in the first year of their relationship.
- Curse Cut Short: In Divine Move Sombra tries to tell Celestia to put cacti in places where no cacti should go.
- Eternal Love: Sombra and Luna are shaping up to have this, and various tidbits in standalone entries have teased their status as this. Another example would be that in Crystalline Dreams it is revealed that Cadance never remarried and still considered herself married to Shining Armor long after his death.
- Fantastic Racism: The ponies of the Tribal Era were all racist towards one another, non-ponies, and other equines like Alicorns. In the case of demons the characters that aren't racist towards them can be counted on one hand.
- Fluffy the Terrible: The name of Sombra's pet fish is Fish, Destroyer of Worlds.
- Happily Married: Luna and Sombra by Enemy of Mine.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Crystalline Dreams's chapters, Philia Storge, Agápē and Érōs Redux are referencing The Four Loves, and are mainly {One Word Titles while doing it.
- Light Is Not Good: Multiple:
- Sombra certainly thinks so.
- Light magic can hurt demons considerably, no matter whose side they're on.
- Magical Land: The status of the entire world as this is turned up considerably, with the Tree of Harmony serving as a magical manager of the planet and more.
- One-Word Title: For the series as a whole, and some of its stories:
- Iceverse itself, named for its writer, "Ice Star".
- Stories:
- Antumbra, whose title refers to the part of a shadow.
- Tranquility
- Ashes
- The first three of Crystalline Dreams's four Idiosyncratic Episode Naming chapters:
- Philia
- Storge
- Agápē
- Our Demons Are Different: They're not always evil. Instead of being based on any in-universe religion or acting as a moral counterpart, they're a unique species of equine born from dark magic.
- Loners Are Freaks: Depending on what kind you are, Equestria will certainly think so. Luna, Moondancer, and Sombra are all examples.
- Precision F-Strike: Sombra drops this a few times in Favorable Alignment.
- Reincarnation:
- The sequels to Antumbra reveal that Twilight Sparkle is a botched reincarnation of Stellaura, and that is where a considerable portion of her abnormal magical potential comes from. There are other hints of this, such as how Twilight's cutie mark resembles the Spark of Magic in Marecca's banners.
- Shout-Out: There are various examples of this, but some notable examples are:
- Various references to Radiohead, including the titles of two stories.
- The airship Pink Sunset in Favorable Alignment is a reference to the story Dusk Falls.
- Various stories are named after song-related things, like This Present Darkness and Spare Him His Life.
- Chapter 51 of Favorable Alignment has another Shakespeare reference, this time to The Tempest in its title.
- The minific In History, Maybe is a nod to a So Great And Powerful Song.
- Chapter eight's title, "As Charming as a Toad" in Crystalline: Her Destiny is a nod to the 1966 television special How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.
- Chapter 13 of The Company We Keep is a reference to a fanfiction by Cold in Gardez called ''The Destruction of the Self''.
- The fourth story in Arc One is a term in the game of Go.
- The short story All the World is partly built around the phrase from Shakespeare's As You Like It.
- Chapter five of Follow Her Lead contains a reference to Mean Girls.
- Autophobia, Bathophobia, and Atelophobia are all named after real phobias relevant to each character.
- The story scrap Before I Sleep refers to Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost.
- In chapter 52 of Favorable Alignment there is a reference to Avatar: The Last Airbender when Luna asks Sombra if he would like to 'do an activity' together.
- The title of chapter 36 of Favorable Alignment is a reference to The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.
- Multiple references are made to real-world music. Shining Armor likes pony Sabaton and Cadance likes 'Rodeohead' (Radiohead), 'Nine Inch Tails' (Nine Inch Nails), and other bands.
- Proverbial Roses references Shakespeare in both title and content.
- The title of The Company We Keep is a reference to the Biblical parable 'You are the company you keep'.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Luna and Sombra.
- Split Personality: Played with in multiple cases.
- Umbra and Hasad are pretty unified for a demon and work towards the same goal.
- Luna and Nightmare Moon are not separate beings, but not wholly the same.
- Start of Darkness:
- Follow Her Lead for the Dazzlings.
- Through the Snow for Onyx, not that he wasn't already terrible beforehand.
- Celestia's is unclear.
- Luna started her own descent into misery when her and Celestia were placed under Starswirl's guardianship.
- Winged Unicorn: Alicorns are a self-standing species in this universe, though they are still equine, and comprise a large portion of the cast.
